Captain Personality Guide

So many players want to play a leader, such as a ship Captain (doesn't have to be a ship Captain though) and then are faced with the challenge of trying to play a Captain and not knowing how. This guide is here to pose questions for players to answer about their characters and how their characters lead. A person can have a radically different personality for leadership roles than their personality just around people normally, thus answers to these questions should go along with the existing personality for a character but can also differ from that personality as well. Most people have room for a professional persona and their personal life to be very separate, others have even more compartmentalization in having different modes of personality for a variety of situations.

For the purposes of this guide we're going to use the term Captain, but these questions can go for anyone in a leadership position.

Military vs. Civilian

One of the most important questions is whether or not a character is in a military leadership structure. A military structure comes with some qualities which go with such a structure, due to training and institutional standards.

Qualities of Military Captains

A leader in the military will likely have some of the following qualities:

• Sense of duty and service.
• Respect for the chain of command within the organization.
• Used to following orders within the organization.
• Respect for rules, regulations, and laws within the organization.
• Focus on missions and mission objectives.
• Responsibility for people under their command.

Civilian Captains

Civilian Captains are a little different. Where as a military Captain is there out of service, a civilian Captain is going to be there for some other reason, probably financial but not necessarily. Being a civilian or civilian contractor opens up the road for other types of people.

Why are they there?

Once there is an idea of if a character is going to be military or civilian, one has to answer the question of "Why?". This is an extremely important question. There is probably a real reason and one that they are consciously aware of and they need not be the same one. This answer is going to feed into the rest of the characters actions in the command seat.

Suggestions as to Reasons

This is not to be seen as an exhaustive list nor a "choose from these" kind of list, instead this is supposed to be a starting point from which to create unique character motivations.

• A sense of duty to some cause, country, or political ideas.
• Simple financial gain.

This can lead a lot of places, characters can be deeply in debt, a dearth of jobs where they are from, difficulties finding work for other reasons. Most people don't choose to work and live in space for positive reasons.

• Running from something too big to deal with.

Kind of obvious but can also be coupled with the first one and not only can there be deep debt of money involved but some other debt that must be paid. Another category fitting here is someone running from a past, such as Captain Malcom Reynolds of Firefly, who runs from the war and the Battle of Serenity.

• Family ties to the job (military service, cargo hauler, scout ship, etc.).

Going into the family business, tradition is a very powerful thing to avoid and comes in all shapes and sizes, a particular subset of this one is if one's parents or family own a business and expect the child to take it over.

• Poorly adjusted to the normal world.

Some people are just misfits who don't really fit in, there are a number of possible reasons for this but in the end, whatever the reason, they just don't fit in. A character like this may choose to live and work in space because they just don't like being around people, so if they cultivate a crew of their own choosing where they are in control and don't have to conform.

How far will they go?

This is an interesting question to answer. There are two ways to answer this question; how far is a person willing to go for something they want or need and how far is a person willing to go for a mission or job? The difference is in what a person is willing to do if something is truly important to them and what they are willing to do to get the job done.

In a civilian sense, this often equates to what a Captain is willing to do in order to get paid and what are they willing to give up in order for something more valuable than money. From a military perspective it comes down to duty and moral character, what is a military officer willing to do to complete mission objectives and what are they willing to do in order to not fail at those objectives (are they willing to commit atrocities in the name of their orders or are they willing to risk career and even life for their personal ideals).

Why do people follow them?

Now that we know what a Captain is doing in the seat and how far they will go -- why does their crew follow them there? In the case of Captain James T. Kirk of the original Enterprise, it could be said that they follow him because of his willingness to put himself on the front line, in front of his crew, and take the first bullet if he has to. Commander William T. Riker, on the other hand, gains his loyalty through getting down with his crew, being human, joking, humor, and building a real rapport with his crew -- it is said in the series that his joviality is how he gains the loyalty of his crew. This is also seen in The Abyss where Bud (the leader of the oil rig) commonly is self effacing, asking his crew to do favors, that things need to be cleaned because it looks like his apartment, he is their friend and leader. Kirk will fight for his crew, but he isn't their friend.

So, by what mechanism does the Captain get the loyalty of his crew? In a civilian setting this can be as simple as money, a fair share, perhaps hope for a bigger share, or the pursuit of other ambitions (biding one's time). In a military sense, there is something to be said for the chain of command but also, people don't join the military to get a big paycheck so they are probably there for a reason. Does the Captain want to teach the crew to be better (Captain Picard), does he want to build a strong relationship and bond with the crew (Commander Riker), do they need their crew like a family (Captain Reynolds), do they need the crew to follow so they can do great things (Captain Kirk), or are the crew just game pieces to be moved for some greater personal goal (Captain Jack Sparrow).

This can be a difficult question to answer, and I would suggest going back to the character's personality and seeing if something fits. This can also be hard to play, so don't be afraid to adjust this as play goes on and don't be afraid to make a mistake and change it later.

How do they carry themselves?

This particular question ties into the personality and goes along with how they behave on the ship in general. How do they behave toward their crew and what behavior do they expect from their crew? This is the question of day-to-day life, most people are not 100% on point all of the time but the off-time is just as important as the on-time.