Chain of Command: Captain or HoS

[UrsulaMejor]

The position I think your taking ursula is a bit laughable, do you really think the crew takes orders?

No. That's not my position.

In my opinion, no. The Head of Security is the Captain's subordinate, meaning that the Captain is free to give the Head of Security orders on any kind of inane bullshit he wants. Naturally, the Head of Security is not required to participate (Dereliction of duty is always an option), but he is not allowed to punish the Captain player by brigging him, taking his stuff, and locking up any other nerds that happen to be working for him on the project.

Now, do people actually have to participate in these shitty gimmicks? No. Do they have to like them? No!

In fact, I would actively encourage the non-security crew to form in-game mutinies when faced with incorrigible gimmicks.

But the HoS? No. The HoS, as evidenced by the fact we have to apply to become it, should be, and is, held to a higher standard of play than other players. It's not the role you take in order to flex your superiority muscles, but a mentorship role where your goal is guide the progress of the round from within and attempt to make the round interesting while reigning back the often totalitarian security forces.

My position is pretty clear.

When it comes to passive resistance against the Captain, i.e., ignoring orders and doing whatever you want and refusing to participate, the HoS has the same right as anyone else to do so.

But when it comes tp active resistance against the Captain, i.e., overriding orders or arresting the Captain (again, to clarify, arresting the Captain for petty crime like obstruction, stealing, graffiti, breaking noncritical windows, whatever. Basically anything in which a crew-member is not directly harmed, only inconvenienced), I believe the HoS does not have that right. It's not within his job description, it's not in his outlined behaviors, and it's not something becoming of a professional or mentor or whatever you want.

The HoS's right to override a Captain's order if and only if that order is a cruel and unusual punishment and/or execution is a game mechanic to prevent traitor Captains from ordering security to kill their targets. This doesn't imply that the HoS has any real authority over the Captain in any other instance, including the authority by which to arrest him. The Captain sets station policy for security matters, and therefore he is allowed to excuse himself from it (again, so long as that doesn't involve hurting or killing people).

The HoS is fully entitled to stop this because you are blocking off the corridor, so people can get trapped, or even die if they were in crit and had to make it to medbay. The HoS after all is a mediator between people having fun at other peoples expense. If you cross that line, you get put in the slammer, captain included.

1) I'd argue he doesn't, if the Captain is the one doing it

2) I'd argue this is a spiritual obligation of the HoS, not something supported by any in-game authority other than his authority over security. It's his job to make sure security isn't having fun at everyone's expense by arresting everyone for meaningless crimes and permabrigging them. It might also be his job as a mentor to try to encourage other players who are having fun at other players' expense to stop, but if someone is seriously damaging the fun of other players for their own benefit, that's a job for Adminhelp, not the HoS

One thing I want to touch on is your scenarios, as I feel like it's one of the reasons you made this thread.

It isn't. It's an example, not a reason. Ask Edventure; I've had this discussion with him absent any personal involvement or even an actual situation to be discussing.

That particular round served to remind me of that previous discussion with him, and made me realize that a second person (you) agreed with his position. I had thought that my position was the normal position, so I made this thread to advocate it.

The relationship between the HoS and the Captain is generated round by round by the players involved. This is a community-developed set of guidelines, and so the guidelines should reflect how the community feels on the matter.

As things stand currently, the community's feelings do not appear to match the guidelines the community has written, and they don't appear to match my feelings on the matter.

As we can see from the poll, the community doesn't all agree on this topic, either. It's actually pretty even.

What I'm advocating in this thread is, in part, to try to convince people to think of the HoS position in a way similar to me. But it is, primarily, something I hoped would foster a discussion that would lead to more clear guidelines being written up on the wiki, even if those guidelines don't match my position.