Author: Ian Sokoliwski (---.mts.net)
Date: 09-23-2004 20:18
Probably one of the best examples of a game utilizing a Leader is Battletech. While there are plenty of Battletech games that revolve around the PC's being independant warriors on Solaris VII or some other mechs-as-entertainment planet, for the most part PC's in Battletech are in some form of military command structure (although some mercenary companies will be very free-form in that regard).
Anyway. I was playing an ex-Steiner officer in one game where my character and the other PC's formed a small merc unit. Nobody was designated the leader/commander, but, after some small-unit operations, everyone ended up deferring to my lead. It was an interesting exercise in the PC personalities defining the rank structure rather than rank structure being determined by 'experience' (i.e. whether the character had actually been to command school or similar pre-game authority). Rather than the other PCs (and to an extent, the other players) seeing me as knowing what to do, it really worked out this way more because the other PCs/players had different agendas for playing (whether they preferred scouting tactics, doing their bounty-hunter archetype thing on the side, or whatever, I was the one most interested in having my PC just be a Mechwarrior; by extension, I/he became the most focussed on the activities of the merc unit itself rather than on additional 'sidelines').
So, time goes by, and the merc unit becomes larger and larger, eventually to the point where each PC is in command of their own company of soldiers. Once we hit this battalion-level, the GM asked me to designate who my Second-in-Command officer was.
Had this been a 'real' situation, what would probably have happened was the most senior experienced officer would have been put in that position. However, that would have ended up being one of the other PCs. I decided, and here is where the metagaming factor comes in, that I wanted the 2-in-C to be an NPC.
See, I was thinking the opposite of the Picard/Riker model (where Picard is in total command, and Riker looks after the crew and their well-being; basically the leader and sub-leader roles mentioned in the article I'm referencing). In a gaming perspective, I saw that the 2-in-C's role would have been primarily supportive of my decisions, seeing that my decisions, stuff like that (I am aware that I just blurred the line between me and my PC - I just got tired of writing 'my PC'; I haven't started believing I'm a 31st century mercenary unit commander in real life though...at least not lately :) ).
To put a PC in that role would be dead boring for the player. I discussed it with the other players, and they all agreed; they all had their military sub-units, plus they could feel free to remain involved in all the sideline activities that defined their PCs.
A few months after this, I ended up taking over GMing the game - the GM had grown tired of just GMing and wanted to get back to playing. So, with my character now an NPC, and the one now handing out the missions to the other players, the tone of the game changed. It ended up becoming a little bit less rank-focussed (as all the PCs were of equal rank and responsibility) and basically decided courses of action democratically.
There is no real point to this topic - just an observation of how who the Leader is (whether PC or player) can happen organically, and what can end up happening to that PC/player during the course of the game.
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