Leadership

Division Command Structure

Head of Divisions

Each Division of the Ardent has its own senior officer responsible for providing direct leadership. Unlike the Command Staff roles, which are preassigned from within A-COM, Division Heads are expected to be recruited from within the divisions. Whereas the Command Staff take broad, hands-off, and strategic roles, Division Heads will be at the forefront of the action with their teams and getting their hands dirty, showing leadership, ensuring the Divisions achieve their goals, and advocating for the needs, views, and interests of their Division-mates.

Being a Head of a Division is a position of privilege and serious responsibility, as they will be responsible for giving orders in life-or-death-or-worse scenarios. Division Heads may be assisted by Deputies to help divide their labour. However, All Heads and Deputies can be replaced, and it is not unknown for such roles to rotate often between capable members of the crew with different specialisms as the situation demands.

These positions are elected, though candidates must fulfil basic leadership requirements or otherwise prove themselves in the field in order to apply. A-COM will be able to give you more guidance if you wish to apply for consideration during an event. It is standard for Division leaders to change regularly on long-term missions such as the Ardent’s.

Each Division has an temporary NPC Leader until suitable candidates are successfully promoted.

Deputy

Deputies assist their Head of Division, decided in collaboration between the Head of Division and A-COM.

At the start of each event, there will be forms to state your interest in this role at the Command Hub.

Lower Ranks

Each division can determine its own rank structure below deputies, signed off by A-COM.

A-COM

Ardent’s Command Staff, or A-COM, oversee the mission as a whole, providing strategic directives to the working level crew in the Divisions, acting as a link to the core worlds, and providing the final say on matters of procedure and justice.

The Command Staff is headed up by five key positions. Each member of the Command Staff oversees a key element of the Ardent’s mission, and in doing so co-lead two Divisions, with the exception of the Captain. This might seem redundant but it ensures there is a Commander available to provide strategic advice on a mission area at all times, and reduces the risk of a clash of remit with the dedicated Heads of Division.

The five Command Staff are as follows:

• Captain: Responsible for the integrity and command of the Ardent as a ship. Their command remit is primarily limited to A-COM or unassigned staff but they have the general ability to direct all crew on ship-side tasks and act as a tie-breaker in discussions or decisions by the other four members of the Command Team.
• Chief Scientific Officer: Director of the Biomed aspect of the mission, jointly leads Kenolab with the Engineering Principal and Diplo with the High Commissioner.
• Director of Security: Director of the Security aspects of the mission, jointly leads Mattock with the High Commissioner and Taskminders with the Engineering Principal.
• High Commissioner: Director of the Diplomacy aspect of the mission, jointly leads Mattock with the Director of Security and Diplo with the Chief Scientific Officer.
• Engineering Principal: Director of the Engineering aspects of the mission, jointly leads Kenolab with the Chief Scientific Officer and Mattock with the Director of Security.

The five Command Staff collectively comprise the role of Head of Mission. Important decisions that involve or require the non-A-COM crew will be delegated wherever possible, or failing that opened to deliberation. Where such decisions have to be made at an A-COM level, minor decisions can be made by one member of the Command team, more serious decisions by a majority of the team, and the most serious by unanimous agreement.

Administrators

Administrators are the game mechanics referees. Each manages one or more of the gameplay areas, and are the main point of contact to ask rules queries and request referee oversight for complex roleplay situations. They’ll also be managing the items for their gameplay area, and track resource-based plot objectives.

There are four dedicated Administrators, one for each gameplay area, and several general Administrators.

Depending on the mission size, Administrators may work from a Command Hub, or a mixture of the Command Hub and Division bases.

They are also your main in-camp referees – there to answer questions and help resolve simple issues.

Staff

Staff are the general workers of A-COM, equivalent to most players. Crew may play A-COM staff members when they need to set up encounters, do work around the player base, or give support to the camp-based NPC team.