UPF Military Ranks for STAR FRONTIERS

So, where’s the Front Admiral?

The Spacefleet Rank Table on page 50 of the Knight Hawks Campaign Book neglects to include any enlisted ranks. Even worse, nothing in the Star Frontiers® rules defines the ranks used in Spacefleet’s planet-storming counterpart, the UPF Landfleet. The tables included here diagram the rank structure of the UPF military from my old campaign. (None of my player’s characters ever joined the UPF military, but I needed the tables for NPCs).

This is definitely an RPG military: while loosely based on the ranks used in the United States Navy and the U.S. Army, the UPF structure is greatly simplified. Compared to the U.S. military, the UPF is missing six ranks, including all the warrant officers. The final structure resembles that used in Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, which I suspect was a major influence on the original game designers’ view of Spacefleet and Landfleet.

Someday, I may actually get motivated enough to wax prosaic about the actual organization of the UPF in my campaign, but don’t count on it. Until then, I recommend reading Starship Troopers. It provides a very "roleplayable" prototype for Landfleet.

Each line of the expanded UPF Rank Tables lists the pay grade (a bureaucratic code used to equate ranks between services), the rank title for each service, the experience point cost (for campaigns allowing characters to buy ranks with EP) and daily pay for that grade.

Notes About Enlisted Ranks

• I use the E-1 rank only for characters in boot camp.
• Ranks E-4 through E-9 are noncommissioned officers.
  

Notes About Commissioned Ranks

• The UPF O-6 ranks are one-star admirals and generals — you can do the math after that, I hope.