Executive officer

There is no official rank of commanding officer within a crew, and no official duty station or indicator to show who is in charge. However, it is a common convention within the YPP Community for each voyage on the high seas to have a designated commanding officer (CO) - sometimes referred to as the "officer in charge" (OIC), the "deck officer" (DO), or the "executive officer" (XO) - for that voyage.

Sometimes one mate will set out on a voyage and run into Real Life troubles, and be forced to log out quickly or otherwise become distracted. Having a commanding officer can avoid the complete failure of a voyage in such circumstances. (If you have ever found yourself on a ship at sea and there is nobody capable of taking charge of the ship aboard, you can fully appreciate why it is a good idea to give someone that job). Often the CO is brought along just to relieve the administrative pressures from the navigator and let them focus on the puzzle at hand instead of jobbers pulling each others chains.

The role of a commanding officer will depend largely upon the crew and navigator they're working with. Ultimately, the job of the CO is to support the navigator by handling all issues not directly related to navigation. How far this goes, however, will vary from pillage to pillage, and also hinges upon the skill and experience of the CO. For example, on a war brig pillage, the CO might even be expected to help with ship functions by loading guns or covering stations in battle, while on a grand frigate, the CO may never even have to touch a station.

General Duties of COs

Regardless, there are a number of duties that almost every CO handles for their navvers. Here are a few of them, some techniques used to address them, and what the best COs do when confronted with issues.

General Tips & Advice

• Have notepad, or a shortcut to it, handy for tracking lists of good and bad jobbers, reminders to raise or cut pay at the end, notes on who works well and who annoys who else, and just general notes for future reference. Likewise, a calculator and access to the wiki/forums can be invaluable.
• Know your navver. Know how to read their moods, know when to be harder on the jobbers, and know when to hop on a station yourself, if everything starts going to hell in a handbasket.
• You (probably) have a blackspot and (definitely) a plank. Use them. Don't abuse them, of course, but don't be afraid of touching them.
• Know your limits. If you can only sail for two hours or so, then discuss this with your navver beforehand. Few things suck as much from a navver's perspective as their CO ditching them with a boat full of jobbers.
• Act the part. Remember, you're here to run the boat, not tart with all your friends for a few hours while your navigator's screaming for tokens. Be nice, be pleasant, be fun and be yourself, but remember your role. Save the unbridled tarting for later on.

Jobbing

Almost universally, the CO is the designated "jobbing contact" for the pillage: They're responsible for processing jobbing requests, dealing with the notice board if necessary, and if worst comes to worst, begging hearties, flagmates, and those already aboard for potential jobbers.

• At the low level of the scale, jobbing is often as simple as jobbing anyone who asks.
• At the high level of the scale, jobbing takes sudden importance. Often on the more elite pillages, there will be requested minimums that all jobbers meet, and it falls to the jobbing contact to check and make sure that potential jobbers meet these requirements before jobbing them. This can be a long and emotionally draining process, as the CO may occasionally have to turn down a friend or flagmate due to not meeting eligibility requirements.
• Expert COs address this by jobbing off the board as little as possible. Most COs who do so regularly have a stable of jobbers who they know, trust, and work well with, and whenever possible, will rely on hearties and hearties of those already aboard to staff the boat. Consequentially, expert COs know their limits, and are able to recognize when jobbing is going sufficiently poorly to start jobbing off the board, or advise the navver to end the pillage due to lack of jobbers.

Discipline

COs are also almost always responsible for ensuring discipline and maximum output aboard their boats. The strictness depends upon the nature of the pillage... a CO on a greener run should be anticipating more questions and perhaps rudeness from those who quite simply don't know better, while a CO on a higher-level pillage has to be prepared to diffuse outbursts of drama and anger (It's difficult to believe that there are people out there who actually go "NO, I REFUSE to be on the same boat as HIM/HER" until you're staring them in the eye.)

• At the low level, discipline broadly covers keeping rude and careless jobbers in check with liberal use of the plank, as well as dealing with potentially disruptive questions and suggestions from jobbers who only think they know better. (For example, the CO is the one responsible for correcting jobbers who, during boarding, encourage the entire boat to hop on the one with the hat, under the delusion that the hatted brigands are more powerful, or enhance payment, or whatever else.)
• At the high level, discipline becomes more complex, because jobbers do know better. The exact duties of a high-level CO depend largely on what their navver requires. If the navver requires absolute silence on vessel chat, then the CO should crack the whip and keep the tarting to a minimum. If the navver doesn't mind a bit of chatter, the CO should still be firm but pleasant to ensure output without crushing enjoyment or ego unnecessarily. It can be a balancing act, but it can be mastered.
• Expert COs, again, through avoiding random jobbers and relying on those they know or trust to fill their ships, have fewer discipline cases than those who job mostly off the board.

Guns

Easily the most vital puzzle of the ship when engaged and not dead in the water, managing the guns is tricky business that COs have to keep a close watch on, and be prepared to react to very quickly.

• At lower levels, COs themselves will often be called upon to gun, as guns are a tentative puzzle. (That is to say, it's possible to gun well without needing a league in advance to set up combos and the like, and it's possible to leave the puzzle at any time without endangering a standing.) They may also have difficulty finding competent gunners aboard a ship of mostly newer players and greenies, so are advised to find a few good gunners within their crew, flag, or hearty list, and give them preference.
• Higher-level COs need to micromanage guns less, because they come into contact with more competent gunners on the whole. It can often just be a matter of picking a few people with decent stats and never having to worry about them ever again.
• Expert COs will often delegate gunning completely to a "master gunner", who just manages the guns and gunners. They decide how many gunners they require, they decide who they are, and they issue the gunning orders, entirely beyond the CO's control or attention. This is one less detail for the CO to worry about during a pillage, although the loss of direct control can be problematic in it's own ways.

Entertainment & Education

Keeping jobbers happy and working aboard your ship is tricky business, and you'll need different ways of doing it for the various levels.

• At lower levels, the Education role can be greatly emphasized. The best COs can simultaneously run a ship, advise the navver, deal with all their other issues at hand, and teach new players about the boat. This involves explaining teaming before swordfights, this involves dispelling rumors, this involves explaining how the various puzzles interact with one another, and this involves explaining the individual puzzles themselves. (Hint: The key to success in every puzzle other than gunnery is to build combos!) Low-level COs are also advised to have a large quantity of light, easy amusements on hand in case of a lull... funny battle cries, good jokes, interesting tidbits about the game, or just good old fluff.
• At high levels, Education falls away to Entertainment. Unless you're on a cruise that is supposed to be deathly silent, you are the host or hostess of a floating party, and you'd better be prepared to keep the punch flowing. Have topics in mind, be witty, and be aware of limits and potential hotspots. If it's any help, remember what your grandmother called the "two rules of good conversation: no money, and no politics".
• Expert COs can drive the conversation without even participating in it, with just gentle nudging here and there. They know who they have aboard, they know who gets offended by what and who doesn't like who and all the other dirt, so they know when to steer the conversation elsewhere. They know when to teach and when to link to the documentation instead, and they know when to refer someone to a greeter for a more thorough explanation than they can give while drowning in vessel-related management.

Payment & Reputation

As a general rule, players do not get paid any extra for CO'ing pillages. Some navigators may share the crew cut, but this is neither common practice nor something that can be expected. However, players who CO regularly tend to profit through the social puzzle, such as finding themselves retained as (often paid) mercenaries during blockades, or by working their social network to get onto pillages run by other experienced COs through their hearties. This being said, a great deal of CO work remains pro bono.

Second in Command

Some crews use the term second in command to denote the player on a ship that helps out the Commanding Officer. The second in command will often take over the ship if the CO has to leave, loses network connectivity, or has other problems. They may also be delegated to handle guns, or otherwise expected to puzzle until their services are required.