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I originally posted this on another Star Wars RP Community last weekend, figured I might as well share it with everyone here too, hopefully it helps! Keep in mind this was written primarily about RP revolving around the SW:TOR MMORPG, but I still think it has meaningful RP value for writers who choose to RP in the Star Wars era. Anyway, without further ado....
I am a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the United States Military and have been wearing the uniform for nine years. I'm also, obviously, a roleplayer, a gamer, and a writer. Granted, I'm not an acclaimed author nor am I the end all be all of military RP. However, in the past two years I've had the pleasure of undergoing specialized training and have either had the pleasure of working with, talking to, training with, or being mentored by various members of specialized units in the armed services across the world to include U.S. Navy SEALS, U.S. Army Delta Force, U.S. Marine Corps MARSOC, U.S. Army Rangers, U.S. Coast Guard MSRT, U.S. Navy EOD, British Royal Marine Commandos, and Hellenic Navy Seals. It wasn't until I started interacting with these military operators that I started to realize how many mistakes there are in how the military and especially the Special Forces are portrayed in military fiction as a whole.
That said, I wanted to share with you the top five biggest military mistakes in fiction, according to Joe Zieja, which was featured on www.mythicscribes.com. I'm going to utilize his points, because I think they're valid and expand upon them as they relate to the Star Wars universe since that is the only genre in which I have found that I am passionate about when it comes to roleplaying, creative writing, and storytelling.
1. Yes, You Should Have Thought of That Before: Misuse of Technology
Often times, people are misled by Hollywood when it comes to technology and the limitations there of. It's not unusual for us to sacrifice accuracy in the realm of science fiction for the sake of being cool, high speed, or flashy. That said, advanced technology still has its limitations. I get it, physics and logic have to take a second seat behind suspense and the demands of the story, but this doesn't mean we can't be creative and challenge ourselves as writers. All I'm saying is Obi-wan couldn't reach Anakin when he was like 500 parsecs away because he went out of range for their communicators to work, even with the signal be relayed through their ships. This means you might not be able to contact that battle cruiser that's in orbit over the planet from your communications system built into your helmet if you're blasting colicoids in the caverns of Balmorra.
It's not just about the limitations of the technology itself though, it's about the limitations of the individuals using the technology. I can tell you as I have undergone specialized military training, there is a lot of shit that you have to remember and know when it comes to your equipment and you're not going to know everything about everything. Your equipment might be capable of doing far more than you understand and because you don't understand it, you're probably not going to be able to get it to perform this function that you want it to perform. I could use another communications example, but I'll draw from something else. Let's go with weapon systems, utilizing this term broadly. Military personnel go through a lot of training on the weapon systems that they use on a regular basis, so they can know the ins and outs of their weapons because their lives depend of them. They might even receive training on the weaponry of their enemies, but they're by no means experts. In Star Wars, there are more weapons just in The Old Republic era than we could ever hope to understand by modern military standards. So you might be highly trained in the use of a certain class of blaster rifles and blaster pistols, but you might be fumbling your way through picking up that sniper rifle or assault cannon and putting accurate effective shots on your target.
It doesn't stop with the knowledge based limitations of technology. Let's talk about your body type one female solider. Granted, advanced technology has paved a path for us to be far more efficient as soldiers, but that doesn't mean that we can go all day every day without getting fatigued. Using technology takes a lot out of a person, especially your typical humanoid with no racial perks that make them any better than anyone else. Keeping track of all of this flashy technology is mentally stressful and wearing all of this flashy technology is probably going to have your character relatively fatigued physically. Stress and fatigue usually lead to a loss of situational awareness and a loss of situational awareness means that mistakes are probably going to be made. You might have multiple threats that you're tracking flawlessly on your HUD, putting them down left and right. Meanwhile, you failed to monitor the condition of your weapon and it's now overheated.
Do your best to understand the technology that you want your characters to have and try to think of it as a crutch rather than a flawless perk. There are limitations to everything, even the most advanced technology, try to incorporate these limitations into your writing and it will make your stories far more compelling and it will add a lot more depth to your characters. There is loads of information on the internet that can help you understand the limitations of technology, don't ignore them. Don't get sucked in to using movies and television as your frame of reference for writing military science fiction. You're just perpetuating unrealistic fiction, even in the ever expansive Star Wars universe.
2. Who Is Running This Army? Failure to Understand Rank and Organization
I know, I know. It's science fiction, set in a forever growing universe . . . Star Wars! They can call the ranks whatever they want! A captain can outrank an admiral!
It's a speculative world, no doubt, so you have some freedom to deviate from the way that we understand things in modern day society. That said, if you're going to borrow terms from modern day military, try to use the accurately. It's really confusing to people that do understand military rank structure if you're mixing things up in your roleplaying, creative writing, and storytelling. Joe Zieja wrote: In your fantasy world, you could also decide to call small red fruits hanging from trees “oranges” or “bananas.” But that would be silly and confusing, wouldn’t it? Borrowing from the real world is great; it helps you establish commonalities that ease the transition from the real world to your world. Stick with the real world conventions.
I have to agree with him. The problem is, there really is no rank, rate, and pay grade structure for the military organizations in the Star Wars universe. I've talked with multiple friends in the past and I've even observed how the Republic and the Empire are displayed in other countries that roleplay and write fan-fiction set in a galaxy far, far away. The common trend is the correlation of the Galactic Republic to the U.S. Armed Forces and the Sith Empire to the British Armed Forces. As I said above, I'm by no means the governing authority when it comes to how you should categorize the rank structure, but I would encourage you to try it out. There's a lot more material for you to reference and it might help you keep things straight when it comes to hierarchy and organization. Not to mention, it'll make things a lot easier for your readers.
3. If the General Shoots, Everyone Else Is Dead: Misapplication of Military Roles
High ranking military officials don't enter the fray with the rest of the troops. Joe Zieja wrote: Generals don’t man machine guns and throw grenades. Presidents of the United States don’t hop in F-16s and fight off the aliens. If these things are happening in your book, everyone else is probably (or should be) dead.
Everybody wants to have some high rank, some status. After all, we don't want other characters bossing us around and us having to listen to them if we don't like what they tell us to do because of military protocol and the uniform code of military justice (UCMJ). We all want our characters to be important, but your character doesn't have to be a General, Admiral, or Moff to be important to your roleplay or your stories. I mean, if your character is a General, Admiral, or a Moff; they certainly are important. The problem is, important people aren't always exciting people. Joe Zieja wrote: The president of any country in the modern day world is an important person. He is not an exciting one. Generals are important people who make decisions so that folks younger than them (the captains, the privates, the sergeants) can go do the real work. They do not make precise targeting calculations and save the day with the silver-bullet shot.
Being a member of the military, I wholeheartedly agree. There are some exceptions, but those exceptions are still very minute and are special case scenarios. I will revert back to utilizing the U.S. Armed Forces ranks and the British Armed Forces ranks to give you an example. As a general rule of thumb for officers, you probably won't see any officer from the Republic Army in a position where he or she is doing anything flashy above the rank of Major or Lieutenant Colonel, you might have a full bird at the forward operating base (FOB) or towards the rear in command, but they're not putting themselves in situations where they're in immediate danger. Respectively, you probably won't see any officer from the Imperial Army in any of the aforementioned situations above the rank of Captain or Major. Most likely, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels in the Empire are typically going to be responsible for the training, welfare, and administration of forces as opposed to actually leading them.
As a quick note, my references have been correlating the Republic and Imperial Armies to the U.S. and British Armies, there are corresponding rank systems you can use for the Republic and Imperial Navy and Marines as well.
Respectively, enlisted personnel have a shelf life for being in the field as well. These vary tremendously based on my experience and are very situational dependent, so just make sure you do a little research before you go and throw your Sergeant Major into harm's way.
So, now that we've discussed who is back in the command center and who actually has boots on the ground, I want to briefly talk about the differences in roles between officers and enlisted. Joe Zieja wrote: Officers are leaders and managers. Younger officers absolutely “do” things. They lead men into combat, shoot, fly, kill people and break things, but their primary job is not to “do.” It is to lead. Enlisted are the worker bees, for lack of a better expression. They are expected to be extraordinarily competent in one specific skill set, and the officer’s job is to take many enlisted people and make their effectiveness greater than the sum of their parts.
Officers don’t turn wrenches; they tell enlisted to turn wrenches, because an officer would turn the damn thing the wrong way.
I think he hit the nail on the head here, with one exception. I have seen some extraordinary officers serving in special forces units that integrated with their comrades seamlessly. Despite their command position, while conducting training and operations, they perform as a member of the team. They're less involved with the dos and don'ts established by military standards when it comes to how they should and shouldn't be addressed. I've seen a multitude of operators refer to their officer leaders by their first names even though they're enlisted, so I think you might have a little more freedom when it comes to the whole worker bee mentality, there are plenty of SF officers that are definitely "worker bees" and I wouldn't put it past them to turn a wrench or two either if it needed to be done. That said, the promotion potential for an officer in the SF community isn't as prestigious as officers outside of the SF. Most SF officers tend to linger between Lieutenant and Captain, I'd say any Majors serving as operators in the SF would be a special case be it the Republic or the Empire.
4. FOWARD, DEMARCHE! Misuse of Military Communication
Joe Zieja wrote: We talk funny. REALLY funny. I mean so funny that there have been times when I have been talking with another military member in a room full of civilians, and at the end of the conversation the civilians have had absolutely no idea what any of us said. It’s a way of life.
Once again, I agree with him. The old saying "curse like a sailor" is pretty accurate too. Sailors are known for their colorful language and use of sexual slang and profanities. This remains true for most military folk, probably due to being in mostly male confined environments. Keep this in mind when you're writing your military characters in Star Wars, but also keep in mind that curse words in modern day society aren't the same as curse words in Star Wars. Here, here, and here are some references for Star Wars slang and jargon if you need to take a look. So instead of using b*tch or fu*k, schutta or kriff.
Moreover, a lot of times, people just get military lingo all wrong. When you're writing your roleplay and your stories, there's no need to keep repeatedly writing out the long form of said characters title and name, everything gets abbreviated in the military, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Don't fall into the trap of confusing abbreviations and acronyms either, it might make your readers perk an eyebrow and be like "wtf" (nobody messes that one up). So when you introduce Staff Sergeant Joe Exampler, you should be pretty good to refer to him as the SSG or the Sergeant or just by his last name, Exampler. Furthermore, when your trying to figure out what other people call him, it's pretty simple, they probably call him Staff Sarge (with the 'g' typically being silent) or Staff Sergeant (again, sometimes omitting the 'g') or they might just refer to him by his last name. Utilizing last names is the most common method of addressing another person in the military, first names are reserved for personal acquaintances and close friendships within the armed forces.
It's also a common trend that people like to use the full names of vehicles or battle cruisers in their writing because they're excited about it or because it sounds cool, but it gets kind of tacky after a while. Just call your walker a walker or your battle cruiser a cruiser. If it's a weapon, call it a rifle or a gun. If it's armor, call it armor or a helmet. No need to give us the long version every single time. By now, the reader should understand that he or she is reading Star Wars material and can assume that your helmet still has the high tech that it had in the last chapter or from your previous post.
5. First We Go There, Then We Kill Them, Then We Win: Ignoring the Complexity of War
Fighting is complicated, which means combat is even more complicated, which means war is extremely complicated. Joe Zieja wrote: The only thing more complicated than war is marriage.
If you're going to write about a full scale war, you can forget to include all the moving pieces that make up a war. The military, the politics, and the logistics. Star Wars really amplifies and complicates this because war is so much larger and encompasses so much more which means there is a lot of stuff to factor into what's going on. War isn't simple and you can't put an end to one by dropping a bomb on your enemy and killing them, especially in the Star Wars universe. Every victory is a small victory and every defeat is a huge loss. Understanding this when you're writing about battles and skirmishes in the Star Wars setting will keep you from exaggerating the efforts of your characters and it will also help you accurately represent the results following the outcome of said encounter.
In Star Wars, the technology is advanced, so we can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time which gives troops the capability of being deployable on an intergalactic scale. That said, it still takes time and we have to remember to portray that time. After all, when the Empire invaded that planet, someone had to report the invasion at some point, that report had to make to the right person, who then had to consult with the right people to determine what they would do next, after which said person determined a course of action and passed it down the chain, then and only then did the Republic military start gearing up to go assist the invaded planet, after preparations were complete they deployed. By the time the Republic arrived to respond to the Imperial invasion, who knows how much time has passed, it's your job to account for these things in your story. It adds a lot more depth in the long run and I think it will make you a better writer too.
On top of all that, Joe Zieja wrote: When do your armies eat? How do they get resupplied? Foraging and hunting isn’t enough; a 20,000-man army roving through the forests would quickly deplete the natural resources around it. The European landmass has a very difficult time supporting large amounts of horses for cavalry. The desert of the Middle East necessitates long supply chains. The high mountains of Tibet require oxygen masks.
Try to remember these things when you're portraying your military characters in war. There are a lot of little things that can easily be overlooked. If your character has been deployed on Hoth for six months and hasn't been back to base since he got their, he/she might be tired of eating rations and might not have gotten to use an actual refresher (bathroom) in months. Try to portray these things in your writing, it makes your characters seem real and it gives you an opportunity to explore how your characters cope with these things. Don't ignore the psychological, economic, social, and political effects of war that can potentially influence your characters and the outcome of the fight, battle, skirmish, operation, or war itself. Joe Zieja wrote: Dealing with them judiciously and accurately helps your writing become more real. Ignoring them makes your writing seem like a cartoon.
In Closing
Much like Joe Zieja, I'm not saying you should religiously remain in the realm of only that which is possible. I do think, however, you should try to stick with things that your readers can relate to whilst still giving your characters and your stories the science fiction flavor that we all crave and enjoy. I hope this guide helps those of you who want to portray military characters in the Star Wars setting and gets some creative juices flowing...
I'll finish this off by quoting Joe Zieja one last time: Writing fiction is all about achieving the balance between fiction and fact; you have to lure the audience into a false sense of security by showing them what they know is true. People don’t seem to ignore this tenet as much when discussing other things: sailing, horseback riding, geography. Why forget it with the military? Establish a little bit of credibility by avoiding some of the mistakes I’ve talked about here, and you can dance all over the place.
And then you can blow some stuff up.
