Chapter 2.6: Standing and Crew Advancement
Standing measures what your crew has proved it can handle. It sets the scale of commissions Mission normally offers, the resources the Empire prepares for your work, and the largest ship the crew can call its own.
Standing belongs to the crew. Record one total beside the crew's name and apply each award to every member. A change in roster leaves the total in place. A newly formed crew begins with 0 Standing unless the table agrees that its members have an established shared record.
Standing is cumulative. You never spend it, and it carries across commissions.
Earning Standing
At the end of each commission, hold a debrief. The table reviews the work and the gamemaster awards 1 Standing for each criterion the crew met, to a maximum of 3.
- Service: The crew advanced the commission's objective, protected people, or left the situation meaningfully better.
- Judgment: The crew used its Mandate, the Charter, and the Doctrine of Response well. This includes recognizing when the work had crossed the Boundary of Escalation and calling for broader authority.
- Craft: The crew applied its expertise effectively, worked together, or turned a hard failure into knowledge that will matter next time.
Success can earn all 3 points. Failure can still earn Standing. A crew that loses the station while evacuating its people may earn Service and Judgment even though the original objective is gone. A clean objective achieved through reckless or dishonest conduct may earn Service alone.
Use 2 Standing as the ordinary award for a commission handled well. Give 3 when the crew's work clearly satisfies all three criteria. Give 1 when the result was limited or costly while still showing one part of good service. Give 0 when the crew abandoned the work or satisfied none of the criteria.
Standing Ranks
Your Standing total places the crew in one of six Ranks. Apply the benefits of the current Rank at the start of every commission.
| Rank | Standing | Name | Expected Commission Tier | Prepared Assets | Maximum Ship Scale | Normal Imperial access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0–2 | New | 0 | 1 | 3 | Standard field kit, an inventory vessel, and routine records |
| 1 | 3–7 | Established | 1 | 2 | 4 | Expanded commission kits, small craft, and specialist consultation |
| 2 | 8–14 | Trusted | 2 | 3 | 5 | Dedicated laboratories, relief capacity, local teams, and priority data |
| 3 | 15–23 | Proven | 3 | 4 | 6 | A custom vessel, specialist field groups, and controlled technical resources |
| 4 | 24–34 | Distinguished | 4 | 5 | 7 | Strategic infrastructure, several small craft, and Foundry priority |
| 5 | 35+ | First Call | 5 | 6 | 8 | Exceptional hulls, rare systems, and coordination across Imperial regions |
When the total reaches a threshold, the crew gains the new Rank immediately. Its benefits apply when Mission prepares the next commission. A higher Rank expands the work available to the crew. It also leaves lower-tier work open whenever the crew chooses a quieter commission or brings Mission a smaller problem worth solving.
Commission Tier
Commission Tier measures the scale and pressure of an adventure. It guides the gamemaster's preparation. It never changes the Difficulty of a Task solely because the crew has more Standing. The same damaged reactor presents the same technical problem to every crew. Higher-tier commissions surround that reactor with wider consequences, divided priorities, stronger opposition, and less time.
| Tier | Scope of the commission |
|---|---|
| 0, Routine | One contained problem with a clear objective and limited pressure. |
| 1, Demanding | A contained problem with a serious hazard, active opposition, or a competing need. |
| 2, Complex | Several linked problems, factions, or locations that force the crew to set priorities. |
| 3, Strategic | A system-scale problem or capable opposing force with consequences beyond the immediate site. |
| 4, Imperial | Work affecting several worlds or peoples, with powerful interests and several simultaneous pressures. |
| 5, Exceptional | Precedent-setting work whose result can redirect Imperial policy, regional stability, or relations with another civilization. |
Mission normally offers commissions at the crew's Expected Commission Tier. Commissions one Tier lower provide routine work. A commission one Tier higher is a stretch assignment and should come with clear warning. The crew may accept, decline, or pitch work of its own as usual.
Tier is also a trust boundary. Mission does not place a new crew in sole charge of a negotiation that could commit several worlds, an ecological intervention that could change a biosphere, or another decision whose failure would travel far beyond the scene. A higher-Tier commission reaches the crew after its record shows that it can carry the authority, uncertainty, and review involved.
Prepared Assets
The Empire supplies every tool and service a commission is known to require. These Mandate Assets come with the job: if the objective requires a quarantine ward, a species-compatible surgical system, or a legal delegation empowered to draft terms, the commission provides it. Mandate Assets do not count against the crew's Prepared Assets and never draw on a character's personal credits.
At the start of the commission, the crew also chooses a number of Prepared Assets equal to its entry in the Standing table. Each is an additional contingency or approach the crew wants available, recorded as a Trait attached to the crew, its ship, or a specific location. Examples include Field Laboratory, Relief Fabricator, Local Legal Team, Stealth Shuttle, and Priority Aelith Survey.
Choose Prepared Assets within the crew's Normal Imperial access and explain how each one serves the commission. Standing broadens the range of contingencies the Empire will prepare at the crew's request. It never withholds equipment the Empire already knows the assigned objective needs.
Prepared Assets cost no Momentum and generate no Threat. They represent support arranged before departure. Help called in after the situation changes uses the Momentum rules in Chapter 3.2 and the Supporting Character rules in Chapter 4.8.
Credits, Equipment, and Advancement
Energy credits are the Empire's actual currency, described in Reference Manual Chapter 11. Citizens use them for discretionary goods, scarce experiences, custom commissions, and personal projects beyond universal provision.
Morlencir Adventures does not use credits as an advancement track. Characters do not receive a wealth allowance when Standing rises, and commissions do not award loot budgets. Official work arrives properly equipped through Mandate Assets and Prepared Assets. A personal purchase matters when it says something about the character or changes a scene; record it as a Trait when that relevance appears.
Ships and Scale
Maximum Ship Scale is the largest vessel the crew can have assigned as its own. New crews draw compact ships from inventory. Established crews gain access to larger or modified hulls. At Rank 2, Mission can justify a vessel built to the crew's working profile. Rank 3 opens a fully custom ship. The final two Ranks open strategic and exceptional hulls whose construction requires a long, public record of good work.
A field vessel normally carries one Translation Profile. Integrated Translation Systems can trade a Talent and a Facility for a second drive. Scale 5 and larger ships may add the third through a later refit, consuming the same resources again.
Chapter 5.1 defines Scale, ship creation, and refits. Chapter 5.2 covers ship operations, hazards, Damage, Breaches, and conflict.
The ceiling governs the crew's permanent vessel. A Mandate can place a larger ship or strategic installation under the crew's control for one commission when the work requires it. That assigned Asset returns to Imperial use when the commission ends.
Review, Loss, and Consequences
Standing records earned experience and remains cumulative. Record current limits through Traits such as Ship Under Repair, Access Suspended Pending Review, or Mandate Restricted to Relief Work. A Board of Inquiry can delay a benefit, restrict an Asset, or change what Mission offers while that Trait remains in force. Clear the Trait through the fiction and restore the access already earned.