Why? The whole point of them is that they're few so sought after, only for the very best of the guild. I've always thought that FMs should be limited too.
It would allow more members to initiate a rumble should the rest of the QM be asleep at that time, so you can spread them across more time zones. The guild could still manually choose to allow less people to be QM. I agree with both sides of the argument, as I see the forced scarcity of them making them a more valuable rank, and causing some players to want to try harder to become one, since no guild would be able to hand them out to anyone who wanted one. And it limits the number of players that could get antsy and start a rumble while you're trying to break, or maliciously kick lower players before quitting the guild. Those could both be enforced by a captain, but by limiting the slots, it takes some of that responsibility off the Captain's hands. Some players feel entitled to promotions after putting in a couple good scores or a bit of effort, and by removing the possibility, it avoids any drama with them wanting the promotion should you not want to give it to them, since you couldn't physically do it to begin with. Allowing unlimited officers however would make a 3-strikes rule easier to enforce. Every officer becomes QM instead of FM, and then every normal player is promoted to FM; first strike they're demoted to Crew, second strike they're demoted to Powder Monkey, and third strike they get kicked. When I was in RR we had all non-officers be crew, and first strike would demote to powder monkey, and we'd have to keep track of how many strikes they had as powder monkey before kicking- allowing an extra step of ranks would remove the need of us to do extra work to keep track of it. I like it being kept as 3, even though a captain could manually enforce it to stay as 3 anyways, just because it doesn't remove any value previously placed on any promotion. But if it changed at any point, I wouldn't be upset either.
Limiting the number of Quartermasters is a good idea, though I think 5 would be better. That allows a more equal distribution of starting rumbles especially for those guilds that rumble 24/7. Any more and then you run into the possibility of unwanted rumble starts, kick outs, etc. The 3 strike rule is effective and an easy way of keeping track of non-productive players too. =
The forum itself should adopt the Quarter Master Rank while they are at it. Be a nice touch. After First Mate become a QM before a Captain.
