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The bridge of a futuristic starship, designed with a circular seating arrangement. In the center, a large, command chair is surrounded by four other seats, all with ergonomic, cream-colored upholstery. The curved ceiling has a series of geometric panels with ambient lighting. Behind the seats, large control consoles with touch-screen interfaces are mounted on the walls. Two doorways and an elevator are visible on either side of the bridge.

So You Wanna Be a Captain?

Posted on September 24, 2020 | by Charles Star | Leave a Comment

Over the last month, we’ve received quite a few inquiries about being a sim Commanding Officer (CO) in Independence Fleet. So, what are we looking for in sim COs? Before I answer, I’d like to tell the story of two:

Jimmy Rogers

Hall of Famer Jimmy Rogers joined his first sim in December 2010: the USS Liberty, which we were just relaunching. It all clicked. He ran away with the MVP award that month, and became CO of the Liberty on January 1, 2011 after only a single month of simming. Yes, you read that right: one month of simming.

The rest, as they say, is history! Rogers commanded the Liberty for 19 months, winning 2.33 Genesis awards, capturing 3 posting titles, and leading the ship to an incredible 315-post month in September 2011, which is still tied for 9th all-time. Beyond the numbers, he led amazing stories and mentored dozens of role players.

Aurther Winters

Aurther Winters began simming in 2003 after seeing an ad on a college message board. As James Sullivan, he slowly rose from Ensign to Commander on the USS Dragon in a Hall of Fame career that ended with seven monthly awards, still good for a tie at 11th place all-time. Then life happened and he drifted away from simming.

He returned to role playing on the USS Chuck Norris in 2012 as Aurther Winters. Winters picked up his 10th monthly award in August–one of only four people in IDF history to hit double digits. As with Sullivan before, Winter rose through the engineering ranks to eventually become XO of the Chuck Norris under two different Captains. He was the type of XO who just made the Captain’s job easy. Winters became CO of the Chuck Norris this month.

That’s right–James Sullivan/Aurther Winter simmed for the first time about 17 years before he became a CO, while Jimmy Rogers simmed for one month before becoming a CO. Both are in the Hall of Fame, and both are incredible Captains. Every career is different, and every route to CO is different.

Show Me the Money!

One of the most basic principles of good wring is show, don’t tell. Let the reader experience the story through thoughts, actions, feelings, dialog, etc. instead of saying what happened. The same with being a sim CO: Telling us you want to be a CO is great, but you know what’s even better? Showing us you want to be a CO! How do you do that? Like this:

Post! Quality & Quantity
Get others involved in the story
Recruit new players
Mentor younger players
Help solve and de-escalate disputes
Engage at the fleet level on Discord, Facebook, and Twitter
To sum it up: Lead by example!

Do you have what it takes to be a sim CO in IDF? Show us! Make the ship you’re already on great. Make your crew great. Make your Captain look great! It’s not necessarily easy, but then again command isn’t for everyone.

A purple-tinted space scene featuring a futuristic starbase and a Starfleet-style starship approaching it, with the text "IDFLEET.COM" in the bottom right corner.

Admiralty’s Role in IDF

Posted on September 17, 2020 | by Ken Gillis | Leave a Comment

Greetings, officers!

I wanted to take a moment to address a topic that continues to come up regularly. I feel that we have failed in communicating the fleet structure, and how the Admiralty fits into all of this.

First of all, being an Admiral in IDF is just a special title for “fleet staff”. We have jobs that are important to the administration of the fleet outside of the sims, and traditionally we are named Admirals. However, we aren’t going to hop onto your sim as an admiral and start roleplaying, or commanding you around.

In IDF, COs are the “kings” or “queens” of their sims. This means they maintain the storyline, they maintain their rosters, and they decide the rules of the sim. There are a few minor exceptions, which are outlined in the Command agreement we make with each CO. But, our involvement in the management of the sim is limited to the placement of the CO.

This means, if a CO decides that they are going to run a sim about a Warship Intrepid with phaser cannons and transphasic torps, it is not the purview of the Admiralty to tell them otherwise. It is up to the individual members if they wish to remain a part of the sim.

To be clear: your recourse for a disagreement in how the sim is managed is twofold. First, you discuss with your CO. Second, if you don’t come to an agreement, and you don’t wish to RP there anymore, you may leave.

The Admiralty will be happy to mediate any such talks, but we will not use our authority to modify how the sim is run, with some very specific exceptions.

As far as the “political” structure of IDF is concerned, there really isn’t one. We don’t have a council, we don’t vote on things. The best description for the structure of IDF is a fan club/not for profit business. IDF is owned by Admiral Star and myself. There’s really not much more to it than that. We of course will ask for the opinion of our COs when making changes that will affect them, and individual CO’s may at times ask their crews for their opinion on a matter. But, at the end of the day, Charles and I have the final say in the administration of the fleet organization, and the COs have the final say in the administration of their sim (once again, some specific exceptions apply).

At the core of it all, we are striving to create a fleet structure that exists purely to support the sims. We provide certain services: central Discord server, community events, IT infrastructure, tech support, fleet awards, etc. Everything else is up to the COs and their crews.

Thank you,
Admiral Ken Gillis
Fleet Executive Officer
Chief of Technology

Monthly Awards: August 2020

Posted on September 14, 2020 | by Rook Mirtoh | Leave a Comment

We had a lot of great contributors in August, including some fantastic award winners below. However, there’s one thing missing: No Recruitment award. If you’re doing any work to recruit players to your game or the fleet, please make sure your CO is aware so they can nominate you for an award.

Best Post

Cmdr. Samantha Howard & Cmdr. Jonathan Grayson & Lt. Lisa Olsson
CMO/XO/CSTO
USS Washington

For “Bound but not broken PT 2”
Great conversation flow, and the element of danger is palpable.

Funniest Post

Lt. Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Liberty

For “The Rocketman”
Hilarious dialog about a shuttle named Debbie.

Genesis

Capt. Michael Meezo
Commanding Officer
USS Wayfarer

For “Enter Lord Chaos”
An interesting antagonist escaping from prison, a good start to any mission!

MVP

Cmdr. Jonathan Grayson
Executive Officer
USS Washington

Grayson does it again: Leading by example and filling in while the Captain had IRL items to deal with; A true example of what a team player XO looks like.

Most Posts

Cmdr. Aurther Winters
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

For writing 25 posts.

Most Improved

Lt.jg. John Wyatt
Intelligence Officer
USS Chuck Norris

Wyatt upped his game from a rookie to a full-fledged contributor in story development. He also doubled his post total from 6 to 12.

Rookie of the Month

Lt. Lisa Olsson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Washington

The new Security & Tactical Officer wrote some solid posts and really picked up the pace at the end of the month.

Recruitment

None this month! Get to recruiting!

Keep writing and keep role playing! The IDF tradition continues…

Colorful banner titled "The Simming Endeavor" with a vibrant collage of avatars, characters, and icons representing a diverse community of simmers. The background features a mysterious, ancient building overlaid with abstract cosmic and handwritten elements. A small green alien mascot holding a globe appears in the bottom left corner, symbolizing the collaborative and creative spirit of the simming community.

The Simming Endeavor: The Sequel?

Posted on September 3, 2020 | by Charles Star | Leave a Comment

Last year on Ongoing Worlds, we hosted a role playing game show called The Simming Endeavor. The concept was simple: Bring 13 different role players together into a single game, allow them to compete each week to write the best post on a particular topic, and then have them vote each other out until there’s only one left. As host, it was tons of fun–some of my best all-time memories of role playing.

Our very own Bolak (aka Largehobbit) was one of the contestants. I’ll save you the spoiler and not tell you how he did! James “Rook” Mirtoh and James D. West both served as special guests (episodes 3 and 8, respectively). And finally, our former Director of Art, Sadie Stanton (aka Bella), created all the graphics for the show.

The purpose of this post isn’t to shameless promote our prior work. Well, at least not entirely. One of last year’s contestants, Messenger of Heaven, is looking to host and produce a second season of the show this fall. If you’re interested in serving as a contestant, please contact me on discord or through email. Believe me, it will be a unique experience you can’t recreate elsewhere.

Or if you just want to read the episodes, we’ve posted links below. We recommend starting with episode 1, obviously.

Episode	Air Date
USS Endeavor role play	N/A
Episode 1 (Introduction)	September 8, 2019
Episode 2 (Abdication)	September 15, 2019
Episode 3 (Déjè vu)	September 22, 2019
Episode 4 (Humor)	September 29, 2019
Episode 5 (Others)	October 6, 2019
Episode 6 (Change)	October 13, 2019
Episode 7 (Switch)	October 20, 2019
Episode 8 (Action)	October 27, 2019
Episode 9 (Return)	November 3, 2019
Episode 10 (Random)	November 10, 2019
Episode 11 (Decision)	November 17, 2019
Episode 12 (Finale)	November 24, 2019

In unrelated IDF news, Captain Aurther Winters has relieved Captain Grover vonMcCormick as Commanding Officer of the USS Chuck Norris, and Captain Dick Sprague has relieved Captain Michael Meezo as Commanding Officer of the USS Wayfarer. Both turnovers are dated to September 1st.

Good luck, simmers!

A futuristic space station labeled "Starbase 80" orbits a blue and white Earth-like planet. The starbase features a wide, saucer-like structure with layered rings and glowing windows, set against the darkness of space with stars faintly visible in the background. The image is bordered in purple with a sleek sci-fi aesthetic.

Welcome to IDF, Starbase 80

Posted on September 1, 2020 | by Charles Star | Leave a Comment

It’s not often that we accept outside games into IDF, but Starbase 80 is one of a kind. Dating back to the 1990s, Starbase 80 is set within a region they call The Dark Frontier. It connects all sorts of different themes and concepts together in a very novel way.

Starbase 80	The Frontier
Format: Prose	Era: Post-Dominion War
Type: Traditional	Class: Starbase
CO: Captain Kathleen O’Shea	Join!

Take a visit to Starbase 80 today!

A sleek Federation starship labeled "USS Liberty NCC-4003-A" cruises through a dense asteroid field in deep space. The vessel features a saucer section, glowing blue nacelles, and red impulse engines, all illuminated against the dark, star-filled background. The image is bordered in purple, with futuristic text enhancing the sci-fi tone.

Another August Launch: USS Liberty

Posted on August 25, 2020 | by Charles Star | 2 Comments

That’s right, the August expansion continues with the USS Liberty‘s first post on the 15th. August is a fitting month for the latest incarnation of this historic game as the original USS Liberty launched in August 2001.

This Liberty is led by one of the most successful–if not the most successful–IDF sim Commanding Officers of all time: Captain Rhenora Kaylen. Check out this Sovereign class vessel as she defends the Federation from all threats.

USS Liberty	NCC-4003-A
Format: Prose	Era: Post-Dominion War
Type: Traditional	Class: Sovereign
CO: Captain Rhenora Kaylen	Join!

See you onboard!