I hope your new year is off to a good start! And if it’s not, I trust simming with us here in IDF is giving you a good creative outlet.
If you remember from last month’s announcement, we are now presenting two Best Post awards, one for a single author post and one for a joint author post.
Without further ado, here are your January award winners:
Best Post (Single Author)
Chief Petty Officer Remal Kajun Counselor USS Liberty
Fine piece of writing here! Quiet and introspective, a solid juxtaposition to the excitement of life aboard a starship.
Best Post (Joint Post)
Capt. Rhenora Kaylen & Crewman Ronson Mitchell & Cmdr. Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lt. Dean House & Lt. Aurora Vali CO / Yeoman / XO / ASTO / CC USS Liberty
Great opening with a cliffhanger of an ending. Well done!
MVP
Cmdr. Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen Executive Officer USS Liberty
What an exceptional month of role playing! He not only led the fleet in posting, but also crafted a fabulous idea for the Liberty’s new mission and encouraged some new players as they got their footing.
Most Posts
Cmdr. Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen Executive Officer USS Liberty
For writing 30 posts.
Most Improved
Lt. Michael Stonebridge Chief Intelligence Officer USS Washington
His posting consistently pulled the crew in and kept the story moving and fresh. He also worked behind the scenes on several collaborations.
Rookie of the Month
Lt. Dean House Assistant Security/Tactical Officer USS Liberty
Lt. House jumped into the Liberty’s plot with gusto, with an impressive 12 posts in only two weeks. He also helped organize the Liberty’s discord and became a main character in the current series of posts.
Recruitment
Lt. Cmdr. Emmalyn Marcus Executive Officer USS Montana
The XO recruited one new player and continues to give the Montana a good presence elsewhere on the web.
Congratulations to all of our winners! Congratulations is also due to our very own Charles Star and former Director of Art Sadie Stanton as they won the prestigious Simming Prize due to their work producing The Simming Endeavor game show back on 2019. Well done to all!
It’s awards time again! Congratulations to all of our October winners below:
Best Post
Lt. Cmdr. Shylow Vitari Chief Intelligence Officer USS Liberty
For “Like a Glove” With strangely compelling imagery, this is a nicely written post describing things and spaces on a starship I’ve never seen before. Well done!
Funniest Post
Cmdr. Samantha Howard Chief Medical Officer USS Washington
For “The War” A blood curdling scream and an undignified string of something. This one has funny written all over it.
Lt. Cmdr. Ech’am G’ginloss Chief Engineering Officer USS Chuck Norris
Leading his ship in total posts, G’ginloss continued to keep things interesting with some excellent ones about trying to keep the USS Chuck Norris together while in the heat of battle. Great writing, a nice amount of joint posts, and star for the crew.
Most Posts
Lt. Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell Computer Systems Specialist USS Liberty
For writing 13 posts.
Most Improved
Lt. T’Strella Drake Chief Diplomatic Officer USS Liberty
T’Strella increased her post count from 3 to 8, played a major role in the current storyline, and threw an interesting curve ball to boot. All in all, a massive leap in overall participation.
Rookie of the Month
Lt. J’goss Yass G’odoss Chief Flight Control Officer USS Chuck Norris
G’odoss took the initiative to create new plot lines, joint posts, and multiple interesting takes in addition to tying for the sim lead in totals posts. His performance continues to increase.
Recruitment
Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen Executive Officer USS Liberty
The Commander recruited to the sim one new player, who has already begun making solid contributions to the game.
In other news, our fleet XO Admiral Ken Gillis was awarded the Ongoing Worlds Community Honor for his efforts with FallFest. Congratulations, Admiral, and thank you to everyone who had a role in putting on an outstanding FallFest.
That’s right–join us tomorrow at 11:00 am Eastern for the FallFest X opening ceremonies. Our fleet XO Ken Gillis and friends AlexM & Amethyst from Pegasus Fleet have put together an absolutely fantastic schedule of events with an outstanding panel of hosts. It’ll be 8+ hours of simming and role playing fun!
Everything will happen in chat rooms in theFallFest Discord Server–be sure to sign up early so you don’t miss anything. And, of course, don’t forget about my Star Trek Trivia and Star Trek/Role Playing Family Feud games. These are must attends!
FallFest is a unique event, open to all simmers and online role players, regardless of rank or club affiliation. It’s where we all come together as a community to share ideas, energy, and fun! Independence Fleet and the Simming League held the first FallFest back in 2011. Originally intended to be a mini-SciWorld more friendly to European time zones, it has since grown into much, much more. OngoingWorlds has been the caretaker since 2012, although TNU Project will be taking the lead for organizing in 2021 and beyond.
If you haven’t already heard, we will be hosting FallFest this year with our friends from over at Pegasus Fleet. Please join us in three weeks on November 14th in this discord server for a full day of engaging discussions, interactive trivia games, and live chat role plays. All simmers and online role players are welcome regardless of rank or club affiliation.
AlexM of Pegasus Fleet and our very own Ken Gillis are serving as the co-chairs to put on the event. Here’s where to go:
So first, we hope to see you there. Second, invite all your friends to attend too. And third, email me at star [dot] idf [at] gmail [dot] com if you would like to host a one-hour event during the festival.
The first FallFest was held back in 2011, and Independence Fleet was the original host. Let’s help keep the tradition going with all of our partners in the greater role playing community!
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.
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.
If you visited our website yesterday, you might have seen something peculiar: IDF replacing Star Trek with Super Space Command 3000 branding after a court order authorized CBS to collect royalties from fan fiction websites. April fools! In case you missed it, we’ve recreated that main page at the bottom of this post.
This is actually the third time IDF has pulled the ole’ SSC3K joke. The first was all the way back in 2003. The second was in 2011, when we were joined by Theta Fleet and Starfleet Legacy Alliance. Theta Fleet played along with us again this year.
Of course, thank you to everyone for being a good sport about it once more! Here are some of the best comments we received for 2020’s joke:
You’ve got to be kidding!!!!!
Not cool.
It seems wrong and I am sure even from an outsider perspective.
Come on CBS, that is such a mean move!?
This is an outrage! Greedy corporate execs! We should all write in and give them a piece of our minds 😡
How the heck are we supposed to pay royalties to CBS?
How much do I need to pay to not see that?
Did you get this on a graphic design consultation website or in house? 😛
Omg hahahaha!
Love it lol
Hahaha Hilarious!
This better be an April Fools joke.
I hate this day.
Nice April fool’s day gag.
I hate April Fool’s Day. 😝
I’m not a huge fan of April Fool’s, but well done 😉
Independence Fleet website, April 1, 2020:
The Fleet
Alert: Yes, it’s true. CBS is going to require that Star Trek role play sites pay royalties that we simply can’t afford. Here’s a link to the article we’ve cut and pasted below:
SAN FRANCISCO-A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled yesterday that CBS Studios has the authority to collect royalties from Star Trek fan fiction websites, even if the websites generate no revenue. All privately-owned publicly-facing Star Trek themed sites will be required to register with CBS immediately to pay fees based on policy to be set later by CBS.
The decision was a blow to many Star Trek fan writers, who commonly organize themselves into groups called “sims” or “role plays”. Lawyers representing an anonymous group unsuccessfully argued that CBS’s demands are a violation of free speech. CBS countered that “Star Trek” is a registered trademark. The court agreed with CBS in its 44-page decision.
Immediately following the ruling, CBS announced that official policy will be determined in six to eight weeks. Since so few fan fiction websites collect revenue, CBS is expected to charge royalties based on membership and participation. All affected websites who refuse or are unable to meet the financial demands will be forced to choose a new theme. Representatives for several websites have vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
It is unclear if CBS plans to pursue a similar policy with any of its other trademarked franchises or if other media companies will follow suit.
But not to worry! We’ve come up with something even better than Star Trek: Super Space Command 3000! That’s SSC3K for short! We think this will give us all more flexibility with our stories and characters, and most importantly, we hold all the legal rights for SSC3K. In short, we’re excited about our future in Super Space Command 3000 starting today. Please send any comments or suggestions to star.idf@gmail.com
Thank you, Independence Fleet Command
Welcome to Independence Fleet Command! We’ve hosted top quality Super Space Command 3000 role playing since 2001. Regardless of what you call it–simming, play-by-post (PbP), play-by-email (PbEm), or even creative writing–it’s what we’ve been doing for nearly 19 years.
Join one of our exciting adventures below and tell your Star Fleet tale with other Trekkies from around the world!
That’s simply the style of writing used for the particular game. Prose means it’s written in regular language like you would find in a novel or short story. Script refers to a specific role playing syntax:
Still don’t get it? Here’s the same line written in each format:
{Planet’s Surface}
John picked the communicator up from the table. He wasn’t sure what to do. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered before speaking into the device. “Bridge, this is John.”
{Planet’s Surface}
John: ::picks up communicator from the table:: (I’m not sure what to do.) “Here goes nothing.” =/\=Bridge, this is John.=/\=
As you can see, the {Location} tag is frequently used in both formats. Also, the exact syntax will likely vary from sim to sim.
What’s the difference between traditional and open role playing?
In traditional role playing, you only write for your own character without explicit permission or guidance from other players, generally speaking. This is how almost all Star Trek simming games usually work.
Open role playing differs in that everyone writes for everyone. All characters are at at your disposal for use with every post. While this is uncommon in the role playing community, you’ll see a higher number of open role playing sims in Independence Fleet. Here’s an article from Ongoing Worlds that explains open role playing in more detail.
Independence Fleet = Excellence
Tournament of Simulations
USS Chuck Norris
2014
USS Victory
2013
USS Chirikov USS Liberty USS Rioja USS Sunfire USS Victory
2012
USS Liberty USS Sunfire
2011
Ongoing Worlds
Squiddie Award
James D. West, 2015 AJ Wheeler, 2013
=/\=
Community Honor
James D. West, 2018 Landon Wakeland, 2013
Legacy Simming League
Simming Prize
Charles Star, 2016 Independence Fleet, 2011 USS Sunfire, 2010
At 11:59 PM tonight, the USS Sanctuary will officially transfer from Independence Fleet to UCIP. The Sanctuary has been a mainstay in IDF since she launched back in October 2012. According to available records as of March 1st, the Sanctuary had seen 1,718 total posts and 17 monthly posting titles. Wow!
Perhaps even more impressive is that Commanding Officer Steven Mayta Death is not only the longest currently-tenured CO in IDF, but he is also first all-time in IDF history with 89 completed command-months, all with the Sanctuary. His alter ego, Steven Mayta Cha’Dich adds five more (one with the Sanctuary and five with Starbase Prime). What a record!
But Steven’s and the Sanctuary’s run doesn’t end here. Steven actually began his career back in UCIP, and he’s simply going home. Here’s to all the adventures he and his crew are going to continue to have for years to come!
