Join us this Saturday, June 12th, at 11:30 AM EDT (-4) / 4:30 pm BST (+1) for the 2021 SciWorld Online Convention. Chair Aurther Winters, Fleet XO Ken Gillis, and many others have put in a lot of hours to make this an extra special event this year. After the 11:30 opening ceremony, we have seven hours of provocative discussions, interactive trivia games, and live role playing planned.
This will be the 19th SciWorld, and the third hosted by IDF. The first SciWorld was held all the way back in 1999. And just to see how far we’ve come over the years, here’s the opening video from the first modern SciWorld, which we hosted in 2011:
We know this is crazy, but basically the crews are trading ships: USS Sunfire CO Captain Sandy “Ghost” Shannon & crew and USS Liberty CO Captain Rhenora Kaylen & crew are permanently swapping ships.
Wait, what?
Over the last week, each crewmember added their character to the other sim. Then today, the two Captains published joint genesis posts on each sim: Here’s the Sunfire’s & here’s the Liberty’s. Crewmembers are free to participate on both sims for the remainder of the missions, which will be wrapped up before the end of the month. At that time, legacy Liberty members will have their characters deactivated as they continue on the Sunfire, and legacy Sunfire members will have their characters deactivated as they continue on the Liberty.
Why do this?
Both sims have tremendous histories here at IDF. In fact, IDF was born out of the original Sunfire, and it was one of our three launch sims back in July 2001. Shortly thereafter, the Liberty was our first expansion sim on August 1, 2001. The current registry numbers hark back to those early days. When we relaunched both sims last year, circumstances led to the Liberty crew largely consisting of players from the last incarnation of the Sunfire. They’re simply going home now. And fortunately, the crew of the Sunfire are good enough sports to play along.
How will these joint missions turn out?
I have no idea, but they’re sure to be wild as we’ve never attempted anything like this before!
With that said, as of today, Captain Rhenora Kaylen is now the Commanding Officer of the USS Sunfire, and Captain Sandy “Ghost” Shannon is now the Commanding Officer of the USS Liberty. Congratulations, Captains! May you continue to lead your sims to new heights!
All, here are three command news items to keep everyone up to date:
An audit of our blog revealed that we never announced both of these October 1, 2020 changes of command in this forum: Captain Akeno Misaki of the USS Wayfarer and Captain T’Brei Sheridan of the USS Sunfire.
Captain Sandy “Ghost” Shannon assumed command of the USS Sunfire on May 1, 2021. A special thanks to Captain Sheridan for leading the Sunfire for seven months.
Captain John Wells will assume command of the USS Eminence on June 1, 2021. A special thanks to Captain Polto for leading the Eminence over the last 11 months.
We’re less than two months away from our 20th Anniversary this summer on July 4th. As part of the ongoing celebrations this year, we held a 20th Anniversary Trivia Day this past Saturday. In addition to giving away six “fantastic” prizes to our winners, we were able to cap the evening off with a Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan watch party. For those who were unable to attend, here’s the summary:
Prizes
Description (estimated retail value)
Independence Fleet mug ($15)
Micro Machines Star Trek Generations set ($16)
A Happy Birthday message from John de Lancie ($150)
Star Trek TOS VHS signed by IDF co-founder James D. West ($0.99)
Star Trek TNG Badge & Lapel set ($17)
Spock Vehicle Decal ($25)
Results
Aurther Winters won Star Trek: TOS Season 1 and selected the IDF mug
Galaxis won Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and selected the John de Lancie birthday message
Aurther Winters won Star Trek Round Robin and selected the Badge & Lapel set
LuckyFan won Doctor Who and stole the Badge & Lapel set; Aurther Winters selected the signed VHS tape
NisaMage won Supernatural and selected the Spock Vehicle decal
NisaMage won Star Wars Original Trilogy and selected the Micro Machines set
Beyond the prizes above, we will also be sending a small token to each person who correctly answered at least one question at any point during the day. Finally, we thank our event hosts for helping make it a truly special occasion: Shran dh’Klar, Trident, Angelus, Emmalyn Marcus, and yours truly.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic experience. Thank you again to all who were able to take part.
In honor of our club’s 20th anniversary later this summer, we’re hosting a day of trivia in our fleet Discord’s general discussion chat room on May 8th. All are invited to partake: current members, former members, and non-members.
We have six one-hour sessions on a variety of Star Trek and science fiction topics planned. Feel free to pop in and out for the ones that most interest you.
Schedule of Events
EDT (-4)
BST (+1)
Topic
Host
10:00 am
3:00 pm
Star Trek: TOS Season 1
Charles Star
11:00 am
4:00 pm
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Shran dh’Klar
12:00 pm
5:00 pm
Star Trek Round-Robin
You!
1:00 pm
6:00 pm
Doctor Who
Trident
2:00 pm
7:00 pm
Supernatural
Angelus
3:00 pm
8:00 pm
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Marcus
Prizes!
Yes, prizes! We have six fantastic prizes to distribute to the six trivia winners. Here’s how it’ll work: The winner of the first event will get to pick one of the six prizes below. The next winner can then choose to take one of the remaining five prizes or to steal the first prize selected. Same thing for the next winner, all the way down to the final winner, who will have their pick of the entire lot. Anytime someone has their prize stolen, they have to take one of the unselected prizes–no back-to-back steals. You might recognize these rules as similar to a white elephant gift routine. And you’re right!
Image
Prize
Retail Value
Independence Fleet mug
$15
Micro Machines Star Trek Generations set
$16
A Happy Birthday message from John de Lancie to you or a friend Must be used within 1 year
$150
Star Trek TOS S1E17: The Squire of Gothos VHS tape signed by IDF co-founder James D. West Not guaranteed to work
$0.99
Star Trek TNG Badge & Lapel set
$17
Spock Vehicle Decal
$25
Watch Party!
Finally, please also join us after trivia at 8 pm Eastern in Discord for a watch party of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
If you stumbled across our website last Thursday, you might have seen something a bit peculiar. In case you missed it, we’ve archived it here.
The prototypical 1990s simming webpage, complete with animated gifs, a repeating background, and way too many Admirals was the brainchild of our Fleet XO and Chief of Technology Ken Gillis. As most of you know, IDF didn’t actually exist back then as it was founded in 2001. However, some of our members today got their starts back in the 90’s.
As with our Super Space Command 3000 gag last year, we hope you enjoyed this too. Well done, Admiral Gillis!
The 2020 Tournament of Simulations (ToS) winners were announced yesterday at Ongoing Worlds. We were fortunate enough to have four of our sims listed among the 23 that won prizes.
Congratulations to the USS Wayfarer, USS Ganymede, Starbase 80, and the USS Liberty! We already knew that all of our sims are fantastic, but it’s still great to get this type of acknowledgement from the community. Well done, IDF!
Outstanding Star Trek:
Star Trek Gameplay:
Independence Fleet actually has a long history of winning at ToS. Our first awards came in 2011 with the USS Liberty and USS Sunfire. 2012 was a monster year with five winners: USS Chirikov, USS Liberty, USS Rioja, USS Sunfire, and USS Victory. We then had one winner apiece in 2013 (USS Victory) and 2014 (USS Chuck Norris).
2014
Excellence in Creativity:
2013
Best Star Trek sim:
USS Victory
2012
Outstanding Star Trek Sim:
USS Chirikov
USS Victory
Excellence in Creativity:
Excellence in Character Development:
Excellence in Readability:
USS Rioja
2011
Best Star Trek Sim:
Most Creative Sim:
Which of our sims are going to win for 2021? It’s anyone’s game!
One year ago today, we launched IDF’s new website and URL. Or was it yesterday? I’m not really sure! Regardless, what a ride it’s been.
On behalf of the Admiralty, thank you to everyone who has been a part of the journey and for making our 10 Star Trek sims as great as they are today. If you’re not currently a member of any of them, feel free to give one a try by clicking their link in the “Join!” column of the table below.
Prose = typical language of a novel or short story Script = role playing syntax similar to a movie script (see this Ongoing Worlds article) Both = uses Prose & Script formats
Traditional = players only write for their own characters (this is how most role plays work) Open = all players write for all characters (see this Ongoing Worlds article)
Our newest sim, the USS Albion launched earlier this week on February 16th. If that date looks familiar, you have a good eye! The original USS Sunfire opened in Utopia Fleet on that date all the way back in the year 2000. The rest, as they say, is history! Speaking of history, this is Captain Dick Sprague’s 10th command in Independence Fleet, by far the most all-time.
While continuing the tradition and legacy of IDF’s USS Avalon series of sims, the Albion seeks to capture the original theme and feel of that original USS Sunfire. As such, this is an open role playing game that uses script format. All potential players are highly encouraged to read the Albion’s Sim page before joining to ensure they know exactly what they’re getting into. It may be different, but it’s a lot of fun.
Let’s give a warm welcome to Captain RS Harrison and our newest game, the USS Montana, which launched yesterday on January 8, 2021. The Montana is our only sim set in the TOS movie era, something that many of our players have been asking for for quite some time. Well, here it is, folk. Enjoy!
