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.
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!
Great character development, brushing the exterior of being half Human and half Vulcan.
Best Post (Joint Post)
Cmdr. Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Capt. Rhenora Kaylen & Lt. Dean House & Lt. Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell & Lt. Aurora Vali & Lt.jg. Sarah Wilson & CPO Remal Kajun & Crewman Ronson Mitchell XO / CO / ASTO / CSS / CC / MO / C / Y USS Liberty
After being MIA for a bit due to real life, he came back strong at the end of month leading several joint posts that helped the crew drive the plot forward in a big way.
Brand new to simming, Ensign Mack started with the rest of the Albion crew mid-month and still managed to produce a fleet-leading 28 posts! Even more than that, he integrated well into the game and learned how to include his character while also writing for others.
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)
What a month September was with so many great posts and performances throughout the fleet. Unfortunately, we simply aren’t able to recognize them all. Without any further ado, here are your September award winners:
Captain Rhenora Kaylen Commanding Officer USS Liberty
For “Diplomatic Masquerade“ Interesting Genesis post told from the other side. Well done!
MVP
Cmdr. Savar cha’Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen Executive Officer USS Liberty
Savar stepped up from 2O to XO, moved the storyline forward significantly, and wrote some amazing character posts. He has been invaluable in the day-to-day running of the game.
Most Posts
Lt. Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell Computer Systems Specialist USS Liberty
For writing 23 posts.
Most Improved
Lt. Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell Computer Systems Specialist USS Liberty
Durnell did an exceptional job bringing an old returning character onboard while still keeping in play a wonderful subplot with many humorous twists. An outstanding player!
Brand new to simming, Lee jumped right into it with two joint post posts and immediately got the hang of what we’re doing; a great addition to the crew!
Recruitment
No one again this month! Where’s the recruiting?
Keep writing and keep the great posts coming… And somebody seriously win the Recruitment award for October!
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
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.
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.
Our fleet continues to grow as we launched our 6th active sim earlier this month: the USS Wayfarer. Her first post came on August 4th! If the name sounds familiar, you have a good eye. The Wayfarer tradition goes way back in IDF history.
For this version, Captain Michael Meezo leads this Intrepid-class vessel in the exploration of the unknown after the Dominion War.
