The Federation Tribune - July 2008
Chief Editor Frontier Fleet
chiefeditor at frontierfleet.com
Wed Jul 23 20:44:16 CEST 2008
==== The Federation Tribune ====
==== July 2008====
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Chief Editor's Notes:
By Rob Verlinden
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Please read on for another edition of the Federation Tribune. Especially
interesting are the Crew and Command news, which reveal detail of new personnel
and restructuring of the game. And listen to Frontier Broadcasting, the new FF
podcast!
And yes, I know that this newspaper was sent out late. But, better late than
never :-)
Today:
USS Calhoun Status Report, June 2008. By Adrien Rodd.
USS Odyssey Status Report, June 2008. By Rob Versteegt.
USS Valkyrie Status Report, June 2008. By Rick Clogston.
USS Atlantis Status Report, June 2008. By David Susman.
SF Academy Status Report, June 2008. By Rick Clogston.
Crew & Command News, June & July 2008. By Rob Verlinden.
Posting Statistics, June 2008. By Rob Verlinden.
The Frontier Fleet Podcast. By David Susman.
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USS Calhoun Status Report
June 2008
By Adrien Rodd
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EPISODE: #32, "Do No Harm" (2.06)
STARDATE: 2394.06.07
LOCATION: Lynand VI, close to Federation space
An away team disguised as Lynanders are on the planet's surface, and several
members have entered the building where the captured drones are being held
by local military. The Lynanders have discovered that Commander Summers has
technological implants, and have detained her, causing significant
complication to the mission.
A second away team, led by Lieutenant Ditch, has been tasked with retrieving
the remains of the crashed Borg scoutship from the surface. At the site of
the crash, Ditch's team was exposed to a localised atmospheric toxin. The
team members were easily cured, and the Calhoun's medical team have
hypothesised that the toxin is what rendered the Borg helpless, enabling the
Lynanders to detain them. Indeed, the captured Borg are, when injected,
unable to move. . .
The Calhoun crew's aim: Rescue the Borg drones from appalling conditions,
remove them from the planet before the Borg Collective sends another ship to
retrieve them, and remove all traces of Borg technology from Lynand VI.
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USS Odyssey Status Report
June 2008
By Rob Versteegt
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Mission # 18: "Wrath of the Gods"
Stardate: 2394.03.13
Location: Crashed on planet M-667, on the Federation side of the Romulan
Neutral Zone.
What started as establishing a parameter around the Odyssey to keep
intruders out, ended in a terrible breach of the Prime Directive. When
Commander Nerfertii was challenged by Centurion Gordianus of the Griznians
to prove that the former was a god, the Commander saw no other way out of
this but to play along and get information. Unfortunately, when it was
clear to the Centurion that the Commander was the victor, he threw himself
onto his sword, sacrificing himself for his 'god'.
The Commander stood for a terrible decision: whether to let this man die,
or call Captain Jalando in front of this many people, and have him and the
centurion be beamed to safety. Nerfertii chose the latter, and Jalando saw
no other option than to comply. While the Doctors struggled for the
Centurion's life, Jalando came down to Sickbay to ask his STC how in the
name of the Prophets this could have happened. . .
In the meantime, no word was heard of the Away Team which had been sent
out to find the Romulans. What could have happened to them? Will the Away
Team ever see the Odyssey again, after being captured by the 'evil'
Bethesdans?
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USS Valkyrie Status Report
June 2008
By Rick Clogston
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The Games of Upsylom! What began more than a millennium ago as a way to bring
the warring tribes of Thensa III together now attracts athletes from across the
galaxy every seven years. Including, from many Federation worlds. But the
Federation itself has never sent a team of its own . . . until now. Now, the
Federation council has ordered Starfleet Headquarters to send a team to the
games as its own representative. And Starfleet Command, in its infinite wisdom,
has chosen . . .
. . . the USS Valkyrie?
Yeah, I know. People have been asking, how did the infamous Ship of Misfits get
chosen for this assignment? Not least of all, the Captain and crew itself? Is
it in recognition of tasks well done, or a punishment? Or does Starfleet
Command just not care enough to take the request seriously?
Whatever the case may be, and with only a few days in which to prepare, the
intrepid crew of the Valkyrie are putting together an effort that they hope will
make Starfleet proud. Captain Denebris has formed a basketball team, and will
be putting his Sun Tzu training to the test . . . in the poker tournament. FO
PaRel has entered a marathon; up and down a mountain. CONN Chief Schofield will
finally get to be a Captain, but of a sailing ship which will race through some
very dangerous waters. Hope he has time to train for the endurance horse race
he's signed up for as well. His wife, Ensign Anita Schofield, finds herself
facing off against Grytta, the proprietor of Guido's in a cooking contest.
Ops Chief Davis is brushing the rust off her gymnastics skills (while also
dealing with a new romance in her life - namely, the Captain). Chief Counsellor
Rose is on Lt. Schofield's yacht crew, but has also signed up for the Mountain
Marathon. Ensign Bondarenko's on the basketball team, and most of the rest of
the crew is getting ready for something or other. The one having the most
trouble picking an event to participate in is the new STC, Lt. J'n'la Foster.
That is . . . if it's really her.
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USS Atlantis Status Report
June 2008
By David Susman
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The Atlantis has spent two weeks travelling from the wormhole to the Zeos
system near the Dominion Border in the Gamma Quadrant. During this time
Medical and Counselling personnel have been busy conducting on-going
Physical and Psychological evaluations of the crew per Starfleet Medical
Directives.
Commodore Essar is aboard as part of an evaluation of the Atlantis' crew,
and her Captain.
Now the ship has been hailed by Marshall Rambald of the Atriosian Space
Fleet and asked to join their festivities celebrating the end of the
Dominion occupation of their planet.
What will the crew find?
What surprises await?
Don't ask me, I'm just the Captain and usually the last to find out.
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Starfleet Academy Status Report
June 2008
By Rick Clogston
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There were 11 new sign-ups in June, of which 2 were approved. That's not many,
but four of the nine rejects were from the same person. There are currently
four cadets in the Academy, and we had one graduation.
Ensign John-Conner O'Brian (Human), played by Markus Solters, is now the ASTC on
board the USS Odyssey.
In looking over the raw data of the Academy; the sign-ups, the rejections, the
cadets, the instructors, the times; it strikes me that Frontier Fleet has fairly
high standards. This month alone, eight different individuals expressed a
desire to join us, one of them four times and sent a fifth on the first of July.
Only two of them were good enough to advance into the Academy. In that same
month one cadet graduated and two were dropped.
Now, this fluctuates as well. There have been months when all or nearly all the
sign-ups enter the academy. The surprising thing to me is that there are a
significant number of people who decide they want to play a Trek-based RPG who
can't even fill out the application properly.
Once in, some cadets breeze through in a week or so. You can almost spot these
from the outset. Even so, some of those get out into the fleet and for one
reason or another never get into a rhythm of posting. It's happened several
times recently. Looking at the list of recent graduates, I can see names that
have already left.
Other cadets seem to linger in the Academy for months. Many of these eventually
drift away and stop answering their instructors' messages. Some get back on
track, and make it into the fleet. There are even cadets whose sign-up is
borderline, and there will be communication with them and maybe even an
instructor regarding whether or not to take the next step and accept it.
One might wonder; with so many sign-ups, why bother with a sign-up that might or
might not be good enough to accept? Why not just blow them off and move on?
Because in the end this is a game of individuals. It's an ensemble game, just
like Trek is an ensemble show, and set of shows. There's a connection between
TOS and DS9 and ENT, and between Data and Bones and B'lanna Torres. It's one of
the cool things. And, it has continually evolved. That is a major aspect in
which FF mirrors Trek.
And the show was big on taking risks, as any creative endeavour does. There's
no knowing if a character like Spock, or Kes, or Hoshi, or Jake Sisko is going
to connect with the audience. It's the same with an incoming applicant. Is
there room in the fleet for a sexy Human counsellor, or an ornery Andorian
engineer, or a gay Betazoid security officer? Who can say? It's up to the
character themselves, in our case.
In that, it's different from Trek. On Voyager, they lost Kes and gained Seven.
Looks like a slam-dunk, right? But what if Jerry Ryan had turned out to not be
a very good actress? Or the writers couldn't come up with anything after a
while? Or she got a better offer, and bailed? And if a hottie in a cat-suit is
the answer for Paramount's happiness, then explain Chakotay, or Neelix.
Recently, I had to deal with two sign-ups that were markedly similar, and came
within a couple days of each other. Both had a lot of problems, but also a lot
of things in their favor. The first one needed enough of a re-write that I
wrote back informing them that I was going to reject their sign-up, but
suggested they make the appropriate changes and re-submit. The second, I
decided to accept but on the condition that they made certain changes.
The first person never replied. They are gone. I take that as an indication
that I made the right choice, because either they wouldn't have made the
changes, or they wouldn't have followed up on further training. The second
person edited their profile twice before I let them report to the Commandant,
but since then they've been very responsive and I think we'll be welcoming them
into the fleet before very long.
There are decisions I've made as Commandant, and as an Instructor, that I wish I
could have a do-over on. People have come into the fleet that shortly
disappeared. Others have failed to finish training when they might have with
more careful instruction, or with a gentler hand in the sign-up stage.
The job of accepting recruits and training them for the fleet is an imperfect
process. I am grateful for the Council, the Instructors, and everybody else
I've shared my thoughts and feelings with regarding this process. Everybody
I've gone to for advice and counsel has been patient with me, and gracious and
thoughtful in your responses.
To our instructors, I would recommend that you feel free to reach out if you're
ever having a problem with your cadet. Especially, if you have one that's a
tough case. Your fellow instructors are all experienced players. Plus, there's
me, and the council, and the command staff of the various ships to draw from.
We're ready, willing, and able to help you get another cadet into the fleet.
Huh. I figured out something to write after all. See ya next month.
ps - Some Starfleet Academy trivia; What popular Trek actor's first appearance
was as an Academy classmate of Wesley Crusher's?
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Crew & Command News
June & July 2008
By Rob Verlinden
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Crew news:
On the Atlantis Commander Velden (played by Ben Versteegt) was replaced by
Commander Kennedy (played by Merijn Donders). CEO Montgomery (played by Bram
Peeters) was given the position of Second officer. They also removed Ensign
Dalton played by Jim Pierre.
The Valkyrie crew said farewells to Don Draper (Lt. Will Masters) and Emily
Pesica (Ens. Madeline Setar).
On the Odyssey CMO Lt.jg Hersh Mordecai Avishai Ish-Shalom, played by Jon Hardy,
was removed for inactivity. But another character arrived on the Odyssey: ASTC
John-Conner O'Brian, played by Markus Solters.
Adrien Rodd no longer had time to play his SPC Andre Chong. Rob Versteegt
decided to stop playing several SPC characters and will be concentrating on
Captain Jeff Jalando. We will surely miss Jomorr, Gnone Sahlpass, Linda Lando
and her family.
Command news:
Recently there has been a discussion about a better structure of the people
running the game. The game is lead by the Frontier Fleet Council and an assembly
of command teams (COs, FOs, 2Os) and executive officers (Webmaster, AcadCM, PR).
The Council decides on issues, taking into account votes from all members of
"Command".
At the moment these people are running the game:
Council: Rob Versteegt, Adrian Rodd, Bram Peeters, Dennis Church (temporary
member)
Command: Rob Versteegt, Adrian Rodd, Bram Peeters, Dennis Church, Rick Clogston,
Kelley McKinnon, Laura Elliot, David Susman, Merijn Donders, Rob Verlinden,
Guido Dorssers
Webteam: Guido Dorssers (Webmaster), Bram Peeters, Nick Bartkowiak, Rob
Verlinden
Academy Commander: Rick Clogston
PR & Chief Editor: Rob Verlinden
>From now on the council will be formed of 3 members, voted from the current
Command group. Two of the current council members will remain, one new member
will be elected in September 2008.
Several new decisions have already been made since the restructuring:
- The minimum age to join Frontier Fleet has been set to 14 years.
- The archives will become publically available on the website. All new posts
will also become accessible.
- A new section has been added to the website in which Frontier Fleet canon will
be collected. It can be found here: http://www.frontierfleet.com/lcars/page/1753
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Posting Statistics
June 2008
By Rob Verlinden
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Calhoun players (7, active 6):
Adrien Rodd 22
Kelley MacKinnon 29 (Cal 23, Atly 5, Panda 1)
Laura Elliot 4
Mark O'Bannon 1
Benjamin Ditch 26
Zev Roodenburg 14
Daan Schmidt 4
USS Odyssey players (8, active 7):
Rob Versteegt 6
Martin Miller 6
Daniel Balding 1
Rob Verlinden 4
Guido Dorssers 2
Sussie Andersson 5
Mark Laris 3
Markus Solters 3
USS Valkyrie players (8, active 8):
Dennis Church 5
Rick Clogston 15 (Valk 14, Panda 1)
Abby Leib 3
Ann Montague 3
Ruben Hilbers 9
Kelly Power 9
Katie Crockett 25 (Valk 17, Atly 8)
USS Atlantis players (12, active 11):
David Susman 25 (Atly 17, Ody 7, Panda 1)
Merijn Donders 24
Bram Peeters 8
Ben Versteegt 2
Sasa Gerbus 10 (Atly 6, Valk 4)
Dawn Johnson 3
Chantal Sellers 3 (Atly 2, Ody 1)
Alex V. 10
Tessa Niles 11
Dale Robbins 3
Wuli Pawlat 7
Total FF players (35, active 32):
posts 308 (last month 363)
Top posters June 2008:
1. Kelley MacKinnon 29
2. Benjamin Ditch 26
3. Katie Crockett 25
3. David Susman 25
Dutystations:
1. Atlantis 105
2. Calhoun 93
3. Valkyrie 66
4. Odyssey 38
5. Pandora 5
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The Frontier Fleet Podcast
By David Susman
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Wow, David had another one of his splendid ideas. He recorded a Frontier Fleet
Podcast, called Frontier Broadcasting. You can hear background stories and news
about Frontier Fleet. Listen here: http://frontierfleet.podbean.com
The podcast has already been mentioned by a new signup. Well done!
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