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@Wes Greaves is a great scene creator, and the flavour he give to each scene he creates could introduce you fully in a strange new world, as much as give a LOT of space for his fellow writers to developt the plot themselves. Awesome cooperative writing on display of a great writer. Good job man! -------- Capt Wes Greaves - Extravagance Greaves’s Personal Log – It’s a strange feeling. The skipper put me in charge the away team to meet with one of the Zet. A pretty important one by all accounts. I’ve led teams before, but not like this. This is a group of officers under my charge, on an exceptionally strange first contact situation. When they talk at the Academy about being prepared for the unexpected, well I guess they were right. We’ve all been briefed on the very little we know about these people. Capitalistic ideals taken to an extreme. Some kind of significant class structure. It event seems that most of the Zet on the Penetrator were both in awe of and terrified of the upper class. I’m concerned with how the Federation’s ideals might clash with the Zet, but that’s what first contact is. A meeting of worlds. Let’s hope this is one of the smoother meetings. End log. ((Saldanian Corporate Hegemony Headquarters, Zet Homeworld)) The building was exceptional. That was the only word Wes could think of to describe it. They had beamed onto the planet at the described coordinates and time. There they found themselves in a giant plaza amidst a sprawling city in front of one of the tallest buildings Wes had ever seen. It looked like the entire thing was made of some kind of marble that shone with some kind of internal iridescent light. The plaza itself was circular and ringed by dozens of shining statues made of what looked like gold. Each statue depicted a different Zet, and without context, Wes had no idea who or what they stood for. The plaza itself was mostly deserted, with only a handful of Zet standing on the perimeter a few dozen meters away. They all had their backs to the away team and carried some sort of long metallic looking device which Wes assumed was some kind of weapon. If he had to guess, these were the building’s security, and the most likely reason that the plaza and the immediate vicinity was deserted. Greaves: Not exactly the welcome wagon I was expecting. Where is everyone? Dar/Sirok/Jehe: Responses Wes nodded along with the officer and caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. The doors to the massive building slid open to reveal a pale Zet who strode out across the plaza toward the team. If Wes didn’t know any better he’d say that the Zet looked nervous. It’s eyes darted back and forth between the away team members. He could hardly blame it. They were all aliens to the Zet. Borac: Hello, I am Sher’ok Borac. Please come with me. Owner and Guildmaster Extraordinary, First Eternal, President for Life of the Saldanian Corporate Hegemony, Beloved & Benevolent, Everlasting Pitorian Tolo’Sal’Lat’Ut’Kel’Tras Anroc awaits you in one of the upper chambers. Dar/Sirok/Jehe: Responses Borac: I’m sorry… I’ve not been authorized to discuss anything. Per my assignment I am to take you directly to the upper chamber. The Marine frowned and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He didn’t like being herded somewhere without any information. Regardless they had little choice, and if the Zet had intended them any harm they could have done it as soon as they beamed in. This was likely some posturing charade rather than anything malicious. Greaves: Very well then Mister Borac. Please, lead the way (motioning with his hand). Without another word the Zet, head bowed low and eyes focused just in front of him, led the team into the building. The lobby was brightly lit in a faint green-ish white light with several Zet standing upright behind a massive semi-circular desk that Wes sized up to be a reception-like area. Not stopping, their guide led them past the reception area to a waiting lift at the back of the room. Several golden faces were mounted on the walls near the lifts and Wes could swear the eyes followed them as they entered. The lift itself was made entirely of some transparent glass or metal and allowed the occupants to look out the rear of the massive building. From this angle Wes could see that the building was shaped like a ‘U’, with the lift overlooking the inside curve and out the top of the ‘U’. Without delay, the doors closed and the lift rapidly ascended as soon as the team was fully inside. The higher they went, the better Wes could see, and it quickly became apparent that the building overlooked a massive lake or ocean. Bird like creatures circled at the water’s edge. Greaves: Quite the view we’ve got here. Dar/Sirok/Jehe: Responses Borac: Again, I’m sorry. I’m not authorized to speak any more than what I’ve already said. Almost as if on cue the lift slowed to a stop and the doors parted again. They were high up. Very high up. Several kilometers if Wes had to guess. Borac didn’t wait for them to admire the view however and quickly set off down a long hallway and Wes was forced to step quickly to keep up with the man’s long gait. They didn’t go far however before the team stopped short of wide double doors. Borac: Here we are. Please, take a seat inside. Owner and Guildmaster Extraordinary, First Eternal, President for Life of the Saldanian Corporate Hegemony, Beloved & Benevolent, Everlasting Pitorian Tolo’Sal’Lat’Ut’Kel’Tras Anroc will be with you shortly. Wes offered the man a smile and a nod, but before he could thank the Zet, the man had turned and started off down the hall. Greaves: Well, I guess we wait. Any idea how high up we are right now? Dar/Sirok/Jehe: Responses The room they had been led to was a large empty conference room dominated by a table made of that eerily glowing rock. The back wall however was floor to ceiling windows which overlooked the ocean. Greaves: (Low whistle) These people sure can appreciate a spectacular view. Look at that. Have you ever seen water that color before? Dar/Sirok/Jehe: Responses The doors at the back of the room parted as the Zet made his entrance and Wes turned to face the man whom he’d hoped would finally be the reason they had been sent to the planet. Anroc: Response TAG/TBC ========================= Captain (SFMC) Wes Greaves Marine Detachment Commander USS Thor - NCC 82607 E239702WG0 =========================

You beat me to it! I wanted to feature this sim because I think it's a great example of 'how to get started,' which I know can be daunting for all of us. Wes does a great job of performing the most critical part of being a team leader in a new scene - providing rich, useful context that his colleagues can build on to carry the narrative forward. Taking cues from the whole of the mission so far and contextual information in our Act 2 starter, Wes has articulated his take on this new setting very clearly. Within the space of a few lines in a log entry and some dialogue on the ground, he has fully invoked 'place,' he has established a framework for interaction and he has tee'd up his teammates and our antagonist NPC ideally for the Thor's next act. Great job @Wes Greaves!

For the 2397 Fleetwide awards ceremony, StarBase 118 unveiled a new award aimed at recognizing the highest level of staff in our organization. The Elinor of Kanist Order of Excellence is a staff award and is named for one of StarBase 118’s most significant founding members. This award recognizes those who have served the fleet as a staff member for at least five years, attained the rank of Rear Admiral or higher, previously been awarded the Picard Award and Staff Member of the Year Award, and continue to serve the fleet to the betterment of all members. This is the highest staff honor, celebrating longevity, dedication to the fleet, and the perseverance for wearing the Admiral’s belt. The first winner of this award is Vice Admiral Quinn Reynolds. But who was Elinor of Kanist? Her character was a Vulcan Admiral from the province of Kanist who had a medical background in cardiology. Her player was a founding member and a noted mentor for future commanding officers. She started The Reporter, a monthly group newsletter that was the precursor of the Community News articles you read today. One of the traditions contained in The Reporter was monthly plot summaries from each ship, something which has become a bedrock of StarBase 118 fleet communication. The Reporter also covered promotions and interviews which have become long standing traditions for the fleet. She commanded the USS Centris until her retirement, and her work helping to found the StarBase 118 training team is why the academy training vessel is named the USS Centris-A Today we are joined by our founder, Fleet Admiral Tristan Wolf, to learn more about Elinor of Kanist, her role in founding the game and his memories of working with her. Taybrim: Thank you for joining us, Fleet Admiral Wolf. What is your strongest memory of Elinor of Kanist? Wolf: Oh gosh – the bulk of us working together was over 20 years ago now, and I was a teenager, so lots of those memories are lost to the sands of time! She did return for a brief while in 2012 but didn’t get to stay for too long. I have lots of vague memories from the early days about projects she wanted to do, like starting The Reporter (the precursor to our current Community News) or how she started innovating the training program out of nothing. She was really my partner in creating the group that you know today, outlasting the other earliest members and being the person who took the premise of the community most seriously. Ironically, one of the strongest memories I have is a disagreement about the fact that she wanted to take a summer off and decided to bring in Brian Kelly as a sort of “pinch hitter” for her as captain of her ship. As a group, we were just beginning to formalize the process of promotion and making it clear that there were you had to work your way up through the ranks, so I remember being like, “He doesn’t know anything about us!” He ended up being one of two players who jumped into command ranks (the other being Alexander VonGrippen, of the Excalibur-G; Ciara Randor brought the StarWind – a ship she was running independently – into the group, but she had been a member up to that point already). And he wrote the UFOP Constitution! So it all worked out in the end, but this goes to show that we didn’t fall fully formed into the universe, and there were lots of disagreements about policy and process along the way! Can you tell us how she influenced you as you were building the game? I really consider her one of the primary founders of the group. I think she brought a sophistication, attention to detail, and that sense that there was an “adult in the room” a lot of the time. As you can imagine, being a teenager, I had a lot of silly ideas, and often she would be the one to temper those or help polish them. She also had an organizational mind that I deeply identify with now, as an adult, in thinking through some of those kinds of structural elements of what we were doing and saying, “How do we make this last into the future?” I think the way she took this seriously really cemented in my mind that we weren’t just doing this “for fun” but that we were building something that people enjoyed and wanted to keep coming back to. What was one of the most impactful things she founded for the game? Definitely the training program. I have no way of knowing whether it was the first in the simming world, but the concept of a persistent training program for new people was definitely something that was not widely used when she started it. When I joined “Star Trek SIMs,” which was the group I learned simming from on AOL, you were dropped onto a ship right away and it was the crew and captain’s responsibility to introduce you to how things work, in addition to a very long AOL email that you received with instructions. That’s challenging and tedious for everyone who’s already in the game, and I’d imagine it’s probably not particularly welcoming for people who are new to the simming world and feel uncomfortable diving into the deep end! So having a training program where new people had to go first before joining was a huge innovation that offloaded that work from the crew. It’s kind of interesting to think about how it’s the foundation of our fleet-first mentality in a number of ways. First and foremost, new members don’t “belong” to any ship – they’re introduced to the fleet by people from many different ships in the Academy. The way our training program works now, we train new people in the Academy, but we also utilize the Academy as a training program for Fleet Admiral Wolf, thank you so much for the insights into the past of StarBase 118 and one of our founding members! Please join us next month as we talk with the first Admiral recognized for The Elinor of Kanist Order of Excellence, Vice Admiral Quinn Reynolds. The post Featured Founder: Elinor of Kanist appeared first on StarBase 118 Star Trek RPG. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ufopsb118?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ufopsb118?i=7kyQCjsUZ_A:rrpRskWEL2Q:D7DqB2pKExk http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ufopsb118?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ufopsb118/~4/7kyQCjsUZ_AView the full article

Quoting Lt. Cmdr. Fiorr...I love the image of this.

Don't we all