The Syndicate

Hello Syndicate members!

Some of you have seen this Crazy Klingon hanging around the site by the name of SokothQultuq. He's an old friend of mine that I met many years ago playing in a Star Trek themed sim. We have been tossing around the idea of starting up a Star Trek themed sim here at The Syndicate, so I wanted to toss this out there to gauge interest in such an idea.

You may be wondering, what the heck is a sim?

Well, going back to its roots on AOL and even before, this was essentially a "Simulation" in which whatever topic you were interested in you simulated the character and situation in your head and acted that part. Its much like D&D in the fact that you create a character concept, grow it, and play it. Its sort of like acting. Just like in D&D you have a game master which we call a "SIM Master" the only difference is there are no dice involved. The SM comes up with a Storyline and has an idea on where it should start and end. You fill in the gap. It's much like fast paced cooperative story writing. it requires you to have only an imagination and the ability to type.

Some of the players who migrated from Lostpedia might recall The Whispers. This was essentially a sim as well, only the format was a bulletin board sim. For the purposes we are looking at here, we will be using the live chat format. The reason is that it requires less time investment (one hour or two once a week) and has a different feel. While in a bulletin board format one can get more detailed with the writing, in a chat format it fosters a community feeling, a team working together toward the end goal as they collectively tell the story. Perhaps someday we will supplement the chat format with a bulletin board sim as well for those that might prefer it, maybe even venturing out side the Star Trek themes, who knows. But for now we are looking at a chat format sim. We would have a weekly time we meet up to play, and it usually runs for an hour or two. We can decide as a group what the best time will be and what kind of ship/era in which we want the sim set. Also, don't stress about being strict on time investment, we get that everyone has busy lives and there will be weeks you can't make it. If we can establish a few core players then others can rotate in as they are available with no issues at all really. We will start out with some one off practice sims, unrelated to the storyline we will eventually get into, so everyone can get comfortable with the format and has time to work out what kind of character they want to play.

So what do you say? Have you ever thought what fun it would be to pilot a ship like the Enterprise? Or be the Chief Engineer of a ship like Voyager? Does creating a character to play who will have a position on a Star Trek starship interest you? Well come play with us! You're guaranteed to have some some fun times!

*raises hand*

What's the in flight movie?

I have not played fiasco but there are similarities and differences from what I understand. I'm going to have to try Fiasco soon.

And not everyone is into Star Trek. I'll only vote to lynch you Day 1 for a few games for this blasphemy.

Here is the tentative plan, if we can get an idea for those who might enjoy something like this, then what we would like to do is organize a one time sim session, so you can try it out and play. This will be a one off so to speak. If everyone enjoys it we will plan another, I would guess for maybe the first three or four, they will continue to be one off kind of practice sessions. You are welcome to come and play whenever your schedule allows, you don't have to be there from the start or there every week, think of it like the shows. Each session will be like one episode, whatever characters show up to play that night will be the ones who we use that week. So there is no requirement you show up every week, even after we get into a regular ship/era setting. While there will be overarching story lines by that time, it won't require you be there every week. So all we want here is to gauge interest. And we will plan a one off trial from there.

SokothQultuq wrote:When and if it becomes something more than just a few one off attempts, usually as the Captain i send out a "Captains Log" which is essentially a recap of the events that happened and I generally include the chat log from the room that night so that people can stay up to date with whats going on. Usually via E-Mail or I could do it on a bulliten board page. Either way we do keep everyone informed as to whats happening that is interested so they are not lost too if they come in mid storyline.

So we have been playing around with various options and we are thinking Chatango will be the best option for venue for the sim. They have seemed to improve it to make it very usable for mobile devices and has the customization we need to make a sim more streamlined and easier to play. Now we can start talking about when a good time for everyone who might be interested to give it a first shot. Dan already has some fun stuff in store for our first couple practice sessions. I'm kind of excited to see how it goes.

Nerolunar wrote:I voted yes because I love the general idea, but I know nothing about Star Trek. Can I still play?

Absolutely!

I think you forgot this smilie

I'm sure it could be arranged, somebody has to clean the latrines...

So, if we were to run our first practice session this week, what days/times work for you all for our first go round this coming week. Let us know all the days/times that would work for you during this coming week and we will set up the first session based on those answers.

I'm off Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday so I'm open availability on those nights this week. I open tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. So really the only evening I couldn't make work this week would be Wednesday.

Oh yeah, this reminds me, I don't want us to run over the time frame DH and Aces use for their game. Which is Sunday afternoons I believe. Correct?

insertnamehere wrote:This sounds vaguely familiar.

Oh? And hey! Welcome back!! You've been missed.

Well you are more than welcome sir, and I am very glad to see you again!

That might be good idea actually.

Nero are there any days this week that won't work for you?

We will plan it t time that works across time zones as much as possible.

Lol, I had forgotten about the time we were turned into children...

Reading this here is difficult because all the colors are lost. We are going to be using Chatango, which allows us to set our font, colors and the color your username appears in. It will help as you are following along because you can quickly sort out the things you need to respond to.

When I started out, I kind of found myself in the medical department and suddenly realized, well crap I know nothing about Trek medical technology or medicines! So I kept a few tabs open that were references for me, so as needed I could use them. It helped me out on various occasions. I always had a chuckle when someone would compliment me on the use of some technology or medicine, because I really was clueless.

Anyone have a position that they might be interested in?

We are going to run the first practice session this Saturday at 10 PM EST. I'll send out a PM to everyone interested a bit later tonight. Just pop into this thread at that time, I'll be sure to put a link to the chat room here. If you can show up ten minutes or so before we can make sure everyone is good to go in the Chatango. Looking forward to this!

Alright! We have a Chatango set up for the practice sessions. Down the road we may establish one under the name we choose for the ship, but we aren't there yet so for now we will use this one. Don't mind me trying out the features to see if it will work.

The Syndicate Sim

I do recommend you register an account so that you can change font colors and set your username instead of being anon, but there is no download needed or anything.

Good news! I got my shift switched, so I will be there on time this week after all!

:: happy dance ::

The Syndicate Sim

Just to bump this, I'll shoot a message out to the players tonight as a reminder, but if anyone would like to join us tomorrow night in that chatroom starting at 10 PM eastern, you are absolutely more than welcome!

It's almost time!

INH and Aces tried to get us all killed, but we survived!

It's almost time!

I voted for ships that seemed balanced so it could offer us opportunity for a variety of mission types. I'm most interested in exploration, but I don't doubt that we will run into combat situations and am open to diplomatic as well, so I voted for something I thought could handle whatever we throw at it.

It's all good Jay, we will keep you up to date and you can hop back in next week or whenever you are able.

Oh and it's almost time!!!!

We're getting a late start due to Alex and I being late because of my job, anyone else want to come jump in a little late? we can use some more players.

SokothQultuq wrote:I like Urania as well, and I also like the idea of getting some 3rd Party involvement. LOL

I'm open to suggestions on how to do that. Perhaps Daisy or MovingPics can help with that.

But we need to get a name and settle on a class since we still have a tie technically. Now Saint (Cj) has joined us he tossed a verbal vote for Galaxy Class. So unless someone ties the vote or goes another direction we are probably going through with that.

Once we get the name more things will happen so the sooner the better.

I should have a log out here tonight or tomorrow at the very latest.

I'll call in the Calvary....

Since the class is decided (Galaxy class) I am changing the poll to reflect suggested names. I'll ask the Ambassadors and Moderators to come cast their vote to help us decide once I do.

Dang it, I misspelled Indomitable. Missed an n. Blah.

It's almost time!!!

================= =/\= ============================ =/\= =================
Location: Lyshan III
COM UNIT 3252B21-116 - Emergency Log Recorder

"It's been an eventful few hours here. Johnny's Kitties, as we've been taken to calling them, held some of our people captive. It would seem the Lake Stevens somehow personally offended their gods during their last mission and they were seeking to punish someone for it. Unfortunately, the result is that Commander Savage is now laying over in the triage area in a medically induced coma. I have no idea what they did to him because I can't properly diagnose it without something better than a basic medical tricorder!"

Elianna can be heard sighing in frustration, "I don't have the equipment available to treat him here. These damn cats tell us to leave, but we can't get our emergency transmission out so Starfleet can rescue us! I don't know how long they will let us wait before they decide we are trespassing. We need to get the signal through soon, or Oliver is going to die and we may not be far behind."

A woman's voice can be heard calling from afar, "Dr. Kestran, We need your help over here!"

"End recording."

================= =/\= ============================ =/\= =================

You will notice a name change to this thread and it's move to the new Sim location within the site. To clarify, this thread will be where we brainstorm ideas, talk out of character about what occurred in the last session, put up announcements and reminders regarding the sim starting and so forth. This is basically where we do any out of character conversing.

Down the road we may expand to a second ship in bulletin board sim format instead of set time and day chat format. Keep an eye open for that and perhaps then some of the people whose schedules don't allow for a live format chat sim may be able to participate in that format instead.

We will be wrapping up the final session in the storyline we began during our training sessions. Our final night on Lyshan III. Come join us to play tonight, no experience neccessary, anyone is welcome! Even if you just want to come observe. We love company!

Here's the link for anyone that wants to play tonight! It's almost time!!!!

No stress, enjoy your family time!

Hey! It's almost time!

The Syndicate Sim

Come play, or hang out and watch ... if you're into that kinda thing...

Sounds interesting

Thanks for playing last night guys! Glad we could run a little something. And I am very much looking forward to the launch next week! I'll post a proper log at some point here this week.

It's that time...

Come play with us!

Less than 30 minutes!!

USS Tempest

IT'S TIME!!!!

USS Tempest

I applied but I got sidetracked while I was starting to create my character. I'll do it tomorrow. I won't be there tonight, as Dan knows, stupid work schedule. But on the upside, I was given tomorrow off after all so I can make Superheroes!

Hey INH, the Firefly thing is at the point where we need to bring the new characters in, you ready sir?

Good times!