The Syndicate

Just a reminder, Sim tonight at 7PM Pacific, 10PM Eastern. I should be on time now that I've got my days right. LOL

15 More Minutes to Sim time!

Pre Sim Information:
As Johnny Cleveland and Sully awaken they find themselves in a damp cave like structure, the smell of saltwater fills the air. They both find themselves bound to flat rock slabs, tight binding material much the consistency of sea weed wrapped around them and the rock. Their bodies feel as if they cannot move anyhow, it’s as if they were given a paralytic. A creature, large an imposing is nearby moving their hands around in a tank full of aqua blue fluid, it almost glows.
The creature which you wager is about nine and half foot-tall hovers over Johnny, its features remind you of a cross between a cow and a fish. It has scales like a fish, gills, but it has the features of a cow. It runs a device across Johnny’s body then moves back over to the tank pulling what looks very much like a star fish from the tank then moves back over pulling Johnny’s mouth open and dropping the thing on it. As much as he wants to move, yell, scream at the thing he can’t as his body is immobile.
There is a brief moment of panic as he feels something force its way down his throat, a sharp pain but only briefly. The cow like creature lifts Johnny gently from the stone and he’s suddenly dropped into a deep tank of water where he is met by another of those cat like creatures he met before and took several shots at. This one grabs him and drags him along towards the bottom of the tank until he’s pushed against an upright slab in front of three aging cats, all with grey scales, long whiskers. Shortly after Sully joins him in front of them.
Johnny & Sully both notice that they are breathing fine under water. There are several sounds that can be heard in the water, slowly those sounds become words and are intelligible. It’s almost like a universal translator has suddenly been turned on.
“What species are you?”

Hopefully it will be a bit easier to follow along now that were a bit more organized. 8-)

Your welcome to drop in anytime.

The one thing we lack is a place to put the actual Chat log from what happened. I will be looking for a solution to this so that if people want they can actually read what happened outside of the narration.

Hey All,

I wanted to apologize for not being able to make this last weeks get together, my family made an unanticipated change of my Nephews birthday party which I agreed to help with. So I was unable to get online and in the process I didnt get a chance to post anything letting you know. Normally I would but I was so busy I completely spaced it. So I do apologize. We will resume our regularly scheduled programming next weekend Saturday the 23rd. Hope you see you there.

So for your Regulars who are coming more frequently if you have a position preference on where you'd like to be specifically or what role you'd like to be in primarily and whenever possible please send me a PM with those requests.

For those of you who will be coming and going I would like the same, preferably a top 3 position requests this way I know what you'd like to be posted too whenever possible. You can see who's been essentially permanently positioned under the bio's page where a Roster has been started. But this will help as we start to get more people coming and going from the SIM.

So I know were still pretty early into this but I would like to get some input from you. I have a direction planned for us to fit with the Exploration setting you've asked for.

What would you like to see in the SIm? Are there specific things you'd like to see? Events you'd like to take part in? Old Episodes that there was never really an answer to that you'd like to see a creative response too?

If you have specific Character events you want to see realized if you want to let me know what those are. These I would prefer you PM me with so they can remain a surprise.

If you have a storyline idea in mind you'd like to see realized into something you can also send me details and I can figure out how to make it happen and fit it in there. No idea is stupid or wrong. I may need to tweek it to keep it at a specific level so that it works, but the general idea will be there.

Until I can find a semi-Dedicated Sim Master I've got to come up with and chain some story line together. It may become more clear as we get into our actual mission so you know where were going and what our mission is going to be. But please do present ideas.

You don't have to be an active member on the ship to present an idea. If you have an idea that you feel would challenge the crew, your welcome to also submit ideas.

This sim and its story is just as much yours as it is mine. I want to give you all every opportunity to help mold its future. 8-)

Great sim tonight, lots of good stuff! Thanks for coming all!

Sooo... I was thinking of doing something a bit different with the Captains log... Would like your input. How would you feel if they were an actual voice recording? Basically I would use an audio recording software to record the log add any sound effects, put it up as a "Video" on YouTube and link it here. This sound like something that would add something different and or interesting to this? I may do a few test runs to see how it goes and if its even possible. But I'm curious what you might think.

So I am going to do the audio logs just as a fun project. But I wont be doing them until I move. Where i stay right now the ambient noise is unavoidable and not conducive to recording voice stuff. But here in the next month or so. I might ask for volunteers for additional voices if your interested and have the means. It would just involve you recording potential scripted things. You can get Audacity for free. Let me know if your willing. So sometime in late Sept, Early Oct. I am going to start doing those old logs into voice recordings.

I'm using Audacity, I'm using a gaming headset to record. If you know how to do that with Audacity let me know and I"ll give it a try. I'm moved now as of this weekend. I should theoretically be on tonight for the sim if not I will communicate with SpaceDaisy and she can run something fun with you guys tonight. Sorry this last two weeks is a bit hectic with the sudden move. But it will be great! I'm planning on holding a sim tonight if at all possible.

Thank you guys for your patience I should be back in my normal schedule this week now that were done physically moving stuff in. So I really appreciate your understanding while this move was kind of unexpected it was going to happen soon enough. So I will be reading the log here in the next couple of days. I heard you broke the ship. I'm sure our new chief engineer is totally excited considering. LOL See you guys on Saturday!

Alright ladies and gents. Sim Reminder for tonight! 7PM Pacific, 10PM Eastern.

I've updated the logs for the last 3 sims today. Updated the time line with our last few sims so that its up to date as well.

Somewhat Important -

As we jump around time wise as we will to move the story along at times life happens, things break, and people get hurt. Under the Specifications page I've created a place where updates to the ships condition and other little tid bits of info will be kept so that you have some idea on what's going on with the ship. The ship itself is just as much a character in the story as you are. To keep up with the theme of a rush job to get us out and into space I believe that the current status of the ship is about right. Busy work to be done. I will be updating this each week as things develop so a brief glance or keeping this up on a screen and available might be advisable so you know whats broken and other useful information. Any question, just ask here or before sim during Q&A.

Here is a direct link to the Damage Control Post

All caught up on logs, updated the Damage Control Board, Posted an FFN News thingie. This coming Monday I intend on resuming work on my Audio Logs to add to things.

Alright, I'm still learning and getting the hang of this but here is Log # 2. Let me know what you think.

Another one done.

I added a little ambiance music at the beginning and end.

Hey Guys and gals, I do apologize but I will not be attending tonight's sim, something has come up. Please do have some fun though without me. Your welcome to run an off duty RP if you want. Gather up in the Holodeck for an adventure. Something to that nature.

Sorry that I wont be here tonight. I will see you all next weekend.

I've got another audio log completed. Skipping around a bit until I figure out what I'm going to do about other voices. Anyone want to volunteer? I believe my roommates might help me with some. But I might need some lines done to add into the logs, until then these are going to be spotty. I did manage to get lines done for one of the other logs so I have 1.5 done. LOL. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy.

Got another one done today, so thats 2.5. WOOT

Hello All,

In the spirit of being open and honest as I try to be with people whom I work with and enjoy company I want to apologize for last weekend. I am a divorcee, and last weekend was my daughters birthday whom I rarely get to see but maybe once a year because of the distance that separates us. Not to mention that she's still very angry over my divorce. Between her and her mother being in the path of that Hurricane on the East coast and the birthday, I needed to just be with myself. I'm certain you understand. It's very hard for me, but I wanted to apologize to you all for not attending last weekend. While were still struggling to go forward with such a small group right now, each day is important so I do my very best to be present each week. There may be times in the future where I may want a Saturday to myself just as you do but my goal is to be present as often as I can. I know I don't have to share this with you but as we are a team in this, I feel I should be open with you. I do thank you for your understanding and appreciate you all.

I will see you later tonight power permitting. Were in the middle of some potentially bad weather here in the Pacific North West at the moment so there is a chance I could be without power tonight. I will endeavor to at least get on and message SpaceDaisy over Facebook so that she might pass the word should I not be able to attend.

Dan

Another Audio Log Completed:

Recruitment:

I've been plugging our activity when I can to my friends on Facebook trying to gain interest from more people. Networking is pretty key with things like this and being that were independent right now from any active RP/Sim Group it's not easy. I would like to ask and encourage you to help in this matter however you can. We need a good solid crew but even having a few people that are in and out as time permits helps. If you know anyone that might be interested in this activity please don't hesitate to invite them. The success of this activity is up to us all. The more players, the more dynamic the stories will get. The more fluid and direct our sim's will get as we will have more people to interact with. I'm not asking you to go crazy with this, just once a month plug the sim to your social media. See if you get any bites. Any little bit helps.

Thank you guys and gals.

Hello All.

As promised, I would keep you up to date with our joining the Tempest to Star Trek: Engage. Here is an update and request from Aoibhe our contact within ST:E, when you have some time please follow the instructions listed below.

Aoibhe Ní Shúilleabháin
5:29 AM (13 hours ago)

to cthulhuite, me, Annie
Hey Daniel and Annie!

It's great to hear from you guys.
I'm thrilled you've decided to join us, as is James, our Game Manager.

You're joining us at a great time, actually, as we've been getting a healthy influx of new players who we are having difficulty finding good positions for. I'm hoping that will lead to you guys, once we have the Tempest added to our roster, getting a nice, fresh supply of players. Maybe even a transfer or two from our current players.

OK, so down to business...
From your own forum I see you've recently had a mission with four players. That's a pretty decent place to start joining us.
I'd like all of your crew to enlist and register with STE here: http://www.startrekengage.com/registration
and then send in their character applications: http://www.startrekengage.com/odn/character_creator

Please have them mention that they're a USS Tempest crewmember at the beginning of the "Description" section, so we know who they are. If they could also add a link to their original profile so we can verify rank, that'd be great.

Once that's done, (so we know your players are comfortable with our chat protocols, etc) you guys are officially part of STE!

It's important to stress at this point that the Tempest crew use the protocols we use, etc, because any cadets or crew transferring or applying to join you will have gone through the same handbook I sent you and will have been tested on their comfort with those specific protocols when they apply. To avoid confusion between your current crew and any new players, we'd like to ensure consistency.

Ideally, I'd like to give a few weeks of promo on our Facebook page and across social media before we have the Tempest's official launch, (I've always found social media count downs are an effective way to stir up excitement...) but once your crew are all registered with STE, you are absolutely more than free to use our servers to sim in the meantime, and we'll do what we can to encourage players to join the ship prior to the official launch.

Either way, once your crew have had their characters accepted, James will add the Tempest to our roster (are you still running at 7PM Pacific, 10PM Eastern on Saturdays?) and I'll start work on a ship patch with you guys separately.

I think that's enough to throw at you for now, guys.
But on behalf of James and myself, welcome to Star Trek Engage. It's a pleasure to add you to the family.
Aoibhe.

I will see about getting the handbook again since my G-mail has eaten it and get that to you so we can look at the way they conduct their simulations as they may be a bit different than what we currently do.

Daniel

When you sign up on the ST:E site, do your biography as she mentioned in the email above, make sure you put that your part of the Tempest, and what your position is. I'm not sure if that will help. once you submit your character profile it should give you access to the Handbook which will allow you to read how they do things. Its just slightly different than what we do here already.

Mine's already done.

When you can please head over to the Star Trek: Engage website and apply and put in your biography so we can get the ball rolling over there. They are already working on adding us to their system but they need us registered so they can start assigning us to our ship, get the ship up. It may still be a few weeks before we can sim over there and were going to have to make some changes so the sooner we can start working on this the faster we can get set up over there. So I encourage you to take a little time and go over to the site and go through the signup process. If you need help I should be around before the sim Saturday and would be more than willing to help or answer questions as best I can.

Here is a link to the registration page: http://www.startrekengage.com/registration
Once your approved and you log in, it will prompt you to create a character. There is a reason for this. 8-)

Dan

Alright folks, here is our first present from Star Trek: Engage. We've got a ship patch:
hopefully you can see that, if not let me know and i'll put it in my photobucket later and post a new image. This is one of the things they do for each of their ships. I hope you like it, both Annie and I do. Really excited!

Another Log Converted:

Got another Log Converted to audio:

And Another log Converted:

Merry Christmas all.

First I want to take a moment to apologize to you for not being able to communicate about the sim, I was locked out of my account on the Mafia boards so I apologize. Annie saved me though because she's awesome. Next week's sim will be canceled due to the holiday as well. But we will resume again on January 7, 2017. Not only will we be picking back up, but we should be officially launched with ST:E. We should have our own IRC room and a forum for us to post in and read for mission updates and such.

Our sponsor into ST:E Aoibhe has started advertising our activity on Facebook actively with her resources and its been kinda fun seeing her posting. If you want to your welcome to Search me out on Facebook under the name "Daniel Ratterree" and I'll friend ya and you can see as well.

So one thing that ST:E encourages is Logs. Some people don't enjoy making logs reflecting back on things but I do. I think it's good for the story, and in ST:E it helps with advancement so I would encourage you to at least occasionally make a log. Here is a place for us to Temporarily post logs if we'd like until we have an official forum in our ships name: http://forums.startrekengage.com/viewfo ... 294d031fb6 this is where the encourage unassigned characters or new people who have not been posted or future characters that are in limbo to go to post in.

Have fun with your Logs, make them your own thing. Remember to keep OOC comments separate from IC because these logs are for IC primarily.

So I will be in the syndicate chat just in case anyone has problems getting into the IRC and in case for some reason it's not available at that point.

I look forward to seeing you in the new year to come.

Daniel

Glorfindel that log you made was great! I think logs are up tot he individual and how they should be done. I do mine the way I do because it makes sense because i believe in it the way you do. I also try and make my Captains log a more professional telling and a personal log for all those unprofessional thing's I'll likely say. You'll likely see more of those from me in the future. Especially now. But your log was great. Thank you for doing that!

Yup, were going to be picking back up as our first official week with ST:E this coming Saturday, January 7th, 2017. Same time, but new channel. The theory is we should be over on the new site, using the IRC chat. You should be able ot access it by logging into your account on ST:E and using the portal to get to the chat. I'll be doing a quick update/log here either tonight or tomororw just to sum up what happened last which I will post both here and over on the ST:E site. Hope to see you all Saturday!

We are a go tonight, and the IRC should be up and running about 10-15 minutes prior to game time.

Just in case you can also log into the Chatngo one as well until the new one is up.

Glorf you'll have to join any channel in the list on the ST:E site then once the chat loads just type /join #ST_MissionRoom1 and then once that loads type in /join #SomaLounge and that willg et you in.

So a proposal was sent to me by the Leadership at ST:E, they have another sim called Sigma Rho which is there center piece Space Station. It's apparently been struggling badly and the Game Director has not had the time to dedicate to the activity that he would like. They are offering to merge our two activities and give us control over Sigma Rho in addition to the Tempest.

Essentially we would be running missions on both Tempest and storylines on the Space Station Sigma Rho. Much like the Dynamic between Deep Space Nine and the Defiant.

We would gain 2 more players in the process that would come over from the Rho, everyone retains their positions so you don't have to worry about that. We would just be put at a central point within ST:E as sort of a Jump off point for other ships, potential for joint missions with other activities and such.

I'd like to know how you feel about this idea. I wont say yes unless all agree that it is ok. This just means you'll be a department head of both the station and ship for your specific department as you are now. Just more NPCs to rule over. LOL

Thinks about this, and let me know your feelings. Don't hesitate to ask question's and I will find out from our friends over at ST:E and get back to you.

That is correct, we will only be doing 1 session, same Day/Time we've been doing it.

Great job tonight guys, sorry I had to up and disappear there at the end I got pulled away from my computer. Thank you again for coming tonight.

I will try and get the chat log saved to my Facebook Group and then I will post it here for DH and Annie to look at when they have time. Sorry you guys couldn't have been there. Great stuff happened between Johnny and Corky. Some great Material and interaction between Trost and Emily. Our mission is taking shape.

Those logs you've written are fantastic, all of you. Like I said in OOC, I'm going to have to step up my game to keep up with ya'll! This is going to be fun!

I'm really enjoying CJ as our Game Director he's been doing a great job engaging everyone, at least that is my impression.

Thank you Glorf for your patience and understanding with the Technical issues. I'm so very glad you were able to join us tonight. You might not have been able to get into OOC chat but we got the job done and your performance tonight was very good!

I've gotten a request from CJ, he's trying to get some things organized while we wait for him to get access to the things he needs on the website. He's asked if we would provide him with our individual E-Mail addresses. If your comfortable with providing this I would appreciate it. You can PM me with your's to keep it private. Or if you don't want to give it just PM me and let me know and we'll work things out a different way if needed.

Thanks guys for working with this. I realize it's not perfect but I think were building something great here!

Starting to catch up on my Audio Logs again. These are some that I just finished today.

This one is from Mission 16, Shakedown Part 4 -


And here is Mission 16 - Shakdown part 5 -


Both Video's are also linked in their respective logs now too.

I've updated the crew roster listed under the Personnel Files forum to reflect everyone's positions and added NPCs to the list that are reoccuring. I'm actually going to try and keep track of some of the ones we use often enough. If you want someone added to the list now or for future use your welcome to post here or PM me names and information. Especially if they are family. I even added CJ as our SM. In light of recent events with ST:E I thought it was a good idea to get caught up with some maintenance over here. Since I am certain our days with ST:E are slim, and something new is coming down the pipe.

So until further notice we will be meeting back over on the Chatingo Application for our future activities until we find out what our new thing is going to be.

Thank you guys for being patient and flexible. This was an obvious unforseen setback. I'm kinda hoping we can use that new IRC program Annie found. We just might need a room of our own. I donno how we could make one even if temporary maybe DH can enlighten or hook us up.

@INH - ST:E had a management issue which is why we had some many problems integrating into them. CJ and Aohbie have been pushed out by James the site overlord. So were going to withdraw from ST:E and follow CJ and Aohbie and help them start something better without a douchebag admin.

A question was posed to me and I'm going to likewise answer it here. It was: Should we continue to do logs?

I have never made it a manditory function of playing in my games in the past. ST:E did require it, which was something we were willing to do. Though you still didn't have to it would just reflect in your advancement scores. So I encouraged it and so did they. But I believe that they do add an extra level of depth, not only to the story but to your characters. And it honestly does not take too terribly long to write something that recaps events and your feelings. I encourage you to decide if you want to keep doing them, I think what you guys have done has been great and I encourage you to continue writing them as I feel it would bring something special to the story. The choice is ultimately yours. Even if you decide to just write them periodically.

As far as ST:E is concerned, I told CJ we were going to pull back from ST:E and he advised just exiting altogether. So I think that is what were going to do. We all experienced the issues that ST:E had and become of one person. I truly believe that Aohbie and CJ did everything they could to get us integrated and as quickly as possible. The road block was clearly the Administrator. He still hasn't added our ship to the IRC as a join-able room. Were still not listed in the Forums. It took them bugging him to get admin rights to just get us assigned to our ship, and our ranks put in. Otherwise this would have been done long ago. So I think we know where the oddball in this was. It will mean starting from scratch and building a new club, website, etc, but I believe that the two of them are determined. I'm going to help however I can. Once the ball gets rolling on their end if you'd like to see this grow and faster if you have skills they can use when the time is right your welcome to offer. It can be exciting.

From what I can tell CJ seems dedicated to continuing with us so one way or another the show is going to continue. But we will have a chance to be part of a new beginning as far as this club is concerned. It's a great opportunity.

If you have questions or concerns please, please do not hesitate to voice them either here or in a PM to me and or Annie even. We'll get you answers. I suspect that CJ will join the Syndicate site if he hasn't already and will likely chime in. Right now I know CJ and Aobhie are taking a couple of days to decompress. Then the work begins.

To cover the question of Crew Logs. If you wish to keep writing them, please just post them in the "Crew Logs" Board along with mine. It will make them easier to read because they will fall within the same time frame as the Captains logs too.

This board --> http://www.mafiathesyndicate.com/viewto ... 178&t=1099

Thanks again guys for working with us on this.

If you can get something set up even temporary and post how to log in here, we can have it ready for people to do come Saturday.

Posted my Captains Log, and updated the log link list 8-)

I also updated some of our Timeline to include some of the events that have happened. Will continue to do so as I'm way behind. But I"ll get caught up.

So I must ask you all to do me a favor, when you have a chance I could and would appreciate you posting your Character Biographies in the board associated with them. This is important as it can help the Sim Master/Game director in using such information to use things within them in the stories we play in. Plus it also gives the rest of us a good look at who your character is.

As I've said before, it does not have to be as detailed as I got in mine. But some details about your character would be appreciated. You can post something and continue to add to it as you go too. So I encourage you to please post a Biography when you can.

Thank you!

Ok, so I went over and pulled all of your logs from ST:E and added them into mine where they seemed to fit. If you need me to move something around or format it a certain way let me know. This way it saves your logs and puts them in line with the rest of them.


I updated the Crew Roster, and Specifications to reflect our Jump into the future.

LOLOL Wow...

That is the plan!

Star Trek: Above & Beyond. Now all we need is the T-1000, and some Space Fighter Craft, and a Carrier named the USS Saratoga.
Actually.... ST:AB needs to commission the USS Saratoga now... That needs to be a thing. Or perhaps our Space Station can be named Saratoga! LOL

Space: Above & Beyond. I miss that show. I should sit down and watch the DVD's I have laying around somewhere.

Thanks DH. I figured out the logging system from my end so I was able to capture the logs.