Newsletter/July 2006

Newsletter for July/August 2006, Star Trek: Freedom

To see the old newsletter, visit Newsletter/January 2006

News from the Front

• USS Nimitz: The Nimitz is currently helping Starbase Geneva deal with a major threat. Both the Base and the Nimitz is now under a lockdown and the station as had to enforce martial law -- Posted by Jono Bradley

• USS Boudicca: The Boudicca is chasing one of Doenitz's battleships in a search and destroy mission. They have just discovered there is a saboteur aboard. Will they find him/her in time or will the ship be disabled?

• USS Spectre: The Spectre is on the trail of Rondar Nell, the Federation President at the time Doenitz's took over the Federation.

• USS Dennison: The Dennison's Crew is investigating a series of attacks on board by an unknown assailiant. Will the crew pull together or fall apart?

• USS Hades: About to be commisioned. Some of the crew have gotten in a bar brawl with some Klingons in the Shining Star Lounge! Whoo hoo! -- Posted by Jono Bradley and herbalsheila

• USS Champlain: Has just launched from Starbase Geneva towards the Eta Scorpii System in the Beta Sector to examine the destroyed colony on Ivor Prime. -- JPB

• USS Paladin: Beginning to deal with a planetry epidemic. All the departments are pulling together to join the effort. -- Posted by Jono Bradley

Growing Game, Growing Story

by herbalsheila
Contributed by Kevin Schram

July 21, 2006 Star Trek: Freedom has now passed 80 members. J.R., who plays human character Ensign Derrick La Qua aboard the new about-to-be-commissioned ship USS Champlain is the 80th member of the world wide ongoing play-by-email website.

Anthony, the site's longest continuous running player, the Fleet First Officer, and the super administrator for the Star Trek: Freedom site, is very happy to see the site grow. "Star Trek: Freedom is proud to announce the launch of our 7th ship, the USS Champlain, under the command of User:JPB, aka Captain Edward Wolfe."

"I'm very proud of the USS Champlain as its both fully intergrated and a slight departure from things. We're going to be involved in the civil war, but I expect to be spending more time on exploring the Beta Quadrant at this point," saids User:JPB, aka Edward Wolfe CO of the new vessel.

Nymes, the 60th member to graduate from the Academy, was excited to participate with his new character Lewis Nymes, a joined Trill, and was looking forward to participating in the storyline aboard the good ship USS Dennison. herbalsheila, the 75th graduate of the website Star Trek Academy playing Ensign Maraht the Horta, was the first to play a totally non-humanoid character and was assigned to the USS Mystique. Another player, dragonman-clone, is working to develop the first lizard-like Gorn to graduate from the site's Academy as a character. More veteren players will remember experienced player Wes Harden, and his lovable bear-like character, Zzt.

Though many of the players are from all over the USA, often the players hail from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, France, India and Canada. "It is truly an international effort put together by a wide variety of creative and amazingly imaginative people, who all secretly yearn for many of the better ideals of the Star Trek universe to come into being here in our world today," said herbalsheila.

Top 10 Questions

Top Questions for a member to answer Top Ten Ten things you never knew about...

What would you name your own ship?

• Ummm, maybe the USS Rhineland to honor my German heritage or maybe the USS Liberty to honor America (You know, because America is the only country ever with liberty has a founding princable ;) ). I stink at coming up with ship names -- Kevin Schram

• Hmmm, could go with quite a few...I always liked using animal names, so something like the USS Wolf, or USS Kodiak. Pdennett 09:00, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• The USS Inquisition, and its plaque would read "Nobody suspects the USS Inquisition! -- Dragonman-clone

• I thought about USS Wolf, but having Wolfe command the Wolf didn't really work well. There was also a British general named Wolfe who had an important role in Canadian history, that would have just been silly though. Wolfe of the USS Wolfe. Champlain actually came from a list of about 20 names I generated and went over with Jer. The process is pretty intense and you won't get a name just because you like it. It has to fit with the tone of the game, which makes sense. -- JPB 11:07, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• I don't suppose I'll ever get the USS Lollipop then.... -- Kevin Schram

• I'd go for the USS Fortuity. It has a nice ring to it. -- GC

• The USS Inquistion as well, but that may be because me and Dragonman-clone are actually buds and half a secret club named the Inquisition, that and the USS Inquisition is what I named my car. Other than that, the USS Martin-Granizo, named after my grandfather who was an admiral in the Spanish Navy and was the Chairman of the Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff in the early 90's. -- Will Banowsky

• USS Bison after the glorious 54 Infantry Division (Bison Div) of the Indian Army . IT has been in major wars including WW2. With countless battle honours. A british officer made its present motto "Bash On Regard Less" Hoorahh! -- Ash Divay

• The USS Phoenix. After all, that is a very important ship in Earth history. If I couldn't pick that, then I'd say the USS Connacht, because that's where my family is from. -- VulcanTrekkie45

• The USS Francisco. It's just a darned pretty name; some of the finest people have it, so why not my ship?. GrannyGM

How do you come up with the names for your characters?

• I just try to find something really different that prolly nobody else would ever even consider! -herbalsheila

• Guess work really, just something that sounds & feels right for the character Alan

• Each one has a different story. -- Kevin Schram

• I name them after my different personalities.... Muahahaha -- Dragonman-clone

• My major characters (the possible SPC ones) are from a short story I wrote over five years ago that went no-where. The major protagonists were Lewis Nymes, Elenor Night and James Hudson. All of these are now part of ST:F. A fourth character has been adapted to fit, originally "Alex Martyn" - now a Bajoran "Matyn". My NPC's follow on from this, and a bit of guesswork to get them sounding right! -- GC

• I just say, hey, what name is cool in my mind and bamm there they come from. -- Will Banowsky

• To be honest. Im not very good at making up names. Its my one weakness... Nooo.. LOL! I usually use names of things around me OR mix the names of my friends :) LOL... -- Jono Bradley

• Usually the name comes to me first, and then the character to fit it. Sometimes it's the other way around, but mostly the name first. --Liz Geuken

• Depends on the species mostly. Different species, different methods. -- VulcanTrekkie45

• Books and websites on baby names; phone books; research on naming practices in cultures similar to the one my character is from; purpose-made role-playing resources; and the occasional direct lift from a favorite novel. --GrannyGM

Have you ever played any other PBeM games?

• No -- Alan

• I played on a X-Men one for about 2 months and another Star Trek one for about a week. I was under 14 at the time of both and got kicked out of both -- Kevin Schram

• Uuummmmmmm, no. -- Dragonman-clone

• To be honest, none of the other PBeM games sounded as interesting as ST:F did! --herbalsheila

• Yes, but there really is no game out there quite like this one! --Liz Geuken

• Well, I am on this Harry Potter RPG, but it's not Pbem. Yes, I'm aware I'm a geek! -- VulcanTrekkie45

Who was your Academy instructor?

• Anthony Keen -- Alan;Will Banowsky;Liz Geuken

• Katherine -- Kevin Schram

• Charles Gatling -- Pdennett 09:00, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• Jono Bradley -- Dragonman-clone

• Al Muir -- GC; herbalsheila

• Jeff -- Jono Bradley

• Hali Morris -- Ash Divay

• Chris Hendricks -- VulcanTrekkie45

What do you like most about the Wiki?

• It`s interactive nature -- Alan

• I must agree with my boss Alan, its very interactive. -- Kevin Schram

• The excuse to excercise creativity. -- Dragonman-clone

• I can get as creative as I want, yet contribute overall to the ST:F community at large. --herbalsheila

• Being able to put in nuances about my characters that I am not able to do on the regular character page. -- VulcanTrekkie45

• It occupies my time when I am bored. -- Will Banowsky

How do you think the Civil War overplot will end?

• Umm, one side will probably be victorious :-P -- Alan

• I don't know, but I hope the Spectre is invovled in the final battle. -- Kevin Schram

• Hopefully with many big bangs and a small pop. -- Dragonman-clone

• Maybe, but it may end if the Borg ever show up en masse to assimilate us all. Then everyone including Doenitz would have to fight them. Maybe that could be a unifying factor to help change things for the better within the Doenitz administration, like he might be killed for instance.--herbalsheila

• I think that eventually the 52nd Fleet and their allies will liberate Earth and refound the Federation on the values that were originally agreed upon by the signatory governments. -- VulcanTrekkie45

• I don't know, but hopefully I'm still playing when it happens. -- Will Banowsky

With the additions of the USS Dennison and Champlain, is the game growing a good thing?

• Yeah Its all great... Especially since i'm the SC/TAC on the USS Champlain -- Jono Bradley

• Of course -- Alan

• I'm worried that we'll lose the community feel, but I'm sure that more people is good. -- Kevin Schram

• I think it's a good thing, and while I agree with Kevin on some level, I think the fact that many players play on a couple of ships will help retain the community feeling that we have going. I think as soon as we start to see the NRPG list chatter that is common on a couple of ships (can't really vouch for them all) we should start to worry that people aren't interacting on any level other than posts. -- Pdennett 09:03, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• Speaking for the newest ship in the fleet, I'd say community isn't any problem there. Wow... lots of NRPG posts flying back and forth, joking, teasing, having fun. That's what its all about. The strength is, really, that it doesn't matter how many ships we have because each one is a small community anyway. -- JPB 09:32, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• This is a great question and a concern to the Council when the game first started, we came from a game that had in excess of 200 members, we said that we'd never let the game go above 100 members, hmm... that's going to be interesting now we've passed 80! Anthony

• Quality over Quantity --herbalsheila

• Well, that's just a sign of how awesome this game is. We're attracting more and more members to it. -- VulcanTrekkie45

Do you agree or disagree with the game's age limit?

• Generally I agree, but sometimes there can be exceptions -- Alan

• Yes, people over 80 shouldn't be allowed to join. Joking, of course -- Kevin Schram

• I agree with the age limit, with very very rare exceptions. -- Pdennett 09:06, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• Oh MAN do I agree! I can't even tell you how much I agree! You would not even believe some of the scary stuff I get in the Academy! You should be bowing down and thanking all the gods above for the age limit! Really! -- JPB 09:29, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• After having a retail store for the last 6 years or so, I get what you are saying JPB! I quite agree with you on that. Yes I think the age limit is neccessary. It's incredible what people will say and do and how foolish they can truly be. Often, if they are younger, they have no idea how foolish they sound and how bad they can come off. In some cases, I keep wondering if the age limit should be higher!--herbalsheila

• Unfortunetly for me, I'm usually the one that has the 'underage' cadets that have faked their way into the Academy. But dont worry fellow Freedomers, I havent had one slip through the net yet ;) So you could say I agree with it, but there should always be exceptions. -- Jono Bradley

• Oh boy do I agree. If anything it's too low! But it's always possible to make exceptions in rare cases. Jono, keep up the good work ;-) --Liz Geuken

• Well, it depends. There are some over the age limit that are not mature enough to play the game well. There are also some that are under the age limit that are. However, the system we have in place at the moment is appropriate, I believe. -- VulcanTrekkie45

What are your Star Trek: Freedom aspirations?

• Meet new friends, have fun, the usual -- Alan

• Meet my future wife, oh wait, thats match.com. ;) -- Kevin Schram

• Blow something up, get promoted, that pretty much extends to the rest of my life as well... -- Dragonman-clone

• Command Starfleet Academy and get my own ship... oh... wait... no, no aspirations. ;-) -- JPB 11:09, 26 July 2006 (EDT)

• To have fun and have my character Maraht the Horta grow in wisdom, humor and eventually lead an elite squad of Horta Marines in battle. --herbalsheila

• To have fun, meet knew people, and learn as much as I can in hope of getting promoted ;) (And Shiela, you crack me up soo much) -- Jono Bradley

• To have fun, build my characters, and hopefully get a command one day... -- VulcanTrekkie45

• To have fun, to write, and maybe turn a few heads while I'm at it. -- Will Banowsky

What department (security, engineering, etc.) have you not played that you think would be fun to write?

• I havent yet played in Counselling. Yes, yes I know amazing. The amount of characters I have spread out across the ships and I havent got a counsellor. I think that duty station would be a fun one to post in. -- Jono Bradley

• Believe it or not, there is a station I haven't played... I've never had an engineering officer. I had an NPC crewman once, but... well, he's dead and was just a plot device really. Always wanted to actually play an Engineering Officer... maybe someday. -- JPB

• I think by now I have played in every department, though not all in Freedom. But experience tells me that there are two departments I don't have enough knowledge to play well in, and they are Science and Engineering. Everything else I can wing ;-) --Liz Geuken

• I don't know, I think it would be kind of fun to play either Medical or Engineering. They are related to Science, of which I have 3 characters devoted to, and they just seem so interesting. -- VulcanTrekkie45

The Champlain, her captain, her story.

by Kevin Schram

July 25th, 2006. The Champlain has started posting, and posting has really took off. "THANK YOU for such a great start to the USS Champlain. The posts have been excellent and we’re off to a strong start," Jeff said in the ship's first compile. She reached her 50th post on July 23rd, (written by Jeff himself) and her 100th post shortly after on July 25th, written by the likable Jono Bradley.

The ship is filled with a mix of experanced players, like Jeff, Jono, Kevin Schram, Robbie Gray, and Al Muir, along with a collection of likable new players, like Connie, Noel, Todd and John.

Jeff's rise to captaincy has been a rugged one. Jeff joined the game in early 2005, and became Chief Tactical Officer of the Nimitz only a week after joining Freedom. An extermely well-written post in which his character (Paul Casely) excuted an advanced tactical maneuver called the Casely Maneuver, also added to Jeff's reputation has a excellent writer and player.

In late Feburary 2005, Jeff was offered a chance to be the first officer of Starbase Geneva. During this time, Geneva achived record posting levels. Many have drawn comparisons between the Champlain and Geneva. "You've got a station that was just launched, combined with a handful of grizzled vetern players, and a handful of fresh-eyed rookies.", Kevin said, who's first station was Geneva. However, times were not all good, Geneva's commanding officer was having RL issues, and could not command the station, leaving Jeff in the captain's chair.

In one of the most contraversal moves in recent history, the Council voted to merge Starbase Geneva to the USS Boudicca, while many thought Jeff should simply be made CO. Jeff was made Third Officer of the Boudicca for a short interim, when his friend Al offered him a chance to return to the Nimitz has her first officer. During this time, he also accepted the position of Head of the Academy, showing his dedication to Freedom, and new young players.

In July of 2005, when the game hit 72 players, work was made to prepare a new ship to be launched. Jeff was the captain, and he choose a Galaxy-class ship. He picked the name Champlain, after Samuel de Champlain, one of the early explorers of Canada, Jeff's homeland.

"I'm very proud of the USS Champlain as its both fully intergrated and a slight departure from things. We're going to be involved in the civil war, but I expect to be spending more time on exploring the Beta Quadrant at this point," Jeff promised. With an excellent CO, a fine ship, and a great crew, the future for the USS Champlain appears to be a bright one.

Website Secrets

• Have you all signed the Star Trek Freedom Frappr? - Kevin Schram

• I think so... -- Jono Bradley

Finally

I've got the song Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra in my head. -- Kevin Schram

Along with the rocks? ;-) -- JPB

Ha. Mr. Funny over there. Anyway, speaking of rocks, the September edition of the newsletter will premiere here on August 20th. Start writing your 10 questions and news stories now. I lumped July and August together because I changed it to the July one very late in July, so no point in keeping it up only for a few days. Anyway, get crackin' and lets play Scripps Howard and write some stuff. Now, back to Blue Sky. The sun is shining in the sky, their ain't a cloud in the sky... -- Kevin Schram