Part 1 - About Expedition Fleet
From EF Infobase
Contents |
ABOUT EXPEDITION FLEET
Who We Are
Expedition Fleet is a fan created Star Trek play-by-forum role playing group, the first of its kind to be set firmly during the time frame of the events of the new 2009 Star Trek movie. As the new film did for the Trek universe, EF is intended to push the boundaries of an all too stagnant past time, in a new more mature form, emphasizing quality of fiction, a strong internal canon, and a cooperative innovative meta-story telling that goes outside the box of your standard Star Trek RPG simulation. It is a proud affiliate of Bravo Fleet.
What We Do
So what is a “play-by-forum role playing group”? Often it's the kind of thing simply lumped in as “fan fiction” but in reality it's actually a bit more complicated and far more interesting than that. Basically, it's a collaborative story telling exercise. You create a character, pick a group of fellow writers (this writer's group is called a 'simulation' or a 'sim' or 'game') to join, and you write as that character in posts called “fics”. “Sims” are usually organized around a fixed setting such as a starship, space station, or colony. The “GM” (game master) who controls the plot usually plays the commanding officer, with the players writing as members of this crew. For instance the flagship sim of Expedition Fleet is the USS Venture Star, and the GM plays Captain Bryan Cash. The adventures of these sims are organized into “episodes” (sometimes called mission), which are structures somewhat like the story lines of episodes in one of the tv series, the books, or the movies. The nitty gritty of how to sim, the perils and the pitfalls, will be explored in greater detail in Part Three. The responsibility for making sure that this all runs smoothly and that everyone has as much fun as is legal falls to the "Cadre", the governing panel of EF headed up by founder and EFCO Albert (Bryan Cash) and EFXO Dan (George Rayburn).
Now there's plenty of Star Trek rpg groups to choose from all over the internet. So what makes us different? Glad you asked. Several things. First, nearly all ST sims and sim groups are set in the TNG era, the late 24th century. Some are set in the time frame of the tv series Enterprise (the 22nd century) and a tiny few are set during the events of The Original Series. But none all have one thing in common: They're all set during the old "prime" universe. (In fact, some TOS sim groups have inexplicably begun using the "Nu-Trek" designs, even though they're still set in the old timeline where Vulcan was never destroyed and the events of the new movie never happened.) So at this time, we are the only group to embrace the alternate Nu-Trek” timeline of the 2009 movie. So if you're excited about the film and want to continue the adventures you see on the big screen, then you will find yourself at home.
Beyond that, another thing you may find different is that we demand a little bit more from writers in the form of characterization and craft, and in return we offer them a little bit more. Because Expedition Fleet has a dynamic shared universe with a strong "meta-plot" that will unfold over the years, which you can help shape. Whereas standard RPG groups have very little interaction between games, (In fact, you may have very little story input beyond your own character...) with EF you can literally change the course of the Star Trek universe. Sound like fun?
Well, for those who want to know a bit more about the universe they could be shaping, let's take a look at the new future history of the mid-23rd century....
Welcome to 2258
The events of the Narada's incursion in time, and the loss of Vulcan and much of the Federation and Klingon fleets, have thrown the quadrant into upheaval. Long simmering tensions between the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans are threatening to spill over into full scale war. A new found curiosity is taking hold in the wake of the Narada's rampage. The encounter with technology centuries more advanced has left many powers realizing how little they know about the cosmos beyond their borders. With ignorance now being viewed as the greatest threat to civilization, exploration and research are taking center stage again. To fill the void left in Starfleet, cadets are being fast tracked into service and the production of new starships is being ramped up to a fever pitch. Starfleet is being now being born again, becoming a haven for a new “greatest generation” of rebels, space cowboys, and drifters who feel stifled within the Federation's gilded Utopian cage. A new ship called the USS Enterprise has just launched, and a new fleet is being assembled to reach even further.
The Fourth Expedition Fleet has been designated the centerpiece of Starfeet's rebirth. A thousand virgin worlds call out in the distance. Ancient alien minds---vast and cool and incomprehensible---watch silently and wait. Piracy and lawlessness are rampant, with frontier justice and gunboat diplomacy the only order to be found. Technological change is accelerating faster and faster, societies struggle painfully to absorb it all. It's a time of promise and peril, optimism and fear, in a universe that is as dangerous and untamed as ever. It is an age when risk is the only business in town.
Thisis the age when legends are born. This is when the future begins.
So, like what you hear? Find out more by proceeding to Part Two: Creating Your Character...
FURTHER READING:
- For more information on the fundamentals of EF (A glossary of terms, our ranks and uniforms, how to calculate stardates, etc.) see the Federation basics section of the Academy.
- If you want more on the time period, take a look at the full article on the 23rd century.