OF Day '23 Awards Announcement
Posted on 16 Aug 2023 @ 9:29am by Commander Calliope Zahn
Obsidian Fleet held an awards ceremony for OF Day 2023 and this year saw a record number of nominations across the fleet.
Obsidian Command represented strongly in the nominations and the elected awardees!
Here are the two Golden Padds we brought home:
Awarded: Outstanding creativity (Overall Game)
Obsidian Command
On Obsidian Command, every post is finely detailed and whether the action takes place in the desert on Planet Obsidian with its rich and harrowing past, or in the middle of a rescue operation performed by fearless Marines, the reader is always plunged right into the action, living the moment with a myriad of details and likeable characters.
O.C. doesn’t just cover the grand scale of intense missions out there in space, though, the inner life of its crew is also covered. These past few months have been special because we’ve been treated to the hopes and hardship of a handful of survivors abandoned on planet Korix. The heart-rending loss of a well-liked medical officer, and the ongoing struggle of a family trying to re-adapt to life within Starfleet.
Every post offers a different view of what life is like deep in space, facing unknown perils, some of them instilled by the Fleet itself.
~*~*~
There’s not enough room to explain. Lemme sum up. Since last Summer, Obsidian Command, which was already a banner sim, has had a renaissance, and while still a rather small and close knit crew, everyone who has posted actively has made work that is inspired! People are both individually creative and collaboratively on fire with ideas and characters that keep us all coming back to read and participate. The majority of posts on OC are a pleasure to read and it makes selecting samples for this nomination all the more difficult. Character development has been riveting or heartening, the world building has been awe inspiring and inventive, and the plot has been engaging and full of twists and revelations coming from both crew and leadership.
Awarded: Golden PADD for outstanding creativity (Individual)
David (Obsidian Command)
When I built this mission, I had a general idea of what the main species we would be dealing with was, what a Korin was. Fins, flippers, breathing underwater, generally bi-pedal on land. But that was about it. I had a very, VERY rough outline of them and really hadn’t figured to get too, too into the weeds on it. I honestly didn’t realize they’d be that big a part of the mission. DCFranklin asked if he could build on that and I reluctantly conceded; I’m not always the best at letting others control things.
Boy was that the right call.
He took what had been a stick figure drawing and turned it into a living, breathing, dynamic culture that exceeded my wildest imagination. As I read who the Korin were I couldn’t help but feel like I was a random reader seeing it all for the first time. And if that wasn’t enough, DCFranklin doubled down on the build he’d created, using the world he’d brought to live, to weave a further detail into the story. Marooning the crew of a lost Starfleet vessel on the planet who had to learn to live, communicate and cohabitate with this species he had so eloquently created. It is clear DCFranklin is a master at his craft, and is a valued member of this crew. That is why I am giving this award to DCFranklin.
OF DAY AWARD *NOMINATIONS* FOR OC!
Beyond the two awarded golden padds, we also had unelected nominees in many other categories. These nominations have been entered in the player nova records.
Nominee: Golden PADD for best character storyline
Brek – Obsidian Command
Have you ever met a Ferengi art dealer? Did you know there was such a thing?
Brek is the proprietor of ‘Timeless Treasures Art Gallery’ on the Promenade of Obsidian Command. Through this character, Spiral has taken us a wonderful journey through the life of a Ferengi that might not be quite what you’ve seen, or heard of before.
We all have our preconceived notions of what a Ferengi is, based on what we’ve seen in the shows and movies and we’ve all seen the cliche renditions of that written in prose about this community. But, I can assure you, you have never read and felt for a Ferengi genuinely until you’ve read the story of Brek.
Spiral is a gifted writer, and a great story teller. All in a language that isn’t even her native one! I think Spiral has created one of the most unique and enjoyable storylines I’ve read in a long time. That is why I’m nominating her for this prize.
Nominee: Golden PADD for best character storyline
Calliope Zahn – Obsidian Command
Nikki joined this game as XO, bringing along a fellow player to be in her IC-XO. Initially, when Nikki (Commander Zahn) came aboard, her character found herself in a situation that cost her the XO job (IC only of course). That caused a chain reaction of beautiful posting and character progression.
However, during that time, the player writing for her husband chose to leave the game. Now, normally in these situations, you end up in a conundrum that often sees both players leave the game. Instead, Nikki chose to take a different route, neither removing the character from the game nor simply pretending that the character husband didn’t exist. She chose to take the long road and create a situation that sees their marriage falling apart (with the former players permission of course to continue to write his character with the goal of writing him out of the game).
What’s come out of it is a beautiful tapestry and love, life and the realities of marriage.
Nominee: Golden PADD for outstanding creativity (Individual)
Polar – Obsidian Command
Obsidian Command is in orbit of the planet Obsidian, which has a native population. A little is known of it from canon material, but the details aren’t widely explored. Polar has taken it upon himself to dig into those details and create the details of the world the starbase orbits.
A lot of players get bored on station with the mission isn’t keeping them engaged, but Polar has taken the bull by the horns and dug into the planet below, adding depth to both the planet and the starbase above.
Nominee: Golden PADD for outstanding Mission
Obsidian Command:: Into the Deep
The requirements state that “the crew was tested IC and OOC and showed quality writing”. Into the Deep has been one of the most perfect examples of this kind of a test and triumph. The mission plan was a creative work that was already highly invested into by the GM, involving a mysterious empire-building nightmare race, and a reconnaissance mission to learn more about them. As this mission rolled on, parts began to have a life as offshoots of the plan, and crew members had to actively petition the GM to make some of the supporting story relevant to their own unique ideas; in the magic that resulted, the GM recognized and adapted to the new story elements in wholehearted ways, such that in the end everyone who contributed has come away with something richer and our shared trust has deepened. Into the Deep has truly become a rewarding experience.
Nominee: Golden Padd for Outstanding Player
Nikki
Obsidian Command Nikki is a dynamo, a rock-solid powerlifter for a player and writer on OC. She keeps the crew engaged with inventive ideas that both create camaraderie amongst the members IRL crew and stoke our creativity energy. She is something special. A writer who brings out the best in others simply by involving them in things. Nikki produces well developed, believable, imaginative and intriguing characters seemingly at the drop of hat. I am in awe of her creative abilities! she can have an array of stories and threads all in progress and trip neatly between each one with no drop in quality or enthusiasm. An enthusiasm which is completely and totally infectious, writing with Nikki is addicting, the more you do it, the better it gets and the more you want to write. Nikki is a tireless XO and all round supporter, producing so many writing opportunities for others.
Nominee: Golden Padd for Outstanding Post
Sepaniyar
“Medical Report” http://command.obsidianfleet.net/index.php/sim/viewpost/504
How does one kill of a character one has written for years? How to write it in a meaningful way, that treads the line between respect and sorrow, honoring the character and their life, without crossing into overly sentimental and mournful? Sep managed to achieve that in his post, the dispassionate, almost clinical description, told from third party viewpoints is both poignant and professional, tender and businesslike. It delivers a powerful perspective on death, while holding the reader enthralled in the details.
Nominee: Golden Padd for Outstanding Post
Nikki & David
“Castles in the Sand” http://command.obsidianfleet.net/index.php/sim/viewpost/616 (solo)
They played the two remaining survivors of the Starfleet ship USS Sunrise. The ship was attacked by an ongoing antagonist of our game and the survivors sent to this world (Korin) to work as slaves for the mining operation on the planet. Over the course of time, the survivors of the Sunrise died off of various things leaving Wallace and Xeri alone with two children to care for. They’ve been trying to survive and keep the family together. The USS Pathfinder (Obsidian Command’s Garrison Vessel) has through the course of the story rescued them from this planet and is taking them home. Back to Federation space.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Of all these wonderful accolades, I'm very proud of us for taking home the Outstanding Creativity for Overall Game. As simming is a team sport where we all get to enjoy sharing our storytelling, joint posting, and encouraging one another's individual writing, I really feel it is well deserved, and I'm excited to be recognized together.
The whole fleet had a wonderful showing for awards nominees. If you want to read them all, go to obsidianfleet.net , click on News and scroll the multiple news announcements concerning awards that have been published in the past couple of weeks.
I'll see you around as I'm reading your amazing posts! Let's keep the hits coming.
Category: General News
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