General Report August '23
Posted on 08 Sep 2023 @ 10:08pm by Commander Calliope Zahn
AUGUST ‘23 GENERAL REPORT
Active crew: 8 (LOA Crew: 2)
total word count: 53,258
OF Post count: 107
13.31 posts/ active player
CURRENT ROSTER
Markus/ Sep & DeHavilland
Nikki/ Zahn
Polar/ Steiner & HaiRoa
Aaron/ Sikan (LOA)
David/ Rubens
Tara/ Haille
Spiral/ Brek
Sara/ Wagner (LOA)
Em/ Ovim
Zach/ Samual Johnson
POST TRACKER SPREADSHEET
OBSIDIAN COMMAND DISCORD SERVER
Obsidian Command’s 3rd Simmiversary!
We didn’t get a lot of material to share about this. August seemed a fairly active month for posting but a pretty quiet month in terms of OOC chit chat. It’s the round up of the summer and everyone figuring out their adulting going into the fall for work and school and family life. We appreciate the love everyone has for the game and if I can, I’ll still collect thoughts and feels for sharing our milestone with the fleet as a news item in the coming weeks.
OVERVIEW OOC
Nothing much new here. It was another strong month for posting activity and players are contributing to the new storyline being developed as well as continuing interesting character development on the station.
OOC MISSION UPDATE
Mission Three is officially closed! We settled on a title for Mission Four to be “Falling Out” as the various elements in play are generally related to the after effects and discoveries from Mission Three.
The players, directed by David, are organizing PCs and NPCs around a thread involving discussions about the Korinn request to become a protectorate of the UFP, with a push and pull of varied interests and concerns. Meanwhile, the GM continues an undercurrent thread involving black ops secrecy- players with interest in linking to this thread should contact the GM directly.
RECRUITMENT
Accepting applications!
We issued a recruitment ad for Science personnel in August.
There will be a different ad crafted and issued for September.
If a prospective player has some questions about applying, please do not hesitate to join us in our discord and ask away!
OBSIDIAN COMMAND DISCORD SERVER
GENERAL STORY SUMMARIES (IC)
The Pathfinder returns, there are receptions, meetings, suspicions, personal dramas, and more.
As this month’s stories were diverse, please read the short summaries:
Individual Post Summaries August '23
FLYING SOLO CHALLENGE
Paper Crown: The solo word count win goes to Sep.
I knew you could do it.
Markus/Sep 10,018 (4 posts)
Nikki 8,627 (5 posts)
Spiral 6,172 (4 posts)
Polar 3,326 (2 posts)
Total solo word count: 28,143
ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS
So the JP challenge we tested out for a few months was only nominally meaningful. Maybe in the future it will make sense to bring it back. This month I’m going to instead do something that’s only partly a mix of metrics and roll it in with more qualitative observations about participation/ interaction so far as I’m able to observe.
Activity Highlight: Spiral
This past month saw a really nice spike in Spiral’s interactivity. In addition to her following Brek’s present and past, she took up an npc Vulcan with the new plot and was interactive in three JPs with the aide as well as her own npcs related to Brek’s story. She even composed a very illuminating character solo for the T’Sheng character. I enjoyed all of these contributions!
Activity Highlight: Polar
Polar’s contribution as the ensign diplomatic officer on our overnight flight really took it up a notch and he spearheaded the continuation of our guests introducing themselves to each other and to the readers by staging a dinner. He seamlessly adapted the roughly outlined character and gave him a lot of life and personality. Besides that, he continues to deliver with Stiener, Ibn Sharjar, and HaiRoa!
Activity Highlight: David
He’s continuing with Rice and Wallace, and introducing some more interesting characters like his counselor, Agaia and Moon’s mom. He also had a high joint posting count, and I’m excited about him taking point for Mission Four on the Diplomatic storytelling front. There’s so much life and variety of characters in everything he’s doing and he’s opening this up for others to plug into. Lead on.
Activity Highlight: Sep
He showed up with some illuminating solo posts, stirring the pot with Zayne’s suspicions and the questioning of Lt Tahriik. He’s writing some medical npcs to support other story threads. Additionally we see some down time with DeHavilland and get to hear her thoughts.
AWARDS
The Obsidian Command Awards System has gotten an overhaul/ facelift! Have a look at the changes under Personnel-> Crew Awards on the site!
To the best of my ability, most pre-existing awards were renamed/ given a new description, so that awards already issued will continue to be displayed as a related but updated one, possibly just under a new name.
I still plan to make a short news item or wiki item about the awards update and how that all played out in the end.
We may continue to expand the awards system, adding awards as it makes sense to do so, mostly by building onto the system (ie: Adding new wordsmith awards, adding awards for post genres or extending Medal of Character with a third level etc). Because the new system has a clearer underlying method, such expansions present themselves much more simply than they did in the previous one.
Images to represent the Fleet level awards will be added soon as well.
I may also tweak and exchange the images as I continue to improve my skills in photoshop and sharpen my visual vocabulary. But essentially, I am happy with what we have up right now!
Now for the Awards to be distributed for August!
Obsidian Fleet's Post Spotlight
“Homecoming”- This is the post that sees the USS Pathfinder back to Obsidian Command. There is a sense of relief, the return to safety and a place they call home. For Major Porter Wallace and Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri it’s a moment that signals the end of their ordeal. There is however, one more hurdle to go through: an official reception by the Marine Corps, and no one is going to escape this honour.
It is a post that shows Starfleet at its best, and what happens when two heroes finally make it back home. (nominated by Spiral)
Nikki- Wordsmith Medal for Narrative Voice
“Three Tests (Two Fails, One Pass)” and “The Impass”
For the description of a sumptuous setting, which is the perfect place for a fantastic meal, but on this occasion it turns into a grand opportunity to develop a breakup. Step by step, we see Calliope Zahn’s and Lance Quinn’s marriage disintegrate. It is done through a series of misunderstandings, little jabs and the realisation that a polite relationship is no relationship at all. Those two posts are both amusing and a bit scary, as they show what can happen when the harmony between a couple is gone. (nominated by Spiral)
Spiral - Diversity
In the solo vignette, “We Are One”, Spiral shows that she can bring the same insight, voice, and finesse to writing a Vulcan as she has demonstrated in writing Ferengi.
Polar- Comedy
The thing about comedic characters like Azario is they themselves don’t intend to be funny. Polar paints us a character who is taking his job very seriously and is eager to get all the details right but, being a little wet behind the ears, also manages to fumble his attempts. When I dropped the implied shape of this NPC in and suggested Polar adopt Azario, the result Polar delivered was played up to the kind of pitch particular to off key singers who don’t know that they’re off key. We grit our teeth and just try not to laugh in front of them and still stand up to clap politely. Bravo.
Spiral- Bronze Quill
“Igor” shows Brek cleverly planning to use his own client’s money against her will to hire her son to paint. Wonderful twist in a weirdly positive way as it shows Brek both being antagonistic while at the same time acting in a kind of sneaky benevolence.
David- Volunteer Award
Over the summer we revamped our awards system. I have had this project on my heart since 2020, but couldn’t get traction on it while other life things cropped up. When I shared the project with David a few months ago, he got my gears turning again and his genuinely high energy interest in helping to reorganize, rename, rewrite the old ribbon descriptions revitalized me and propelled the project ahead as I took advantage of summer holiday availability and a blank check from Sep to create the new awards. The results became a true joint effort and the new awards system owes a great deal to David’s organizational vision, communication skills, and creative talents. And now we get to enjoy the results! From the bottom of my heart, thank you David.
Time Served Markers have been updated with the following milestones:
6 months- Aaron/ Sikan
1 year- Sara/ Wagner
1 year- Spiral/ Brek
3 years- Sep/ DeHavilland
3 years- Nikki/ Zahn
Mission Three: Into the Deep
M3 Tour Awards went out to all currently on the sim who participated during the last story run!
Sep, Nikki, Polar, David, Tara, Sara, Spiral, Aaron, Em, & Zach
Thank you to all for pulling off a great mission together!
THANKS!
And thank you to everyone for another excellent month of simming on Obsidian Command!
Category: General News
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