Posted by Vice Admiral Robert Archer (Vice President) in Alt Ship Charter Proposal - USS Leviathan

Posted by Sharon Miller in Alt Ship Charter Proposal - USS Leviathan

Posted by Vice Admiral Robert Archer (Vice President) in Alt Ship Charter Proposal - USS Leviathan
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Alt Ship Charter Proposal - USS Leviathan

In the interest of continuing to diversify our main fleet ships and offer something a little different for players, I would like to propose a new alternate role playing area:

• USS Leviathan - Anomaly Recovery Unit

The USS Leviathan is a modified Mjolnir-class starship, assigned to a classified Starfleet division called the Anomaly Recovery Unit (ARU).

ARU History

As Starfleet continues to explore and expand across the four quadrants, their vessels draw attention from all manner of new species and races - not all of them friendly. In previous decades, the resolution of hostile or dangerous encounters was considered the responsibility of the discovering vessel, with additional assistance only provided in extreme or catastrophic circumstances. This approach often resulted in significant loss of life from top class, flagship crews. Additional to this, there were times when a definitive resolution proved impossible to achieve and in such circumstances a dangerous anomaly was sometimes left minimally guarded (such as with proximity warning beacons).

The Anomaly Recovery Unit was therefore created as a highly-trained, highly-specialised task force whose sole purpose is to investigate, capture and contain those ‘anomalies’ considered dangerous or otherwise highly unpredictable. Containment is initially achieved using bespoke containment units onboard the ship and then ultimately by delivering any captured anomalies to the ARU Headquarters on Starbase 237.

Sims on the USS Leviathan

Sims on the USS Leviathan are based around crew interactions with these anomalies and will usually follow a discovery > investigate > capture > contain pattern. The Leviathan operates as a self-simming environment, offering all crewmembers the opportunity to create a unique anomaly and then direct a sim regarding the capture and containment of that anomaly.

For this purpose, instead of a standard GM role, the USS Leviathan offers a custom title of “Mission Director”, to be held by the player currently delivering the main sim.

Playing on the USS Leviathan

Other than the above, the USS Leviathan will utilise the common STF command structure, including all standard Starfleet departments, ranks and chain of command. The exception to this will be the GM role as already specified.

Therefore, Character Ranks on the Leviathan will count towards Member Rank in the same way that they do in standard RPG areas. Additionally, the CO and XO positions will count towards any club-wide limits currently in place.

The Leviathan will be a second character ship only and will not accept new players.
The posting rate for all crew will be that of a medium paced ship (3/5/7 days).

The Leviathan crew will include the following Command roles as they exist in standard RPG areas:

• Commanding Officer (CO)
• Executive Officer (XO)

The Leviathan crew will include the following Department Head roles as they exist in standard RPG areas:

• Chief of Security (CoS)
• Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
• Chief Science Officer (CSO)
• Chief Engineering Officer (CE)
• Counselor (CNS)

The Leviathan will also offer the following common swing positions as desired:

• Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO)

Custom Positions on the USS Leviathan

In addition to the standard roles mentioned above, the USS Leviathan will offer players the opportunity to roleplay a selection of custom ARU positions, either as a standalone swing role, or as an additional duty assignment along with their standard role.

Recovery Task Force

• RTF Commander - head of the Recovery Task Force, the frontline unit deployed in all capture and contain scenarios
• RTF Operative - member of the Recovery Task Force

ARU Research Division

• Novel Researcher - cleans cages, feeds anomalies and performs any ‘hands on’ experimental tasks deemed too dangerous or otherwise undesirable for senior researchers
• Senior Researcher - co-ordinates research effort in their chosen discipline (security, medical, science, engineering)
• Consultant Researcher - specialises in highly-focused research of one particular level of anomaly

Current status of the Leviathan

Currently the USS Leviathan is operating as an X Fleet vessel, where we have an active roster of 18 players and achieved a post count for our first month of 1113 posts.

Leviathan and ARU mythology

There is a wealth of additional detail on the ARU and the RTF available on the current USS Leviathan MOTD: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/xfleet/leviathan/

Further details can also be found on the following google document, which currently serves as a living document for ARU/RTF lore: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/134TwyEIkZNR3HNv2cguSap6oSx9PFGovgvnPaClJck4/edit#slide=id.g6514dc85620e01f_0

Thanks and credits

I would like to thank the entire Leviathan crew for their contributions towards ARU and RTF lore, in particular J Ridgley and Jay Luistro, who were instrumental in the creation of the ARU and RTF structures and finer details.

I think Sharon’s idea is very exciting on multiple levels! It side steps the issue of the gm shortage currently plaguing the club by offering a new self Sim rp environment, as well as a very interesting story and mission set up.

Personally, I think it would be a crying shame not to have Leviathan in the main fleet.

-Dave Eads

I believe the concept of this ship is fantastic and exciting, the first month of progress of the idea in Xfleet has seen more activity in a month than entire fleets achieve in the same period.

I support the creation of this ship wholeheartedly, it would still come under the same 90 day review period so it’s progress can be tracked. Listening to the people I talk to on the crew, they have a passion and love for the concept that I havent seen anywhere in the club since Sharon took over the Viking.

I think it’s a pity the concept wasn’t brought on to one of the ships the club decommissioned last term, but I believe the current concept has shown fantastic creativity and promise that deserves an opportunity for main fleet recognition.

-Dave

One of my feed back points for consideration would be how would this alt-rpg handle new or rather secondary characters? Do they accept either? Ala like the Chernov can accept new members, or the like the Merrimack is a second character only ship. While I agree the concept would be great to see I would personally like this point to be considered for adding on whether they accept new members or are a second character only ship etc to be in the charter.

Robert Archer

Thank you to both Dave’s for your support. And Rob, to answer your question, it does say this in the above charter:

The Leviathan will be a second character ship only and will not accept new players.

I’d be happy to change ‘players’ to ‘members’ if you think that makes it clearer though?

• Sharon

No i think that is satisfactory I just missed that bit of wording. Sorry about that!

My next concern is this. If the ship is approved would those who are currently aboard retain their current positions? Ala CO/XO/DHs etc? If so which I assume to be the case does everyone meet the requirements of those roles to make the switch from xfleet to main as an alt -rgp? This seems always to be a sticking point on the whole xfleet-main idea thing in my view. If everyone meets the current club ranks and such for the roles then there isnt a problem. BUT if not then the question should be how do we address this? Otherwise some might view this as an easy loop hole to a successful xfleet to jump up through ranks by possible abuse of the system.

Robert Archer

Hi Rob,

I appreciate your concerns here, and while not all of the Leviathan crew hold the equivalent member rank for their current character rank, I personally believe all of them to be within an acceptable promotion range for awarding it. Furthermore, had I been creating this ship directly into the main fleets and adding the crew afterwards, I can say without a doubt that I would have chosen the same members for these roles and awarded the same promotions as they will receive by this ship transitioning into the main fleets.

So, to be more specific, the players who hold a member rank currently below their character rank on the Leviathan are:

Please let me know if you, or anyone else, disagrees with these being acceptable promotion steps and I’m sure we could discuss a compromise. As an experienced CO (with member rank of Fleet Captain) myself, however, I would be willing to vouch for the capability of each of these players in their respective roles and personally consider each of them to have proven themselves worthy of the ranks their characters currently hold.

• Sharon