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Interregnum 02-03 S2 / Day 01 [2100hrs] When All is Stretched Thin
Last post by Ellen Fitz -The ambassador said merchant the way a man says a word he's rehearsed too many times to believe anymore, and the Reman honor guard traded a glance that said they didn't believe it either. No one on this planet would believe it. Starfleet's idea of subtlety was a coat cut a season out of Federation fashion and a briefcase full of trade concessions nobody asked for, and the fact that it was working at all said less about the disguise than about how tired everyone here had grown of pretending politics were anything but a knife with a bow tied round the handle.
Hirek stood two paces behind the Andorian diplomat's left shoulder for the better part of four hours, translating where translation wasn't strictly needed, correcting nothing, offering nothing, letting the woman walk herself in slow circles around a council that had learned distrust from experts. The Reman and Romuluan delegates watched all of it with the stillness of those who'd spent centuries being told to wait in the dark.
Tal'Aura was dead. What had lived inside her — what had used her hands to sign the treaties and her voice to swear the oaths while the war ground on beneath — wasn't so easily buried. Hirek had spent thirty years learning to read the seams in his own people's faces, the places where the mask didn't quite meet the skin, and he'd learned recently that some of those seams ran deeper than any training had prepared him for. The Infested wore whoever was useful and discarded whoever wasn't, no announcement, no warning.
Until they are found. All of them. Rooted out and burned down to the marrow.
And here he was, standing at a merchant's elbow while career diplomats congratulated themselves on the historic first steps of a government that didn't yet know what it would become.
He excused himself with the correct degree of deference — a murmured word to the aide, a nod to the diplomat that promised nothing and delivered less — and didn't look back to see if anyone questioned it. No one would. He'd filed the leave request with Stark: family, the islands, a debt of presence long overdue. Approved without comment. No one on the Theurgy begrudged a man wanting to know if his mother still drew breath. Because truth was never offered in Romulan communication.
The transport office sat three streets down from the consulate, between a shuttered apothecary and a noodle stall that had somehow outlasted two governments and a war. Hirek let his stride lengthen once he was clear of watching eyes. The air still smelled the way it always had — stone dust and cold rain, and underneath it something green trying to survive the concrete. He gave his name to the clerk, arranged for a private craft rather than the public lines and stood turning a credit chit over in his fingers while she worked.
Stay and finish it. Or go and start again.
It had been circling since the Triangle, since he'd watched his own service to Starfleet Intelligence curdle into something closer to belonging and hadn't decided whether to trust that or distrust himself for feeling it. The Tal Shi'ar were bleeding — not dead, they were never simply dead, but staggered and exposed in a way he hadn't seen in his lifetime. A man could spend that exposure wisely. Could go home and put his hands to the actual shape of Romulan freedom instead of playing translator for a Federation that thought a bow tie made a spy invisible.
Or he could go back to the Theurgy, to the slow grinding work of hunting parasites through the dark, and trust that saving the galaxy would save Romulus too, eventually, in its own time, on someone else's schedule.
He hadn't settled which coward's math he preferred.
The clerk slid the authorization across the counter, and he was reaching for it when he saw her.
Talia stood near the far wall in her flight suit. He hadn't clocked her as part of the escort roster until this moment, hadn't thought of her at all in the mental press of ambassadors and Infested and a planet trying to remember how to be whole — and that omission struck him as strange. They hadn't spoken since the Triangle. Since his quarters, and the silence that came after, whatever they'd called it that wasn't quite goodbye.
Every instinct said to cross the space and needle her the way he always had — Shadow, still alive, I see — fold this back into a shape they both knew how to hold. It would cost him nothing.
It would also cheapen what they'd survived, and he found he didn't have that in him today. He took the authorization, folded it once, and crossed the space — not toward her, just past.
"I'm going to the islands," he said, without breaking stride. "There's a seat on the transport, if you want it." He didn't wait for her answer. He kept walking and left the rest to her.
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Episode 02: Cosmic Imperative / Re: EPI S [Day 03 | 2330hrs.] Lay Your Weary Head To Rest
Last post by Ellen Fitz -One instant Zark lay motionless beneath a web of monitors. The next she was moving. Far too fast. The crack of her fist into the Cardassian nurse's sternum echoed through the ICU, followed almost immediately by the shriek of medical alarms.
"No—!"
Alistair stepped toward the nurse before his brain had finished the thought. Too late. A blur of blue came at him.
Six weeks of Zark needling him about his footwork on the observation deck at Qo'nos was the only reason he moved at all. He twisted aside. Not far enough.
The heel of her kick skimmed his jaw instead of caving it in. Fire lanced through his chin; he tasted copper before he'd finished stumbling. His teeth clacked together hard enough to ring his skull.
Alice Leroux. The Eclipse's bridge, torn open, that smell. For one impossible heartbeat the ICU dissolved into another sickbay, half a decade and a dead timeline away. A monster wearing a friend's face. Him standing there with a phaser he didn't know how to hold.
"Oh God—"
Then he saw her hands close around Enyd's throat.
"Security! Medical emergency!" His voice cracked on the second word. "Lieutenant zh'Ptrell is exhibiting Infested behavior!" He crawled forward. "Sedatives! Heavy sedatives, restraints, now!" — to the staff still frozen mid-flinch.
He pulled himself up and lunged. He had no illusions about winning a fight against Zark. Healthy, she could put him on the deck in four seconds and had, repeatedly, to make a point. He got both hands around her forearms where they strained against Enyd's throat, planted his feet, and hauled backward with everything training had built into him.
"Zark! Let her go!" He strained to peel even one finger loose without snapping Enyd's neck. "Enyd — don't fight her."
He looked at the medical staff still rooted in place.
"What are you waiting for?!"
[ Lt. Enyd Isolde Madsen | ICU | Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ]
One second she was standing at Alistair's shoulder, watching Zark's monitors cycle through numbers that meant nothing to her. The next, hands were on her throat.
Closing, not gripping. Her body understood it half a beat before her mind did — some old animal circuitry firing off wrong, wrong, wrong while the rest of her was still cataloging the absurdity of it. Zark. Zark's hands.
She got one syllable out. Not even a word. Just air trying to leave through a passage that had stopped being a passage.
Her fingers found Zark's wrists on reflex, Academy self-defense drills useless. Andorian grip strength was not something a refresher course prepared a person for. Alistair's voice, shouting something about sedatives, restraints, reaching her from very far away, which didn't make sense — he was right there.
The edges came in first. Sound went underwater, then color, the overhead lights smearing into a long white bleed. Her lungs burned.
Oh, she thought, with the calm of someone noticing rain through a window. This might actually be it.
Victor. Ten years of letters compressed into that one image, waiting by the dock on Vulcan, the way he always seemed to be waiting for her to catch up to something he already knew.
Javec. His hand, the last time, closing around hers with far less strength than this, and somehow it had felt like more. She had held on then, too. She'd been so sure holding on would be enough.
Grandmother Ida. Cold Montana air, mineral-bitten, a morning before the sun cleared the ridge. Hay dust. Her grandmother's hands, cracked at the knuckles, wrapped around a coffee mug on the porch rail, not saying anything, because she hated talking before coffee. The dogs. The sound the screen door made.
Home, she thought. Some fist in her chest, closed since she was twelve years old and learned that people who left didn't always come back, finally let go.
Victor. Javec. Ida. The screen door.
Okay, she thought, from somewhere already halfway gone. Okay. I can—
She didn't finish it, even in her own head.
Author's note: Griff gave me permission to write for Alistair.
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Stegro88 -I know I haven’t been around much and posted less than that. I am going to put my 2 cents forward as others have and I hope that it will be accepted and taken into consideration. I am going to reference posts above this and offer my opinions on points others have raised. Please do not be insulted or annoyed/pissed off. These are just my own thoughts.
I feel like we should have some sort of posting expectation. 7-Days could be a bit tight but it did keep everything flowing. 10 Days was better but it was a band aid to cover people having less time available to post. Have no expectation? How would we keep everything in any kind of character flow. Perhaps we could do it better? Maybe a 6-month window to cover events within a time period. While having open space between ‘episodes’ for free posting. I believe the Director’s cut location would be great for that.
The tracking of time. We need it. Does it have to hyper accurate…not all the time. That said, using the format we have is awesome for making sure characters are not in two places at once. That said, we do need to come up with a way to make time pass faster between ‘episodes’. I have been writing in this sim for a 8 years and think only 2 months have gone past in-sim. I think the most fun I had writing was the time period on Aldea because we had such a window to write in and create that character growth. I would suggest having a ‘blank’ period between episodes, as mentioned above, allowing for writing in between, or at least the availability to reference time having passed.
Abandoning the Theurgy----A part of me rebels at this thought. It is home, its where everything was set that I know of in the Sim. We are Star Trek Theurgy. What are we without her? That said, is the infested storyline becoming a little long in the tooth with no seeming way to victory…definitely. I am actually more interested in this developing syndicate recently mentioned. I have a few suggestions.
Resetting the story is out. It kills all the hard work we have done up to now. We might as well just pack up show and not call it Theurgy then. But, Time Travel is a thing, as are changes to the timeline that immensely effect how things are then perceived. “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, “Year of Hell”, “All Good Things” to name just a few Trek episodes. I suggest one of two courses of action.
A) The Theurgy is shifted forward in time (5-10 years) to a point after this new enemy has had time to develop but also to where the Infested have been defeated. Maybe the ships disappearance has was the inspiration for the Quadrant to rise up against them. We provided the tools but now they did the fight and its time for the aftermath.
B) The Theurgy, and the universe as a whole, is caught in a Temporal shift that rearranges key events. We know the Theurgy was a development pushed by the Infested. What would have happened if they never existed. 1 Change by someone from some time, and it reverberates throughout time. This solution offers us the anility to do a soft reset of everything while also compensating for OOC developments. We can get a smaller ship (I suggest an Akira for the multi-role nature but small size of the ship. I also have full deckplans for it). The Infested never existed but we can all remember it, so our character development remains intact. (how we remember can even remain a mystery. It doesn’t need to be answered.)
C) As Josh suggested, we got to andromeda or another galaxy and have to figure out how to get home with limited crew. Could set up some sort of mystery of random crewmembers occassinly arrive at random times (allows the onboarding of new writers and characters) but we don’t understand how. They just appear. A limited character number then becomes a defining part of the story that we write with rather than disguising with an unending stream if NPCs.
Any of these suggestions allows us to do more in our episodes besides just fighting. Trek had dozens of episodes where a weapon’s system was never even armed. I understand Theurgy was fighting a war, but I’d love to see some science and exploration. Personally I like option B.
We keep the NSFW. I like writing that too.
I think we keep new player on boarding like how it is now. They need a character ready for them to inhabit. That said, it doesn’t have to be just the GMs helping them develop that character. Though they retain final approval of joining.
Established writers need to maintain a posting ration to earn a new character, (I will get mine back up) but I don’t think there needs to be as high a ration set for a 2nd or 3rd character. 4th and up, yes.
Art… always a touchy subject. Should there be a focus on it, no. Should every character have at least one piece, yes. Should face/voice claims remain….definitely. We need to know what people look like. Option B above, would allow older face claims of previously dead characters to be made available again.
I have more to write but have run out of time at this moment. More to come later.
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by joshs1000 -Just going to get my thoughts out there because when we do the group discussion I feel like I will probably have A LOT to say and suggest so easier to have essentially a reference here to my points.
First I really love Star Trek and I really love role-playing and I really love character development, so that is the basis for my points below. Some of these may mirror other people, some may not, if you disagree then you disagree and if you agree then you agree but either way, as Dume said, responses should go on Discord or be saved for the discussion.
Further, and this is very important to me and something that I have internalized over the past few years, criticism is not inherently negative, it can be said in a negative tone sure, but objective critique is important to help learned and grow and in the end everyone benefits.
So now that the pre-amble is out of the way I'm just going to lay out my thought sin a numbered list:
Thoughts on Story Improvements
Just my thoughts on the story and where I think we should go from here.
1. We really should just axe the entire story, it's been going on for over a decade but the primary creator has long since left leaving it to the group to try and interpret how they wanted to progress it. Personally I am not particularly fond of this story, there is very little Star Trek stuff to do, exploration, science, diplomacy, and the constant emphasis on action leaves little in the way of character interaction and thus character development. Further the state of the galaxy is so wrecked and lobsided that just saying it is all done and over with would not return things to a more traditional Star Trek status-quo. A change of story to either reset back to 2379 or perhaps even move to a new era entirely like the Enterprise Era would be the best course of action if we are ending the story. I don't know about other folks but I don't mind making new characters.
2. Nix the hyper specific tracking of in-game time. To me this is proving to be a massive headache, it's been over a decade since this story has started and yet it's only been six or seven months of in-game time. To be blunt, that is ridiculous and makes it impossible to have any sort of meaningful character arcs. I joined in like 2023 with my character Lok and he has had to essentially be in some form of development-purgatory because in those years in-game time has only gone barely a week. A solution to this would have to come in the form of a group consensus but I've seen on other RP forums where time is generally relative with a broad monthly announcement of what time of year it is while events are more specific for over-arching story telling purposes. The key is that players need to keep track and pay attention and with this being such a small group I don't think that is a tall ask.
3. Abandon the Theurgy, I know this is a tall ask, but for how small our writing team is the ship is honestly just too massive to really make a good show of managing it without people needing to play multiple characters or NPCs. In a more practical sense, as far as I know, other than some images and the Sketchfab preview, AL never turned over those models of the ship and other models for us to continue to use or develop, thus if we need to do concept or promotional artwork then we are just sort of stuck with whatever we have left.
4. Per what I mentioned in 1. we really should just end the story and start over fresh with our own story that allows us to interact more with the world of Star Trek and to be able to do those Star Trek things that have, at least since I've been here, have been hitherto unavailable by the very nature of the current story. As such I do have suggestions on story ideas.
-4a - Star Trek: Theurgy Reset - We essentially keep everything in regards to the ship, the characters, the uniforms and the world history, minus anything to do with The Infested, essentially reverting it to right after Star Trek Nemesis. We can head into the 2380s unburdened and chart our own path doing exploration and diplomacy.
-4b - Star Trek: The Early Frontier - While my dislike of the series Enterprise is well known, that is mostly due to the writing and the many missed opportunities in the first two seasons. What I do love though is the production design that mixes a NASA vibe with a Star Trek flavor and makes the idea of exploration of even as something simple as a gas giant or nebula truly exciting. This story would also allow our ship to operate mostly independently thus allowing a bit more freedom off creativity and more freedom of action. While this is my preference it would also require the largest amount of work to setup out of all of them and also limit things like artwork initially as well as character species.
-4c - Star Trek: Theurgy Other Eras - Maybe not the Enterprise Era but another era. The lost era between Enterprise and TOS or the lost era between the TMP Movies and TNG. Maybe going into those specific era, TOS, TMP, TNG, etc. We could even go into the future and create our own Star Trek: Legacy.
-4d - Star Trek: Andromeda - Theurgy in either current form or reset form is somehow whisked off to the Andromeda galaxy where they have to survive, thrive, and find a way home or perhaps stay and bring Federation ideals of freedom, unity, and diplomacy to this new galaxy to bring about a new Federation.
5. A broader focus on character development and less focus on combat. TNG and DS9 are my favorite Star Treks for a reason and that is their emphasis on characters, especially DS9, and I would like to see that going forward. As I mentioned above it is very difficult to have a character truly "develop" because things move so slow that it feels like you are spinning your wheels. Further though I think that moving away from combat oriented threads towards things that involve problem solving and characters bouncing off of each other would be really refreshing and thus saving combat for special occasions.
6. NSFW content, I like it and I just wanted people to know that lol.
Thoughts on Admin
Just my thoughts and suggestions on running the forum going forward to help make it more open to new players and perhaps make it run a little more efficiently.
1. Keep the general writing requirements in terms of post length and formatting as well as maintaining the proper post order. Post time limits and the consequences for failing to post on time should be changed. I'd say essentially change it to a respond within 48-72 hours of the previous post or you will get skipped and won't be able to respond until your turn is up again, thus somebody not responding will not completely shut down a thread for a week and a half costing writing momentum and inspiration as well as preventing threads from being drawn out for months and months due to slow responses. If somebody stops responding entirely in the game then don't kick them but perhaps just give them a warning and mark them as inactive in case for whatever reason they come back.
2. Easier access for newer players, allow people to join the forum without needing approval but start off of course with the limited access to only certain threads until their character is created. Make the Discord more open for people to join, I don't know how you do it but you can add certain things to filter out bots and stuff by requiring them to post things or something, the point is though that it allows people to get their questions answered directly before considering if they wish to join. Further there should really be an investment of having a dedicated person to help guide new players with their characters as well as getting them into a thread as quickly as possible. The more players we get the easier this will be.
3. New characters should be easier to get created. Currently the process takes months, mostly spent waiting for ALL the GMs to read and approve a character concept, followed by waiting for ALL the GMs to read and approve the database entry, and if a GM just doesn't bother reading it you are just stuck waiting in limbo. It really should be looked over by at least one GM or a senior player who can use their best judgement to approve the character or request that the author make specific changes before reviewing it again. This process needs to be especially swift and efficient for new players so as to not discourage them.
4. Broadening character art. I think everyone should at least have one character art for their profile but that the rules of how the art id created or designed should be loosened to include other forms of media beyond photomorphing such as drawn art, 3D modelling, and even (shivers) AI art. However, as getting art can be difficult there should be a push by the group, similar to what Dume said, to not focus so much on character art beyond its use as a reference. If people really would like art we should all work as a team to quickly and efficiently help a person find something they like. Further, perhaps less focus on "face claims" and "voice claims" when it comes to character art and utilizing that as a shortcut to describe a character; personally I've never felt particularly comfortable about using an actor's or model's likeness without their permission.
5. Players can only have characters with senior level positions if they meet a requirement for being active. Essentially a player should not be allowed to assume the role of a Department Head or some other level of importance if they are not active enough. Department heads/senior staff in my mind should function almost like deputy GMs and be leaders for players who have characters in that department to help coordinate and guide their team so that onus is not placed entirely on the GMs.
6. The Captain needs to be active and available. Star Trek has placed a lot of emphasis on the Captain of the ship as being one of the lead characters and while this mold does not have to hold true all the time, see Lower Decks, unless the story is going to exclusively focus on lower decks characters then whoever is playing the captain needs to be active and that the captain needs to seem like they are in command in-game.
That is pretty much all I have for the moment, I might think of more and expand it later. Hopefully I didn't piss too many people off lol.
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Pierce -Since AL left, with the story having more splits and that I believe started with him too, it has made it increasingly difficult to manage threads and knowing what's going on. I know it's even harder with more characters. I get that. However, with the story never ending on the threat, it is kind of draining and I feel it needs to end and start fresh in another direction for the story to evolve properly and get people re-energized again with the stories and the plot.
I know I say I love complicated, but this is too much between life, job, other hobbies and trying to keep up here. I was asked to join other Trek sims that are by past Theurgy members and I turned them down because I feel we still have something here and theirs are just starting. Between my lack of commitment here, I couldn't justify elsewhere when I am so invested here. The story here I feel is like getting into DC Comics at this point where I signed on for Batman or Justice League and have to read 5-10 other comic series to understand what's going on and I just don't have time for that despite the writing being awesome when I do get the time.
Simplifying and tying up the old storyline might be best for the evolution and continuation of the legacy of Theurgy. It would also allow us to remember the past but move on to give a more or less clean slate unless people wanted to know the past making it easier to join and write.
I love this site and the people in it and this has been a lot of fun. I do apologize for my lack of writing but again, I've had a difficult time getting the brain to wrap around the story and assignments, etc. I get it's not a free for all but if it's something I lack knowledge or don't care for, I can't realistically sit and write about it. Which is why I try to do what I know and keep in that realm.
I'm sure I'll have more to add later but this was what I had time to contribute at the moment.
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Ellen Fitz -ATTENTION ALL WRITERS!
@Brutus @rae @Nolan @chXinya @Griff @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @Pierce @Nesota Kynnovan @P.C. Haring @Eden @ob2lander961 @Dumedion @Eirual @tongieboi @Tae @Hans Applegate @joshs1000 @Krajin @TWilkins
Hello all, we are still working on determining a date that will enable a majority of the GMs to be in attendance, if not all of them. Sorry it is taking so long. Summer time is notororiously a difficult time to pin down anyone and anything.
Despite this hiccup, I would like to encourage everyone to continue in the vein already established, of voicing thoughts on improvements here so we can cite them during the discussion and thereby, perhaps, more rapidly move through the discussion when it is had, since folks will have had a chance to read through the suggestions, as they will have been made to that point.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and suggestions and taking time to invest in the future of the sim.
EDITED: I wanted to go ahead and share a draft of what the planned next episode was going to be, so folks can read through it and ponder over it. It is written rather like a DnD campaign because, why not haha!
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Griff -I am sorry for not communicating this better, as I know that I bear a fair bit of the responsibility for not posting. I keep trying to force it, but that simply does not work. It is clear that something needs to change.
I am due to get surgery in September. I am hoping that this (plus other things I am now doing) will get me back on track, but if not, I will bow out. I very much hope to stay, but only if I can still write.
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Main OOC Board / Re: Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Dumedion -NOTE:If you agree/disagree, that’s fine, but please don’t clog the thread with replies to this – I'd prefer to use Discord for that; this is simply a list of thoughts and points id like brought up at the meeting if I am absent.
Alternatives to letting the sim die:
• Eliminate posting requirements altogether (nobody is following the rules anyway). Alternative: If you havent contributed shit in three months, and we havent heard any reason why, you’re out.
• No more art. (Hot take, I know). I think folks focus too much on art – don’t get me wrong, I like it too – but reading doesn’t require it, writing shouldn’t either. You can still make it if you want, share it in Discord, etc, but it shouldn’t be mandatory and shouldn’t stop folks from writing.
• Eliminate character inheritance. If someone leaves, their characters go with them. Their story ends unfinished, and that’s it. Writer’s can handle their characters involvement/relationships with that IC (or not) if they choose to.
• Eliminate requirements on current writers adding new characters. If inspiration strikes, they write; the bullshit process in place takes too long and acts more like a gatekeeping mechanism than anything else.
• New writers get approval from one (1) person. It shouldn’t take months to onboard newbloods. Everyone needs to do better about making themselves available to write with new people. If we cant attract new writers and grow, we face stagnation – and people that do engage with new writers all the time will get burnt out doing it.
• Wrap the current narrative. Shelve it. We did our best to complete AL’s story – but its clearly floundering and dying on the vine. We can keep the history, but it’s a lot for new people to absorb; we need to dumb it down and pick a new direction. There are so many options available to use for this; I hope you all have some ideas – I am thinking on it.
That's it for now. More to follow.
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Main OOC Board / Course Correction: Discussing the Future of USS Theurgy
Last post by Ellen Fitz -ATTENTION ALL WRITERS!
@Brutus @rae @Nolan @chXinya @Griff @Stegro88 @RyeTanker @Pierce @Nesota Kynnovan @P.C. Haring @Eden @ob2lander961 @Dumedion @Eirual @tongieboi @Tae @Hans Applegate @joshs1000 @Krajin @TWilkins
There comes a point in every long-running story where the crew has to stop staring at the viewscreen and ask a harder question:
“Where are we actually going from here?”
The USS Theurgy has a long and meaningful history behind it. If you take even a brief look through the forum statistics — including post counts, member activity, and the sheer number of stories and characters that have passed through these halls — this board has mattered to a successful many people over the years. Some of those writers are sadly no longer with us. Others drifted away because life changed course. But the history is there, written into every thread and archive, and it deserves acknowledgment and respect.
The statistics also tell another story: a steady and undeniable drop in activity and participation that we can no longer ignore or quietly work around. This is not meant to be a doom post. It is meant to be an honest one. It is also not a matter of hoisting the blame upon any one person or one variable post, as the GMs acknowledge their place in the sliding as well.
Many of you were here during the difficult period surrounding AL’s departure in 2023 and the scramble that followed to keep the board running and preserve what had been built together. For anyone wanting to revisit that discussion, the original thread can be found here:
Initial 2023 Discussion Regarding AL’s Departure
Likewise, we also had our last fireside chat regarding the future of the board and the direction we hoped to pursue moving forward:
Previous Fireside Chat Results and Future Discussion
And for those who want to review the broader picture of the board itself, including membership and posting trends:
USS Theurgy Forum Statistics
Our current setup is not generating enough sustained activity to keep things healthy long-term. That means we need to be willing to discuss everything from the ground up, including:
* Posting expectations and rules
* Character creation and acquisition
* Storyline structure and long-term trajectory
* Accessibility for new writers
* Retention of existing writers
* Forum/Discord engagement and socialization
* Leadership structure
* Onboarding new writers
* Plot pacing and collaboration
* Community culture overall
Nothing should be considered too sacred to discuss.
This also means we need people coming into the conversation prepared to contribute constructively. Bring ideas. Bring solutions. Bring experiments worth trying. Think about what would make you more eager to write, more invested in the stories, and more connected to the community.
Understand that not every idea will be accepted, implemented, or agreed upon. That is part of collaborative storytelling and community-building. Please do not come into the discussion solely to vent frustrations or catalog failures. Everyone here is already aware that things have been struggling — even when not every concern has been openly stated. That awareness is precisely why this conversation is happening.
There is not a firm date for the live chat yet because schedules are currently flexible and chaotic for many people (summer has a way of doing that), but please take some time over the coming weeks to reflect and prepare your thoughts. When the discussion date is finalized, we hope as many of you as possible will participate live.
If you cannot attend because of time constraints or scheduling conflicts, please still contribute either through the Discord or in response to this thread. Your voice matters whether spoken live or written afterward.
And finally: thank you.
Thank you for your time, your creativity, your patience, and your passion over the years. The USS Theurgy has always been more than a collection of forum posts. It has been a collaborative world where people came to imagine together, tell stories together, and escape the grind of everyday life for a little while.
Its longevity is worth fighting for.
Its quality is worth fighting for.
And the friendships built here — both the ones we already have and the ones still waiting somewhere in the future — are worth fighting for too.
May the Sim, and you, Live Long and Prosper.