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Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #27 –
Forum Copy

If anyone wants it, this is a copy of every board, thread and post of the Theurgy story up to this exact moment, not including the OOC board, just because the OOC board is a monster. The process isn't perfect, to be sure. The formatting hasn't been preserved, and there may be errors. Regardless, it exists. No matter what happens to this site, we'll have a copy of the entire Theurgy story.

Of course, feel free to download the folder and do what you like with it. I'll run the script again in December and update the folder, assuming nothing changes.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #28 –
You sir are a legend.
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Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #29 –
Hiya,

It's been a few days since the campfire meeting and since Ellen posted her notes, and there hasn't been a whole lot of discussion here, so hopefully everyone has been thinking about our next steps. As dicsussed, those are:

  • The main plot of the sim
  • Leadership team

From what I noticed during the meeting (and if I'm wrong, I'm confident this will start a discussion anyway :) ), most of the ideas have changed from 'what we're going to do after Theurgy' to 'how we're going to stay on Theurgy.' I've listed the ones that I felt like had the most discussion.
If you want anything else added, please comment. Then I can make a poll and we can put it to a vote.

  • Stay on the Theurgy, fight the infested: The same concept, but we have to make the plot now.
  • The Theurgy joins with a fleet of ships that all fight the Infested together Battlestar Galactica style. Multiple PC ships. This was not the original idea, but it seemed to morph into this.
  • Stay in the Theurgy universe, but go to a different ship

As for a leadership team, we need a basic organizational structure first. My two cents- we need 1 person, or 3 at the most, who are actually in charge. Then start making teams in the hierarchy beneath them. There needs to be a final decision making authority, or we'll have all these committees/teams without someone setting the main direction. To put it in Star Trek terms, department heads are awesome, but we need a captain (or captain, first and second officers, to continue this analogy all the way through). I nominate @Brutus, because he's been here the longest, he loves this place, and I'm throwing him under the bus.


Here are my other opinions. I'm putting them down here so they don't get interspaced in the reporting.

Personally, I really want to stay on the Theurgy. My characters were made for this ship. I've spent my whole time here building them up for the main story, which we're right on the cusp of starting. The plot is an hour away from Azrin getting to activate the slipstream drive. I love slow RPs. The main draw for me joining here was the speed. I enjoyed every second of the 18 months I spent getting them to the point. The real letdown would be rushing to a conclusion.

Random Thoughts:
- If we stay on the Theurgy, how we do that and who the Captain would be can wait until later discussions. We need to pick a direction, then we can start plotting a course.
- Running a sim with multiple PC ships is hard. There's a lot more plot. A lot more drama. You'll get a lot of ships with 4-5 people on it and those are the people you RP with. No variation.
- If we go to a different ship, are we still Star Trek: Theurgy? If we rebrand, we lose the history, establishment, and name recognition that drives most new applicants to the sim.
- We don't need a discord team/committee. I used to run a RP sim on discord with around 200 people. Trust me, our discord runs itself. There are no bots, there's been one new channel in the 1.5 years I've been here, and the only reason Brutus has gotten all these un-ban requests is because of our current situation. It will be a title with no actual duties. Giving some people admin perms is more of a safety measure than an actual job.


That's all folks. Good night.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #30 –
Quote from: rae on


Personally, I really want to stay on the Theurgy. My characters were made for this ship. I've spent my whole time here building them up for the main story, which we're right on the cusp of starting. The plot is an hour away from Azrin getting to activate the slipstream drive. I love slow RPs. The main draw for me joining here was the speed. I enjoyed every second of the 18 months I spent getting them to the point. The real letdown would be rushing to a conclusion.




The discussion on discord wasn't the time or place for detailed discussion or debate. I'm hoping that here and now is.

I still think that we can advance the plot without rushing individual plots. We don't need to lock out past plots and chapters until there hasn't been a fresh post in them, in a certain amount of time.

I'm not proposing we advance the posting time policy (currently 10 days, up from 7 when I joined.)

I just think that we should have set time intervals in which we advance the plot a week, a month, or whatever.  I like the sedate pace too, but it would still be nice to let Rae hit that Slipstream drive. With the current pace before the recent message from Auctor that 1 hour might not have happened recently. I WANT to see you do your cool stuff. I want to see people advance their plots and grow their characters. I don't like seeing plots stalled out because there's no advancing of the clock.

Taking time to flesh things out personally its GREAT, it's Wonderful, but I want to see people Accomplish their goals! In a timeframe that makes sense. When I joined the sim I had a plan to make Victor a fighter Pilot after 6 months IC. Because of the pace of the story, it happened in a few weeks IC. YAY I completed my character goals... But that kind of time dilation, doesn't feel organic for me. I want people to achieve their character goals on a clock that makes sense for them.  If making your goals happen in a week IC is for you, great!  But it would be Nice IMO if a Character could have 6 months of IC growth and development in timeframe shorter that 12 IRL years.

Just my two cents on the issue of story pacing. Again to be clear....  Don't reducing the posting time requirements.  Don't Shove people along OOC. But provide regular progression of plot on a set timeframe IRL, and allow them to get to it, and post to it when they like. This is what story objectives are for.

We do X at Time Interval 1, Y at Time Interval 2, and Z at Interval 3.  But that's story and SIM PLOT

Allow personal plot at Intervals 1 and 2 for as long as they wish, and get to PERSONAL plots at Interval 3 whenever.


OTHER LESS CONTROVERSIAL STUFF

Leadership, Brutus, Ellen, Rae

Let's get NPC ships as part of a Flotilla

And by whatever name the sim is, whatever ship, etc, It will be OUR Theurgy form this point forward unless we get plot notes/sketches from Auctor. It would be nice to finish the story that was planned, but we'll need those notes.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #31 –
Hello all,

Wrote this while waiting for my car repairs and when I returned home from work, I completed some of the additional documents. Please forgive me, @Dumedion, for stealing some of your thunder with a few supplementary documents.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #32 –
Commenting on those that already have with my thoughts...

@rae : I choose the stay on Theurgy, fight the Infested option for the following reasons..

•   Using the framework we have established already for plot saves us all time and creative energy (vs. building an entirely new plot/ship(s?)/crew
•   I propose this as a way to hold AL a spot until the end of the year in case his IRL situation improves enough to return. A lot can happen in the time between now and then.

I also second @Brutus for over-all shot-caller. We need someone to step up and steer the boat. While more than one person doing this sounds great on paper, in reality, IMO/experience, it’s a fucking mess and will only cause drama.

Teams and what-not, sure, but one person gives the go ahead. If Brutus has no interest in this role, I nominate you @rae; mostly bc I believe you are capable and have the best interests of us all at heart, but also just to hear you complain about it. :D

@Tae : I apologize, but respectfully, I don’t understand what you are trying to pitch here. How will that work without reducing the 10 day reply rule? How will we maintain cohesion by allowing everyone to post at whatever time intervals they like? That sounds like absolute chaos.

@Ellen Fitz : Interesting ideas but would prefer not to make such changes until after the new year or until we conclude Ep 2; as we discussed – or let the Theurgy die to be reborn again entirely. If we choose to stay for now, then after the end of the year whatever becomes of Theurgy will be ours in entirety. Then we can decide all the things, and make whatever changes we want. (and no apologies necessary; I hope my contributions help maintain the spirit and integrity of this community, whether I play a part in it or not).

That’s all for now. Need more coffee.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #33 –
I really don't think we need to change the posting time requirements. All I'm really proposing is that we set expectations for when to expect MAJOR progression.

When to or not yo lock out old chapters isn't even something I'm discussing. I'm not proposing we light fires under peopkes asses for posting (lord knows I'd be a hypocrite) it would just be nice to have expectations of how long plot takes to progress going forward and when to expect it.

This is something that matters for me. I don't want characters and plots to float in the aether forever, I want us to chart a course.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #34 –
@Tae – All progression is subject to external factors:

•   Time to brainstorm ideas
•   Time to share, debate, collaborate
•   Time to finalize decisions
•   Real life (personal issues, work, sickness, mental health, etc.)
•   Some people write quickly, others write slowly
•   Some view ‘expectations’ as deadlines; in a place that is meant to be fun, for escapism from the pressures of RL, this is (IMO) unreasonable and unfair, and can potentially ruin the entire point of the whole affair altogether.

That said, I see no reason why we shouldn’t continue with the Story Workshops and the like, and always throw out ideas for future shenanigans. But to consider concrete ‘expectations’ (in regards to future plot direction) is unreasonable.

Just my fiddly cents. I have to real life now.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #35 –
I hear what you're saying Dumedion. I didn't want to prose an actual time frame, but now ill do so.

I'm not proposing a 1 year IRL to I year in game time frame. That's patently ridiculous.

I also think the 12 IRL years to 6 IC
months time frame we've had is also patently ridiculous.

I think 2 IRL years to 6 IC months

Or 4 IRL years to 6 IC months might be doable and maintain the integrity we've come to expect. ((I'm not sure even most of the current writers have been in the game for 4 years or longer.))

  It speeds up plot, and hey has the side benefit of letting us to holiday and birthday threads.



Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #36 –
There are problems with arbitrary time constraints. It's all well and good to try and match OOC and IC time, but in the end, that causes more problems than it solves. We would no longer have flexibility; each story would need to cover a longer period of time. Episode 05 featured some wonderful storytelling, but since that whole thing only lasted a week IC and 18 months OOC, it wouldn't be doable with the time constraint.

One option is to simply have more big story stuff happen during the Interregnums, assuming we keep that narrative structure.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #37 –
Well I'd say that whoever writes the plot points, whatever group comes up with that should state how  long we should probably spend on that. 18 months is a long time to spend on a week, but there has to be something we can figure out. 

I just like having expectations set, and time frames and schedules make sense to me. Even if we don't spend the same amount of OOC time for every IC time block, I do think whoever writes plot should state how much ooc time we're spending on stuff.

Irl months may be too short of a time frame for most stuff. While a year might be fine for an IC week.

These are just thoughts.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #38 –
@Ellen Fitz - You are a star. My suggestion would be to up the required applicant response time from 5 days to the same 10 day limit we use for replies.

@Dumedion - *Complains*
jk. I also like the idea of one person on top the best. But that can get really exhausting and stressful for that person, which is why I added an option for more than one.

@Tae - There seems to be a disconnect here between what you want, and the ramifications of what you want. You can't keep everything the same except for the speed the plot moves. This sim is currently moving at the natural speed of the writers. When players finish, the plot moves onto the next part. You cannot forcibly speed up the plot without forcibly speeding up the writers. I'm sorry you don't like it, and I'm sorry you think it's ridiculous, but 12 years to 6 months is the pace this sim naturally goes at. If you want to forcibly drop that to 4 years to 6 months, you're telling everyone they need to write 3x faster to make that possible.

As a hypothetical, let's to back to this IC week that took 18 months IRL: Before everything starts, the GMs set the expectation that the Theurgy's wild week will take us a year to finish. But we don't set any new speed rules for players, so the sim continues at it's normal pace. 12 months go by, and we're only 2/3 of the way done. Then you have to ask the question: what do we do now? Do you force the players to wrap everything up immediately, because we said it will only take a year? But you don't want to forcibly end and lock threads either, so you can't do that. You can open up the week 2 anyway, set some time expectations, let people start RPing there too. And maybe some of the faster writers do, people with more thread capacity who can carry a load in both weeks. The rest are either going to feel rushed to start the new thing, or ignore it for 6 months while they finish doing what they were doing. But oops. Our expectation for the next IC week was only 6 months IRL, so by the time most people have finished week 1, week 3 is open.

The longer you go, the more behind people are going to get.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #39 –
Yeah, well, my idea for moving plot forward isn't ideal @rae but we can at least discuss it and find something that can potentially work. I know I'm not the only one that wants things to move a bit faster. I mean, if i could see one thing change, this is it. I think we can make it work with enough effort put towards the idea. I'm happy to try and come up with a more fleshed out proposal, I will. But If you're telling me to drop it, I will do that as well.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #40 –
I apologise for presenting the teams/committees idea as it has been received. I intended them to be the support network for the elected gamemasters that want to step up. They weren't supposed to replace the gamemasters, as it seems people took the idea, simply support. Like department heads as it has been said. This is for out of character running the sim only by the way.

So do the nominees accept Gamemasterhood? Does anyone else want to step up?

If the teams/committees are to go ahead, who would like to be on what team?
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Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #42 –
I am fine with the proposed leader structure and Brutus being the head. Especially with the tenure here and knowledge of AL and the plot. I also think having department teams / leaders for the sections to manage like the site, applicants, etc is a good idea to not get bogged down.

As badly as I want Pierce to captain a ship and have her own, I am also just as passionate about having my characters stay on the ship. I like the plot and while I agree 18 months to progress is a long time. Real life comes first.

I am in favor of keeping to the status quo with the plot until we find a natural conclusion to wrap the infested storyline up and progress further. Also might be interesting to have the proposed Thea theft and Ives and his characters leave on a shuttle to find her. Even if that means through the looking glass. In that case, the replacement AI would be ideal and if we're getting a new captain, I propose that it's someone who is going to be or one of the up to 3 admin for the sim itself to avoid someone with less knowledge of where this ship is steering from taking things in an unnatural direction.

I'd also want to revisit some character options. With the ship possibly staying or going to a new ship, I'd like to see more ability to move a character's department or get another pip if they've been on the ship a while or options to kill them off. Side note, this for me is Tessa lol. Hence why I was tempted to kill her off multiple times. But we also need a system that if a character is in inheritance lane too long we off them too in some fashion so as to not bottleneck for new applicants or characters from existing writers. Different discussion here regardless but wanted to bring it up while it was in my mind.

So far I am agreeance with everyone's thoughts as it seems we all want what's best for the sim and that's great to see. But as for what I'd like to volunteer for, I am capable in various areas from websites, hosting, graphics for web and some modifications for characters (see Alana on the transporter pad on profile), writing and story concepts (I watch a lot of Trek).

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #43 –
On leadership roles...

@rae - After consideration, I understand better what was proposed and I agree. A triad makes sense insofar as each of the three stick to their lanes (web maintenance, plot, etc.). To me, ideally, the top dog would only have to review and approve/deny crucial decisions; thus alleviating some stress of his/her shoulders. Granted, I've never done such in this setting (with so many people) so I have no idea what I'm talking about.

@Pierce - in regards to character changes for current PCs (position moves/promotions/deaths); I know a few have voiced dissatisfaction with their PCs. I'd think that if yall wanted to make changes then you should be able to do so, so long as everyone is OK with it? Perhaps something to pitch to whatever plot team develops? Or just throw it out there to whoever we decide takes the helm (when we get there). side note, poor Tessa :(

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #44 –
Hi Everyone,

I'm going to post some thoughts here and I hope everyone can bear with me.

1) Leadership.

I believe that overall leadership should go to Brutus (should he accept the role) with Rae and another writer being his seconds. Together, the 3 of them are in charge. Below them we have the departments that either they or others are a part of that get stuff done.

2) Plot Future.

As most of you know, I have been working on a conglomeration of plot ideas that could be used to determine where we go from our current position. While I am not going to post the exhaustive list here, I would like to offer a small summary of what I have so far and how we could progress.

***This summary is by no means an exhaustive depiction of the potential plotlines that could be followed and serves only as a guide to highlight a selection of what the future may hold.***

Option 01 – The Theurgy Remains as the Primary Vessel
•   This option is the easiest upon which to adapt the future of the sim, only requiring the determination of the outcomes for the various characters utilised by Auctor Lucan. Nominally, only Thea and Nicander are plot-wise required; the remaining characters can either be put into stasis, killed, or leave the ship through various means. Alternatively, some may be put up for adoption, per Lucan’s request, or returned to NPC status. (Ideally, I would leave as many of these characters as alive as possible so that Lucan, if the opportunity for his return arises, he has someone he can write.)
•   With the Ives character removed from command, a new Captain for the Theurgy will be required. In the interim, Commander Stark would assume this role, with the potential for it to become permanent depending on plot choices. These choices can be summed up in three ways:
1) Stark remains as Captain permanently, with other characters being promoted to fill roles as needed. This is the easiest as it does not require the creation of any characters or the finding of anyone to fill roles.
2) We undertake a mission to recover Captain Ziegler and she is assumed as a character by a writer or written as an NPC as needed.
3) A new captain is determined by the plot, either sent by Admiral Anderson, or transferred from another ship we encounter along the way.

Option 02 – The Theurgy is No Longer the Primary Vessel
•   This option would see the USS Theurgy removed from the sim in such a way that it could no longer be utilised as the primary means of transport and setting for the crew. Be that as a vessel trapped somewhere, crashed, missing or destroyed. This would require the crew to obtain a new vessel through means TBD that would fulfil the needs of the plot to a minimum degree as follows:
A) It would need to be of a sufficient size to be able to transport 12-18 Fighters of a runabout size within its shuttlebays. It would also need to be able to transport additional shuttlecraft for story purposes.
B) It would need to have a sufficient crew capacity to fulfil the needed ‘redshirt’ positions our story requires. Additionally, it would supply an adequate means of allowing new writers and characters to appear without overt intervention.
C) It would need to have sufficient capabilities (Range, Durability, Speed, Tactical Systems, Science Systems) to fulfil the needs of the plot as it develops.
•   Given the above points, in my opinion, taking in canon ships (Memory-Alpha as well as Theurgy) as well as the ease of art availability and information for the ships, we would be limited to perhaps 6 Federation ship classes: Odyssey, Sovereign, Galaxy, Nebula, Orcus (Vesta subclass) and Akira. Each of these ships comes with various pros and cons that can be discussed at a later stage depending on choices made. Additionally, ships from other states (Klingon, Romulan, etc) could be chosen, again with various pros and cons both within the sim, and without.

Option 03 – The Sim RESETS to a Different Plot altogether
•   This one is kind of self-explanatory. We can do whatever we want. But it does negate everything we have developed so far to one degree or another. At the bare minimum, all we would keep is the memories of lives no longer relevant to the world they now occupy. (Think Picard 3x01/02 Confederation.)
•   To reset the characters’ histories, interactions and backstories would be a disservice to everything we have done up to now. This should not be an option.

It is my opinion that we go with Option 01. We are Theurgy. We need the Theurgy.

That said, I also have random ideas that would have us obtaining an NCC-79854-A USS Theurgy, because reasons.


Edited due to below nomination. Thanks Nes.

If it is the will of the people, I will serve.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #45 –
Hello there!

Here's my two cents regarding my ideas for the future.


-Leadership
I agree that overall leadership should go to Brutus. He’s the longest serving Theurgist and we’ve all come to know and respect him as an amazingly friendly guy who knows how to write a good story. The idea to appoint two others as his seconds to prevent potential burn-outs is a good one, and I would like to nominate Stegro88 and Eirual for those roles; my reasons being that Stegro is also a friendly guy and long-term veteran Theurgist with a solid understanding of the story, and Eirual is a very experienced game master who definitely knows her business when it comes to running a game.

-Plot Future
I would like to propose that we stay aboard the USS Theurgy. Auctor Lucan and every other writer, both current and those who came before us, poured years into developing the ship. We have a solid infrastructure which is, quite honestly, the envy of a lot of other Star Trek games out there and it wouldn’t make sense to just give it all up. In my opinion we’d be throwing away a big part of our identity (we’re named after the ship, after all) and what makes this game so amazing. I mean, why should we re-invent the wheel just because we need to change the rims?

Bad comparison is bad, but I hope you get my drift.

In terms of Captain, I see two options.
-Captain Natalie Stark would be a good choice which I would definitely support if chosen by a majority of the writers. Brutus is a very solid writer and we all know Natalie is an equally solid character. I’m not completely unbiased, but I think I can safely say that I like her.

However, there’s somewhat of a “but…” here and I do want to point out that she’s made incredible progress within the span of roughly one IC year. It’s an attribute to Brutus’ good writing and Natalie’s solid personality and character design that she managed to process everything that came at her like that without cracking under the pressure, but how far should we be willing to push Natalie? From a logical standpoint, Admiral Anderson would give her a burden that most likely even kept Captain Ives up at night, and Jien Ives was someone with a lot of command experience. I’m not entirely convinced that it would make sense if the Admiral were to throw everything and the kitchen sink (I’ve always wanted to use that saying!) onto Natalie’s shoulders, given how we are currently all that’s keeping the infected from achieving their goals.

I’m not saying that Natalie is unsuited for the role though. I’ve called her a prodigy on numerous occasions and I still think it’s amazing that she hasn’t cracked under the pressure of everything that’s thrown at her already. I just think that it would be better if she were to obtain command experience under the mentorship of an experienced Commanding Officer. Given that Edward Jellico was promoted to Admiral and assigned to Starfleet Headquarters, he's not an option but that leaves me with a good alternative…

-Captain Anya Ziegler, who would be my primary choice as our new Captain and Natalie’s mentor. She used to be Theurgy’s original Executive Officer so she knows the ship inside out, she knows the crew and there’s mutual respect; not just between her and the crew, but also between her and Natalie. In my honest opinion, that makes her the ideal candidate as mentor. Not only that, but she’s been on the frontline with us and knows about both the infected threat and about what’s at stake if we fail.

I know that Captain Ziegler was technically killed in Prologue: Edge of Chaos, but I have an idea here. Well, two ideas but I know there’s been some resistance to my original suggestion of introducing StegQ; it would’ve been an interesting rescue mission, but I won’t bring up that idea anymore. Which brings me right to my second idea. In the prologue, Captain Anya Ziegler was apparently killed by none other than Lucan cin Nicander, and even though this Nicander was someone from an alternate timeline, this was never clearly established. This leaves us with an out.

What if it was nothing but a fever dream? Let’s face it, Captain Anya Ziegler has been locked up for months, and she’s now locked up in a prison cell adjacent to a laboratory. She watched how some of her crew were liquified. If the Infested had wanted her dead, they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of keeping her alive just to torment her like that; quite frankly, she would have been killed a long time ago. It is my interpretation that they have use for her. They want to break her for some greater end, and killing her like that is simply illogical. It wastes all the time they’d spent tormenting her.

No, I believe that she’d wake up from her ordeal with a scream, drenched in cold sweat, but still very much alive and still in her prison cell. Maybe very close to mentally breaking down and giving in to the Infected, but still alive. Admiral Anderson would have someone on the inside to keep track of the entire situation and, realizing that Anya is about to reach her breaking point, would finally risk it all to send an encrypted message to the Admiral. At that point, Admiral Anderson would reach out to the crew of the USS Theurgy and present them with a new mission; sneaking in a small, covert team to extract Captain Ziegler and bring her back to the ship.

I can see how this becomes an amazing mission for Intelligence and Security. PLUS, I would imagine that Captain Ives might even lead the mission himself given that this involves his former Executive Officer and what might be at stake if she were to actually succumb to the Infected and their agenda. I can see a huge fight between Captain Ives and the Lucan cin Nicander from the alternate timeline; a fight which Captain Ives wins, but at such a high cost that we have no choice but to place him in stasis back aboard Theurgy.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #46 –
Just to add to what's already been suggested: a common idea involves Ives leading all of Lucan's old characters on a mission where...er...well, let's just say that "something happens". That's fine, but I have another thought: the Infested get a win. An Infested strike team attacks the Theurgy in Episode 02 and, while they're unable to destroy the ship, they do capture Ives, Thea and the others. The rest of the crew are left to process this shock, giving us lots of yummy story to get our teeth into.

The Theurgy can operate perfectly well without Thea, heretical as that may sound. The ship took on a honking great Borg cube without her, after all, and we can always get another AI later on.

TL;DR: in Episode 02, the Infested board the Theurgy, go on a rampage and capture all of Auctor's characters, leaving them available for the future.

Second: Nat is among my favourite characters, but she just isn't ready to be CO on a permanent basis. Ziegler has baggage and complications. I wholeheartedly believe that we should have a brand new character turn up to be CO.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #47 –
My thoughts

When I joined first time round I created Vanya.       I had other hobby responsibilities and while Theurgy appealed, I was asked to leave,     

I stepped  back from those responsibilities some time after for other reasons but thought thr Theurgy Bridge was burned       

Then COVID happened and I had gone from one gaming tourney or Sci fi convention 3 weeks out of 4 to…. Nothing     i joined a sim but it wasn't Theurgy.    

Figuring AL can only say "no" I rejoined.     I  created Foval and figured Vanya was someone else's.    So I had a new ID and a avoided linking myself to her.    A few months after that  I got her back and came out about it to everyone.    Since then I've struggled at times (writing with cataracts is tough) but I've only ever gotten friendly reminders from AL as opposed to the written warnings from before.      

All of this is to say its really hard to prescribe time limits on people, but I do respect we need to have some standards of post rates    it I'd caution against a hard and fast rule.           

In terms of mission- I say stay on Theurgy.    I've got no problem with Captain Nat      We aren't exactly in the chain of Command here.      Dead Man and sometimes woman's shoes seems the best.     

I would endorse Bru for the top job in terms of being the GM only if he has a team to support him      

 My super power is a knowledge of Trek (I've been called memory alpha on legs) so if I can help in that regard I'm at your service   
Inhabiting my head are:

[Lt. Vanya |Assistant Science Officer| USS Theurgy]

[Lt. J.G Foval |Assistant Diplomatic Officer |USS Theurgy]

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #48 –
I'll toss in my half-penny since most of this has been quite well discussed already.

1) Leaderahip

All hail King Brutus. I'm also for Rae as the number two. I'd be happy to help with any committees that need the bodies, though my technical and artistic skills are quite lacking.

2) Plots

I'm for staying on the ship. Cobbling to up a new ship sounds like a massive complication and I just flat out don't like the idea of a reset since it would be great to finish the main plot.

I agree with the logic @Griff has on Nat being too short on time and experience for being permanent Captain, but I also think that adds to the spice situation since in-game, there may not be enough time for Anderson to come up with a new Captain that he trusts with the truth of the situation.  He may not have conaidered that Ives was going to disappear. Natalie may have no choice but to grow into it, along with anyone we throw into the exec slot. While Zeigler may be the best option of a Captain available, it's hard to say whether the crew will follow her. If she's unable to cope with the baggage and complications, we'd be staring down the barrel of another mutiny on a ship that has had too many at this point.

Still for the idea that someone else won that caused Ives to depart, whether it's the Infested, or even the Romulans, maybe as the cats paw for the Infested.

We could also find a way to grab a new AI to give everyone something new to contend with, raise and even teach. Cough Azrin and Ops Cough

As for posting times, life happens, so all we can ask for is patience with each other, but to also keep your partners in the loop so they don't think they've been ghosted. I'd still keep the response time as strongly recommended for most threads. If it's plot/reward critical, then it should be a harder deadline unless it's publicly stated life is getting in the way.

Re: Theurgy: The Next Generation

Reply #49 –
 So I’ve caught up on this and wanted to interject my thoughts on a couple of the topics that have popped up.  
 
 
Direction of the SIM
Been thinking a lot about this one and I am also of the camp that we are probably best suited to stay on board Theurgy as we know her.   Whether we keep the continuity as is, or do a ‘soft’ re-start, I think we’re best served on this ship that we’ve come to know and to love. 
 
Leadership Team
Add me to the list of supporters for a Brutus, Rae, and third Writer leadership team with committees ‘below’ them that they oversee.   It makes the most sense to me and allows multiple people to help make this sim run without overwhelming any single one.
 
Post Interval
I also agree that keeping the ‘standard’ expectation at 10 days is appropriate.   That said, I’d also like to suggest that there be leniency when agreed upon by the writers of any given thread.   For example, I was working with a writer on a 1 on 1 thread.  We were both at very busy times in our lives.  We spoke many times on discord and agreed that if things went longer than 10 days for either of us on that thread, we understood and neither minded nor cared.  However, that was always tempered by the fear, and yes I will use the word fear, that AL would discover our lagging thread, and come down on us for not maintaining the pace as prescribed. 

I’m not sure there’s an elegant fix to this, and group threads are certainly a different animal.   But I really think that if all the writers in the thread agree to a different posting deadline that may be longer than the standard 10 days, that should be permitted as well.
 
Timeline Skips – AKA “The Natalie Stark Problem”
(TL,DR: Planned time skips in between episodes or chapters within an episode should be considered in order to permit characters to progress on story arcs that would naturally take longer.  There is precedence for this in Trek canon, and by not permitting any form of time skip, some of these longer arks are being made to feel a bit awkward.  Planned and plotted time jumps could be very beneficial)
 
First and foremost, please know that I have spoken to Brutus about using Natalie as an example and he is fully on board. 

I would be lying if I said I fully understand the ins and outs of the timeline conversation, and I do agree that trying to align game time to IRL time is a failing formula.  But at the same time, we can not ignore the fact that this sim has been running 12 years and barely 6 months of game time has been covered.  So, in that regard, I do agree that accelerating the timeline a little is a worthy discussion to have. 

I have a suggestion for that.

Lets look at Natalie Stark as an example.  According to Brutus, Natalie was made Acting First officer somewhere around the “end of the Aldea Arc” and was in place in that role when Season 2 Episode 1 began.  She was then promoted sometime during the interregnum between Episode 1 and 2 of Season 2.

Auctor’s thread that launched “Advent of War” started on June 17, 2020, almost 25 months ago to the day. 
 
As writers, we have been working in the mindset of “Natalie Stark is our Executive officer” for over two years.   But… According to the in-game calendars, she has only been executive officer for 25 days.  Advent of war spanned 4 days.   Qu’Nos shore leave has spanned 21 days.    But therin lays the problem.   In game, Natalie has only a “time in grade” of less than a month.   Which, under most circumstances is far too short a period for her to serving as an executive officer (with no prior experience) and be considered qualified as a commanding officer.  There are certainly exceptions both in practicality and in canon, but for the purposes of this, let’s put that aside.
 
I believe the cause of this issue was, in part, due to AL’s hesitation to skip time between episodes, or between chapters within episodes.  Since I joined in November of 2019, every single day that has passed on Theurgy, has been accounted for.   I do not believe this is necessarily necessary.
 
I believe that we can (and should) plan for skips in time between the end of one episode and the start of another.  I believe we can (and should) not be afraid to skip time within an episode.  This would allow us as writers to help build out some of our character arcs that are stagnating because “not enough time has passed in game for X to happen” despite the fact we’ve been writing for months.  Over the course of three game days, my own character has come to believe her spouse is dead, mourned her, moved on, and started up a new relationship.   That doesn’t seem very practical as an outsider looking in (even for a Vulcan), but it’s accepted because it took months to write those three days.  If we permit planned time skips between chapters and entire episodes, it would be easier to allow our characters to grow “behind the scenes” so we can propel story lines that work better on a longer-term scale.
 
There is plenty of precedence for large gaps of time being not accounted for in Trek canon.   I’m looking at “Year of Hell”.  I’m looking at “Thirty Days”, as well as the 3 month jump from the end of Season 5 of DS9 to the start of Season 6 as well as the multiple month jump between Season 6 and 7.  I’m looking at “Lessons”.  I’m looking at “The Inner Light” and “The Visitor”; episodes that used time jumps in the narrative to span an entire lifetime.   I’m looking at the entire third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as the time intervals between Star Trek’s II, III, and IV. 
 
The passage of time can be a very effective narrative tool when used properly.  It is one that we have shied away from here on Theurgy, but I strongly encourage it to be considered going forward.  I do not believe it should be done willy-nilly, nor do I believe it should be up to each individual writer to just magically pass a week of time for their character(s) whenever they feel like it, because I do agree it will lead to eventual chaos.  But if utilized between episodes or between chapters of an episode, I believe it could be a very useful, and welcome tool for the sim as a whole.

 
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