This is something that’s been on my mind for a while, but I really started to coalesce how I wanted this to work while I’ve been working on moving the Technical Manual over to the new library system that’s currently in beta. The idea stems from a number of fleet-wide sims that we’ve had over the years, including the Star Wars inspired Seetha epic in the now-retired Fourth (Forceful) Fleet, and more recent attempts at inter-ship RPs in various areas.

The real issue with such RPs is that individual ships are going to post on slightly different timelines, and so keeping everything straight is a bit of a hassle. Well, what if this massive, fleet-wide sim took place all on one board? This goes beyond a standard RP environment because it involves multiple vessels all running simultaneously, and working on the same mission. Hence why the X-Fleet Environment would be called a Task Force. Given that we’re in the time frame of Picard in our mainline sims (although I seem to recall that we aren’t committed to anything seen in Picard as canon because it’s behind a paywall), this would also technically be a retro idea, as the intent is to set it during the Dominion War, using only SSSF-compliant ship classes that are retired because those are the only ones that the club has that existed IC prior to the Dominion War. As such, the vessels would be a mix of (or even one of each of) the Phoenix-class, the Trafalgar-class, the Kearsarge-class, and (although I am loathe to include it, I need to because of a lack of other options) the Nimitz-class.

The players on the ship could choose how many characters they wish to play, although it would definitely be helpful if they played multiple characters. Additionally, if they do play multiple characters, the characters could have completely disparate roles (e.g. someone playing the CO of one vessel could be an Ensign or a bartender on another). The missions in question would actually be tangential to the Dominion War, if only to not risk too much overlap with plot lines from DS9. Still, the rest of the galaxy does continue to spin, and there are other things out there. The Task Force will be born from the hard fact learned from the Dominion and other such encounters - one vessel voyaging among the stars isn’t always the best approach to exploration.

If this sounds like a concept you’d like to join, let me know either via DM in Discord or email.

Nicholas Villarreal