ORIGINS: Proposal

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ASR: ORIGINS Proposal Created SD 600510

INTRODUCTION
============

Everything had changed.  A doorway has opened.

The ships are legendary: ENTERPRISE...YORKTOWN...LEXINGTON...CONSTELLATION...
FARRAGUT...

The names are heroic: Pike...Kirk...Decker...Tracey...Garrovik...

A doorway has opened that cannot be closed.  What were once legends are again
only metal and conduit.  Who were once heroes are again only mortals.  

A new path has begun.  The time to become legends again, to become heroes again,
is now.

A new beginning has arrived. Join us.


1. GENERAL INFORMATION
======================

This is a proposal to begin a new ASR-offshoot PBeM group, called "ASR: Origins."
"Origins" will be a writing group specifically designed to explore the alternate
timeline opened up in the latest Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams.  That movie will
serve as the main inspiration for "Origins."  As such, "Origins" will not have a
direct impact on the stories, plotlines or technologies developed in and for ASR.


2.  BACKGROUND
==============

The setting of "Origins" will be around 2260, just after the events of Star Trek
(that movie took place in 2258), around 160 years BEFORE the current ASR timeline.

This setting is important, as it will affect everything about the club: the
technologies available, the storylines open to development, the writing style,
etc.


2.1  The Federation and the Geopolitical Situation
==================================================
The Federation of 2260 is a much different than the Federation of 2421.  This is
a smaller Federation, much more closely centered around the core systems of Earth,
Andor and Tellar.  It is a Federation where Vulcan has been destroyed and the
Vulcan race nearly eradicated, its 10,000 survivors now endangered species on
a colony planet.  It is a Federation of far fewer resources with which to respond
to threats.  

And it is a Federation of exploration and discovery.  Unlike the galaxy of 2421, 
there are still large parts of the galaxy still unexplored.  Though the Klingons 
and the Romulans have been discovered, there are no Gorn, Tholians, Dalriada or 
Cardassians- they have yet to be discovered.  There is no Borg, as far as we know.
Though these facts may change- the landscape we once knew has been altered.

The Klingons are aggressive, and they do not like us.  We're in their way.  And they
don't miss an opportunity to remind us of this.

The memories of the Federation-Romulan War are far closer to the surface, the scars
far more recent.  However, despite Nero's timeline-altering appearance, the Romulans 
have closed their borders and have kept to themselves for many years.  Will they
that way?  We USED to know...but not any more.  Is this a golden opportunity, or
a precursor to war?

The Federation is still young, still growing.  By 2421, Starfleet patrolled a huge
expanse, requiring hundreds of ships just to protect and aid its member worlds.
However, in 2260, the Federation was a nascent one- growing, searching out new 
races and species to become members in friendship and mutual benefit.  It was less
a military organization than a diplomatic or scientific group.  Only events 
afterwards changed that- events that, for all intents and purposes, are no more.


2.2  Starships
--------------
This was the era of the great CONSTITUTION-class cruiser- generally referred to 
simply as a "starship" in deference to its role as a "star-jumper," moving from 
system to system in peaceful exploration.  It was the most modern ship of its time, 
and reflected the priorities of early Starfleet: she was equipped with expansive 
science and medical labs, with staffs to match.  Its crew compliment of 430 souls
was nearly double that of any other ship.

These ships also carried powerful- for their time- weapons and defensive systems:
phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, even a point defense system.  They were more
than capable of defending themselves and others if need be.  But the CONSTITUTION-
class starships were not built around their weapons; they were ships of peaceful
exploration, its crews more scientists and diplomats than soldier.

However, these magnificent ships were not cheap, and given the far more limited
resources available to Starfleet, there were far fewer of these capital ships than
one might expect.  From 2258-2266, only 12 of these massive ships were constructed.
Very often, they were literally "The only ship in the quadrant."

Technologically, though at the cutting edge of technology in 2260, these ships are
far inferior to those of 2421.  There are no pulse phasers, phaser cannons, quantum 
flux torpedoes, multiphasic shields, transwarp drive, d-warp drive systems, or
holodecks.  Warp 8 was considered emergency speed only; impulse drive was a simple
ion-thrust drive, not the modern gravity planing drives of ASR today.  Combat of
that era was usually more "up close and personal," given the reduced ranges and 
capabilities of the weapons as compared with today's.


2.2  The Starship Captain
-------------------------
The Captain of one of these starships enjoyed a freedom of command most modern 
officers do not.  As they were typically the "man on the spot" so to speak, the
Captain had a wide breadth of discretion as to the course of action he could take
to settle a dispute, tempt a planet to join the Federation, etc.  Starfleet Command-
and by extension, the Federation- had little choice but to accept the Captain's
decisions on the spot given the scarecity of other resources available.  He was,
by definition, the Voice of the Federation wherever he went.

However, the Captain DID have a guiding hand- the Genmeral Orders, the most 
important of which was General Order #1, or the "Prime Directive." The Captain was
expected to consider these General Orders inviolate, and operate within their 
boundaries.

The reality, however, was that it was not unusual for the Captains to bend, even 
outright break these regulations if some greater purpose was served; Starfleet
accepted the treatment of these rules as guidelines tacitly for the most part, so
long as that greater purpose was served.  If it backfired, however, the Captain 
could find himself cooling his heels in a general court martial.  There was certainly
a risk associated with breaking regulations if one failed.

General Order #1, however, was considered inviolate in reality as well as in theory.  
That order was not to be broken, regardless of the circumstances.

Those facts bring with it a pressure to succeed, to get results, and therefore a
Captain also had a wide breadth of discretion with regards to his shipboard
chain of command.  Officers who performed well and showed ability could be promoted
quickly; those who did not could find themselves cast aside just as quickly.

Lastly, all of this freedom, this pressure to succeed, combined with the scarcity in
their number (there were only 12 at any given time), created an 'esprit de corps'
aongst these officers; they were almost a fraternity all their own.  They worked 
together, they played together when they could, addressed each other by their first 
names in a departure from strict military decorum, and while they may not have all 
liked each other, they all respected one another for the job with which they were
tasked- the bond of common interest.

Truly, it was a time unlike any other in Starfleet.  It was the Age of Sail in space;
It was Horatio Hornblower with warp drive.


3. GAMEPLAY ADMINISTRATION
==========================

Initially, it is unlikely that "Origins" will be anything but a glorified "free
thread" to begin with, until numbers go up.  The initial goal is to aim for 
establishing and crewing two units (the efforts to find interested parties outside
of ASR are taking place as of this writing), with expansion available if the
interest is there.  Two units does not make for a fleet, however, and as such do not
require additional senior administrative support than is already in place.  Until
such a time when and if 3-4 of these "Origins" units are active, the senior unit
CO can act as the liaison ("The Commodore") with the Flag Council and the CSFO.
This CO would have no formal entry into the FC; only when sufficient "Origins"
unit numbers are met would this position be on the fleet commander level.

Eventuall, it is hoped that the administrative set-up of "Origins" would roughly 
mirror current ASR administrative practices in that there would be a "fleet 
commander" overseeing the individual starship "units".  There will be no level of 
administration between the "fleet commander" and the units themselves; not only is 
this not necessary at this early stage of Origin's development, it also helps reflect 
the "freedom" of the Starship Captain of this era: with no fleet bounaries to worry 
about or specific established villains to focus on or stay away from, storyline 
development is considerably more open and freer than in "Classic" ASR.

This freedom, while greater, is not completely without boundaries: exploration 
missions and missions of "local flavor" (answer a local distress call, answering a
petition of a local govenrment, etc.) are encouraged, with confrontations between
Federation and Klingon or Romulan forces less frequent- this should not be a 
problem, since so much less of the galaxy has been explored or "spoken for."  "To 
seek out new life and new civilizations" will be the motto of Origins.

However, remember that the Federation was somewhat like the "Old West" in 2260, and
that means that, while the Romulans and Klingons might affectively be "further away"
if not in reality, that does not mean skrimishes won't happen.  Exploring the past
enmity between Federation and Klingon cultures, after so many years of friendship and
relative peace, is an intriguing posibility

And remember: everything is new- Nero has wiped the slate clean.  That makes the
possibilities nearly endless.

In keeping with the spirit of the era, each unit would be one of the CONSTITUTION-
class starships, with the exception (for copyright reasons) of the ENTERPRISE.
This gives us an operational ceiling of 11 units- plenty of room for future 
expansion if it is warranted.

The end goal of this would be to develop and maintain the off-the-cuff, renegade
"flavor" of the era and allow this to come through in the writing.


4. GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
=====================

This will be a PBeM group, just as ASR is.  Posts will be submitted to a central post
archive on Yahoo (we can use ASR's if it is desired for advertising reasons- we can 
always tag the posts [ORIGINS] to differentiate them from "normal" ASR posts) as well
as a unit archive.  Unit archives will be open for public viewing, the posts capped at 
PG-13.  Again, all this mirrors typical PBeM practice.

The group would also need to maintain a web presence separate (though, again, it could 
be linked or even a subdomain of ASR if it is desired) from ASR, since units, 
technologies and universe backgrounds would be markedly different.  This site can either
be a wiki portal within ASR's wiki, or something completely separate.  My suggestion
would be for a "origins.alt-starfleet-rpg.org" subdomain, or something along those 
lines.

One additional note: with the possibility of so many new players joining "Origins,"
soem consideration must be given to training these raw players to ASR's format and
get them used to writing in a shared fiction environment.  My initial thoughts on this
is that each new unit, as it comes online, completes a short "mini-mission" of about a
month or so in real-time length, designed to give the players the chance to learn HOW
to write for ASR and HOW to write off of each other.  Think of it as bing akin to the
old ALB holodeck training, except it will be live (i.e. not in a holodeck since they
were not around in 2260) and perhaps expanded beyond 4 players.  The individual unit
CO's would be tasked with developing the mini-mission and making sure the players are
not just writing, but given appropriate constructive criticism when needed.


5. ISSUES
=========

One issue that is bound to come up is the issue of commanding a "free thread"- are
"classic" unit CO's to be allowed to command an "Origins" unit?

Arguments for allowing this would probably revolve around the idea that this is
such a radical departure from "classic" ASR that it is almost a separate group 
altogether...and as such it would not be the same as commanding two ASR units.
We've certainly had players commanding units in both ASR and other PBeM groups
and SIMS before.

Arguments against allowing this, as I see it, are simply that running two units
is against ASR's written rules.  That can always be circumvented ("free threads" 
have often played by their own sets of rules)...but it does not address the
workload a player running more than one unit would have.  To me, that is the
single largest concern: can a player running more than one unit put the effort
necessary to adequately command more than one unit?  Historically, the answer
has been "no."  But, then again, as mentioned above, how many players have 
commanded units outside of ASR that we don't know about?  Certainly some...have 
they all been "bad captains?"  We have no way of knowing.

My personal feeling is this: we aloow "free threads" to follow a different set
of rules regarding command, and let the individual CO candidates decide for 
themselves, with the understanding that the leash is a bit shorter than it
might otherwise be- the first sign of trouble, and a change is made for the
good of the "free thread" and the classic unit in question.


6. REQUIREMENTS
===============

- An administrator/liaison CO to run "Origins" (presumably me, since the idea is 
	mine).
- Interested potential captains.
	* Me (CONSTELLATION or FARRAGUT, I think)
	* Tim Sowards has expressed an interest in running a unit.  I've
		not said a thing.  I think I'd be more comfortable with him as
		perhaps my XO, personally.  I am certainly not going to let him
		resign as OSYSSEUS CO- especially after what happened when he took
		THAT command- to take this on.
- Crew (to be recruited individually by the captains, mostly from outside of ASR)
- A Yahoo presence (to be opened only after interest is confirmed).
- Development of either a wiki or web-based information archive.
	* origins.alt-starfleet-rpg.org
- Individual unit post archives (to be opened only upon launch of units).
- Develoment of starship specs and graphics (only after interest is confirmed)
- Supplementary graphical information (some development has already taken place)
	<<http://alt-starfleet-rpg.org/images/insignia/index4.htm>>


7. STATUS
=========

Initial informal recruiting is taking place as we speak.  I do not have firm 
numbers of "interested parties" at this time, but we have had "a handful" 
(READ --> 4-5 people) respond positively to initial inquiries.  That's still a
far cry from 2 units' worth of CONFIRMED AND BIOGRAPHIED players, so we're still
only in the initial developmental stages.  Thus far, all recruiting has taken place
OUTSIDE of ASR.  I intend to keep it that way for the time being- to keep the 
impact on "classic" ASR as low as possible, I want to have a solid core of new
players confirmed and with bios developed before I ask for permission to recruit
veteran players for command slots.  I will not, however, turn away anyone who 
seeks ME out for information. ;)

If permission is given to pursue this, I work up a publishable FAQ that outlines
the concept and the procedures for getting involved and developing a character.


8. FINAL THOUGHTS
=================

I had not intended in getting back involved in anything like this so quickly.
The new movie has definitely lit a fire underneath me, most of which is wrapped
up in its refresshing "reboot" of things.

As always, criticisms, problems, and suggestions are welcome.

Also, as always, thank you for your time.


Respectfully,

-- Scott Lusby
Former CINCSF/CSFO/CINCGOLD
Alt.StarFleet.RPG