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 Star Trek: Engage is a story-based roleplaying game based in the Star Trek universe, played on an IRC server. As a player, you take on the role of a Starfleet officer in one of several different departments on board a Starship or Space Station. You’ll begin your career as a Cadet and through playing missions you’ll earn accolades and awards, getting promoted up the ladder until one day you might even have command of your very own ship. Promotions are our way of rewarding the better and players and more dedicated writers, as our aim is to have players carry a character or two with them over months or even years, earning promotions as they play. A handful of friends and I have been developing this over the last 6 months after moving away from a similar group. We have around 30 years of experience in running games of this type in the Star Trek universe, so we feel pretty confident in launching Star Trek: Engage for others to play. Format Each “Game” takes place on a specific ship or station, and is played over an hour at a specific time every week. The games are run by a Game Director, who lays out the story, controls some NPCs and plays out the results of your actions if they’re required, acting very much like a PnP DM. However there are no dice, no stats, no numbers, just community storytelling and character building. The Director communicates information that you’ll need throughout the mission, either by PM, in an Out of Character room, or in the Mission Room as an Action that all of the players can see and respond to if necessary. As a Science officer looking at the sensors, the Director might message you that you detect a Romulan warbird decloaking dead ahead. Your next character action could be based on this. If you decide to ignore it, then the consequences will play out, or you could notify the Captain who could then order the Tactical officer (played by someone else) to go to Yellow Alert and raise shields. At this point, the Director could post an Action that the Warbird has now opened fire, then everyone gets to do the Enterprise Shuffle, and so on. Missions are played through like that; the Director giving the players the gist of a story and letting them muddle through and do what they feel they need to, pretty much exactly like PnP only without the pauses to roll dice after every message. This is a creative game and the aim is to have players build their character through pieces of creative writing, or “logs”, posted to the forums, or e-mailed to the ship’s mailing string after every mission. A log is just a piece of writing to progress your character, give the crew an insight into their mood, their goals, their personality, and see how that plays on their relationships during the missions. I’ve been playing this sort of creative game now for nigh-on ten years, and one of the highlights is seeing what people do with the characters they create. Currently We currently have five ships running at different times and on different days, and depending on the playerbase (which is quickly growing, most of whom are experienced roleplayers from similar games, with almost 30 characters total right now) new ships will be added bit by bit. We’re launching on the 17th of February, but we’re giving people time now over the next two weeks to get in, create characters and grab the slots they want before we start running official games. I’ve coded a pretty robust character and ship database for storing everything, giving you easy access ship rosters, character profiles, game transcripts, calendars, etc.. It takes you right through from character creation, to picking the ship you want to play on, and afterwards lets you see services records, choose different assignments and is generally there to make playing and keeping track of your character as simple as possible. We also have a fantastic design person who gives all of the games a personal touch with things like construction patches.  We’re looking for more players, so take a look at what we have - there’s a Handbook for new players you can flick through and a quick test on chat protocols to take before you can make a character. It’s pretty simple, it's mainly there to help familiarise new players with how the game is played. We’ll be running an event on our IRC server this weekend, a game for all of the new players to dip their toes in with some action and excitement, and everyone is welcome to join in or watch if they want to have a taste of what a game session involves. We tend to post events either on the blog, forum or Facebook page which you can find links to at the bottom. Feel free to ask any questions in this thread and I’ll answer what I can! Links Star Trek: Engage Website Forums (Register on the first link) Player Handbook Facebook Page Cthulhuite fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 03:35
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Sounds interesting ill check it out. Our Weekly pnp group is really just a hack and slash. Story based sounds cool. So do all of the ships have a shared continuity? How many players do you have currently?
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Feb 7, 2014 03:47
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Tuxedo Jack posted:Sounds interesting ill check it out. We have a little over 40 players signed up, although not all of them have characters in yet. We'll probably be looking at getting another two or three ships added shortly after launch if demand increases - and we're hoping it will! Each ship or station has it's own little part in the greater Universe, and each Director is free to play that game how they want. But we're going to be running "Community Wide" mission arcs a few times a year, basically one big story that each of the ships play their own part in. Imagine a Borg invasion with the 5 ships we currently have on the roster. The station might be the main focal point for the attack, and their part of the arc (Which could take place over 5-6 game sessions) might be about defending against the Borg and launching a counter offensive. One of the ships might have discovered something which the Borg are looking for and are trying to get there first, and another ship is going into Romulan space to try and get support from them to join in the defense, and yet another ship is starting a counter attack with a weapon they recently picked up in a previous mission arc of their own. The game Directors all work together in the background to tie all the threads into one complete story that all the players take part in, whatever ship they're on, because the actions of one ship might have consequences for another. I've run a few of these in previous games and it's always busy, and it can be complicated for the Directors, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to play.
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Feb 7, 2014 03:58
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Our designer very kindly just shoved this in my face for Saturday's event. If you want to come along and see how the game is played, or if you've made a character and want to get stuck in, this is the time.
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Feb 7, 2014 15:05
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What organisation were you attached to before? This seems to be similar to something that I tried on and off ages ago.
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Feb 7, 2014 15:15
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Tekopo posted:What organisation were you attached to before? This seems to be similar to something that I tried on and off ages ago. It was called ACTD, or A Call To Duty. There's quite a few groups that do something similar. Cthulhuite fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 15:34
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Cthulhuite posted:It was called ACTD, or A Call To Duty. There's quite a few groups that do something similar.
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Feb 7, 2014 16:57
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Tekopo posted:Yeeep, that's the one I was part of. I was part of the forum RP ships, but I stopped posting because I was a slacker and most of the other characters felt like Mary Sues. This was ages ago, mind you, more than 5 years ago. You'll still get the odd Mary Sue here and there, it's a necessary evil sometimes for this type of game, but the majority that I've played with over the years and recently as well have been great. The best are the characters written with an add little quirk that the player just rolls with, because sometimes the annoying characters are the most fun to watch. Did you delve into the chat-based part of it at all? I know they ran Chat and PbP as two separate entities for the most part, I don't think there was much crossover.
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Feb 7, 2014 17:49
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What's the difference between Engage and ACTD? Besides this one being goon run, that is...
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Feb 7, 2014 18:05
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Nope, only did forum PBP: it's what I was used to at the time and I didn't feel confident doing the IRC stuff. I'm gonna sign up for this though! I just felt that everyone else was playing a ~special snowflake~ while I was trying to create guys with faults and crap so it really grated me. The biggest issue was fitting IRC around my schedule, tbh.
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Feb 7, 2014 18:07
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Tuxedo Jack posted:What's the difference between Engage and ACTD? Besides this one being goon run, that is... Obviously, being Goon-run is the most important difference. ST:E gets players in and playing as quick as possible. We don't have any length training processes, it's just a short and (hopefully) interesting Handbook, a short test on chat protocols that takes you through a short scenario as if you're playing in a proper mission, and then you get to create your character. We have a pretty good character creation wizard. You have lots of options for race, family, education and medical history. I've noticed that giving players the options to do things in bite-size steps really promotes creating interesting and detailed characters, and some of the current folk on the roster seem like they'll be really good fun to play with. On top of that, the character database is all custom coded with the game in mind. It has the features that we, as players, wanted and felt others would too and from the feedback we've had already a lot of the playerbase agrees. Everything is easy, you can choose assignments at a click, you can edit characters with new information or see their service records, awards, accolades, promotions, etc. Tekopo posted:Nope, only did forum PBP: it's what I was used to at the time and I didn't feel confident doing the IRC stuff. I'm gonna sign up for this though! I just felt that everyone else was playing a ~special snowflake~ while I was trying to create guys with faults and crap so it really grated me. The biggest issue was fitting IRC around my schedule, tbh. I'm glad you're signing up! We only have the 5 slots right now, and the times are largely based on initial subscriber requests before we launched, but as we get more players we'll be opening up new ships, and there are the forums which i'd like to get more people posting character interactions too and there's a few forums set up specifically for that. We ran a little event last Saturday for some of the new players to meet-and-greet in character, and there were some fantastic bits of roleplaying even from the ones new to the format. One of our new characters is superbly Vulcan, and after talking to one of the experienced characters for a bit came out with this; ST:E posted:<XO_LtCmdr_Sumner> SCI: Oh, I'll probably be heading out tomorrow. We're still getting everything settled, after... well, we're getting it settled. ::puts on what she hopes is a reassuring smile:: Cthulhuite fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 19:05
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So it's like D&D with phasers? Nah I'm kidding, I'm all over this.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:22
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Doc Cylon posted:So it's like D&D with phasers? Nah I'm kidding, I'm all over this. "More Phasers, Less Dice" should be the next thread title. We're running a short test game in about an hour on the IRC server (1400 UTC), and everyone is welcome to come and watch or join in if you feel up to it. I'd love to see a whack of people in there. IRC: chat.startrekengage.com
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Feb 8, 2014 13:51
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Had a ton of fun running a very inventive version of the Kobayashi Maru this morning. I've never done chat based RPG before, but the format really works for Star Trek. Tons of action, no need for dice rollers or anything. It was a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next mission!
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Feb 8, 2014 23:48
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I'm glad you had fun! We had a good handful of people there and everyone got really stuck in, even the people who had no experience with the format. We've had a couple of logs posted on our forums as well, and those are always fantastic, you should definitely stop in and read one or two of them.
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Feb 9, 2014 03:14
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Can I play as a Holodeck Janitor? I'm only halfway kidding.
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Feb 9, 2014 03:59
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Error 404 posted:Can I play as a Holodeck Janitor? We have auxilliary positions for things that don't fit into your usual moulds, for people that feel they can roleplay things like that without getting bored of left out. So if you can sell it to me (Holodeck Janitor or otherwise), you're welcome to clean up the Holodecks after this; 
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Feb 9, 2014 04:06
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Ugh. Gonna need the type 3 scrubbing phaser for that one. For whatever reason Paris and Torres are always fuckin trashing Holodeck 2 with that program. I don't even wanna know what the sticky green lumpy stuff is.  Gonna need a Triolic Pattern enhancer for this job. *takes a nip from a flask of romulan ale*
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Feb 9, 2014 04:11
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_yE6fbTr8 There's always THAT guy...
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Feb 9, 2014 04:13
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Judging by Guinan's look, you're gonna need more than a nip of that Romulan Ale.
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Feb 9, 2014 04:22
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Too bad I missed the intro game you ran is there any more planed or will I just have to jump in? At any rate I've signed up and i'm going to try not to die as a grumpy space security guard.
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Feb 9, 2014 07:37
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wrong way posted:Too bad I missed the intro game you ran is there any more planed or will I just have to jump in? Fantastic, glad you signed up! We've another event planned for Wednesday, and then one last one for Saturday before the Launch on Monday 17th. The Wednesday event will likely be early evening UTC, and the Saturday event will be early afternoon, so hopefully we can get a decent turnout for both even if you just want to drop in to watch.
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Feb 9, 2014 19:06
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We've got another event running tomorrow! If you're thinking about playing or getting a peek at what the game is like, now is your chance before launch. We have one event tomorrow at 2000 UTC, and we're going to have another on Saturday at 1400 UTC. As always, you can check out our forums for updates, mission orders and game logs.
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Feb 11, 2014 13:57
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We'll be kicking our event game off in about an hours time (2000 UTC) if anyone wants to drop in and watch, or if current players want to take part. IRC: chat.startrekengage.com Channel: #EngageLounge Look forward to seeing you all there!
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Feb 12, 2014 18:57
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Really enjoyed hamming it up in the mission we just had, it was a lot of fun! Looking forward to when the missions proper start.
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Feb 12, 2014 22:40
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Missed the mission yesterday - are you still having one on Saturday? If so, what time?
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Feb 13, 2014 17:17
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We'll be having another event mission on Saturday, 1400 UTC to catch the morning folks. Yesterdays was an amazing success, one of the best i've seen in a long time. The transcripts for both yesterday's mission and last Saturday's are up on the Star Trek: Engage forums if anyone wants to take a look. We're also looking for command staff on our Sunday ship. It runs at 1900 UTC and could use an experienced role player to be the CO. Raise your hands in here, drop me a PM or e-mail us on the site and we'll send you the thrilling questionnaire!
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Feb 13, 2014 18:16
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The event this saturday was awesome, I even got to command and (almost) got everyone killed. Missions start next week so if anyone is on the fence I would suggest joining up and having a go, it really is much more fun than it has any right to be 
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Feb 15, 2014 22:10
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We're just under an hour away from the first official game if anyone wants to join us on the IRC server and spectate. I'm jittery with nerves at running this game.
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Feb 17, 2014 20:15
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That was a fantastic launch mission, the IRC channel was practically overrun with people. There was much warping, Klingons, phasers and an explosion! We'll always be accepting new players if you want to join in, and if you want an example of that first mission you can download the transcript below; http://www.startrekengage.com/odn/transcripts/hyperion/hyperion11402.17.docx
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Feb 18, 2014 21:54
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Holy poo poo this is nerdy as hell and I want a piece of it. I'm signing up.
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Feb 19, 2014 02:13
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Holy poo poo this is nerdy as hell and I want a piece of it. I'm signing up.  Nerds for the Nerd God! Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer what I can.
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Feb 19, 2014 03:31
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So is this a goon-only venture or can I invite or promote it amongst non-goons?
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Feb 20, 2014 02:25
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Hiro Protagonist posted:So is this a goon-only venture or can I invite or promote it amongst non-goons? Nope, this is very much an "Everyone in the world" venture. Please, invite anyone who you think might be interested! The more players we have, the more fun the missions tend to be. We have our third official mission tomorrow, which is made up of mostly experienced players, so that'll definitely be a good time to drop in and take a look at how things are played if anyone is still on the fence. Thursday, 2000 UTC.
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Feb 20, 2014 02:31
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I'm surprised at how little movement this thread has made, Engage has over 60 players now, I think? At least a half-dozen from SA...
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Feb 20, 2014 02:37
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Should be fun on Sunday as well: goon captain and (hopefully) goon XO!
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Feb 20, 2014 02:41
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And Goon Ensign as well!
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Feb 20, 2014 03:44
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I'm guessing you are the new SCI?
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Feb 20, 2014 03:52
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Yeah, Cenn Kalum.
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Feb 20, 2014 03:57
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If anyone has time this sunday, I would suggest dropping in at 1900 GMT and see me order a crew to the their deaths!
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Feb 21, 2014 00:42
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