Okay, straight off the bat: if you're looking for the Excelsior Audio Drama, it's here.

Got rid of those people? Good. Back to the orientation.

If you are new to the Excelsior-C, whether you have applied yet or not, no doubt you're interested in how things run around here. Here's some information to get you on your feet.

Broadly, we are a play-by-forum roleplaying game (PbF RPG, or SIMM, though I honestly don't understand the latter acronym) operating out of Bravo Fleet's Task Force 38, in Task Group Kusanagi. (This is an article about the PbF format and the Excelsior game in particular.) Excelsior is a Sovereign-class starship, one of the oldest and proudest in the fleet, in fact, but, since 2381 (2005, real time), she has been repeatedly placed in and out of mothballs. We are trying to reverse that trend with strong, character-based storytelling set in the Star Trek universe and rooted firmly in the Star Trek spirit, and we need your help. You think those are empty words, but they're not. This ship can't survive without a large group of discriminating, quality writers. The purpose of this post is to keep you new crewmembers from drowning in random information that gets thrown at you.

First things first, I'm your Commanding Officer, Capt. Alcar Dovan. In-game, I'm bitterly sarcastic and witty, but, in real life, I'm considered by some to be a rather friendly chap. The Excelsior's first officer is a young, recently promoted Trill named Alecz Lorhrok. Out-of-game, he is my right arm and fellow admin of these forums.

If you're new to play-by-forum RPG's or Star Trek Simming in general, you can pick up some useful information from the Bravo Fleet Rules (which we follow), and Captain Rachel Cortez's old post on how to write for a PbF. As for our own ship, you can find a mostly-complete listing of crewmembers, players and notable non-player characters alike, in our manifest.

In-game, the Excelsior is a member of Task Force 38, better known as "Defense Force Delta." The reason for that nickname is that TF38 operates in the Delta Quadrant, on the extreme frontier of the Federation, making use of a convenient Iconian Gateway to jump back and forth between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants. Some of my crew have found these maps of the galaxy of Bravo Fleet in 2382 and Federation space in the Delta Quadrant to be useful resources in getting their bearings.

But, despite all that background, there is only one thing that is truly important on the Excelsior, and that is storytelling. I've put together a brief synopsis of the story so far specifically for new recruits. Once you're done with that, you might want to get into our current story, which is in the Current Mission forum. Clever naming, yes?

I hope that what you find here excites you and entices you to stick around. If not, I will be forced to whip out my secret supply of tasty Talaxian Leola Root cookies. And, trust me, you don't want that.

Editor's Note: Alcar Dovan is no longer the Excelsior's commanding officer, following his court-martial for violation of the Prime Directive. Commander Alecz Lorhrok presently holds that rank.

This post has been edited by Lraac Ovdan on Jun 12 2009, 01:49 PM