It's Been a Long Road

Posted on Wednesday, 28 June 2023 - 12:29pm by Captain Pippa Whitley

Whether or not you've got faith of the heart or not, it has certainly been a long road. We've been through a lot together as friends, writers, and a community. Starting this sim right when COVID cases were starting to pop up and through a global pandemic, mourning the loss of our friend and fellow writer, Kim Finney... here we are. What a phenomenal dozen plus characters we've had, have, and continue to develop. For the most part, this group of friends and writers have been together from the initial creation of the USS Standing Bear and are still here. We've had a few people join us and disembark for personal reasons, but to make it three years and still going strong? Incredible. All the fleet awards you've accumulated and the broader community awards, multiple Tournament of Sim accomplishments. All of that has been well earned and deserved.

1,000+ posts and counting. In three years time, you've written circles around sims that have been operating for several years. Your characterization and character development has been rewarding to read and to be a part of. Thank you for everything! However, we're not done just yet. This is simply to say I appreciate you all and this has been a fantastic journey. As Kat continues to reiterate to me, this is more than a sim. We're more than a bunch of random people writing together. Friendships were made here and this group even with our newest of members has continued to become a family.

If you've been following some of my chatter is past months, you should know that this is coming. Yes, the plans are in place for the USS Standing Bear to close as a sim. However, I do not want this to feel like your favorite television show has been cancelled and that is why I will not just yank this out from underneath everyone. I want to treat this exactly how I see it and what it deserves. closure and resolution. This is not a cancellation, but giving notice that we have had an amazing run and I want us to have time to write our best and treat this like our beloved Star Trek series that we hold dear and near. We may have not been going for seven years, but we have done a lot and we should be proud of all of that.

What The Future Looks Like

I want us to get through March 2024 because that will put us into 4 years as a sim. We will likely go a bit beyond that and may make our way through most of 2024 or perhaps even December. I'm treating our next mission as the start of of our next and our last season/series. I'm hard at work planning out a small handful of missions (no more than 5) to get thorough at the conclusion of our current mission.

I have been discussing things with Kat and Linsey in recent days and weeks. I have really wanted to put an emphasis on character development, and Kat has been wanting to write out her character, Soral and bring in a new character. Linsey's character Alex Kingsley of course has to be affected by this because Soral and Alex have a strong bond. So, Linsey is currently working on putting her character through the ringer and Alex is going really go through it, and we'll have to see how she comes out in the end.

We're going to be entering a new chapter together, and it's the last few missions together, but I do not feel enough development can happen in a few months time in character. So, what does that all mean?

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff

The best path forward for true character development is a passing of time. At the conclusion of this current mission, I'll give you all a bit of a breather to write some posts about whatever you feel you need to or finish up posts that you've been working on. Then, we will be having a bit of a setting change. Currently, we are set in 2395 (the era we see via Flashbacks in Star Trek: Picard). I'm going to shift us a bit. We'll be a few years ahead. I haven't set a firm date yet, but it will likely be 2399 or early 2400s placing us more in line with Seasons/Series 2 and 3 of Star Trek:Picard.

That's approximately five years or so for things to have happened to your characters (besides aging): marriages, divorces, promotions, etc. I want you to start thinking about your characters five years or so from where they currently are. What's happened to them? Please feel free to message me (you're welcome to include Kat and Linsey) and run down your ideas for your characters. I'm going to work with the assumption everyone is still aboard the Standing Bear in their positions (with some notable changes already in the works), but that does not need to be the case if you have something else in mind?

Changes to the Standing Bear

So, I already know Captain Pippa Whitley will not be the Commanding Officer when we settle into this new setting in our advanced year. Pippa will make an appearance or few, but they will very likely be an Admiral working somewhere doing something. New CO character for me? NOPE. Kat is actually going to be taking the Captain's chair for our last few missions. I will still continue to be the Game Manager for the sim and be the point person on mission creation and development. I will be creating a character to take the vacancy of First Officer (Linsey chose to keep Alex as Chief Science Officer and Second Officer).

Old Faces?

I would love it. So, we know that we had a few writers who had to drop for personal reasons. Two of our main ones being Phil and Nicole. I am 100% open to having them come guest write a bit and bring Raith Kolani or Dr. Ryan Rose back for an appearance or longer. Please feel free to reach out to them or anyone else that had been here. I'll of course reach out as well. It doesn't feel exactly right concluding the Standing Bear without trying to bring some old friends back.

 

Category: Sim Announcement
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