Command Policy

Last Update: 1 June 2024

1 - Registry Definition

1. The registry lists all starships, starbases, and other entities available to Bravo Fleet for use as Commands or Games.
2. The registry’s purpose is to maintain consistency across Bravo Fleet and its ongoing canon. As such, entries will not be added to, removed, or altered from the registry without permission of the Intelligence Office.
3. The registry represents the in-universe starships and starbases available to the Fourth Fleet in 2401, and the starships and starbases available to members in their personal writing or the RPGs they play and run. They are represented on BFMS by Games and Commands, which are attached to the dossiers of the members who own them, and house the character biographies of the crew and the Missions and Stories depicting their adventures.
   1. Exceptions such as non-Starfleet ships or ships of a different era have been created for Games, and may not be used as Primary Commands. These will be more often added, deleted, or altered.
   2. The use of registry entries in Games is governed by Section 4 of the Operations Policy.
4. Ships in the registry should only be used in lore by the members or Task Forces (in the case of TF Assets) to which they are assigned.
5. Stories may depict other ships, including Starfleet ships, not in the registry. These must never be written as the 'main' vessel in a story, and their place in stories must be restricted to minor or supporting roles. The existence and use of these 'NPC' ships constitutes member canon.
   1. These ships must always have a name not found in the registry.
   2. NPC ships may not be written as assigned to a joint mission alongside a member's ship, and especially not under their command.
   3. These ships should play roles like delivering supplies or personnel or being in need of rescue as a story's instigating event. They and their crews should not be recurring, significant dramatic actors in a manner that undermines the Fleet Assets System. Members who want to write multiple ships and crews must wait until attaining the fleet rank of Captain.
6. Events involving registry ships prior to 2399 may be referenced in circumstances such as character service records and backstory. This restriction changes at 2399 as this is when the current fleet canon went live; members should not be dictating fleet or member canon after this outside of their own characters and Command.
7. Fleet canon about a ship is defined by the Intelligence Office or any member who holds that Command. Subsequent members who command a registry ship must adhere to that fleet canon and not retcon or change it without permission from the Intelligence Officer.
   1. Fleet canon established by prior commanders is limited to the names of captains and crewmembers and the dates of their assignments, and major points of the ship's activities, such as participation in a fleet-wide storyline or where and when the ship was commissioned. Members are not beholden to retain more minor details of a ship's mission history, design, or configuration. Any pre-2399 history of a command established by a member is member canon and thus may be rewritten or disregarded by any new commander.
   2. The history of registry ships is maintained on their wiki article. Members are free to depict this history as they wish, either retaining original text or rewriting. There is no obligation to mention events or history prior to their command. The only requirement is to retain a list of previous commanders, with links to their BFMS Commands, as seen here.

2 - Primary Commands

1. The assigning and management of ships and Commands is governed by the Logistics Office Policy.
2. Primary Commands are attached to a member's dossiers as their character's starship or auxiliary craft. They are the vessels assigned In Character to a member’s Task Force in the Fourth Fleet in 2401.
   1. Regardless of what Secondary Commands a member may own, their Primary Command must always be a Starfleet ship assigned to the Fourth Fleet in 2401.
3. Members can write on their Primary Commands on their own or, with some restrictions, with others.
   1. Members may only have one other member permanently writing on their Command. This member may play one or several characters, including crewmembers and senior staff assigned to the ship. This additional member may not play the ship's Commanding Officer; the CO must be a character assigned to the member who holds the Command.
   2. Members may invite others to temporarily write on their Command as guests. There is no restriction in how many guests may be on write on a Command at one time, but this collaboration cannot last longer than one mission and is expected to be limited to one or a handful of Stories. These guests may write characters from other BF Commands or RPGs in a 'cross-over,' or they may write new characters created for this collaboration. They may return later for more guest appearances, but this collaboration should stay in the spirit of a 'guest star' on a Star Trek episode.
   3. Writing with others on a Primary Command does not require a proposal or activity commitment to be sent to the Intelligence Office. Members may not use their Primary Command as an RPG; ie, they may not openly recruit for crew or create a separate website, and collaboration should be limited to invitation-only. RPGs which any member of the Fleet may apply to join must be accepted by the Bravo Fleet Operations Officer, and thus Primary Commands are unsuitable for this purpose.
   4. These restrictions apply to Secondary Commands as well as Primary Commands.

3 - Task Unit and Fleet Assets

1. The assigning and management of Task Unit Assets is governed by the Logistics Office Policy.
2. Members may use these assets in their stories, with some limitations. These assets should never be significantly altered by the events of a member's writing without the permission of the Intelligence Officer.
   1. Task Force Headquarters and Secondary Stations may be freely depicted, without permission, by any member of any Task Force as locations their ships can visit on their journeys. TFHQs or stations may never be depicted as being significantly imperiled over the course of a story.
   2. Task Force Flagships and Guest Ships may only be used by members of the TF to which they are assigned.
      1. Task Force Flagships may be depicted in a member's stories with permission from the TFCO.
      2. Task Force Guest Ships may be freely depicted, without permission, by members of the Task Force to fulfill 'cameo' roles in stories. This constitutes minor usage, such as the mention of a ship's off-screen activities (for example, providing the initial report of an incident that leads to a member's ship conducting the deeper follow-up investigation), or a rendezvous with the member's ship to deliver supplies or a crewmember.
      3. Guest Ships may be used in larger roles in the stories of TF members with permission from the TFCO. More significant story roles include, for example, the ship in need of rescuing as the main objective of a mission, or a joint operation between two starships.
3. Development of Task Unit Assets is the responsibility of TF Staff, with the oversight of the Intelligence Office. This constitutes building their wiki articles, determining the asset's mission profile, and creating its CO and other crewmembers. Each Task Unit Asset should have sufficient information about it available that multiple members may depict it in their stories with relative consistency.
4. The usage of Task Unit Assets by members remains member canon. Members are encouraged to add their use of an asset to its wiki page to build a shared narrative among others in the TF, but this should be to facilitate a spirit of shared ownership, not provide constraints.