This will be the Q&A thread for our new Trek game, "Star Trek: The Scales of Eternity". 

First and foremost - familiarize yourselves with the posts in the Star Trek: Draconis Fleet FAQ.  This covers things like posting format, how to play, chain of command, ranks, etc. I am more than happy to help with any and all questions, but you really should refer to that thread first, as a lot of the common stuff will go there!

If you have questions, though, you can always submit them here.  Any out of character discussions, ideas, etc should absolutely go here.

Some links you may find useful!

Memory Alpha: the biggest Star Trek wiki on the internet. If you need to know canon trek info, check here.

RDI Trek Tools: our own in-house trek tools include the ship's roster and logbook, among other items. Use these to help keep things straight in our game.

Saber Class Specs: complete details of the Saber class vessel. Use this to figure out what deck a given department is located on, what types of probes the ship carries, what a given security rating is, and on and on. If there is ever a conflict or question, please use this resource as absolute canon information on our ship.  Special thanks to the "Star Trek: a Call to Duty" community for this superb resource!

Saber (-P Variant) Class Crew Compliment: a full breakdown of all officers and enlisted crew on the ship, by department (Word Doc format).

Bridge layout: The current standard Saber Class bridge layout is as follows. The Captain's Chair, Tactical, Operations, and Engineering are on a raised area of the bridge.

The Tactical/Security control station (comprised of two consoles, one for tactical, and one for security functions) is to the left of the Captain's Chair.

To the Captain's right is the Operations manager's console. Identical in size and design to the Tactical/Security station, the Operations manager is located closer to the bridge engineering station rather than close to the front of the bridge.

Also located on the platform, against the aft wall of the bridge, is a large master systems display monitor, similar to the one in main engineering. All relative ship information (such as damage, power distribution, etc.) is displayed on the cutaway image of the ship. Below the MSD is a large engineering console encompassing Eng I and Eng II. These consoles are usually unattended, but can be activated if an Engineering presence is requested on the bridge.

Directly fore of the command area is the Flight Control Officer, who faces the main viewer. At the very front of the bridge chamber is a large viewscreen.

Against the port walls of the main bridge, forward of the raised command section, are the consoles for Science and others that are programmable for a multitude of functions. There are two Science consoles.

Against the starboard wall of the main bridge, forward of the Captain's chair, is the Executive officer's console. It is typically configured as a backup to any of the other stations, as the XO is most often a department head currently in one of the other stations.



Pretend that second chair to the left of the Captain isn't there, and you have a nigh-perfect image.

This game will begin in early 2365, which roughly coincides with season two of Star Trek: the Next Generation. The Borg attack and the Battle of Wolf 359 is around two years in the future.

The game will start on 2365.02.19.  Commander Drake has spent a week off of the ship.  If you are new to the Peregrine, you will have come on board at some point between the 12th and the start of the game.  Quite afew will have come on as of the 19th - since Drake was just cleared.

Commander Drake has been the CO of the Peregrine for about seven months now.

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On ranks...

As you all know, I am the GM of this game. I am playing the role of Commander Drake, but understand that he is as much a plot device as a player character.

Chain of command does matter. The command staff of the vessel acts in something of a "helper GM" role to me, and their orders carry full authority and weight. I doubt that will ever be an issue, but I wanted that to be clear.

Note that my version of Trek is slightly more military than that often portrayed on the various TV shows. Unless a superior officer has given you leave to act more informally, assume that you should salute, make formal reports, etc. Pay attention to the standard forms of address (which basically mimic those of Her Majesty's Navy):

Superior officers are always referred to as "sir" (unless you are using the proper rank address below). This is regardless of gender. Likewise, the term "mister" is pretty universal, regardless of gender.

All flag officers are always called "Admiral", regardless of grade. A commodore is called "Commodore".

The captain (or commanding officer) of a ship is always called "Captain", regardless of grade (such as when a commander is in charge of a smaller vessel, as is the case in this game).

A full commander is always called "Commander" - unless, as above, said Commander is in charge of a vessel. When under weigh, said officer would be referred to as "Captain".

A lieutenant commander is called "Commander", unless a captain (or higher) elects to refer to him as "Mister". However, doing so is giving offense, as it indicates that the lieutenant commander is a junior officer.

Junior officers (ensign up to lieutenant) are referred to by their ranks or by "Mister" Lastname.

Cadets or warrant officers are referred to as "Mister" Lastname.

NCOs are addressed solely by their rate (the term rate is preferred over "rank" for enlisteds). It is appropriate to address a petty officer (of any grade) as "Petty Officer". A chief petty officer is referred to as "chief", a senior chief petty officer is referred to as "senior chief", and a master chief petty officer is referred to as "master chief".

In addition, note that chief petty officers are expected to assist in the training of junior commissioned officers, so while the lowliest ensign may technically outrank a chief, the ensign would be wise to pay proper respect!

Enlisteds are typically referred to as "crewman" or "yeoman", without the last name attached.

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Chain of Command

There are no ties; the higher on the list that a character is, the higher they are in the chain of command. Note that in all but the most catastrophic of situations, only line officers are eligible for command. This means that, even though the Chief Engineer and Ship's Doctor are higher in rank and have more experience, a completely green ensign (on his first assignment from the Academy) would theoretically command the ship first. That said, if he values his skin, he would do well to show proper respect for the ranks of superior officers regardless if they are line officers or not.

Line Officers
Cmdr. Drake
Lt. Cmdr. Zai (XO)
Lt. Ferrero (2O)
Lt. Taissud
Ltjg. Reid
Ltjg. Moriden
Ens. Blackmon
Ens. Kustrar
Ens. Owen

Staff Officers
Lt. Cmdr. Kennedy
Lt. Veen
Ltjg. Sa'eridon
Ltjg. Ch'ronnoss 
Ens. Eilal
Ens. Milvov

Post reserved for duty schedule.

This post exsts as a quick reference for who is on the bridge at a given time, who is in charge of engineering, etc.

Shifts are divided into alpha, beta, and gamma - roughly corresponding to day shift, evening shift, and night shift.

Please understand that there can certainly be variations on this - a couple of people swap shifts, somebody gets a rare bridge shift, somebody gets an extra off day, etc. However, it should be really useful to help people figure out where they should be on a given day. Obviously, seniority grants a more stable, favorable schedule - fewer late night shifts, fewer rotating shifts (i.e. alpha one day, gamma another). I have tried to keep people on ROUGHLY the same shift wherever possible, and when that isn't possible, I try to keep shifts one step off (i.e. alpha to beta, but not to gamma).

NOTE: the first day of our game (2365.05.14) is a Friday!
If you have issues or want to adjust this, just let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Standard shifts are eight hours long, and flow as follows:
Alpha: 0700-1500
Beta: 1500-2300
Gamma: 2300-0700

A responsible officer should expect to be at their duty station a good fifteen minutes before the shift starts, so as to get report and be up to speed.

Medical shifts are twelve hours long, and instead take the following schedule:
Alpha: 0700-1900
Beta: 1900-0700

Typically medical shifts are referred to as "Sickbay Alpha, Sickbay Beta" so as to avoid confusion.

So, just an FYI - I've decided to forego the "you all meet in a tavern" scene... er, everybody reports in for duty, meeting the Captain, etc.  While I do enjoy those scenes, they can put the actual game on hold for a few weeks.

Instead, I'm going to make my opening post at least a couple weeks post launch.  Those who want to fully RP those meetings nad such can do so via backpost at their leisure.  But this way, we will be able to jump right into the adventure.

Any objections?

None here, Cap.

Let's get the ball rolling...  

Awesome.  I'm working with a couple of potentials here to fill those last slots, but I'll likely try to go ahead and get some sort of post up tomorrow.

Cool.   I assume we will learn what happened to the previous crew in your post somewhere?  

I do want to do some back posts about what happen with Cook.  If you have any thing specific regarding her, let me know, here or in PM if you prefer.  Otherwise I'll go off off of what you post and fill in the blanks.  

Looking forward to the start.  

It's looking very much like we will have a full crew - which makes me happy!

I am currently working on the Draconis Fleet FAQ thread, adding little tidbits, doing some edits.  If you haven't browsed that thread and are new to Trek gaming here, I STRONGLY advise you to take a few minutes to read over it.  It covers so many of the basics of posting, how the game works, chain of command, etc.

The Flight Control roster has been scrubbed of the deceased/disabled NPCs and populated with stub entries for the replacement characters. I'll continue updating them as I get the chance.

Woo!

Hey, got the Engineering roster updated.  Mostly.  I can't figure out how to get rid of a character, stupid Haemish went crazy and needs to get removed.  Everything I tried kept giving me a 'Bad Inquiry' error message.  He's like some old hagis that just won't go away.  Can anyone get him removed from the roster?  

Otherwise I think it's good to go for now.  I'll update things and I use the characters.    

M. 

I edited him out.

To remove a character, change their department to NONE. 

However, in all cases they must have a valid birthdate - otherwise, the database gripes. 

Thanks for the work!

Wow, Karri got a bump up, eh?