OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Jul
21

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30 Years of STF: 1991-2021

Category: Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , 1 Comment

Main banner/logo from April 22, 1998 (archive.org)

A few weeks ago I got to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my home club. But how about a 30th anniversary?

As far as I can tell, today is the 30th anniversary of the founding of STF, which likely makes it the oldest club still in existence, if not ever. According to a 1994 history by Jim Midyette, what would eventually come to be known as the Star-Fleet Sim Club (and later STF) began on July 21, 1991 on Prodigy when a group of Star Trek fans decided to return fire against some 90210 fans:

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Jul
4

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Independence Fleet: 20 Years

Category: Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , 1 Comment

Last year I got to mark my own 20th simming anniversary. This year I get to celebrate something even better: my club’s 20th anniversary. That’s right, founded all the way back on July 4, 2001, Independence Fleet turns 20 today. Given our humble and downright volatile beginnings, it’s hard to believe we’re still operating today. Nonetheless, here we are!

In addition to holding a Trivia Day earlier this year and a special Webcast yesterday (both with real prizes!), we also did our normal anniversary tradition of inducting the newest members of our Hall of Fame.

But a 20th anniversary calls for even more. With that in mind, this morning we published two items that we hope our members and the entire online role playing world can enjoy:

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Jun
28

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Spelling Tips III

Category: Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , 1 Comment

If you’ve been around here for a while, you might have already seen Spelling tips – It’s your game they’re looking for and its sequel, Spelling Tips: Part Deux. But that was seven and three years ago, respectively. Now seems as good a time as any for the next in the series. However, we all know that most franchises tend to go downhill with the third installment…

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Jun
12

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2021 SciWorld Online Convention

Category: Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community, Trivia Tags: , , , 2 Comments

The 2021 SciWorld Online Convention begins today at 11:30 am EDT (-4) / 3:30 pm GMT (+0) / 4:30 pm BST (+1). 

This year’s convention is sponsored by TNU Project, hosted by Independence Fleet, and chaired by Aurther Winters.

Jun
8

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4 Reasons to go to SciWorld this Saturday, June 12th

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community, Trivia Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

That’s right, if you haven’t already heard, SciWorld ’21 is on Saturday, beginning at 11:30 AM EDT (-4) / 4:30 pm BST (+1). Our team from Independence Fleet & TNU Project have put in a lot a work to create a dynamic and provocative list of events backed by an outstanding infrastructure. It’s going to be a great day, and we want YOU to be a part of it:

It doesn’t matter if you’re into Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, or something else entirely.  Or if you prefer chat sims, play by e-mail, or message boards.  If you’re a simmer or online role player of any persuasion, there will be something there for you!  But what do you really get out of SciWorld?  Here are 4 reasons you should attend:

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May
17

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Category: Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment

I hear it all the time: “I didn’t know about _____!” Fill in that blank with SciWorld, the Simming Prize, or ToS. Or FallFest, the Squiddies, or The Simming Endeavor. Or a whole host of other events and activities. You get the idea! And we get that not everyone checks this blog religiously!

To help mitigate that problem, we’ve created the Big Simming Distro: an email distribution group to keep you informed of the major events happening in the simming & online role playing community. If we know of a big event happening, we’ll make sure you know too. Here’s how it works:

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May
1

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SciWorld 2021: June 12th

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

We hereby invite all simmers and online role players to join us at 11:30 am EDT (-4) / 3:30 pm GMT (+0) / 4:30 pm BST (+1) on June 12th for the 2021 SciWorld Online Convention. We’ll start with the opening ceremony, move into seven hours of engaging discussions, interactive trivia games, and live chat role plays, and then conclude with the closing ceremony at 7:00 pm EDT / 11:00 pm GMT / midnight BST. As always, it’s sure to include a little bit of everything.

As we previously announced, Ongoing Worlds is turning over general management of both SciWorld and FallFest to TNU Project and Josh Hina. This and future conventions will be sponsored by TNU Project’s Simming Hub. This year’s SciWorld will be jointly hosted by Independence Fleet & Pegasus Fleet, and co-chaired by Aurther Winters & Amethyst.

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Mar
22

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2020 ToS Winners!

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , 2 Comments

It’s time to announce the winners of the latest Tournament of Simulations (ToS). We asked for nominations in January, and you responded by nominating a whopping 64 absolutely incredible games from across the community. That’s definitely a modern tournament (since 2011) record, and maybe even of all time (since 1999). It just goes to show that simming and online role playing is far from dead. In fact, it’s as strong as ever.

As I say every year, evaluating sims is a subjective art, and this is certainly true with ToS.  We’re not here to identify the best games as this is impossible.  Instead, we’re here to identify what we think are outstanding role plays that exude excellence.  A different set of judges may very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s okay! In case you’re interested, this is how we select the winners. With that on the record once again, here are your 2020 tournament winners:

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Feb
18

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The best-laid plans… Simming IRL Get Together… in 2022?

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community Leave a Comment

In 2019, we announced plans for an in-person simming & online role playing convention to tentatively take place in 2021. Unfortunately, 2020 had other ideas.

If we’ve learned anything over the last 12 months, it’s that we can’t anchor on anything during this pandemic. Assuming vaccines have been widely administered and COVID-19 is shrinking in the rear view mirror, we’re going to try this again for 2022. Clearly, there are a lot of ifs here!

Assuming all works out…

…If you’re interested in participating, please fill out this short survey.

Thank you, and we’ll see you next year–hopefully!

Jan
13

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2020 ToS: Submit Your Nominations Today

Category: Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment

2020 has finally come to a close, which means it’s time for the annual Tournament of Simulations (ToS) competition. For those who may not be familiar with ToS, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from around the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability. All sims will be considered, regardless of any club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The games that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?

Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…

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