Tactical Logs

Reports by the Tactical Department aboard the U.S.S. Kelly NCC 73400-B.

We had a lot of news at our last Tactical Meeting/RPG night. First, Jill reported on the progress the Seventh Fleet Acquisitions team has made toward creating a Monopoly-type game based on Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet. She was able to show the graphics she has been putting together with help from various members of the Fleet (most notably, Captain of Engineering Ross Trowbridge of the USS Rendezvous). Our own Michael Frogget of the Engineering brought examples of 3D printed pieces for the games. (I’m sensing a theme here…)

Jill also showed us the new USS Kelly lending library. If you are working on a rank advancement, you may need access to reference materials you don’t currently have. Well, others do!
Active members will soon receive an invitation to a website called Lend Items where they can create a free login. We are using this as a library program, as it has the capability to automatically remind us when the books are due back.
Once Jill gets the loan-able items loaded into the program, you can see it in the lending library. (This will eventually include media other than books, such as DVD sets of the Star Trek shows.) Then you can log into the USS Kelly lending library and reserve an item. Make arrangements with Jill to check it out and pick it up. When it is due back, you’ll receive an e-mail reminder!

Next we went over our upcoming activities…

  • October 26th, 7:00 pm – Mad Hatter. This is basically a Halloween Hat party. Bob Patterson will host at Bob & Jill’s home. Start time is 7:00 pm. Bring snacks to share while we watch family friendly Halloween movies.
  • November 16th, 7:00 pm – Kooking with the Kelly. Back when the Kelly was young(ish), Commander Ruth Burns created a cookbook with Star Trek themed recipes in it. This has now been digitized, thanks to Commodore Marla Trowbridge. For this activity, we will be cooking a recipe from the cookbook together. You are also encouraged to bring side dishes/deserts/etc. also created from the Kelly Kookbook. (Jill will be providing a Warp Core Breach.) More details to come.
  • December 14th, 7:00 pm – Christmas Dinner. This annual event is simply going to be going to a restaurant. We may also be doing a White Elephant gift exchange. If you know a place that we can hold this, please get in contact with the Senior Staff (Captain Nada, Admiral Hollinger, Lt. Commander Jill Bogler-Patterson or Melissa Andrew) as soon as possible. We need to get this booked before all the places are taken.
  • January 25, 2020 – Admiral’s Banquet. This will be hosted by the White Buffalo. More details as they come.
  • February, date and time TBD – Lasertag. We are looking at doing Lasertag, and have someone in mind to run it. We are waiting to hear more. If this doesn’t pan out, then we’ll move our proposed March activity to February.
  • March – 3D Printing class. Do you want to know more about 3D printing and how it is used in business, the medical field, costuming, and more? Well so do we! We’re looking for someone to spearhead this event so we can all learn how to create our own 3D models.

Last but certainly not least, we were finally able to present the promotion certificates that we’ve waited so long for…

So after all of that, what did we do at the last USS Kelly role-playing game? I’m glad you asked!
Our current mission: escort two representatives away from the docks. Unfortunately, we ran into some local law enforcement – and their pets. We spent the entire gaming session fighting our way out of trouble.
Eric’s character rushed headlong into trouble because she is a little nuts – and she was tired of being shot in the back. Michael’s character kept trying to heal us and keep us out of trouble. Richard’s character kept attacking anything that was attacking us. Jill’s character was able to charm one of the Bandit Leaders into spilling the beans on the whole operation, including who hired them and why as well as the paper trail leading all the way to the head of the corrupt government usurpers.
I guess “fighting” our way out of trouble worked. Mostly.

The USS Kelly held our most recent roleplaying session on August 3, 2019. We are just now starting to get to the heart of the story. You can read prior posts for the earlier parts of the story, but here’s what happened last Saturday…

Faced with multiple contract options, our intrepid crew decided to head for a starship graveyard. Unfortunately, as they were heading toward it, their propulsion quit. Instruments all said that the power generators were at full power – we just quit going anywhere.

Faced with multiple contract options, our intrepid crew decided to head for a starship graveyard. Unfortunately, as they were heading toward it, their propulsion quit. Instruments all said that the power generators were at full power – we just quit going anywhere.

It turned out that this area is a galactic “Bermuda Triangle” called the Carvon Nebula. What we didn’t realize is that our assistant engineer is from this area… an area that has magic.

We took the shuttle that is part of the ship’s configuration and mounted it on top of the bridge. What most of we didn’t realize is that we now have air and use the ship like a sailing ship, cruising between the planets in the nebula.

We landed on the nearest planet, and quickly realized that most of the people don’t speak Galactic Common. Fortunatley we found a … rather enthusiastic young woman named Ruby who was willing to help us out. (She was viewed as as a weirdo for studying science in a world where it doesn’t work.)

We also discovered that our ship is infamous within the nebula – the prior Eperor’s private yacht, named the Royal Dawn. We had to change the name, and it’s configuration, rather quickly.

Now the hull looks like a bird made out of various shades of wood, and the sails (to the port and starboard) look like giant, flaming bird wings. We named the ship the Phoenix.

What will we face next?

On the first Saturday of every month, the Tactical department gets together and does a role-playing game. In July, we started with a new system (for us) called Savage Worlds.

Here are the notes from the first session…

“On a backwater, nothing of a planet named Kayleain lies a ship graveyard, a fuel post, and people who got stuck. Our players were all travelling on various ships when they broke down. Since there are no real spacedocks on Kayleain (which is actually a moon of the gas giant Darian V), the only way off the planet is to try to scavenge parts for repairs. Our travellers met each other on the planet, and decided to work together to get the repair work done.

Out in the debris field they found several likely candidates, all about the size of a scout vessel, including one very interesting ship that seemed more grown than manufactured.

Our intrepid travellers hired local kids to help scavenge, purchased a house that had used their ship’s airlocks as doors, and ended up putting the ship back together using most of its original parts (since they weren’t exactly compatible with other vessels).

Now, our travellers have said goodbye to their original ship (which used other parts they scavenged), hired a second Engineer named Torran, and have set off across the galaxy to find work. As soon as our adventurers took off, they found two young stowaways they don’t know what to do with.

This is going to be an interesting journey.”

I am very proud to announce that the U.S.S. Kelly’s Tactical department is back up and running!

 

Let me introduce myself. I am Lt. Commander Jill Bogler-Patterson, Chief Tactical Officer of the USS Kelly and general pain in the rear. I have been involved with this fine ship for over two decades, though due to real life issues I have not been able to work with the Kelly as I have in the past. Fortunately, that has changed.

Captain Hollinger asked me to head this department, and I have taken on the challenge with gusto.

Since the Tactical department is in charge of gaming events, we have started with a Star Trek based role playing game that will be held the first Saturday of every month and is created using the GURPS system. You can check out the USS Kelly calendar on this Web site for game dates and times. These Tactical Logs will be used to provide information on what we’re up to, but we’re also going to write up our game-play as a story.

Speaking of the story…
We are all recent graduates of Starfleet Academy, on our final training cruise aboard the USS Chimera. The Chimera is set to be mothballed and a museum piece after this mission. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned, does it?

 

If you are interested in creating a character, come up with a character idea and contact our game master here. (For example, I am a half-Betazoid/half-Caitian engineering graduate.)

If you’d like more information about the U.S.S. Kelly in general or the Tactical department specifically, contact me here.

 

Hailing frequencies closed.