Command Policy

Last Update: 25 September 2023

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 Character 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 Fictions or 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 TFHQ ships or Flagships only) to which they are assigned. If a story requires another ship, it should use a name not listed in the registry and would fall within the bounds of member canon.
5. Stories may depict 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 be playing 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 Squadron System (Section 3). 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.
8. Ships are assigned to a member's dossier when they are created as Commands on BFMS. A member must create an application for the Command that the Intel Office processes. The IO does not create Commands for members. Commands exist to house Missions, Stories, and crew rosters; they show the ship on the member's dossier, and ensure the registry displays what ships are available or unavailable. All ships in use require a Command, including RPGs and squadron ships.
   1. Once a ship has been relinquished, the BFMS Command will be labelled as 'Archive' and exist on the member's dossier for archival purposes only. Members may edit the Command page or the roster, but they may not add further Missions or Stories.
9. Members should not apply for Commands on BFMS until they are ready to acquire or change their Primary Command, or for a fiction/RPG proposal to be discussed with the Intelligence Officer/Operations Officer. Draft Commands or proposals self-identifying as WIPs will have their registry link removed or be deleted.
10. Members may change their assigned Commands once every six months or after they are promoted, whichever comes first. This applies to all of a member's Commands; if only one ship in a squadron of two is changed, six months must elapse or a promotion must be earned before either ship can be changed.
    1. If a member has not used their full squadron strength entitlement, they may request ships to fill it anytime. However, this resets the Command change cooldown. So long as a member can request additional ships, they may do so as often as they like, but they may not change those ships until six months have elapsed or a promotion has been earned.
    2. Exceptions may be permitted at the discretion of the Intelligence Officer. This may apply in cases such as the release of new starship classes or other significant alterations to the command registry.

2 - Primary Commands

1. 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.
2. Members can write on their Primary Commands on their own or with others. Writing with others on a Primary Command does not require a proposal or activity commitment being 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.
3. All Commands will be removed from a member's dossier upon transfer to the Reserves.
4. When a member reaches the rank of Midshipman they may request a ship on the registry for use as their Primary Command. Ship classes available are unlocked upon reaching certain ranks.
5. Members below the rank of Captain may only have one Primary Command. Requesting a new eligible Primary Command will result in the current registry ship being removed from the member's dossier and returned to the pool of available ships.

Ship classes by rank

Midshipman	Lieutenant Commander	Commander
California	Aquarius	Akira
	Centaur II	Defiant
	Challenger	Duderstadt
	Cheyenne	Echelon
	Edison	Excelsior II
	Grissom	Gagarin
	New Orleans	Intrepid
	Norway	Inquiry
	Nova	Luna
	Olympic	Manticore
	Parliament	Nebula
	Phoenix	Pathfinder
	Raven	Prometheus
	Rhode Island	Sutherland
	Reliant
	Saber
	Springfield
	Steamrunner

3 - Squadrons

1. The Squadron system allows members holding the dossier rank of Captain and above greater flexibility in their Command choices. Where Commanders and below may pick a single Primary Command from a list, Captains are entitled to a certain level of ‘Squadron Strength’ in their Command selection. This gives them options like choosing between a single, larger ship or multiple smaller ones.
2. If a member holds multiple Commands under the Squadrons system, these ships are all subject to the same usage requirements as outlined under Primary Commands above. They may not be used as RPGs, and IC are starships assigned to the member’s Task Force.
   1. All ships must have their own Command on BFMS. This is solely to ensure the registry accurately reflects what ships are in use and dossiers show all of a member's ships. Members are free, however, to house Stories and Missions involving the ship and crew on any of their squadron BFMS Commands.
   2. Members with multiple ships should designate one as their Primary Command on BFMS. This is solely for display and organisational purposes, and has no other or IC significance. The Primary Command must be a Squadron Commands, and may not be an RPG or Fiction.
   3. Members have some freedom on how to IC depict these multiple ships. They may be entirely unaffiliated, all falling directly under their Task Force’s IC chain of command, with the member using them to tell totally different stories.
   4. Members may use all/some of them to form an IC-only unit within their Task Force, referred to as a squadron. This typically takes its title from the squadron’s ‘lead ship’ or starbase (for example, a squadron led by the USS Endeavour would be called ‘Endeavour Squadron’). This ensures all squadrons have a unique IC name. Members may not call these IC units ‘task groups’, to avoid confusion with the OOC unit.
   5. Members may create an officer in command of this squadron, who may or may not also be the commanding officer of one of these starships/starbase, and who falls IC under the chain of command of the member’s Task Force. All Canon Policy rank restrictions remain.
3. The Squadron Strength to which a member is entitled is dependent on their dossier rank.

Squadron Strength by Dossier Rank

Captain	Fleet Captain	Commodore	Rear Admiral	Vice Admiral	Admiral	Fleet Admiral
3	4	6	7	8	9	10

3.1 - Starship Strength

1. Ship classes are allocated a certain level of Strength depending on their size, power, modernity, and so forth.
2. Members may select any number of ships as their Commands under the Squadrons system, so long as the total Strength does not exceed their rank entitlement.
3. Ship classes by rank (As above in 2 - Primary Commands) may not directly correlate with a starship's squadron strength. This is intentional, reflecting how some ships may be more or less popular when they are a member's only command, but valued differently when part of a larger squadron.

Ship classes by rank

1	2	3		4
Small Civilian Ship	Alita		Constitution III	Odyssey
Aquarius	Akira		Galaxy
California	Duderstadt		Obena
Centaur II	Echelon		Ross
Challenger	Excelsior II		Sagan
Cheyenne	Gagarin		Sovereign
Defiant	Inquiry		Vesta
Edison	Luna
Grissom	Manticore
Intrepid	Nebula
New Orleans	Pathfinder
Norway	Prometheus
Nova	Sutherland
Olympic
Parliament
Phoenix
Raven
Rhode Island
Reliant
Saber
Springfield
Steamrunner

1. For example, upon reaching the rank of Captain a member has a Squadron Strength entitlement of 3. If they already have a Commander-level ship, they are only using 2 of their Squadron Level. They may ‘upgrade’ as they did upon reaching the rank of Commander, returning their current ship to the registry and choosing a single new Command with a Strength of 3. If they keep their ship with its Strength of 2, they may choose to add to their dossier another ship with a Strength of 1.
   1. Members are under no obligation to use their total Squadron Strength. These Commands are a reflection of the hard work of members, however, and may be chosen for storytelling opportunities or simple prestige.
2. ‘Small Civilian Ship’ is a catch-all term for non-Starfleet civilian vessels members may wish to use for different kinds of storytelling. It refers to ships of, for example, the Kaplan F17 class or the Groumall class, usually freighters, that are not affiliated IC with Starfleet and may be used for trading, prospecting, exploration, or other adventures. Acquiring a ship like this is subject to a successful Fiction Proposal, and so they are not listed as available on the registry but created as required by the Intelligence Office.
3. The Intelligence Office may make adjustments to ship class Strengths to account for balance as the system and canon evolve. No member will have an asset removed because of a rebalance, but they would only be grandfathered in until they wanted to change their squadron, at which point the new strength values would be used.

3.2 - Starbase Strength

1. Starbases as Commands work the same as starships under the Squadron system, but are subject to different requirements. They represent starbases assigned In Character to the member’s Task Force in the Fourth Fleet in 2401.
2. Members do not have to choose between a starbase or starship under the Squadron system. They are only restricted by their rank’s total Squadron Strength.
3. Registry Starbases are created by the Intelligence Office, and will have their own wiki article explaining the location and setting material relevant to that starbase that has been ratified by the Intelligence Office. This is Fleet Canon that cannot be altered without permission of the Intelligence Office, even by the member to whom the starbase registry is attached. As such, members should heavily consider their choice, as a Starbase Command is under more restrictions and requirements from the Intelligence Office.
   1. Members interested in creating a station command should consult directly with the Intelligence Office if one of the concepts on the wiki isn't suitable for their idea.
4. Because stations impact shared canon more directly than starships, members will be unable to trade in a station for one year after acquiring it.
5. These stations are settings in Fleet Canon and thus may feature in the writing of other members. This is restricted to simple visits for shore leave, resupply, or administrative duties like briefings. It cannot include stories which materially impact the station or its crew, and all rules in using another members’ BFMS characters apply.
   1. It is not necessary to request permission from the member who owns the station before featuring it in your story. Asking ahead of time may make aligning member canon easier.
   2. When writing on another member’s starbase, only use locations aboard established on the station’s wiki article or refer to them in a generic sense. For example, do not create, name, and describe a whole new bar without the owner’s permission - but you may refer to your characters meeting in a bar.
   3. Do not ask members for a joint post when visiting their starbase. The station owner may offer, but should not feel obligated to share their time in such a way or be put in the position of having to say ‘no.’
   4. If you require a member of the station’s crew to interact with yours, such as a deck officer greeting a new arrival or a security officer breaking up a bar fight, you should either create a junior officer NPC in a generic crew role or, if appropriate, ask permission of the station owner to use a specific character.

Starbase classes by Strength

2	3	4
Jupiter	Anchorage	Canopus
K-Type	Copernicus	Unity
Regula	Narendra
Vision	Presidium
	Watchtower

3.3 - Attached Ships

1. Certain commands, like starbases, have an attached ship, which has its own registry entry but has an effective Strength of 0. Whether or not an attached ship is selected does not affect a member’s Squadron Strength.
2. Most attached ships are assigned to starbases. Upon requesting a starbase, the member should identify to the Intelligence Office an appropriate choice of ship from the registry. That ship will then be removed from the public pool. It will not be given a BFMS Command, but should be written about as part of the starbase’s Command.
3. The Odyssey-class always has an Aquarius-class ship attached. Unlike with starbases, the Aquarius-class’s name is predetermined and cannot be changed. Details about an Odyssey’s Aquarius-class will be listed on the ship’s wiki page.
4. A strength 1 starship is attached to every station command in order to ensure that members have the ability to interact with fleet events set in other areas. This starship is assigned to the station directly to support it, as the Defiant was to DS9. This does not add to or subtract from the strength of a member's squadron, i.e. you could not use additional squadron strength to attach a strength 2 starship to your station.
5. Members may choose to depict any of their other ships as attached to or operating out of the starbase.

3.4 - Requesting Squadron Ships

1. Members must use BFMS to request any Commands under the Squadron system, in the same manner as Command requests at the ranks of Lieutenant Commander or Commander.
2. BFMS requests for new Commands under the Squadron system must use the ‘Lore Office Proposal’ window to clearly communicate their allocation of their Squadron Level. This must include what ships, if any, are being returned to the registry.
   1. If a new Captain requests a Command with a Strength of 3 with no further detail, the Intelligence Office will assume they are returning their current ship to the registry, just as with previous upgrades, and process accordingly.
   2. If a Member wishes to retain their current Command and add another, they may request the new ship under BFMS and say so in the Proposal window. A simple message, such as ‘I am keeping the USS Lollipop (Strength 2), and adding this one (Strength 1) for a total Squadron Strength of 3’ will suffice.
   3. If a Member wishes to return any of their ships to the registry, they must say so. Any requests for additional Commands that does not include a registry return and would bring a member over their Squadron Strength will be deleted. A simple message, such as ‘I am returning the USS Lollipop (Strength 2) and adding this one (Strength 3) for a total Squadron Strength of 3’ will suffice.
3. If the Intelligence Office receives competing requests for the same starship, requests for a primary command from Lieutenant Commanders or Commanders will be prioritised, or upgrades to a single Strength 3 starship for new Captains. After that, ships will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

4 - Flag Stations

1. From the rank of Commodore, members are entitled to select a Starbase Command in addition to any Squadron Commands. These Flag Stations do not count against a member's Squadron Level, with an effective Strength of 0. They are subject to all the same Intelligence Office restrictions in development, modification, and usage as Squadron Starbases (see section 3.2 above).
2. Flag Stations exist to flesh out the Fourth Fleet’s infrastructure, and flag officers who have them are expected to adhere to the highest standards of Fleet Canon. The Intelligence Office may place additional requirements on Flag Stations regarding location, class, or mission profile, to ensure appropriate variety and for the best development of Fleet Canon.
3. Changing Flag Stations is subject to the same requirements as any other Starbase Command: Members may change their Flag Station either upon promotion or once a year.
4. Upon promotion, members may wish to ‘upgrade’ their station class. Any member may create or select a different starbase in a different location, either selecting one in the registry or developing one with the Intelligence Officer. Replacing an existing starbase with one of a different class is permitted only at the discretion of the Intelligence Officer.
   1. If appropriate, the Intelligence Officer may agree to establish a new starbase in the same region for the member to change to. For example, a member might transition from a small Vision-class to a larger Narendra-class elsewhere in the same sector, perhaps reflecting the region’s growing IC importance. The original Vision-class would remain in the area and be available for other members to select.
   2. As always, changing a starbase or the major points of its surrounding area is subject to the Intelligence Office’s approval. Discuss your choice with the Intelligence Officer upon selecting a starbase if you expect to change your station class upon promotion but would like to keep the same or similar location.
5. Flag Stations, like Squadron Starbases, may have an attached ship. This follows all the same rules as laid out in section 3.3 above.
6. Flag Station classes are restricted by rank.

Commodore	Rear Admiral	Vice Admiral	Admiral
Jupiter	Anchorage	Canopus	Spacedock
K-Type	Copernicus	Unity	Aurora
Regula	Narendra
Vision	Presidium
	Watchtower

5 - Fictions

1. Stories about alternative settings such as non-Starfleet ships or historic eras are called 'Fictions'. Like primary or squadron commands and RPGs, they have their own BFMS Command page and are held to the same standards in content and canon compliancy.
2. Fictions may only be written by one individual member. Stories with multiple writers count as role-playing games, which fall under the purview of the Operations Department.
3. A member who has reached the rank of Commander may submit a fiction proposal to the Intelligence Office. This is not necessary for fiction based on their Primary Command.
4. The proposal should explain the premise of the story, a loose estimation of expected length, and what it contributes to Bravo Fleet canon, present or historic. It should include a broad activity commitment, such as '1 Story posted per month.' This is not a binding agreement, but helps the Intelligence Office identify inactive Fictions.
5. Starfleet ships in the year 2401 are not an appropriate setting for Fictions. Members should use their Primary or Squadron Commands for these.
6. Fictions do not draw from ships in the Bravo Fleet Registry, and so should discuss their ship, station, or concept needs with the Intelligence Office so an appropriate entry can be created.
7. Fictions not set in 2401 should not draw from ships in the Bravo Fleet Registry. Members are subject to the same rank-based restrictions of classes (for example, a Commander writing a fiction set in 2375 still cannot request a Sovereign-class), but of course can request era-appropriate ship classes not listed in the registry.
8. A new fiction will have its own Command on BFMS, assigned to the member. This Command is for use solely within the bounds of the accepted fiction proposal, and must not be used as a Primary Command.
9. Bravo Fleet fiction supports and enriches Bravo Fleet Canon, present and historic. Proposals from non-Trek settings will be rejected. Proposals from alternate universes of Star Trek will need to demonstrate their relevance to Bravo Fleet Canon content, themes, or characters to be accepted.