View source for Using Task Unit Assets

The [[Logistics Office Policy|asset system]] provides task units with their own pool of prestige that they can spend on starships and starbases. This document provides some guidance on what purpose [[Logistics Office Policy#4.2 — Task Unit Assets|task unit assets]] serve, and how staff and members can use and depict them.

== What Are Task Unit Assets? ==
[[File:Taskunits1.png|thumb|403x403px|Task Unit Assets flesh out the ranks of a task force beyond just the 'hero ships' of members]]
Task Unit Assets are ships and stations that are assigned to the task unit, almost always a task force, but do not belong to any one member - they belong to the TF as a whole. This includes Task Force HQs and flagships. Other ships may serve the TF in a variety of IC roles, such as patrol boats, survey ships, couriers, or emissaries. OOC, these are here as demonstrations of TF pride and prestige - proof of all the TF has earned through hard work and activity - and can contribute to and play supporting roles in fiction depicting the Task Force.

== How Do TF Staff Use Them? ==
TF staff are the caretakers of these assets. They may use them when writing Task Force fiction, as we have seen with Stories set aboard the TF HQ or flagship. The wider array of ships offered by the asset system means a wider array of stories can be told by the TF using their own assets - very often, HQs or flagships couldn’t be in the middle of the action. But now a small patrol boat can encounter trouble that introduces a new threat, or a survey ship can uncover something interesting. It is sometimes hard to depict a TF’s mandate if Stories focus on the flag officers and bureaucrats. Assets help the TF staff showcase the actual performing of the TF’s mission.

== How Do Members Use Them? ==
Task unit assets vastly expand options for members if they need or want to call on a starship that is not their own in a mission. While members may still use traditional NPC ships, especially if you want a story where the ship undergoes something irreparable - like blowing up - you can also call on unit assets. The advantage of unit assets is that these ships are already designed and established, and by using them, the member contributes to a shared narrative within the TF.

Some examples of how members can use unit assets in stories:

* [[File:Takemeout 303.jpg|thumb|Not every story about crews crossing paths has to include a serious risk to life and limb]]Your ship needs to follow up on mysterious sensor readings of a planet or phenomenon. A unit assets could have conducted the initial survey.
* Your ship responds to a distress call from a unit assets to kick off the action of a phenomenon or a threat - so long as all’s well at the end!
* Your ship is in a jam and needs rescuing. There’s another starship coming in...
* Your ship is on a joint operation with another starship, where rivalries emerge between the crews (maybe a baseball game or two?).
* One challenge is too big for your crew to handle alone - perhaps they need firepower, but perhaps they need a smarter sensor array or some logistical support.
* Your ship needs to rendezvous with another to drop off supplies and a new crewmember.

As you see, this use of assets can vary between off-screen mentions (“The USS Noname reported these mysterious sensor readings...”) to greater roles and interactions than has historically been permitted with NPC ships. These asset ships can accompany yours on joint operations, and their crewmembers can have recurring dynamics (within limitations) with your characters.

TF members may only depict assets of their own TF in their stories.

=== Requesting Permission to use Assets ===
In most cases, TF members do not need permission to depict a unit asset in their story. If the scope of their appearance is only an off-screen mention or showing up in only one post to drop off supplies, or the ship having run a survey mission to trigger a plotline, then you can mention the ship without running it by anyone.

If you want to use a unit asset for a bigger role, like a mission about your ship rescuing it or the two ships going on a joint operation, then you should run this by your TFCO. This can be as simple as a conversation outlining what will happen to the unit asset, what role it will play in the story, and confirming that the asset will be left in more or less the condition you found it!

Members do not need permission to visit TFHQs; they are part of fleet canon and can be used by anyone if their ships need somewhere to dock for repairs, R&R, or briefings. Missions can take place on them - hosting visiting dignitaries your captain might be meeting, for eg - but the TFHQ should not be placed in any peril.

TF flagships can still appear in members’ stories. They’re particularly appropriate for the ‘cameo’ roles like mentioning their off-screen activities or a rendezvous to deliver supplies or a crewmember. They aren’t the best choice for joint missions - the TFCO character is usually in command of the flagship, after all - but might be a good choice for, as an example, a ship showing up to save the day or clean up the aftermath of a mission. Discuss the use of a flagship with the TFCO.

=== Using Unit Asset Characters ===
[[File:Fortheuniform042.jpg|thumb|The crew of these ships can still be dynamic characters who build up friendships or rivalries with your own as they work together]]
The CO and other major crewmembers of unit assets are determined by the TF Staff. They will have information on the BF Wiki that outlines who they are and provides guidance on how to depict and use them in your stories. You should adhere to this guidance, and not ‌change the key details of these characters - or maim or kill them, or turn them evil.

It is okay for these established characters to have or develop relationships and dynamics with your characters. These should never be major - don’t marry them off or decide they were best friends at the Academy. But it’s okay to develop a rivalry, say that the characters once served together, etc. If you develop these dynamics, remember that other members might do that, too! Nothing that happens in these interpersonal dynamics should be a cornerstone of the character where members need to keep track of the minute details of how other members have written them.

If a unit asset does not have an established character in a senior staff role and you’d like to, for example, mention the USS Noname’s Chief Engineer, speak with your TFCO. There might be space for you to create that character. Remember that they are not your character; they are an NPC that anyone in the TF can write and depict. It is possible that the TF staff are already developing these characters and will say no.

You can freely create more minor characters on a unit asset - an engineer, a science officer, a security officer - who doesn’t hold a senior staff role.

=== Sharing Unit Assets ===
We want TF members to have a sense of shared ownership of these assets. They’re part of your TF; they’re the crews and captains that work alongside yours, the ships who help each other out in a tight spot. It’s good for stories to reflect this, rather than for the assets to be distant and faceless ships.
[[File:Lowerdeckscoop1.png|thumb|The adventures your ships have together build up a shared story and make the assets an integral part of the Task Force]]
If you depict a unit asset in a mission, consider mentioning this in the asset’s wiki page. This isn’t necessary if it was an off-screen mention, but even if a unit asset meets with your ship for a quick resupply and the captains chat, you could mention it on the wiki page with a link to the Story where that happened.

The details of these missions are still member canon; nobody who writes the asset after you is obligated to mention it. Most importantly, nobody is obligated to trawl through every detail in every story depicting a unit asset to make sure they do not in any way deviate from anything that came before. Mistakes will be made and things will be overlooked. Someone else’s mission concept depicting a unit asset may not be to your taste; you don’t have to even mention it (but you shouldn’t go out of your way to contradict it!). Members should try to honour the spirit of this shared ownership, building on what other people have done, without feeling constrained by it and accepting the need for flexibility.

If two stories don’t depict an asset or its crew the exact same way, it’s not the end of the world. If you don’t want to mention the mission that you know an asset has just participated in, it’s not the end of the world. Live and let live - but it’s also great to talk in your lounges about how you’re using ships and how you’re depicting crews, so long as nobody gets territorial about it, and accepts that everyone else is going to have a different take on an asset. It’s great to build up these small encounters and adventures on the asset’s wiki, and share in the stories you all tell with these ships. That’s what makes them special and unique for each TF.