Intelligence Office Policy

Last Update: 23 October 2024

1 - Fleet Canon

1.1 - Defining Fleet Canon

1. Bravo Fleet Canon comes from two sources: on-screen Star Trek (defined as official Star Trek films and television programs) storytelling and original canon developed within Bravo Fleet.
2. Everything in Star Trek on-screen canon is considered canon to Bravo Fleet. If on-screen sources directly contradict each other, the more recent source, measured by air date, takes precedence.
3. Original Bravo Fleet Canon consists of material created specifically for Bravo Fleet. This content has been explicitly created or ratified by the Intelligence Office. Bravo Fleet Canon is established by the following methods:
   1. Announcements about fleet canon posted on BFMS by the Intelligence Office;
   2. Briefings for Missions attached to the BFMS Bravo Fleet Command page, particularly fleet-wide missions;
   3. Stories on the Bravo Fleet Command BFMS page specifically designated as fleet canon.
   4. On the wiki in articles containing the Bravo Fleet Canon icon (usually in the top-right of the page). Articles that do not contain that icon are Member Canon (see Section 1.3) and should be used accordingly. The icon is a miniaturised version of the Bravo Fleet logo, as below:
      
4. Sources other than on-screen canon and original Bravo Fleet Canon are not considered canon within Bravo Fleet, though they can be used as inspiration. Novels, production notes, published technical manuals, video games, and all other non-screen Star Trek content are not canon to Bravo Fleet.
5. If new on-screen canon contradicts established Bravo Fleet Canon, the Bravo Fleet Canon will be rewritten or retconned to comply.
6. Individual Commands are required to follow Bravo Fleet Canon; their stories may involve new additions but must not contradict or deviate from Bravo Fleet Canon. Bravo Fleet is a cooperative writing group, and its strength comes from bringing people together to tell stories.
7. The canon and Canon Policy apply to any historical games and fictions. They are part of the shared universe of the Bravo Fleet Canon, set in different eras.

1.2 - Creating Fleet Canon

1. All additions to Fleet Canon must be ratified by the Intelligence Office. Until that point, content should be considered Member Canon (see Section 1.3).
2. Significant changes to Task Force stories must be approved by the Bravo Fleet Intelligence Officer.
3. New non-canon Federation member species must be approved by the Intelligence Officer.
4. New minor foreign powers with regional influence must be approved by the Intelligence Officer.
5. Significant development to on-screen species or cultures (ie, facts which anyone writing them would likely need to know) must be approved by the Intelligence Officer.
6. New Starfleet and Federation starship, space station, and small craft classes and specifications must be approved by the Intelligence Officer. Likewise new Klingon, Romulan, or Cardassian starships.
   1. If no fleet canon information exists for a ship or station of a relevant size or type, particularly for civilian or non-Federation craft, these may be referred to in generic ways. It is acceptable to mention a Federation civilian shuttle, a large Romulan starbase, or a Cardassian frigate in such terms, for example. It is not acceptable to, for example, go into detail about its weapon capabilities, or use this as a loophole to justify a brand-new Klingon battleship. These should be unexceptional features of any story; passing antagonists or allies, or minor settings, where their technical details are not specified and are not relevant to the story.
7. No addition to Bravo Fleet canon is considered official until it has completed all approval requirements and been added to the Bravo Fleet wiki in a format that provides complete, usable information that others may build on. These articles will be clearly identified as Bravo Fleet canon as per Section 1.1.

1.3 - Member Canon

1. Content that has not been explicitly ratified by the Intelligence Office is considered member canon. This includes character biographies and the events of BFMS Stories and Missions unless they meet the above criteria.
2. Member canon is binding only to the stories and games in which it appears. Writers are not obligated to adhere to these details, world-building, or plot developments.
3. The status of member canon is not a value judgement or reflection of quality. With so many stories and games over many years, it is not realistic for all their details to be known to all members, or to have been reviewed by the Intelligence Office. Likewise, with many distinct personal tastes and creative preferences, the existence of member canon allows writers with diverging interests to co-exist within the Fleet.
4. Member canon may be added to the wiki, particularly on a starship’s article or, for example, adding worlds or locations to a region other creators may choose to draw on for their own writing. Such articles will not include the Bravo Fleet Canon icon and should be treated as optional content to draw on.
5. The nature of member canon necessitates limitations to its scope. Section 1.2 provides guidelines on the level at which the Intelligence Office’s ratification is needed, and member canon should not meet or exceed that level. Member canon should be considered equivalent to the details of a standalone episode of The Next Generation, while fleet canon is comparable to a major story arc episode of Deep Space Nine with galactic ramifications. Some examples of the acceptable scale of member canon include:
   1. A colony world of a canonical Federation member, such as humans or Andorians.
   2. A starship captain of another major power, be they ally or enemy.
   3. A stellar phenomenon with local effect.
   4. If you are unsure of the scope of your story detail, please contact the Intelligence Office for advice. A rule of thumb is, ‘Is this essential knowledge for any Bravo Fleet creator writing in this topic/location?’ and remember that the galaxy is a big place.
6. Member canon should not include characters or ships from Star Trek canon, such as the USS Enterprise or Admiral Kathryn Janeway. References to them should use recent Star Trek canon (such as Star Trek: Picard) or, where extant, fleet canon. For example:
   1. We do not know the present status of Benjamin Sisko. Avoid mentioning his current circumstances at all.
   2. We do not know the specific status of Deep Space Nine; its design, its crew, its captain. It is reasonable to mention the existence of DS9, with its key position at the mouth of the wormhole, but do not go into details.
   3. Characters should not be an old friend, protégé, relative, etc, of any character in Star Trek Canon.
   4. Characters should not share a full name (or name they are known by) with canonical characters (for example: ‘John Reed’ would be an acceptable character name, but ‘Willard “Will” Riker’ would not be).
7. Contradictions in member canon are expected, and tolerance is encouraged, especially if they occur within separate stories. If this is impossible, such as within a collaborative fiction, it is best to justify the co-existence of such details or reach a compromise. Should such again be impossible, contact the Intelligence Office for a judgement.
8. Strong and interesting ideas that flesh out the setting may be adopted by the Intelligence Office into fleet canon. This will occur at the Intelligence Office’s discretion.

1.4 - Character Ranks and Assignments

1. Characters may hold any rank up to captain or a member's fleet rank, whichever is higher.
   1. For ranks above captain, members must contact the Intelligence Officer to request the assignment of the appropriate fleet captain or flag officer rank.
   2. Exceptions may be made for staff members of sandbox RPGs, such as Starbase Bravo, if their OOC staff role includes writing a character of a certain rank or position. If the RPG staff position is relinquished, the character must be retired.
2. Members may only have one character at each flag rank to which they are entitled. For example, a vice admiral may have three flag rank characters: one vice admiral, one rear admiral, and one commodore.
   1. Flag officers on sandbox RPGs owned by staff members do not count against this limit.
   2. Characters holding a BFC-level staff position do not count against this limit. For example, a member with the rank of commodore who is a Task Force Commanding Officer may have two commodore characters: the TFCO, and a squadron commander.
      1. If a member relinquishes their BFC-level staff role, they may assign that character to the role of 'Flag Officer' in that department (for example, a former TFCO holding the rank of rear admiral would be assigned as 'Flag Officer, Fourth Fleet Operations'). This retired character does not count against the flag officer limit. If that character is repositioned to another role, such as squadron commander, they count against the member's flag officer limit.
   3. Any other flag officer must hold one of the following IC positions: squadron/division commander, squadron/division deputy commander, commanding officer of a squadron starbase, sector commander, or additional roles for your squadron/division/sector.
      1. To create a sector commander, members must own a Class 4 or 5 station (Canopus, Unity, Spacedock I, or Aurora-class). Exceptions may be permitted by the Intelligence Office.
      2. Other flag officers may be created with the permission of the Intelligence Office.
   4. The Intelligence Office encourages discretion and judgement in matching character rank with fleet rank. For example, a former staff member with the rank of admiral who is now part of a Task Force whose TFCO is a commodore may create a new squadron leader character of any rank up to admiral - but perhaps shouldn't. Members are encouraged to choose ranks which make IC sense for characters' positions. This does not apply to existing characters; nobody should feel obligated to demote their character.
3. When members are writing together, one character's position should trump the rank of another. A former staff member writing a squadron leader with the rank of commodore should not be giving orders to their TFCO of the rank of captain.
4. By default, all characters on the BFMS use the Starfleet rank set appropriate to our in-character Fourth Fleet in the year 2401.
   1. To use historical or alien ranks, you must contact the Intelligence Officer to request the assignment of the appropriate rank.
5. If you hold a BFC-level staff position, your primary character should be the character holding that position in the Fourth Fleet and should be set as a story character assigned to Fourth Fleet Command.

2 - Timeline

1. Bravo Fleet canon is currently set in the year 2401.
2. The Bravo Fleet timeline advances 1 year IC for every 2 years OOC. The in-character year will advance on January 1 2025. The timeline may be advanced immediately by the Bravo Fleet Intelligence Officer.
3. All Stories on BFMS are by default, set in the current year and are part of the storyline of the Fourth Fleet in the 25th century.
   1. Stories set in a different era must be part of a command based in that era, created with permission from the Intelligence Office.
      1. At present, no new commands set in different eras will be approved.
   2. 'Flashbacks' may be used to depict different periods of a character's life. These should not last longer than a BFMS Mission and must relate to a BFMS character active in 2401.

3 - Fleet and Task Unit Asset Storytelling

1. Task Units may own their own ships, stations, and facilities as assets in accordance with the Logistics Office Policy. These assets are used to facilitate storytelling for task unit members.
2. Each Task Unit has a headquarters, consisting of a starbase or deep space station.
   1. Task Force Staff may develop the lore for the surrounding region of space in concert with the Intelligence Office.
   2. The commanding officer (and relevant senior staff) of each base should be recurring NPCs, with biographies written on the wiki. This allows members to use these characters in their own fiction.
3. Each Task Unit has a flagship.
   1. Task Force Staff may use the flagship in official task force fiction releases to inspire other members’ stories and/or in a cameo capacity in members’ stories.
   2. Task Force Staff may not use the flagship in place of their own primary command for personal storytelling.
   3. The TFCO character may also be the commanding officer of the flagship. Additional crewmembers may be developed as recurring NPCs.
4. Task Force staff are responsible for developing the lore for all assets. This includes the establishment of wiki pages providing all essential storytelling information, such as a ship's mission profile, information about the facilities on a station, and key recurring NPCs such as commanding officers or senior staff.
   1. These NPCs may have biographies on the wiki. This can consist of individual wiki pages per character, or a single article titled 'Crew of [asset name]' listing the key crew with additional information about each character.
5. Members may use the Task Unit assets in their storytelling, setting missions aboard the headquarters or with guest ships featuring in a member's mission.
   1. Members may write stories set aboard the headquarters freely, with no need for permission from the TF staff. They may not write stories which meaningfully impact or change the HQ (for example, placing the station under threat or significantly changing its status).
   2. Members' stories may feature the flagship with the permission of the TFCO.
   3. Members' stories may feature guest ships without the permission of the TFCO so long as these are incidental appearances. They should not span a significant period of time or include incidents worthy of IC note or report. For example, a guest ship may rendezvous with a member's ship in a story for resupply, or be mentioned as having surveyed a plot location off-screen.
      1. Members' stories may feature more significant use of guest ships with the permission of the TFCO. These more significant uses might include IC joint missions, or one ship rescuing another.