Command Policy

Last Update: 2 March 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 for Games and Commands.
   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. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Upon a Command's assignment, a member may not change that Command until three months have elapsed or they are promoted, whichever comes first
   1. 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
Raven	California	Akira
	Challenger	Defiant
	Cheyenne	Excelsior II
	Diligent	Gagarin
	Grissom	Inquiry
	Intrepid	Luna
	New Orleans	Manticore
	Norway	Nebula
	Nova	Pathfinder
	Olympic	Prometheus
	Parliament	Rhode Island
	Reliant	Sutherland
	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.

Ship classes by rank

1	2	3		4
Small Civilian Ship	Akira		Century	Odyssey
California	Defiant		Galaxy
Challenger	Excelsior II		Obena
Cheyenne	Gagarin		Ross
Diligent	Inquiry		Sovereign
Grissom	Luna		Typhon
Intrepid	Manticore		Vesta
New Orleans	Nebula
Norway	Pathfinder
Nova	Prometheus
Olympic	Rhode Island
Parliament	Sutherland
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 2400.
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. If you are interested in a Starbase Command, please speak with the Intelligence Office to develop your concept so the registry can be created.
4. Members may choose to depict any of their other ships as attached to or operating out of the starbase.

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.

Starbase Attached Ship Options

Aerie
Aquarius
Sydney

3.4 - Requesting Squadron Ships

1. Members must use BFMS to request any Commands under the Squadron system, as was done with previous Command requests.
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.