Episode 1x03 - "Raven's Shadow"

[Serris]

Sunday, March 5th, 2017 @ 3:00 PM EST / 8:00 PM GMT

The Amarante arrives at the border of the B'omar Sovereignty to assist them with an investigation into unusual Borg activity at the site of the lost science vessel, Raven.

[Dendo]

Depending on of this headache is going to stop any time soon, i might not be able to attend.

[Serris]

Their first mission -- the B'omar Sovereignty and the Delta Alliance have assigned the Amarante to investigate strange Borg activity at the crash site of the Raven. Several ships have entered orbit, but because the B'omar are busy fighting the Vaadwaur, they haven't had time to investigate. Given that the system was considered unremarkable until Voyager's crew meddled on the surface, they appear to hold some resentment and blame towards the Federation for possibly causing this situation.

To say the B'omar delegation was unpleasant would be putting it lightly. Captain Janeway had mentioned that they were very strict and militaristic in her first encounter with them, but Voyager's disregard for their sovereignty back in 2374, compounded by their situation with the Vaadwaur invading their space, have put the Amarante in the unenviable position of trying to establish peaceful relations with a very skeptical power. To that end, Captain Tolendo agreed to a B'omar escort, and a hard speed limit of warp four while inside their territory.

However, before the ships could reach their destination, a large subspace distortion caused their warp fields to destabilize. Forced to sublight speeds, they could only watch in horror as a pack of Borg ships sped toward them, one Cube grazing the Amarante's saucer section and sending it spiraling out of control. The B'omar ship was not so fortunate, slamming head-on into the face of a passing Cube, their debris spread across space like butter on toast. Comparatively speaking, despite many of the Bridge crew being injured, the Amarante escaped relatively unscathed. With the Borg's passing, the warp field stabilized, so the ship resumed its previous course while Doctor Bertrand mended the wounded.

Upon arriving at their destination, the crew was horrified to discover a massive cloud of debris. All of the Borg ships they'd just seen, reduced to rubble. What could have caused this much destruction without leaving some kind of weapon signature? Perhaps the signal the ship detected from the surface holds a clue...

[Serris]

Feedback:

This episode wasn't intended to be a two-parter, but it's going to have to be. I'm not happy with how it turned out. Several factors contributed to this, including my slow response time when people would ask for details. However, I have noticed that some people have a tendency to interject details and responses of their own before I've had a chance to set the scene, which didn't help the situation.

This is a 2 for me personally. The only redeeming factor was that the coin flip system seemed to work as intended.

[Scott Archer]

Run time: 1:20:53


I'd agree with a lot of what you've said there. The pacing was way out again for me, I feel like most of that time could have been condensed down in 30-40 minutes. The coin flip tactic also works incredibly well and is a very useful tool for adding a bit of 'randomness' to the story.

What we did have was good, but not as a whole episode, I think this would have been a really strong episode if it had gone to plan. There are several factors that derailed it. Here's a couple:
- People not reading the console. In an intense moment in an RP, the console is understandably moving quite quickly but it is important to keep up with what is happening, especially with what the CO (or CE in this case) is saying.

- Punctuality. A couple of people joined almost 45 minutes after the start time. I have and still occasionally can be guilty of this, but it is important to be on time. It means we get started on time; it means people aren't trying to pick up the story half way through.
One way you might be able to mitigate this slightly is by not waiting for people. We didn't actually start until 15 minutes after the start time because we were waiting for people. Sometimes people make more of an effort to be on time if they know something is going to start on time.

- People not waiting to be 'fed' information. This is a really tricky one for you I feel, being the 'CO' but also the CE; it means you are having to focus on running the RP and being CE. I feel this will get better as time goes on, as you'll get better at it the more you do it but people will also be waiting for the information rather than rushing on (which is encourages in some S/RPs.)

There's things for both us and you to work on here. It's early days and I'm confident it will get better as the series runs on.


Overall though, this particular episode was a 2 for me.

[Shoot]

I liked it, well, for what time I was on, and so sorry I came on so late, I was playing Project CARS with friends, and didn't notice how the time flew, and I joined as quickly as I could. Apologies for that.


But, flip the coin thing is incredibly fun, and great tactic! I've loved it so far!