State of the Rebel Squadrons

April 1st, 2021

I. Foreword
II. Results
III. Recognition and Awards
IV. Squadron Updates and Organization
V. Mission Briefing
VI. Mission Objectives and Activities
VII. Conclusion

I. Foreword

Hello everyone. This is your Executive Officer, Lucas Benoit-Stark, or IronMan, as known to the masses. This State of the Rebel Squadrons is directed by me this go around, as the Fleet Commander had an unexpected computer issue. Fortunately, he will be back ASAP. Please note that he is available after hours on Discord (after 5 PM EST) on most days.

We enter the second session of the new year, hopefully with a better familiarity to a simpler and straightforward system. As stated last time, growing pains are to be expected. That said, let’s hit the ground running and delve into the new session, reinvigorated and ready to take on what is to come.

The link to the Rebel Squadrons Discord server can be found here: https://discord.gg/Yz2TvH3

II. Results from The First Step (Historic Campaign – Leaving Endor

Overall - Defeat
The beginnings after Endor take a drastic turn, as the Rebel Squadrons fails to gather adequate support despite the fall of the Empire. With limited resources, contacts, and support, moving forward after Endor stalls.

ITOD Special Directive - Victory
The RS leans into their work, and refocuses on their training, logistics, and operational work. Several key problems are identified, and new methods are devised to deal with them.
MVP - Cyrel Vandroth

Fiction - Defeat
The team fails to meet their contact.
MVP - N/A

Simming/D6 Roleplay - Defeat
Sentinel is unable to make progress and the situation on Bethlamore continues to deteriorate. Bethlamore is threatening to leave Task Force Republic Shield. A second consecutive defeat will cause the planet to leave the RS. Participants in the ITOD earn 1 FP.
MVP - Cyrel Vandroth

X-Wing Alliance - Defeat
Heavy Damage to X-Wing parts means 50% of them won’t be ready for missions in the initial campaign while undergoing repairs and assembly
MVP - Asen

Gemstone IV - Defeat
The team fails to turn up any contacts
MVP - Danny “David Lee Japan” Qatar

Fleet Commander Special Directive - Defeat
MVP - Koah

Star Wars Squadrons - Defeat
Coordination and more remain low across the fleet due to the losses suffered in the Titan Invasion. Next session, pilots in Squadrons will have their flight choices restricted for ITOD matches
MVP - Asen

III. Recognition and Awards

Admiral Cyrel Vandroth has earned the RS ITOD Top Gun by scoring the most individual ITOD points with , congratulations!

General Koah has clinched the RS Activity Top Gun by earning the most leaderboard points. Congratulations, Koah!

The active participants of Wildcard Squadron have earned the RS Top Squadron medal for their efforts, tying each other for their participation in the ITOD!

The following officers have earned the Citation of Victory for leading their respective objectives:
Major Asen
Admiral Cyrel Vandroth
Admiral Danny “David Lee Japan” Qatar
General Koah

Promotions
Lieutenant Commander Yaihi’l Beskar has been promoted to Commander
Lieutenant Colonel Dismar Dupar has been promoted to Colonel

Medals

Cyrel Vandroth - Republic Shield Kalidor Crescent for holding the fort with his daunting attempts of organizing and running his sims as a Senior Game Master.

Major Asen - Combat Citation for his efforts in space superiority combat.

General Koah - Distinguished Service Cross for his role in leadership as Wildcard Commanding Officer

Fleet Admiral Raven - Distinguished Service Cross for his historical and monumental role as Fleet Commander and the implementation of this new, fun system.

Wildcard Squadron - Excellency of Duty As nominated by General Koah for being the first squadron to win in the new squadron system.

IV. Squadron Updates and Organization

The Squadron Reshuffle which was proposed when I took the reigns over from Licah has been completed, if you’ll look at the roster, all new squadrons have been laid out. Please contact me if you find yourself without a squadron, or need to be assigned to one, or if your Discord permissions are incorrectly set.

The RS Pilot Draft was, I believe, a success, with our Squad COs all hand picking active members throughout the RS and building brand new units with which to compete with. Going First Overall to the Resurrection squadron was Fleet Admiral Lucas Benoit-Stark; so he can add another notch on his X-wing for that honor.

Moving forward, Squadrons will be awarded credits for their participation in ITOD objectives which can be used for various prizes and recognitions which will be laid out to them later this session, and I will have a separate announcement that describes everything.

We have been able to fill out the Command Staff with one exception, Academy CO. This individual interacts with all new members and helps them through the process of becoming an active RS officer and showing them the ropes in various capacities. If you’re interested in the position, please contact Raven or IronMan.

We have created and revamped the session ITOD template (which you will see below) to make things easier for the Command Staff to deal with, and easier to understand the fictional implications of our actions. Victory conditions for Fiction have been set to ‘Defeat’, ‘Stalemate’ and ‘Victory’, eliminating some confusion and making things more streamlined for our LO. Additionally, the planning document is now created far in advance -- most of the objectives and items below have been ready for a month; so that our transitions between sessions become cleaner and more accurate.

Finally, the dates for our sessions have been adjusted slightly, there is now a one week lag time between when ITOD scoring ends and the session actually ends. This will allow us to do all of our scoring, determine medals, promotions, etc, and have everything ready for the actual date of the session end and the new session’s start as opposed to the usual mad scramble at the end.

The next major project is a Medals revamp, mainly updating descriptions and getting new icons for several; along with expanding our selection. I have contacted a friend who is willing to do some graphic design for us for her portfolio, so I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with.

If you have any ideas or concepts that you’d like to see, let me know! I am more than happy to listen to ideas and throw shiny objects (like said medals, or promotions) at you for good ones!

V. Mission Briefing for The First Step (Historic Campaign) - On Wobbly Legs

Asen Starlancer stepped out of the simulator, the soles of his boots clanging against the duracrete floor of the room with a fleeting thought, “I don’t remember it being this challenging. Muscle memory gave way to unfamiliarity as fighter instinct shook away the early rust, replacing it with precision aiming, solid teamwork, and tactical presence. He failed to understand the logic and reasoning behind it. Was this a morale booster in regards to the looming Military Disarmament Act? Was this a palate cleanser from the bitter taste of the destruction Titan laid in its wake? Or was this some cryptic test from the Fleet Commander and his newest protege, Strike Adella-Highwing? Be that as it may, he felt good in his reflection on past missions, particularly with his long tenure, as the annals of history should not be ignored, lest one dares to repeat it.

In looking at the data, he saw the collective results of the mission. Asen Starlancer came in first, the pride of Tatooine pilots, past and present, swelled upon him with great enthusiasm.

That enthusiasm earned a rude awakening as he gaze descended upon the other scores.

“We’ve a long way to go,” Asen sighed worriedly.

VI. Mission Objectives and Activities

Session Begins Thursday April 1st, 2021 and ends Monday, May 31st 2021. ITOD scoring ends 1 week before, on May 24th, 2021. Multiplayer scoring ends Noon on the day of the session.

As ever, even if you're not playing Star Wars games, but you're playing with fellow members of the RS, make sure you report it! If you need assistance, contact your squad leader or the operations office.

Session Special Rewards

Last session, the highest ITOD scorer was Cyrel Vandroth, and he will be the Featured Pilot for the next session. His character will be directly input into both the narrative and the mission of their choice.

The highest Multiplayer scorer was also Cyrel Vandroth. He will get a Player Profile made for them on the front page of the site, detailing their IC and OOC career in the RS and be awarded a new medal commensurate with the occasion.

X-wing Alliance Objective

Briefing: Over the last 2 months, the pirates have been stepping up their attacks around Qraga, preying on the civilians. We need to garner the support of some of the station’s residents who think we’re nothing but a menace. Due to the diligent investigations of Rebel squadron’s pilots and techs, we’ve uncovered some patterns to these attacks. We’re going to use the Redeemer to try and scout out the pirate’s base of operations. We’ve used the sensor logs from the Trusty Tauntaun and cross-referenced those with logs from other attack survivors to analyse the pirate’s hyperspace entry and exit trajectories. We doubt they’ve taken the effort to make multiple jumps to hide their location, assuming there wouldn’t be anything powerful enough to challenge them. We’ve determined several possible locations we need to check out.

Participant Overall Objective: Fly the mission! Reporting may be done via the standard ITOD reporter with a link to your flight attempt.

Individual Scoring: ITOD scoring will be based on mission score, and if you successfully accomplished your objectives. 3 points are awarded for a successful mission, 1 for a failure, and up to 7 for your overall score. So a victory with max points will take home the gold!
;
Defeat: Heavy damage to X-wing parts mean wingmen reduced to 50% in initial tour mission
Objective: Less than 4 reports are submitted.

Stalemate: Damage to X-wing parts mean wingmen reduced to 75% in initial tour mission
Objective: 6 reports are submitted.

Victory: Minimal to no damage to freighter mean wingmen numbers at 100% for initial tou
Objective: 8 or greater reports are submitted.

D6 Roleplaying

An old, slighted foe set Sentinel Company up for failure when they were lured back to Bethlamore under false pretenses. Seen engaging in vehicular combat in the streets of Aryid Hai, followed by reports of active shooting in a residential district of the city, the erstwhile heroes failed to engender much goodwill among the local populace. Most recently, the band had begun a raid on an apartment building held captive by a heinous drug lord that had commandeered the government of a planet in the Aurora Sector. With rumors already flying of slain civilians and general carnage. If they win the day, Sentinel could clear the air and reveal the liberation of the world from its corrupt shadow ruler, but first they must win the day.

In total, the Republic Shield failed to instill confidence and improve the Republic Shield/Allegiance Battle Group brand on Bethlamore. As a result, a breakdown of communications between the Rebel Shield and the Bethlamorian local government has occurred, and a vote to secede being brought up in the planet's ruling council is in the works.

Participant Overall Objective: Participate in Sims! Submit to this objective a summary of one of your sims. Better yet, put it on the forums (bonus credit) and provide a link to the forum post.

Notice: For this session, non ABG/RS RPG games can be counted! To receive ITOD credit, at least two RS participants must be involved and the game must either take place on the RS Discord OR be submitted with a summary of no less than 300 words posted to the forums. See the HGM to have them enter your participation time into the RPG system. ((You can still report activity not meeting this requirement as general activity, though!))

Individual Scoring: 70% of your score will be based on participation as determined by your hours of participation as measured by the leaderboard. 30% of your score will be based on your summary(ies), which is judged based on length and quality. ITOD participants who draft a summary receive up to 5 CP (this is not judged/ranked against other participants, all participants could earn the 5 bonus CP!).

Defeat: Negative press influences the general public and the local government, leading to a vote of succession.
Participants in the ITOD earn 1 FP and 2 CP.
Objective: Less than 30 hours of total sims reported. ((3 characters + 1 GM count as 4 hours per every hour they participate.))

Stalemate: The vote for succession fails by one, but the Republic Shield’s public image remains damaged and viewed cynically.
Participants in the ITOD earn 2 FP and 10 CP.
Objective: At least 50 hours of total sims reported. At least two separate sim synopsis/summaries posted to the RS forums OR four summaries posted via submitted ITOD reports.

Victory: The vote for succession fails entirely, and a shift in viewpoint leads to a slight turn of favorability in favor of the Republic Shield.
Participants in the ITOD receive 3 FP and 25 CP.
Objective: 100+ hours of simming reported. At least 1 member successfully takes their aGM, GM, SGM tests OR at least 8 unique players participate in a sim during the session. At least two sim summaries posted to the RS forums OR six summaries posted via submitted ITOD reports.

MVP: The MVP of this session will be awarded a Super Spin on the 2021 RPG Prize Wheel.

Star Wars Squadrons

RS Pilots conduct training operations as a group, working together to train up replacement pilots to make up for the substantial losses sustained over Tarsonis. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances from repeated errors in simulations and training, all RS pilots, new and old, have been sent for remedial training.

Scoring: Report your sessions with other RS pilots! Be sure to screenshot any matches you fly with at least one other RS pilot, and submit it through the RS Match reporting system. In the narrative, make sure you note which nickname belongs to which pilot if their in-game names do not match their RS names. Due to the remedial training mandate, for the sake of all reported RS missions, credited submissions will only count for craft flowing in Y-Wings.

Individual scoring will be determined by the number of reports filed. The pilot with the most reports filed will receive the most points, with tiebreakers determined by the pilot with the highest scoring game receiving the top honors.

Defeat: Coordination and morale is still low across the fleet due to the losses suffered in the Titan invasion. Next session pilots in Squadrons will have their flight choices restricted for ITOD matches.

Objective: Less than three pilots report flying with other RS pilots in Squadrons.

Stalemate: Things are slowly being put back together after the invasion, with pilots getting used to their smaller squadrons and the military disarmament act. This has no effect on the next session, but this WILL lift the remedial training mandate

Objective: Three pilots report flying with other RS pilots in Squadrons.

Victory: Bolstered by their reassignments, pilots across the RS are taking to their new squadrons and morale across the fleet seems to be improving steadily. For the next stage of the ITOD pilots will have their choice of missions to accomplish.

Objective: Five or more pilots report flying with other RS pilots in Squadrons.

Fiction Writing

The campaign against Titan was a painful victory. Titan decimated our forces, and with the Military Disarmament Act looming, red tape and bureaucracy stifle attempts to remain combat-ready.

Participant Overall Objective: Congratulations, the good news is that we’re sending you on some much needed leave to the famed casino and resort ship, the Mistress of Coins. The bad news is that we need you to make contact with an underworld broker named Kar Fithi who might have a means of connecting us with what we need to remain military ready.

Individual Scoring: IronMan/Codyman will GM the story. Scoring will take place based on the number of posts per each session. There will be 2 major phases, one for each month. If that requirement is met, then the total words from posts will be tallied. Extra points will be given for joint posts or creative/witty actions, and whether or not objectives have been met. (Joint posts will share the number of words in the posts). Bonus points will be factored in for creativity, humor, and joint posts among peers.

RS Defeat: The Team fails to meet their contact.
Objective: Less than or equal to seven posts of any length.

Stalemate: You spend a wonderful time on the resort planet, but fail to make much headway on finding the underworld broker.
Objective: More than seven posts of any length.

Victory: You connect with the underworld broker and come through (one way or another) with successful results to help resupply Republic Shield’s dwindling hardware.
Objective: At least seven posts of any length, 2 of more than 1,000 words, and one joint post.

Gemstone IV

The campaign against Titan sapped our resources and demobilization is not helping our efforts. While one team brokers a deal on the casino ship, we need other teams to get out there and find a ways and means of keeping the Republic Shield operational

Participant Overall Objective: We need new leads or contacts to help keep the RS supplied in the face of dwindling Republic Shield and New Republic reinforcements. Make contact with possible connections that could be of use to us.

Multiplayer Scoring: When playing with another RS member, the general equation will be: (# of People) x (# of Hours) x (4 points per hour)

RS Defeat: The Team fails to turn up any further contacts
Objective: Less than 1500 points (roughly less than 3 people x 2 hours per week).

Stalemate: Your leads have brokers subpar munitions and wares. They MAY work, but they also may NOT work.
Objective: More than 1700 points

Victory: Your leads have turned up some possible supply routes, and though functional are often not military-grade. It will take time to convert some things, but we’ll be able to make due in time.
Objective: More than 1900 points (roughly more than 3 people x 2.5 hours per week).

ITOD Special Directive

Knowledge is power, and as we rest and refit from the Titan Campaign and proceed into the training plan developed by the Logistics office, accurate reporting will help us identify areas of strength and deficiencies we can rectify.

Participant Overall Objective: Report on the ITOD objectives! The player with the most reports will win, with ties determined first by ITOD overall score, and then by overall leaderboard points.

Scoring: Individual scores will be determined by overall reporting two days prior to the end of the session. The player with the most reports will win, with tiebreakers determined first by ITOD overall score, and then by leaderboard reports.

Defeat: The RS Forces do a poor job of reporting, and critical supply and operational issues are missed. Future readiness will suffer.
Objective: Less than 10 ITOD reports are tallied.

Stalemate: The RS does an adequate job of reporting, and identifies run of mill issues and problems, so that they can be addressed.
Objective: 10 ITOD reports are tallied.

Victory: The RS leans into their work, and refocuses on their training, logistics, and operational work. Several key problems are identified, and new methods are devised to deal with them.
Objective: 13 ITOD reports or greater are tallied.

Fleet Commander Special Directive

We are, first and foremost, a gaming club! What do gaming clubs do? Play games! Sometimes many of us are too busy to perform specific ITOD missions, perhaps a game doesn’t work, or there’s something that prohibits us from doing much of anything, so the goal of this objective is to make it as easy as possible to report.

Participant Overall Objective: For this Fleet Commander Special Directive, the ITOD objective is to ‘Play a Game with an RSer’. This can be anything and everything from an IRL card game, to a cooperative session of Gemstone IV, or spending hours upon hours raiding dungeons in WoW. To report on this objective, just include a link to the multiplayer report submitted (via the generic reporter), indicate what sim it was that you participated in (for anyone in the RPG division), or link to the forum post you are participating in (fiction).

As you all know, this session begins the ITOD scoring and Credit system for squadrons, so ITOD points (and scoring highly) directly helps your squadron gain rewards for future sessions; so this FCD is aimed at encouraging squadrons to report on the objective.

Scoring: Participants will be awarded a base of 5 ITOD points for a report on this objective.

Participants will be awarded 2 points if the player they are playing with is in their squadron, and an extra 2 points if they additionally play with a person outside their squadron.

A final bonus point will be awarded to all participants of the squadron which reaches 100% reporting first. (In the event of a tie the bonus point goes to every squadron which tied)

Defeat: No fictional tie-in.
Objective: Less than 10 multiplayer reports are tallied.

Stalemate: No fictional tie-in.
Objective: 10 multiplayer reports are tallied.

Victory: No fictional tie-in.
Objective: 13 multiplayer reports or greater are tallied.

VII. Conclusion

The main goal that we all hope to establish is consistency. Difficulties of getting the address out, and the satisfaction that comes notwithstanding, maintaining said precedent established will help foster growth and confidence. We hope to instill that confidence to you all and we will see you out there.

Happy Hunting!

":)
FA Michael Raven
Rebel Squadrons Fleet Commander

FA Lucas Benoit-Stark
Rebel Squadrons Executive Officer

MGN Markus Jarnhann
Rebel Squadrons Operations Officer

Rebel Squadrons High Command