Homestead: Venues of Bravo Fleet

One of the things that helped Deep Space 9 feel like a real frontier space station, a town in space, was its promenade: a place where beings of all shapes, colors, beliefs, etc. socialized, ate, drank, and traded. Locations like Quark’s Bar and the massive observation deck on the promenade are iconic science fiction settings, providing a place for characters of all walks of relief to relax, celebrate, and contemplate space. The Bajoran Temple emphasized the culture of the Bajorans who owned the station itself. Even the Replimat provided a regular backdrop for the conversations between Dr. Bashir and Garak, who also had their infirmary and tailor shop located in this bustling area.

Bravo Fleet has three starbases (Starbase Bravo, Starbase 72, Starbase 86), a fleet yard (Devron Fleet Yards), and a mobile headquarters flotilla (Task Force 17’s Lead Expeditionary Group) all of which serve as homes away from home for our ships. They are each unique, bustling areas that offer unique storytelling opportunities both for members who do not yet have their own ship but also to provide R&R between missions.

As part of Operation Homestead, the purpose of this competition is to reward members for fleshing out aspects of the fleet headquarters and the four task force headquarters, including TF17’s Forward Expeditionary Group. Specifically, this is a combination writing and graphics competition that asks members to create a location (in writing and visually) and a person associated with that place (in writing and visually) to give other members appropriate places and faces to play off of in their own writing. This will help to give each location a flavor and a character that can only be built up by sustained collaborative writing.

All of this will be produced directly on the Bravo Fleet Wiki. The grading criteria reflect good Wiki habits, which include using templates, creating links from one article to the next, and the use of visuals. 

Basic Requirements of an Entry

An “entry” is up to two separate wiki articles: First, a recreational or commercial venue relevant either to any Task Force headquarters or Starbase Bravo. Second, a person associated with that place, such as its owner/proprietor or an employee. 

An article about a venu with at least one visual plus an article about a corresponding person with at least one visual is considered a ‘complete set,’ but entries without visuals, or a venu without a person will be accepted as valid. A person cannot be submitted without a corresponding place, however.

Content will be created directly on the Wiki, and entries will be submitted to the competition form on the BFMS with links to both articles created for the entry, along with the descriptive statement outlined in the next section. 

Examples from Star Trek canon

• A complete set from DS9 might be an article about Quark’s Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade, and an article on either Quark, Rom, Leeta, or Morn, as the proprietor, employees, and a fixture of the bar respectively. 
• A complete set from TOS might be an article about the bar on Deep Space Station K-7, and an article about the unnamed bartender.

Examples of Venues:

• Bars, taverns, lounges
• Restaurants, grills, bistros, replimats, mess halls
• Coffee shops
• Shops (antiques, souvenirs, books)
• Barbers, tailors, salons, spas
• Religious venues (Bajoran temples, etc.)
• Galleries, art studios, etc.

This is not an all-inclusive list, so get creative!

Detailed Description of an Entry

• All entries should  include an article about a recreational or commercial venue related to your a TF headquarters or Starbase Bravo. This should be at least 250 words long and no more than 750 words long, not counting a bulleted ‘In-Play’ section that explains how members could use your content in their writing.
  • Articles should be titled with the name of the venue you are describing.
  • Articles should use the Venue template included in the example.
• Along with a place, you may include a character associated with that venue. This should be a character created on the wiki, not in the BFMS, as it would be an NPC available for use by everyone. This should be at least 250 words long and no more than 750 words long, not counting a bulleted ‘In-Play’ section that explains how members could use your content in their writing.
  • Articles should be titled with the name of the character you are describing.
  • Articles should use the Character template included in the example.
• Good wiki articles include visuals, and entries with visuals in one or both articles will earn more points than articles without visuals. (See scoring, later.)
• In addition to the articles themselves, your submission to the BFMS should include a short description that explains:
  • the relationship between the person and the place you are submitting; and,
  • where you got any visuals you used in your articles. 

Example Entry

“Venue: https://wiki.bravofleet.com/index.php/Vandorin’s_Bistro
Person: https://wiki.bravofleet.com/index.php/Esterra_Vandorin 

Esterra Vandorin is the proprietress of Vandorin’s Bistro on Starbase Bravo. 

I found the images for the bistro on an architectural website describing Le Bernardin, a famous restaurant in New York city that seemed suitable to stand in for Vandorin’s. The image for Esterra Vandorin is an edited still of Lorraine Toussaint, superimposed over a restaurant backdrop and with an oil brush filter applied.” 

NB: Don’t bother including additional context here beyond talking about graphics, as it won’t be factored into your scoring. If you have something to say, say it in your articles!

Scoring

Points are awarded for including various elements of a complete set, before quality is assessed. This ensures that, all things being equal, two entries of the same quality will have a tie broken based on which entry has more of the following elements:

• 1 point for an article about a place
  • 1 bonus point for including at least one image
  • 1 further bonus point for including at least one custom image (manipulated, drawn, otherwise created by you)
• 1 point for an article about a person related to your place
  • 1 bonus point for including at least one image
  • 1 further bonus point for including at least one custom image (manipulated, drawn, otherwise created by you)
• 2 bonus points for a “complete set” of an article about a place with a visual element, plus an article about a person with a visual element.

In the example entry above, therefore, the person submitting would earn 7 points: 2 points for the article about Vandorin’s bistro with visual elements, and 3 points for the article about Esterra Vandorin with a custom image, and 2 points for the “complete” set bonus.

After the initial scoring, each entry is assessed using the rubric here, earning up to three points in five different categories, for a total possible score between the initial points and the rubric of 23. Ties are unlikely but will be broken by the judge’s discretion.

Additional Requirements

• Not including a statement of where you found your graphics, if applicable, will result in disqualification.
• You may not request graphics from the graphics team or commission an outside artist to create images for this competition. Including a commissioned or requested image will result in disqualification.
• Taking edited character pictures from another source (i.e. googling ‘Male Andorian’ and taking an image from a random artist) will result in disqualification.
• The state an article is in when the competition ends is what will be judged.

Other Notes

• Unlike most competitions, you are encouraged to discuss your entries and ask for technical help with the Wiki! Feel free to use these settings in your own writing as well as you create them. Once it’s on the wiki, it’s not just part of this competition, it’s then member canon.
• You’re free to create as many venues and characters as you want, but you can only submit one set to this competition.
• If you want your venue to be a permanent part of your TF’s headquarters or the fleet headquarters, that can happen as well! See the Canon Policy for more information. As this is a wiki, items incorporated into fleet canon may be edited/trimmed/altered to fit. Placing is not a guarantee of inclusion into fleet canon.

The character you submit should not be a character you intend to remain your own personal character, as once they’ve been submitted here you’re releasing them to the fleet as an NPC for anyone’s use.

Criteria

• Competition entries should be submitted to the BFMS, as shown in the example above.
• Please proofread submissions before making them. Minor errors will not impact scoring, but we need to be able to read it without comprehension issues.
• By entering this competition, you agree to allow the fleet to use your entry on the Infobase.