Game Master of the Year
Jill / Lalor – USS Elysium
- Commodore Lalor-Richardson has constantly put forward engrossing and interesting missions for her players, even allowing her players the opportunity to add their own distinctive flavor to each mission creation.
She constantly keeps a protective eye on her crew, ensuring any personal issues, OOC and IC, are resolved quickly and positively. If there is a player who is causing strife in the Sim or discord page, she deals with the situation fairly, respectfully and by the rules set forth in the Sim. Her leadership pushes her players to constantly push themselves to write better and more detailed posts which is great as a writer. - Commodore Lalor-Richardson constantly keeps us going! She makes sure that we are always on our best, giving the best that we can in our sim. She has, from day one for me and others , made sure we were well taken care of and never left behind. If something is going on, she always reaches out to us to see what is going on and makes sure that everything is okay with us personally, making plans with us if we need a little bit more of time.
Jill is and always will be a good CO for the crew of USS Elysium!
John/Emu – X-Men Avalon
John has built Avalon from the ground-up this year. No easy feat in itself. But what’s great is that he’s done a brilliant job of worldbuilding behind that – the locale, the villains, the conflicts, all of them are clearly well thought-out and make sense. That in turn makes a great sandbox for players to write in.
Yes, we’re a school so we can write teachers being superheroes and teenagers having drama, but all of it is made to feel part of something bigger. It reminds me of a well-crafted homebrew D&D setting, where there’s plenty of familiarity but enough uniqueness to not feel like we know everything about it.
Paul/Kane – USS Athena
Paul goes above and beyond for his sim and players. He is always coming up with new and exciting mission ideas as well as pulling various ideas from others. Even with a diverse set of ideas from a diverse crew, Paul manages to put it all together to form intriguing missions that are fun to write and interesting to read. He is incredibly supportive and actively reaches out to each person to encourage participation on the sim.
He uses his diverse set of characters to support this as well. In addition to all of that, he is always on top of the many questions we throw his way and for some reason he still puts up with us on a daily basis (even when some of us try to blow up his ship every mission). Paul is amazing and truly makes the Athena a fun place to write!
Becca/ Ehestri – NX-05 Atlantis/SS Mary Rose
Having the privilege of writing on two sims that Becca manages, I can easily credit her for being the reason I’ve rediscovered Obsidian Fleet as a creative outlet. Her mission designs are interesting and inclusive, her activity and participation are equal-to-none and she gets bonus points for navigating original and engaging storytelling in not one, but two uncommon Trek settings.
Becca leads from the front, is always willing to pull people into writing opportunities and support their creative aspirations and is a great friend to boot. She takes the time to care about her players, invests herself in fostering a sense of community amongst the groups she manages, and can always be relied upon to be flexible and understanding when situations demand it. I’ve nothing but admiration for her and can think of no better recipient of this award.
Markus / Sepandiyar Obsidian Command
Markus is ever reliant as a GM and centered on what matters most for a game- providing a haven for writers and leading by demonstrating the craft of writing, quality characterization, and strong storytelling himself. This year especially saw him collaborate extensively with the sim’s active contributors, and simultaneously provide central plot while accommodating many player led story developments.
He maintains an informative, clean, and pretty nova site, manages setting and timeline with clear documents and is always available for communication. When it comes to his scope of activities and responsibilities, he puts his sim first and it shows in the quality and number of posts the players are inspired to write, thanks in fair part to the environment he’s cultivated.
Matt / Pax – USS Wabi Sabi
Every week we play, this guy dreams up a new story for his crew to play through! He opens up his game broadly and invites new people in all of the time, from his IRL pals to general gaming boards full of new people to meet. He adapted the fleet’s newest IFS version to the sim for reports and posts and announcements, and he just has a general love of Trek and Role Playing and has a heart to engage with anyone that will come to the table, as a guests, part time players, or as committed regular crewers.
Matt is constantly learning applications of the Modiphus books for the sim, reading and applying published mission outlines, or adapting his own ideas, and making sure everyone at the table has something to respond to or interact with. A creative and friendly soul.