Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of awards from our 2023 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters as well as their out of character contributions and achievements.
This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Ensign Piweh playing a Monogendered Bzzit Khat Medical Officer assigned to the USS Arrow. He won the Locutus Award, which is “awarded to members of the Publicity Team who go above-and-beyond their monthly requirements for participation on a regular basis. These team members are enthusiastic about spreading the word about our role-playing community and are actively looking for new methods to draw people into the fold,” and the Vega Award which is given “to individuals who bring the worlds of their crews to life with art, videos, and all kinds of artistic endeavors. Named for one of the Federation’s earliest colonies.”
Promontory: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from and how did you get involved with SB118?
Piweh: My name is Joseph, I am an Army veteran seeking a disability pension. I like heavy music, creating art, following politics and current events, history, and nerdy stuff like TTRPGs and boardgames.
I’m a Texan from a small town in the Texas Panhandle, but I now reside in Austin and have for about a decade.
I was recruited by someone I rped with on a MUSH, and once my first ship was decommissioned I requested to be transferred to the one they were on. We’ve been on the same ship ever since.
You recently switched characters from a Lt Commander Security Chief to a Bzzit Khat Medical Officer, what was behind that change?
My Command Team asked me to consider switching it up. Artinus wasn’t getting stale per say, but it was suggested that I needed a change of perspective to be able to push my writing to the next level.
I chose a Bzzit Khat for similar but opposite reasons that I chose a Magna Roman for my first character. I wanted a species with minimal lore for Artinus so I could make plenty of my own. With the Bzzits, there is a good chunk of lore, despite how unknown they are, so that offered me a totally different type of freedom. Sometimes having some boundaries makes it easier to avoid being caught up in a web of possibilities.
I chose to play Medical Officer because my job in the military was a Medic, so I had something of a background in it, Add on top of that a few semesters of human anatomy in college afterwards.
One of your awards was for work on the publicity team. For those readers who may not be familiar with that team, what does it entail?
The Publicity Team is the official OOC activity group that helps meet the recruiting needs of our community through marketing mostly on Social Media.
How can others help promote recruitment and bring new cadets into the fold? Are there any particular do’s and don’ts that you’d suggest?
I’m probably not the very best one to ask. My job has largely been to gather content from my internet browsing and put it up on our Trello board for the various Social Media managers to do with as they like.
But I’d say, mention not only the game, but the sense of community to people you think might be interested. But let them take the initiative on whether or not they follow through with questions. So, as with most interactions, be supportive, and don’t be pushy,
The Vega Award recognized you for artistic contributions. Can you tell us about a particular artistic endeavor you’re particularly proud of?
Narrowing it down is a hard task. I’ve done a few things with 3d, visualizing locations and such.
I suppose my very favorite has to be the picture for my Brikar MSNPC. It was a challenge that I enjoyed, and I really learned a lot about texturing, manipulating layers, lighting and other things to add a more 3d feel with in a 2d program.
What’s next for you and Piweh?
I want to get centered and overcome some of the issues holding me back as best as I can. This regards to issues that effect my real life, and my game life both.
Piweh has just wrapped their first mission. So my immediate goal for them is for them to get acquainted with their crew mates and make some friends, which pardon the pun, is going swimmingly, with a holodeck beach party. That and recover from the famous Alpha Isles dread/horror. In the very long term, I’d like to get them a medical specialization, epidemiology seems appealing.
Thanks for your time, Ensign Piweh!
You can read more about Ensign Piweh on the wiki: Piweh – 118Wiki (starbase118.net).
