We started reporting on a census of the fleet in the IC year 2400 (IRL: 2023) [see article here: (2400) Fleet Census Last year, we added a survey component: 2401 Fleet Census and Survey. We continue that tradition this year with an expanded look at our IC fleet and OOC writers!
In just the last couple of years we’ve grown from about 100 active simmers to over 140 played characters! [For more on the growth of the fleet, see the upcoming SOFTA.] As in previous years, we have a smidge over half of our characters male (50%) with 47% female a handful of genderless and nonbinary characters.
Full Humans make up about a third of our characters (a dip from last year.) Trills are still the second most represented (currently we have 13 Trills plus 4 Trill hybrids). Vulcans (8) and Betazoid (11) and their hybrid) come in next most frequently (including one Vulcan/Betazoid hybrid) followed by Bajorans/Bajoran hybrids (8). Next most common is Andorians (6) and El-Aurians (5). About 1/6 of our characters are multiple species hybrids, repping that IDIC.
We have a balance of duty posts and ranks represented, as well. as shown in the following charts:
The major colors of all Starfleet divisions are also well balanced in the fleet as well as a number of special “others” (civilians, diplomats, marines, and intel officers!)
Now let’s look at the writers behind our characters! We had over half of our writers respond (thank you!)
We have a nice healthy mix of newer players (almost a third at less than a year) and those with more experience. A full third have been writing with us for 1-3 years and over a fifth of our writers have been doing this for 4-8 years. And a special shout-out to the 10% who have been lending their writing chops to the fleet for the better part of a decade or more!
Our writers are also often involved with other role playing games. 50% report also playing TTRPGs and almost 25% are involved in MMORPGs. Around 8% are also involved in another PBEM! [About half of our members also report role-playing their normal life duties as a responsible adult with a job! Keep up the act!] Forty percent of our respondents note that SB118 is pretty much the only RPG they are involved with.
We have a handful of writers who write for a second PC. However, quite a few writers have a PNPC (or two) that they also write for regularly (and a few have a whole stable of characters with fleshed out wiki pages!).
While we have members all over the world, our community is concentrated in the US and Europe. Several members represent Latin America and Australia!
We have players from a range of ages with about 10% under 25, a third in their late 20’s/early 30’s and about half are midlife (or in denial about being midlife). We also have a couple of wisened heads (over 50).
We asked a bit about how we all enjoy Star Trek. When it comes to the worlds beyond the shows books were a particular favorite, as was the Star Trek Adventures RPG.
We also had folks rate each on-screen iteration of Trek. The series in the 90s got plenty of love, with DS9 being esteemed quite highly:
In the more recent streaming era, there is one particular show (Strange New Worlds) that is hands down the highest ranked.
We separated out the animated shows and the consensus seems to suggest everyone should be tuning into Lower Decks.
We also polled what folks thought of various Trek movies. The results speak for themselves:
Additionally we asked folks their favorite class of ships. Our hero ships fared quite well with the Galaxy-class getting the most votes (10) followed by the Intrepid (6) and Sovereign (6). The Defiant, Excelsior, and Nova classes got 4 picks a piece and the Akira, Prometheus, and Sagan each picked up 3. Others with multiple votes (2 each) include the Ambassador-, Constitution-, Dakota-, Oberth-, Vesta-classes, and stations! We also want to acknowledge those with unique tastes who voted as favorites the: California, Constellation, Crossfield, Curry, Danube, Discovery, Gargarin, Horizon, Olympic, Parliament, Pathfinder, Saber, Saladin, Steamrunner, and Sutherland classes!
Outside of Trek, a lot of us enjoy other sci-fi and fantasy content with 2/3 enjoying Star Wars and over 60% loving Lord of the Rings. We also have many fans of “Doctor Who” and comic book-inspired media.
Finally, bringing it back to SB118 writing, we asked about favorite types of missions. At a tie for first place (with 3/4 of respondents picking each) our simmers selected “exploring strange new worlds, new life, and new civilizations” and “inter-personal conflict and character growth.” A majority also selected “diplomatic,” “mystery/suspense,” and “some sort of morality conflict” missions. About 40% liked classic sci-fi tropes like time-travel and alternate versions of characters we know and love.
That’s a wrap for our 2402 census and survey. Thank you all for making this such an awesome community!
