Forces of the Empire

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Fan Club
Name: Forces of the Empire (F.O.E.)
Dates: 1980-present
Founder(s): Pat Grant
Leadership:
Country based in:
Focus: Star Wars
External Links: archived website outlining the club
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Forces of the Empire is a Star Wars fan club formed by Pat Grant in 1980 and still active today. One of "Forces of the Empire's activities is the blaster battle at MediaWest*Con, a live action role-playing event usually taking place on Saturday night of the convention.

Related clubs are The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces and The Supreme Order of the Imperial Forces.

See Gaming at Conventions.

Flyers

Club Zines

A Description

F.O.E. is a multi-faceted club. We seem to have become a mostly role-playing club. Members create their own SW personas, and role-play together through letters, phone calls, newsletter transmissions, and stories. Some stories are printed in our newsletter, longer ones go into the zine, Tales from the Cantina. However, we also have several non-role-play features in the newsletter, such as the Discussion Corner, where members talk about different topics (one topic per issue) and From a Certain Point of View, where members write reviews of books, zines, and other things. We have several members who do not create personas and enjoy the newsletter for these other things. But the role-play has become the largest part and the newsletter contains sections for each of the five main divisions. We even have some reporter personas with two "newspaper" sections. It's all rather amusing and lots of fun. By the way, F.O.E. was formed in 1980 (under a different name) and changed names in 1987. We have published the newsletter under different formats and are up to issue #74. Not long ago, we looked ahead and realized that issue #100 will be due out in February of 2001! Our first newsletter of the New Century! We hope to make it very big and very special! If anyone is interested, I do bring the club archives with me to the con every year, so you can see every issue we ever printed.... ...we do live action role-play and have rules of our own. We don't use dice at all. We do have statistics with ranks assigned only for the purpose of determining things, such as who shot whom, if role-play doesn't work. It's like being in a play, without a script. We get points by reaching certain goals and by capturing certain items. One interesting historic fact about F.O.E.: Originally it began as a sort of joke. I was a member of a group in Florida known as The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces, run by Paula Truelove (of Flip of a Coin fame). Some friends and I decided to give her a little friendly fun and began sending Imperial transmissions to her Rebel Royalness. Someone suggested we should turn it all into an actual club, offering friendly competition to the Rebel "upstarts". So, laughing through it all, I typed up (on a manual typewriter) the first issue of Executor Logs, the newsletter of The Supreme Order of the Imperial Forces. It was 2 pages long. And it went out to 15 people. Boy, have we come a long way from such an amusing beginning! [1]

Forces of the Empire, formerly the SUPREME ORDER OF IMPERIAL FORGES, is a SW fan club that is divided into four divisions—The Supreme Order, The Rebel Alliance, The Diplomatic Embassy, and the Free Spacers/Mercenary Guild. Each division allows active involvement from its members.[2]

Forces of the Empire Club Chronology: 1980-2003

1977 - A phenomena is born: Star Wars. In no time at all, clubs and fanzines were forming across the nation. One of these was called "The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces," run by Paula Truelove.

1979 - Pat Grant joins the RORF. Later on she and several friends begin writing letters in character to each other. Imperial characters are created and "Imperial Transmissions" are sent to the Rebel club. By late fall, talk begins of starting an Imperial Club to counter the Rebel club.

1980 - A couple of attempts to begin a club fail. Finally in the fall, a two-page introductory newsletter is sent out to about 25 people. The club's name is a spoof of the Rebel club name: The Supreme Order of the Imperial Forces. About 15 people join initially.

1981 - The club has a slow start, but attendance at MediaWest*Con 1, in May brings several new members. Published issues #3 through 5 of the club newsletter, The Executor Logs.

1982 - The club continued on an even level, about as many members joined as quit. The club began charging dues, as printing was getting expensive. Previously members only paid by sending in SASE's to get the newsletter. The club wasn't expected to last long due to the Imperial focus, but people actually show interest. Published issues 6 through 8 of the newsletter, now with a new format, a cover was added.

1983 - The club suffered financial set backs, and only published two issues of the newsletter. However, membership did grow, and the club began holding "club activities" at MediaWest*Con, as a large number of club members attended that convention each year. Detailed personas began to develop, and role-play between some members began to soar.

1984 - The club published issues 11 through 13 of the newsletter. The club had begun a new format with issue 9 which was party of the cause for financial problems, so issue 13 the club returned to letter form. A full page with a letter head, instead of a booklet with a cover. At MediaWest*Con the club held its second award ceremony and first tug-of-war, which the Rebels won.

1985 - A much better year for the club! Membership was now around 60 people. Issues 14 through 22 of the newsletter were published. They were shorter than previous issues, but came out more often, keeping the club in better touch with its members. At MediaWest*Con, this year, another award ceremony was held along with the second tug-of-war, which the Imperials won. Also this year, the first Blaster Battle was held, on a very impromptu and unorganized fashion, but fun was had by all.

1986 - Issues 23 to 32 of the newsletter were published. The club increased its activity at MediaWest*Con. The club decided to hold another Blaster Battle. The award ceremony became a major even, attraction an audience. This year the Rebels won the tug-of-war again.

1987 - The Club published issues 33 to 42 of the club newsletter, with 40, 41, and 42 printed as one gigantic issue. At issue 38 the club changed the name of the newsletter to Bound by the Force. Three divisions were added to the club: The Alliance, Mercenary, and Diplomats. The club changed its name to Forces of the Empire. Club Prez, Pat Grant, attends both MediaWest*Con, and the 10th Anniversary Star Wars convention in Los Angeles, to promote the club. At MediaWest*Con, there was no award ceremony or tug-of-war, there was however, a Blaster Battle, which the Imperials won.

1988 - The club published issues 43 to 52 of the newsletter. Issue 47 and 48 were combined into a double issue, and saw a return to the booklet form, with a cover. This year the Imperials won both the tug-of-war, and the Blaster Battle at MediaWest*Con.

1989 - Issues 53 to 56 of the newsletter were published. The club decided to decrease the newsletter to four issues a year, but make them larger. A great deal of role-play went on a MediaWest, and the Imperials won the Blaster Battle, again.

1990 - Published issues 57 through 60 of the newsletter. A large percentage of club members were now attending MediaWest*Con. First annual FoE Roast, held at MediaWest, honored Darth Vader, with Allen Falkowski appearing as Vader. The Rebels won the Blaster Battle.

1991 - Second annual Roast, at MediaWest*Con, honored Prism NightHawk, played by Leslie Danneberger. There was role-playing all weekend. The Blaster Battle was won by the Rebels. The Imperials suffered a great loss as Admiral Rica Targan (Pat Grant) and Lady Tianna Vader (Barb Gardner) both desert. Role-play revolving around the convention now goes on year long for many members of the club. The First annual Sunburst awards for the Blaster Battle of 1990 were presented at MediaWest. The club published issues 61 through 64 of the newsletter.

1992 - Isses 65 though 68 of the news letter were published. The club undertook some now projects this year including: the Persona Bio Booklet, Tales from the Cantina fanzine, and a new membership kit. Two new divisions were added: The Renegades, headed by the rogue Sith Lady, Tianna Vader, and the Press, with two subdivisions: the Inter Galactic News Network, and the Imperial News Network. The Third annual Roast honored Luke Skywalker, portrayed by Mark Fisher. This year, MediaWest*Con moved to a new hotel.

1993 - The club published issues 68 through 71. At MediaWest*Con, the annual Roast honored Gija Metieh, played by Seth Bonder. The role-play between members was getting more and more interactive, and devious. The Mentor program was organized to help out new members.

1994 - At MediaWest, the Roast honored Avon (a crossover universe character from Blake's 7), played by Pat Betz. Issues 72 through 75 were published. Increasing printing and mailing costs, mainly due to extreme size of each newsletter caused the club to raise membership dues. To keep the increase at a minimum, the club began to charge for transmissions placed in the Galactic Transmissions section, which had quickly become the largest section of the newsletter. The membership kit was redesigned into booklet form, and more information was added.

1995 - The club will publish issues 76 though 79 of the newsletter. The Annual Roast at MediaWest*Con will honor Lady Tianna Vader, Leader of the Renegades, played by Barb Gardner. FoE gets on-line. Patrick Furlong ([email protected]) becomes the Internet coordinator for the club, and he writes the club's first World-Wide-Web home page.

1996 - The club undergoes a split. A spin-off group called Rebellion and Empire is formed. The club web page is not receiving much traffic or interest in so it is taken down. Regardless of the difficulties the club goes forward and continues strong.

1997 -

1998 -

1999 - Many members of FoE begin to use Aol Instant Messenger for role-play. The club e-mail lists see more and more traffic of stories and communications.

2000 - Issues of the newsletter are published. Dora Furlong goes live with the new club home page. It is now a members only site. The skirmish at MediaWest*Con runs the titanic scenario and the decision was made to focus the skirmish on RP and allow the Blaster Battle to be goal oriented.

2001 - Imperials win the annual Blaster Battle

2002 - Difficulties in publishing the club newsletter occur. Club Roast at media west honors Tarvi Sitorian of the Galactic Enquirer, played by Terri Ruwe. The Rebels win the Blaster Battle and Boba Fett wins the highest paid merc.

2003 - The club moves into the cedar street station at media west. Has several new members join. Membership back up to 60+ members. The club votes to discontinue publishing the club newsletter, Bound by the Force due to lack of submissions. We create a general Publications Position. The club also votes to lower dues. The Annual Roast this year is Darana Cairnfell played by Dora Furlong. The Imperials win the Blaster Battle and Khando, played by Rob Smith, wins the highest paid merc.[3]}}

External links

References

  1. ^ from Pat Grant in Southern Enclave #40 (1994)
  2. ^ from Hibernation Sickness #4
  3. ^ Forces of the Empire, Chronology, Archived version
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