Roleplay Basics

Created by on Fri Apr 10th, 2020 @ 2:04pm

Roleplay Basics

If you are new to roleplay, let\'s get started. First, you are going to take on the role of a Star Trek character. We will be writing collaborative stories as if we were writing small novels together. And you are as equal a part of that experience as anyone else on the sim.

Roleplaying is about diving into your character and having fun. You should develop that character over time and he/she will not be super-powered right out of the gates. Plan on playing the long game and we'll all get to know each other quite well.

Note that in our "universe", Hobus has gone supernova and heavily damaged Romulus and Remus (they were not totally destroyed). The Federation and the Romulans are somewhat friendly, although there is a Rihansu Resistance that has its hooks in various parts of the Northern Expanse.

When writing, remember it's third-person novel style. We write in short threads or "posts" (see below) and eventually tackle a complete mission via a collection of these posts.

We'll add more content and tips here later. But that should give you a decent start. Always ask a GM if you have a concern or question!

Nova Intro

Nova is different than forum or email posting, used VERY frequently in the Trek simming universe. It kind of combines forum-based story creation with email alerts like the old play-by-email days, along with a fully-fledged website including character bios, ship specs, and mission listing. It even has a semi-useful wiki to create documentation like this page.

We write our stories as a part of a sim-wide "mission", or story-arc. Each player or group of players contributes to a post (think of it as one long forum thread or email thread), saving it along the way, until that player or group thinks the post is ready. They then "post" this entry as a part of the mission. And as the mission progresses with such posts, the GMs determine when the mission is ready to be resolved.

Each saved post sends an email to those who are writing, and each posted mission post sends an email to the entire sim. All of these are readable on the website as well. It's a very easy and yet powerful system.

Character Tips

There are many sites out there describing how to make a good character, and we\'ll link to some of those here. But basically follow this guideline:

• Don\'t create someone over-powered: This is the Mary Sue effect, so don\'t make Picard or Data or Kirk or Tuvok.
• Really pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses. Have weaknesses that really impact how your character can get things done.
• Put some thought into your character\'s childhood, past, and career - those will be key in how others see them on this site.
• Have fun - most importantly, write a character that will allow you to have fun. If you can do that, pay attention to the points above, and contribute to our story, you will succeed and have a blast.

More items will be added to this section over time, so stay tuned!

Speaking and Actions

There are various ways of writing how a character or situation unfolds so here are a few. First, basic narration (writing/storytelling) is done in normal text. Sometimes an italics or bold item (using the HTML <i> or <b> tags - don't forget to close them properly!) are used to stress something or give credence to a proper name.

Speaking is done with "double quotes", and includes standard grammar/punctuation. The man said, "Time to go." Thoughts a character has can have the same formatting, but use the tilde ~ mark instead of double quotes. The man thought, ~Wow, it\'s really time for me to get out of here.~

Here are some other ones we may use in writing, although less familiar.

• Location Setting or Change (underline): <u>Location Change</u> appears as Location Change
• Chatter over comms: =/\\= Hey Sam, you read me? =/\\= This can use normal speaking styling (double quotes) if the descriptor is clear.

Have something to add, or need clarification on something? Just ask and we\'ll update this article.