In a true live action role playing game, all of the players get together to participate in a fantasy game, and one person, the Game Manager ( aka the GM, That would be me, sorta. Note: there's a differance between me and the Poster GM. Stop snickering.) takes on the role of referee. The GM oversees who goes when, and what is allowed and not allowed. In this thread, the burden of what is allowed and not allowed is somewhat shifted to each of the players. When you post your creative writing effort, and submit your post YOU are the GM at that point. And being a referee on a role playing game you should ask yourself a few questions about your submission.
"Given my character's biography and established game play thus far, would my character do this?"
"Given the Star Trek universe in which we are gaming in, would this possibly happen?"
"Will this entry greatly affect another player's character, or disrupt a storyline they are currently pursuing?"
"Have I used this player's character in a way that is consistent with their biography and established game play?"
"Will my post in any way alter the true Star Trek universe in which we are gaming in?"
There are two things you have to look out for. First, you can not write anything in your story entry that will drastically alter the current "story arc" established by the GM (Minsc) or AGM's (Orphen) posts. If you have doubts about an entry, you can always feel free to send a copy to me for approval before posting it to the group. We do intend to have certain story arcs and episodes center around different crew members to ensure that everyone gets to be "the star" on occasion. When this happens to your character, you will be in the spot light so to speak, and the other player's character entries will take a secondary, or background role. Like wise, when another character has the spotlight, it is important that you still post into the sim, but in a way that supports the storyline, and the other players.
Second, when you use another player's character in your story. If your use of the character is only minor, and doesn't really affect any other storylines currently in progress, then you are probably okay. But if your use of the character is extensive, you may wish to PM a copy to the player on your intended post before sending it to the whole group. Sometimes this can avoid problems later on because you made someone's character do something or say something that they would never do.
Stories that require a lot of dialogue between two player characters are usually best handled in a cooperative effort. One player will write out the story, with dialogue for their character and the other pc, and then PM it to the other player for review and/or revision. When they both agree on the final story, it is posted to the rest of the group as an official entry. This kind of cooperation, often called a joint log, is encouraged.
The other way of doing a dialogue sequence between two players is to post a story that puts the two characters face to face, and then each player posts a short entry with their comments, ending it waiting for the other player to respond. While this can work well for short conversations between two players that frequently check the board for posts and respond promptly, it tends to not work well for longer winded, or confrontational dialogue pieces. These are usually best handled "off line" with cooperation between the two players to come up with a completed `chapter' of the story, and then posted it to the thread complete. This way, a conversation that takes just five minutes of "game time" doesn't spread out over two weeks worth of postings.
A third way to complete a joint log is to have both players join our gamesnet IRC chat channel (#odyssey) and complete the log in real time with both members working off each other posts, then one player highlights the text and using Ctrl-C to copy it, then Ctrl-V to paste it in the thread. I recommend not closing the Chat channel until you have finished posting it, as our chat logs aren't archived.