Welcome to the Allied Simulation Association’s Play By Email Division. This manual was created to give you a working knowledge of how all ASA PBeM sims function as well as to answer any questions you may have.

Basic Gameplay
First and foremost, you must have a functioning ability to write in the primary language of the game, most often this is English. On top of that you must be able to post once a week, twice for anyone with a rank of lieutenant or above. Also, you must follow The ASA’s code of conduct in ANY ASA sim you play in.
All ASA PBeMs are told like a third person story. So instead of saying “I walked my dog.” You would say “He walked his dog.”
Additionally, most PbEMs ask that you put your character’s name in brackets above your characters narration, like this:

[Miteva]

For the most part, standard punctuation and grammar is used, but thoughts that a character only thinks to himself or herself are put between asterisks, like this:

[Miteva]
Lieutenant Gergana Miteva reflected briefly that she was indeed, well and thoroughly screwed. Three guards held their guns on her in front of her, outside the very door she had pinned her hopes of escape on. *Well. Now what do I do?* She glanced at the guards coming up behind her. *Aside from die?*

Now, if Gergana Miteva’s player wanted another character to reply she would simply add a response tag. A response tag indicates to the player of another character that you want their character to respond. It consists of a carrot an ‘R’, a dash, and the character’s name that you want to reply, and a closing carrot:

< r-Grazelle >

Response tags are also commonly used to request a GM response for an NPC or the results of something. You could also ask for any player to reply, to all players, etc.

< r-any >
< r-all >
< r-someone save Gergana! >
< r-results? >
< r-do I get past the evil boss? >
< r-GM >

So Gergana’s post now looks like this:

[Miteva]
Gergana Miteva reflected briefly that she was indeed, well and thoroughly screwed. She scrambled for an excuse to offer her boss. *Well. Now what do I do?* She glanced at Linda’s questioning face. *Aside from get another written warning?*

< r-Someone save me!! >

Now Brie Grazelle’s player has a way to save Gergana, so she replies to the post. She does not delete any parts of the post still pertinent to her reply – so she leaves Gergana’s face to face with the dreaded boss, but she does delete the response tag. Brie is also going to use another form of communication, telepathy. Telepathic communication is indicated through the use of curly brackets:

[Grazelle]
{Relax. I’ve got you covered.} “Sorry, Gergana. Had to find my matches.” She smiled to Linda. “Just going out of a smoke. Gergana was gonna explain something about OSX to me.” She and Gergana escaped the office with nary a glance back.

Which makes their post look like this:

[Miteva]
Gergana Miteva reflected briefly that she was indeed, well and thoroughly screwed. She scrambled for an excuse to offer her boss. *Well. Now what do I do?* She glanced at Linda’s questioning face. *Aside from get another written warning?*

[Grazelle]
{Relax. I’ve got you covered.} “Sorry, Gergana. Had to find my matches.” She smiled to Linda. “Just going out of a smoke. Gergana was gonna explain something about OSX to me.” She and Gergana escaped the office with nary a glance back.

You can also add an out of character note to posts. Lets say Brie’s post continued on to discuss leaving the office.

[Grazelle]
{Relax. I’ve got you covered.} “Sorry, Gergana. Had to find my matches.” She smiled to Linda. “Just going out of a smoke. Gergana was gonna explain something about OSX to me.” She and Gergana escaped the office with nary a glance back.
As they strode out Gergana leaned against the side of the building, cupping her hands around her cigarette as she lit it. (((OOC: Yes, I know smoking will kill me. But it’s so much fun!)))

Sometimes people do not declare that a question is OOC, but it is inside either carrots <<< .>>> or parenthesis ((( ))) and people can also generally tell by the tone of note. OOC notes are often used to discuss things that have no bearing on the game, or are details that your character should know. For example, if Gergana is a computer technician, she wouldn’t need to ask in character what mac users called a shortcut, but her user might. (((OOC: What do you mac users call shortcuts?))) Or even use it to supplement a post:

[Miteva]
Gergana sighed and tried to explain again to the student that deleting the (((whatever mac users call shortcuts))) did not delete the program or files from her iBook. Yes, she was about ready to kill the imbocile.

This is all pretty easy, right?

Aside from the way the game functions, there are certain people in charge of the game, called a Game Moderator or GM. This person’s job is to set up new story lines, keep a roster of active players, and keep the game flowing. This person more than likely will be the Commanding Officer (CO) or some very high ranking person in game. They will usually identify themselves with the title GM on the bottom of their posts, which is required in most games.
GM’s sometimes have other people who help them, maybe a player who maintains a website for the game, or a player who handles getting new characters started in the game. These support players often do not play a character that mirrors out of character importance.

Just to keep things clear, players should make sure to always sign their post. These signatures should include the character name, rank, position, and ship or sim name. Them should also include their AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! ID, or ICQ number so other players can contact them. If the sim is part of a sub group in the ASA, the GM may request that players include that in their post. The general order is:
-Name
-Rank
-Position
-Ship or Sim Name
-Larger Group name
-AIM/MSN/Yahoo!/ICQ
-A quote or other useless tid bit of info

for example, the standard signature for a player in Starbase Inferno or USS Alliance is:

Commodore Aratan Chordnkoppe
GM, Starbase Inferno
Commanding Officer, Starbase Inferno
Katana Fleet
AIM: BossManAlfaASA
ICQ: 33071557
Yahoo!: FltAdmAlfaASA
MSN: Atlanta_Nich@hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’ve been waking up screaming, although the night’s not done.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However, that is a bit lengthy and people without automatic signatures on their email might want to just put down their character name, rank, and position. That’s acceptable most of the time.

Commodore Aratan Chordnkoppe
GM, CO, GOD.
~~~~~
Just kidding about that God part =P

If you have any questions related to anything in-game, either a problem or other concern that you don’t wish to address in-game, please use the chain of command and talk to your direct superior, if it is beyond them, they will pass it up the chain until someone can answer it. This makes life easy so the GM does not have to constantly concern themselves with problems that could have been addressed by someone with less rank.

Promotions
Promotions are given to those who post frequently and post well. A promotion means added responsibility in game, but you will have more leverage and input with the GM as well as happenings in the game and the like. Promotions can also be given out to people who help the game by performing some function out of character (like maintaining a website). Promotions are usually given out at the end of a mission, or sometimes in a mission as part of the storyline. However, they can also be awarded out of character – as ranks are out of character means to keep track of a member’s contributions, skills, and general seniority.
They are given out by GM discretion only.
If you don’t know your rank you are either a Cadet or an Ensign. And you need to go read about Ranks.