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Current Mission Crew Manifest Application
Holodeck
Engineering |
This is a brief guide into the world of play by e-mail RPGing. This will tell both what it is exactly that PBEM is, and how you go about writing your post.
What is PBeM Exactly? PBEM RPGing is another form of role-playing available on the internet. As in many other role-play games, RPG's, individuals are allowed to assume the role of a fictional character and carry out the day to day activities of that person. What distinguishes PBEM, though, is that instead of through live action, players are given the chance to have longer more thought-out actions. Character developement can be much more complex as nothing is live. Players write "posts" which are sent out to the rest of the group which chronologue what their character is doing. Writing a Post The most basic principle when writing a post is to remember your ON and OFF tags. ON and OFF tags are always at the beginning of a post, and your OFF tag goes at the bottom as well. This subsection will briefly cover these. OFF tags are very simple. One is placed at the very beginning of your post to signify the beginning of a new person's post. OFF tags are followed by information or statements out of story or character. For example, a person could simply state something about school or work in your OFF tag, it doesn't entirely matter because it isn't part of the story. An OFF tag is written like this: OFF: Boy, I'm sure tired. In that case, the statement has absolutely nothing to do with the story. The author is simply saying something to the rest of the group. Another tag is required at the bottom of your post, for a different reason but it serves the same idea. Again, what you say in your OFF isn't part of the story. The OFF tag at the bottom of the page tells everyone your post is over. You can say something here again about whatever you feel like. (Within Limits) After your bottom OFF tag, there is still one thing left. (We'll get to that later) Now, though, back at the top of the post, we only have our little OFF tag, but if everything after it isn't part of the story, how does the post start? It begins with another tag called an ON tag. To place your ON tag, you simply double space your OFF and ON tags. The ON tag tells the reader that the post has officially begun, and everything following it is in-story. Probably the most important thing you need to put after your ON tag is first the location of your post. For example, if you wanted your character to be in the messhall, you would simply put: ON: << Messhall >> Note the << before and the >> after the location, it signifies that that is not dialogue, a description, or an action, but that tells us the location. << and >> are the most common way of telling where a post is. But this raises another question, if you can tell where a post is, can you tell when a post is? Actually, you can. Say for a moment you really really wanted to write a post about your character going to the holodeck an hour or so before duty, but another crewmember has already posted you as being on duty, how do you travel back in time? Quite easily as it turns out. You can instead put:
ON: << Holodeck, 1 hour earlier >> or The 1 hour earlier tells the reader that the post is taking place 1 hour before where the previous post started. Now when we combine that with the OFF tag, your post looks like this so far: OFF: Boy I'm sure tired ON: << Messhall >>
The body is where you actually tell the story, with the post officially started and the setting arranged, it's time to get the ball rolling. As common sense, it is good to start off with a little description as to where your character is, who is with them, and what are they doing, for example: Captain McMinn strode out of the turbolift onto the bridge and took a seat in the center chair. That is simply added two lines below the ON tag and introduces to the reader what exactly is going on. Notice that it is important to stay in third person. Do not write your story from the direct point of view of your character, but instead as an outside person looking in, exactly as in any novel you might read. This simply helps people keep track of who is who, if the only thing you say in your post is "I did this" or "I did that", it detracts in a sense from the mental picture the reader creates. Next, you will need to know how to write in character dialogue. This is actually very simple. To have any character say something, put the character's last name (In cases where a character has no last name, just use their first) a colon, and then whatever it is you are having them say. Actions are just as simple. There are two common ways to express action. After the colon in a character dialogue, you can do one of the following: You can place a double-colon,::, around the action itself ex: Mauva: ::Taps communicator:: Or quotes, ( ) ex: Given: (Reaches for a PADD) As common sense it is possible to interchange action and dialogue: Jackson (NPC): Captain, I do not think we should proceed. ::Taps a button:: It might be dangerous for the ship. ::Hands him a PADD:: (For the moment, do not worry about what NPC means, that is covered later.) After you have added all the finishing touches to the body of your post, it's time to wrap things up. You will remember learning about the OFF tag going at the bottom of your post. Once you have finished everything you want to say, you place another OFF tag at the bottom, the same principle applies before, nothing past it is in the story, but it tells a reader where your post ends. Next, skip a line and add your signature. A signature is written in the following format:
Character Name For example, my signature is:
Captain John McMinn And with that, your post is done!! Let's do a quick review, though. I know I've got something when I can take a look at it OFF: ON: Your part of the story goes here. OFF: Your signature Seem simple? As always, if you're looking for detailed examples of how to post, you can always view our Mission Logs from previous missions. Do's and Dont's of Posting As with anything, there are certain things you can and cannot do in posting. Onboard the Cortez there are about 140 NPC's, which are non-player characters. NPC's are exactly what they sound like, they are character's created by the players in the game for use in the story. It would not be realistic for a crew of the size of this to be able to operate an entire ship. NPC's basically are the other people onboard who simply no one plays as. One of the problems many simmers have is trying not to kill off NPC's. Even though no one really cares about them, it is a violation of standard policy to kill an NPC unless it seems called for. (If the ship has been boarded, and the CO or XO has posted NPC's actually dying, then you can kill one or two) There are still exceptions. If a person creates an NPC for use in their storylines, that NPC is really an extension of their character, and that NPC cannot be killed or harmed without the creator's permission. Secondly, we come to the direct killing or injuring of another person's character, this too is unnacceptable without the express permission of the character's creator. Next, there is foul language. All profanity must be limited directly to damn or hell. These are the weaker cuss words and are usually accepted on even primetime programming. :-) If you feel anything stronger must be used, cut it out with @#!%&. And most importantly at our last topic, comes what is known as super-hero simming. Say for a moment you're sent on a mission to investigate an abandoned borg cube, but you post the ship finding the cube, destroying it, and then destroying an entire fleet of cubes, all in one post. Not only would that be practically impossible, but it ends the mission really fast giving no one else a chance to post. Finally, there are the do's. These are probably the shortest in this entire guide. First, whenever writing a post, you MUST remember to attach your post to atleast the previous two posts sent out to the egroup. This is done quite simply. When you recieve a post, copy the two most recent posts, starting from the bottom up, click the reply button, paste, and then write your post. The story should flow like this in your post: POST A POST B YOUR POST Secondly, you need to make sure you post atleast once every three weeks, or else you are removed from the ship. Exceptions are if you are going on vacation or require a leave of abscence, but then I must know! Third, have fun! |