Contents

Abbreviations and Terminology
Characters
Posting
Writing Courtesy

Abbreviations and Terminology

Bio: generally refers to the collection of information available on each character on the sim.
JP: Stands for "Joint Post" which is the type of posts seen most often on most sims
NPC: Non-Player Character, basicly a character that isn't a main character, see more under characters.
OOC: Out of Character, this means it's you talking to other writers not your character talking to their characters
PC: Player Character, a person's main character. See more under characters.
PM: Private message, the verb we choose most often to go with PMs is shooting. ex: "Shoot me a PM." Why? I don't know. Fun.
PNPC: Player NPC, which means its an NPC that is specific to a player, but still not the player character of that person. See more under characters.
RL: Real life, this is used when you have things going on in your life that may have affected your activity on the sim, but you don't want to give out specifics
Sim: Just another name for the roleplay.

Characters

Everyone who is active on the sim will have one (and only one) player character that they will use as their main character for posts. Many people are content to keep just their player character, and that is completely acceptable. However, if you are not one of those people, you may choose to play a few NPCs as well. Below are some guidelines, and information on the different ways people do this.

Generic NPCs: These are general people. They are often unnamed, and die lots. Anyone is allowed to insert other low ranking characters, such as a helmsman, a waiter or waitress, an injured person, etc. The point is that these aren't people of importance, and don't really have any personality. This also includes enemies to shoot at, should you need some. They aren't around for more than a post, generally.

PNPCs: Player NPCs are a little more permenant. While they can be called upon to die, they have names and genders at least, and usually a short bio as well. They cannot be played by anyone, and must be linked to an account. These are secondary characters, perhaps children or just a lower ranking officer in another department. They may be created specifically for a mission and go away afterwards (for example: on a mission that goes to a planet's surface, someone may create a specific character that they will see a lot of while they're there because their character may not be on the away team, or a specific enemy for a mission) or they may be longer term characters just to have around in times of need (for example, if we were to have no science personel, and need a science person for something, someone may create one and decide to keep them around for a while.)


Rules relating to characters: (taken from Theta Fleet, and supplemented by me)

Telepaths

Telepath rules are complicated and long. If you think these might concern you, please read them here.

Character Ownership

Don't play (write for) someone else's character without their permission. The same goes for player-specific NPCs (the ones with player names after theirs) and Linked NPCS (Nova). By the same token, don't rewrite another player's addition to a post. You can refer to another character in your post or have them walk by, etc. You just can't have them talk or act without the player's permission.

No Superhero Characters

A superhero character is one who goes above and beyond Star Trek characters. They can do anything and everything, have superhuman abilities, or have been augmented in some way. Vulcans and Betazoids are not superhero characters. However, a character who cannot only read the thoughts of everyone in the room at will, he/she can force his/her will on another through telepathy is. Similarly, a character that can adapt to any atmosphere and drop 30 feet with no damage because he/she has been augmented is a superhero. That being said, there can be exceptions. These would be taken on a case-by-case basis and must include equally compelling weaknesses.

Avoid Canon Character Affiliations

Do not tie your character to a Star Trek canon character. No children of T'pol and Trip, no working on Romulus with Spock, etc. You can be on a ship with them, but you can't be their friend/mentor. An Ensign on the Enterprise might see Picard, but he's not likely to do more than greet him in a corridor in passing. That is fine. Having your character be friends with Geordi LaForge isn't. This can make you or others want to bring in the canon characters into posts. It is better to not refer to them at all in relation to your character.

No Godmoding

Godmoding is where you try and control the story or another character through what you write in a post. This can be done through having a superhero character who hijacks the story (and not letting other players help determine the outcome) to posting a huge JP and leaving tags for others where they have limited or no options to write more than a token comment. (There ARE times when it is okay to leave two or three tags in a post for someone. Most often when the reply is a simple "Come in,")

Complete Bios

Fill out your bio . Have weaknesses as well as strengths. This makes your character more believable and more fun to play. Pictures are helpful for you and other players to have a good idea of what your character looks like. Histories are important, don't leave them out. If you MUST have something classified in your bio, it must be approved by the CO. It is generally better to put it in your bio with a disclaimer that it is classified so that other players have an idea OOC of what happened. This goes for PNPCs and Linked NPCs as well. Pancake characters (those who have name/race/gender and little else) are discouraged and may be deleted by your CO.

Player Characters Per Sim

Only one PC (player character) per player per ship. You are, however, encouraged to have PNPCs and NPCs. PNPCs are player-specific NPCs. They are secondary characters that a player plays quite often. In Nova they can be linked to your user so you can post with your PNPC as well as your PC. Don't create an NPC if you don't plan to use it fairly often.

Specialized Characters

Characters like the Medusa, Borg, most Delta Quadrant species, modified Angosian (Angosian super soldier), Vorta, Organian, Android, etc. are not allowed. Certain creatures such as Centaurs, serpents, fish, etc. are also discouraged as it makes it very hard to get through the ship and interact with other characters. However, there are exceptions. If you can justify the reason for the character and make it plausible, the CO may make an exception.

Section 31

Section 31 was the name of an officially-nonexistent clandestine organization within Starfleet Intelligence that claimed to protect the security interests of Starfleet and the Federation. The original Section 31 (ENT) was an information-gathering organization under Starfleet Intelligence. Because of Sloane and others just before and during the Dominion War, Section 31 became more of a problem than an asset. Starfleet curtailed much of their previous authority, pulling them back to more of an information gathering organization. There are no Section 31 departments on starships or Section 31 operatives assigned to starships. This is a clandestine department tasked with information gathering and will be rarely (if ever) seen. There can be Special Forces, Black Ops and covert ops. All characters must conform to the rest of the Theta Fleet rules.

Ownership of PCs and PNPCs

When a player leaves a ship, their PC is to be moved to departed crew/inactive crew. The PNPCs (linked NPCs) should be sent to inactive crew if they've been in JPs. Otherwise they can be deleted. They do not belong to the sim.

Children Under the Age of 16

The child of two player characters belongs jointly to both players. If the two characters separate, they share joint custody as long as they are in the same fleet. If the players end up in different fleets, then the child belongs to both players and can be played as an NPC in both fleets. Special circumstances may require a child of two player characters to become a player character himself and be played by one of the two parents. If the child has previously been played by both players as an NPC, it remains in joint custody as listed above. If, however, the child is created and played FROM THE BEGINNING by one player only, then and only then does the child belong to one person.

Same Character on Multiple Sims

Players cannot play the same character on more than one ship in Theta Fleet. Specifically, you are not allowed to have a character on a sim in Theta Fleet and then apply for another Theta Fleet sim with the same character. However, we don't care if you have the same character on another sim OUTSIDE Theta Fleet. We also don't mind if a player brings a character from another sim outside the fleet onto a sim in Theta Fleet. EXCEPTION: As we recognize that players occasionally play the same character/s on multiple sims in multiple fleets, it is remotely possible for that other sim to join Theta Fleet. So, if you have the same character established on two different sims and they both end up in Theta Fleet, you can keep both characters and justify the duality. This has been done in canon with parallel universe characters, mirror universe characters and transporter malfunctions.

Departments, PCs and NPCs.

Each sim has various departments with department heads (Senior Staff) who oversee and run the day-to-day workings of that department. If the sim is set on a star base or starship, there may also be time spent in the command center or on the bridge. There will also be away missions and on-site responsibilities. One person — or character — cannot be everywhere at once, nor can he or she do everything. For this reason, it is often a good idea to use NPCs along with your PC. These are secondary characters that appear from time to time to add to the breadth and depth of the sim and give the player more chances to write and get involved in the story. NPCs allow a player to write in multiple stories at the same time. The PC can be on the away team, an NPC on the bridge and another NPC can be working in the department. Generally, each player creates a few NPCs in his or her department to use as recurring characters or characters that show up from time to time. Please avoid putting more than six NPCs in any one department in your manifest as that makes the department look crowded and may discourage new players from joining the sim. Do not create an NPC if you don’t plan on using it on a semi-regular (recurring) basis. There will be many NPCs who are never put in the manifest but still show up in JPs. This is perfectly acceptable. They can be listed at the bottom of the post in the signature list. They don’t need to go in the manifest.

Playing an NPC in Someone Else’s Department

Sometimes, a player will wish to create an NPC in someone else’s department, or one without a department head. Check with the CO first to see if it is permissible or if the CO has other ideas for that department. If there is a PC as the department head, the player should also ask permission from that player as it is their department. Department heads often have their departments set up in specific ways, or have NPCs with their own secondary story arcs. Or they already have descriptions and personnel that were used in previous posts. For this reason, it is always important to ask first.

Department Heads

On Typhon, department heads will need to keep things organized and they need to be active. Not the ordinary officers don't need to be active too, but department heads need to post at least twice a month, and they need to log on on a bi-weekly basis. If you can't handle this, you will be demoted to a lower position within the department. If you have a reason for being gone, please let the CO or XO know to expect you to be gone during that period. (Note that this is a Typhon rule, not from Theta Fleet)

Posting

In Nova, posting is done through joint posts. If you've had experience in forum style roleplaying, this is a big change. Joint posts are written by multiple players, and will not be posted until the mini-plot of the post is done. When in editing mode, you will see three options at the bottom of the editing box. They are "post", "save", and "delete". When a post is completely finished, and all the writers are done and have signed the bottom, the click "post", and wha-la everyone can read it. When the post is not yet finished, and you are waiting for another person to respond, just click "save", that way the authors can still see it, but since you aren't done yet, not everyone can. When people make the mistake of clicking the post button instead of saving it, I have to go in and revert the post to editing mode so you can finish. If you delete a post, there's really nothing I can do to get it back, so unless you're absolutely certain, don't delete the post.

One person posts are not very common on Typhon. But they do happen occasionally, and you are welcome to do one if you want to. These posts are writen in the same window as joint posts are, and can be saved and posts the same way, but only the people listed in authors will be able to see and edit them until after they are posted. Try to make one person posts at least 400 words long.

Multiple person posts are what most of Typhon's posts are. These posts are meant to be longer, and should be at least 700 words long, and preferably more. If a post gets longer than 1500 words, please split it into two parts as a courtesy to readers. If a post has more than two authors, please specify who you want to respond by leaving them a tag with their name. This does not mean using that little bar on the very bottom of the page, we really don't use that much. The tags can be left with one blank line between, and each person should leave a blank line between their writing and the other peoples' writing.
Example:

Character A did something here, it could be long, or short. All they know is that Character A did something here.

tag Character B

Rules regarding posting. (Same deal as character rules.)
1. Each player character is expected to post once every two weeks. If you are on two ships, both characters must post once every two weeks. Some ships require you to post once a week, others once a month, so please check the individual ship rules. On Typhon, we generally go with once a month, but more is prefered.

2. If you have a tag, please reply to it within 7 days of it being tagged to you.

3. Don't rely on emails to tell you if you have a tag. Log in to your sim/sims at least once a week.

4. Posts should be at least 400 words in length for solo posts and personal logs and 600-800 words for joint posts. Excessively short posts don't count. (One short personal log that is less than four lines doesn't count.)

5. Although we all do it, try not to answer a tag with a couple of words only. Most of the time, it is hard for the other person to have to come up with everything. (Granted, you can usually leave two tags and still be fine.)

6. As per the Player/Character Rules, DO NOT write for another Player Character or PNPC.

7. Do not rewrite another person's tag. Fixing typos is fine as we all miss words from time to time, but do not go beyond that. No one is expected to be perfect.

Writing Courtesy

Rules regarding writing. (Same as the others, these are from Theta Fleet.)

Be Respectful of Other Players

We don't expect you to be perfect. We just expect you to be nice when dealing with other players.

Disagreements

Occasionally, characters have disagreements. These should be kept IN CHARACTER. If you have problems, the CO or XO will be happy to help mediate. Please don't bring real life problems into the sim. Real life and sim life should be kept separate.

Language/Content

NO explicit/vulgar language or descriptions. Regardless of the rating of the sim, no pornography. Period. (Mild profanity is acceptable.) If in doubt, consider what is used in the Star Trek movies and TV series. Starfleet officers are well-educated people who do not usually suffer from a shortage of vocabulary, so they don't need to use vulgar language. (And you can always make up a word.)

Spelling and Grammar

Use proper spelling and grammar. It doesn't matter if it's British, American, Canadian or Australian, but please make sure your English is as correct as you can make it. Use a spell checker. Word programs have them. So do some browsers like Firefox. Typos happen to all of us. All we ask is that you do your best.

Regional Variations in Spelling

It is acceptable for one player to use American English and another to use British English (or any other regional variant) in the same post as long as you are consistent in your usage.

Writing Tense

Please write in third person, limited omniscient and past tense. For example: Mark walked down the corridor and turned into sickbay. While he walked, he thought about the recent mission and the problems it would cause with the new strain of grubs he was testing. If he was successful, they would be a viable source of protein for the colonists.

Hate Speech

Hate Speech and character assassination of ANY flavor are not permitted in ANY degree in Theta Fleet. This includes but is not limited to: Racism, Religious Persecution (Either against established religion OR ATHEISM), Derogatory comments concerning gender or sexual preference, questioning someone's loyalty or patriotism, or just plain BAD-MOUTHING another individual. Respect, patience, professionalism, and courtesy are the watchwords of social and fictional interaction in this fleet. Remember Bambi and Thumper? "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all!" Simply, treat others as you WISH to be treated. Be nice and be fair. This extends to other fleets and/or players in other fleets. The sim community is small and we all know people in other fleets or sim in other fleets ourselves. Please be mindful of your words and their potential impact.

Player/Character Disputes

If two characters have a dispute IC (in character), it should go up the chain of command (department head >> XO >> CO). For example: If two lieutenants in Engineering have an issue with each other and start a dispute, they should address their issue to the Chief Engineer first. If their department head cannot resolve their issue to their mutual satisfaction, THEN they go to the XO. If the XO is not able to resolve their issue, THEN they go to the captain. On the rare occasion where the captain's resolution is not satisfactory, they have the right to bring their case to the TGCO (Task Group CO), then their TFCO (Task Force CO), then the DCTF (Deputy Commander, Theta Fleet) and at last, the CTF (Commander, Theta Fleet). This is to keep the CO from dealing with all in character grievances and give the players more to post about. However, out of character grievances SHOULD go to the CO. Most of the time, problems will be resolved on a sim level. If the problem persists, feel free to take it up the chain of command. There is also a JAG for formal complaints if needs be.

Who's The Boss?

Military vessels in real life and Theta Fleet vessels in character are NOT democracies. They are Military Dictatorships. The Federation is a Constitutional republican form of government. In Star Fleet, you take orders from your superior officers. Your character does not have a "Vote" when deciding whether or not to follow the course of action prescribed by a senior officer. Most COs leave missions open enough to allow each player a part in shaping the mission. Players are welcome to PM or email their COs with questions and ideas. Participation in missions and mission development is encouraged. Disrespect of superior officers in character will have consequences, just like in the real military. If someone feels like being insubordinate, their superiors have the right to bring them up on charges to the CO. Watch a few episodes of Classic Trek like "The Corbomite Maneuver", or "Balance of Terror" to see how a commander deals with disrespect. Although it isn't recommended that you do this on a regular basis, a little insubordination can make a mission more interesting. So can a stay in the brig.

Leave of Absence (LOA)/Extended Leave of Absence (ELOA)

If a player is unable to log into their sim and respond to tags/posts for anywhere from one week to one month, they should request a Leave of Absence (LOA). If the player will be absent for one to three months, he or she can request an Extended Leave of Absence (ELOA). It is up to the CO if he or she will accept anything over three months. If you will be gone for more than three months, it is suggested that you request that your character be placed on inactive status and rejoin the sim when you are again able to participate. In Nova there is a link in the Control Panel that allows a player to put him or herself on LOA or ELOA and sends an email to the sim Admin.

Signatures in JPs

A signature is added to the bottom of a JP to show which characters participated in the post.
It is generally:
Rank Character Name
Position
Sim
For example:
Ensign John Expendable
Security Officer
USS Redshirt
A signature is generally not required, but it is often a good idea -- even if the character is listed in the authors list. Sometimes, if a character is deleted from the sim or if it's an NPC that isn't in the manifest, the only way to know who that character is and what department they are in is by looking at the list of signatures at the bottom.

OOC talking

All OOC should be gathered at the top or bottom of a post while it is still being written. However, it is required that all OOC should be removed before a post is posted. This is to keep thing clean and nice looking on Typhon. I keep a post set aside for OOC chat, and this post will never be posted. If you have any questions or comments or requests regarding the sim or the mission, you can save them there, and only writers on the sim will be able to see them. When using a post with more than two people (especially the big OOC post) please make sure to indicate which player you are. This can be done with your character name (or nickname): ex: "OOCCressidia" "OOCCress" or "OOCLane", your name: "OOCName", or your character's position: "OOCCO" (commanding officer), "OOCCSciO" (chief science officer).



Thank you for reading this, if you have any additional questions, please shoot me (Commander Cressidia Lane) or our XO (Lieutenant Commander Buck Ducati) a PM. We're always glad to help, and glad to write with you.


Commander Cressidia Lane
Commanding Officer
Starbase Typhon