RP Season 4 : Guidelines for posting

[Kheren]

With only the USS McKenzie left to get a story approved, we should launch as scheduled by the end of this week!

As we will have no less than five ships and stories going on at the same time, and almost all players having more than one character to play on  different ships,the RP site might quickly become confusing if we do not follow certain guidelines. Therefore:



1 - STORYTELLING

1.1 - The story should play out for at least one month and no more than three.

Long stories have a tendency to loose players; either because interest wane or because Real Life calls a player away before the story ends. Both may be avoided if the story is vivid, active, to the point and resolution is in sight. Think of it as a TV episode rather than a movie (which then would be our Fleet Actions). Short stories will promote participation as the pace will not allow much idleness and bring soon new ideas for a player searching for ideas. Three months stories will also allow three to four episodes a year for a ship, giving more oportunities for new arrivals, transfers, refits, awards, promotions, creativity  and variety.

Keep in mind that the RP Director has the right to himself end a story that would go beyond reasonable lengths or is obviously stalling. This could be as dull and brutal as having Fleet Captain Samji walk in and end the holodeck simulation... which is not conductive to promotions, big awards and pride in one's story!


1.2 - No more than 24 hours must elapse between posts.

Nothing kills a story better than a story stuck for days with nothing happening/no one posting. The captain GM must make sure there is at least one post each and everyday; even if this means for him to make that post and move the story forward. That is his job. As long as someone posts, the story moves; thus, each player (with the possible exception of the captain of course) should not necessarily have to post each and every day... although the fewer the players, the stronger the possibility... but of course, everyone is free to post as often and as much as willing and able to! 

Keep in mind that the Captain/GM has the right to take over any inactive PC or NPC in order to move the story forward. The play is the thing!


1.3 Posts should be significant; move the story forward.

Everyone contributes to the story, not just the captain. The more you contribute, the more fun, involving and better it will be. The captain is the guide, the rudder but the players are the wind and sail. Answering "Aye Sir" and leave it at that certainly moves the scene forward but there is not much wind there! One liners  writer players do not derserve many awards... Providing description of scene, tools, emotions, thoughts, memories and such will enrich that simple answer and give ideas to other players to do the same, if not interact even more. Dialog is a good tool to explain things (to the readers if not the captain) and prompts interaction; use it often!




2 - POSTING

2.1 - All posts should be titled as follow: USS SHIP NAME HERE in HIGH CASE caracters, followed by a title as descriptive as possible of the topic/content of the post.

For example: USS HORIZON: answering the distress call; or USS HORIZON: the captain meets his new CMO
Avoid poetic, thematic, symbolic and otherwise purely evocative titles. You are not writing the novelization, you are telling players to come in and play. Therefore, make it clear and simple, telling the players what is going on there and especially that it concerns them and that they should participate!

Players can start posts as much as the captain/GM to create any scene needed for the story, be it the overall story or the character's personal subplot. Again, the captain as GM is not a channel but a rudder, a guide to the cohesion of the whole play; indeed, the most delightful RP experience is when the players input things that make the story and even bring it somewhere and farther out than the original plot ever intended! RP is collaborative creative writing; it is up to you to see how much you can be part of it!


2.2 - Make sure you include everyone you want to be involved in the authors section.

Players can not add themselves if you do not put them in first. Removing later an author that did not contribute to the post is much easier than getting back a player frustrated for not being able to post.

Players wishing to be included in a scene may use the Comments section to ask their captain/GM to add them, and/or send him a PM to that effect.


2.3 - Put in a clear and complete location as follows: general locale, specific locale.

For example: Orbit of Eden III, USS Horizon bridge;  or Pocket universe, USS Horizon Captain's office
This will avoid having characters in engineering suddenly pop up to answer a question in the mess hall without at least describing how and why he left engineering to get there just in time for the chatter!


2.4 - Do not forget the stardate in the post's heading section

Keeping track of time is what makes a story coherent and avoid glaring inconsistencies and ridiculous happenstances, like a ship going the eighty light years between sector 001 and the Hromi sector in a matter of minutes (and with conventional warp drive at that). Time is the best tool to build not only credibility but most of all dramatic tension in a story. It also helps a lot ordering events properly for everyone. And nothing speaks more trek than a captain's log or an officer's personal log with it's stardate! The stardate calculator is readily accessible from the writing post page itself. Please use it.


2.5 - Use the Comments section for OOC talk

Although you may sometimes leave some space in your text for someone else to respond at a precise point, players should know where and when to do so (especially with a question directly asked to them) without being so held by the hand. (By the way, if a player forgets to answer a direct query, the captain as GM is always entitled to answer for that character failing to do so in order to have the story move on, or readress the question to his assistant and provide the answer himself).

Out Of Character discussions, invites or details are more readily seen and understood when apart in the comments section. There is also this thread for lenghty discussions that is available here.




If we keep all this in mind and apply it all, we should all have a blast of a RP session! Let's make it so!

[BLZBUB]

 If I may ask ... if we are using STO timelines for the role play, are we using STO maps also? Because the McKenzie just left starbase Lotus for the Hromi sector, and I would like to clarify if it is the new Xarantine sector we're talking about. The Hromi Cluster is mostly within the Xarantine Sector.

[Kheren]

We are neither using STO timeline nor map. LF RP follows it's own timeline and we use the standard official Trek map I seem to recall you already know, where the Hromi sector is the easternmost rimward sector of Federation Space, 80 light years from Earth and right where the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire borders meet.

[Evshell]

I was waiting to reveal this until a little later, but I thought this post would be the perfect opportunity.

http://www.lotusfleet.org/#/roleplay/calculator

This provides us with an official source for time and space that is not managed by a 3rd party, thus we will not have to worry about it being altered or going down... as long as our site is up.

Note: You may have to press F5 once for this link to work.

[Kheren]

Trying to get this to work but failing

[Evshell]

Which part?

For the Stardate Calculator, under Terran Date enter a valid date and press "Update" to get the Stardate. The same works in reverse.

For the Warp Calculator, under Warp, enter a number between 0 and 9.999999 and press "Update" and it will fill in the boxes next to Transwarp and Speed of Light. Same thing for Transwarp to get Warp and Speed of Light (although any Transwarp above 2.25 will give you an N/A for Warp).

For Speed of Light, enter anything between 0 and 1516.38 to get a valid Warp speed (as it notes, anything above that doesn't translate correctly because it is above Warp 9). For valid Transwarp calculations, you can enter any Speed of Light between 0 and 387420489, but of course, above 1516.38, you will receive an N/A under Warp.

[BLZBUB]

We are neither using STO timeline nor map. LF RP follows it's own timeline and we use the standard official Trek map I seem to recall you already know, ...

 I knew this but my concern arose from the fact that the post of the McKenzie launch, from starbase Lotus, then headed for the Hromi Sector. If we are IN the Hromi sector already, why head there. I guess you can see why I wanted clarification.

[Kheren]

Bad phrasing; their mission is to patrol the sector. But I understand your confusion.