Introduction to Role Playing

Created by Captain Nathan Cowell MD on 01 Jun 2014 @ 9:45am

When you join a role playing game (RPG) such as the Arizona you create and write for a fictional character in a simulated environment established by the Game Manager and other players. It sounds complicated, but it is not much more than inventing a believable character and going on to write about his or her exploits in this new world with other players and, indeed their characters.

Creating your character is time-consuming but essential (and detailed advice is available). Characters need to be interesting, believable and - most importantly - be fun to write for and write with. Before you write your biography, select a vacant manifest position and ask yourself a few questions: What type of person would hold that position? What are they like? How do they behave? Why do they behave like this? What do they look like? Write this down in the biography form. It's quite simple really.

Once you have created your character, you're in the game. Don't panic! When you join you will need to read over the character biographies of other players and read a few posts back to make sure that you know what's going on. Once you've figured out what's going on, you'll need to introduce your character into the storyline. When you have applied the Commanding or Executive Officer will get in contact with you about how we can establish your character as a member of the game. Often, new characters are introduced via Starbase 900, Starfleet's Delta Quadrant headquarters.

When you've made your debut, you will need to get involved in the storyline. Chances are other players will 'tag' you at the end of their posts which means you should read their post and should follow up on theirs or they will invite you to join joint posts. If you are ever in any doubt feel free to PM the Commanding Officer, Executive Officer or anyone else who looks like they know what they're doing. The game is a friendly community and anyone you ask for help will more than likely be happy to help you out. You will need to contribute to the game regularly; the rules require at least one post or log per week. This may be done as a joint post with one or more other people or as a solo post. Most players love writing joint posts because we gain valuable insights into our characters when they interact with others. We should also remember that we've got a small ship with a lot of people on it, so your character probably won't be spending too much time alone.

To play well you will need to read all posts/logs submitted and constantly look for a way to believably integrate your character into the storyline. Whilst you will never be excluded, and rarely find yourself with little to do, players will be relied upon to steer their own characters. If you aren't that familiar with Star Trek, you are advised to catch up or at least have a good look through Memory Alpha and the BF Infobase which is an excellent source of canon Battlestar information. The Wikis, along with posts, biographies and the site content represent established information. Therefore you can use established knowledge to project, project, guess or develop something necessary for the story or your character. As a rule of thumb, if it's not likely on the TV show, it's not likely in our game.

When you've been aboard a little while and you're familiar with the characters, the style of play and the detail of our game, you'll be encouraged to contribute articles to the Library and create NPCs (non-player characters). The character you create when you join is your main character (or player character - PC), it is the character you are primarily concerned with and the one you will mainly write for. NPCs are characters which do not have players, they may be used by anyone for appropriate purposes and moving the story along; some players write occasion posts about an NPC they have created. Doing this gives players the chance to explore the game from a different point of view or get involved in more than one storyline at a time.

Before you join be sure to read the articles published in the Wiki as these contain invaluable information and advice and will stop you getting into a spot of bother with the Commanding Officer. Any questions or queries can be left as comments or submitted to the Commanding Officer or Executive Officer via e-mail.