This is an old revision of the document!
Roleplaying is what Star Army is all about! You you have the power to control your character's words and actions and make a difference in the universe.
This SARP thrives around play-by-post roleplaying, which is a fun and creative solution to our collective geographic separation. So get out there, mingle, and play with your fellow players!
Once you're in a plot, start role-playing! If it's a single-post plot you can start right away (or as soon as it makes sense in the plot). If it's a Joint Post plot, then find out when the next chat session is (most plots have a scheduling thread in their forum).
The following formatting is standard for in-character posts:
There are several available methods of Communication available to RP Members. Yahoo! Messenger, E-mail, private messages, and the forums themselves are some examples. Sub-plots, problems, questions, concerns, suggestions, and many, many other things have to be worked out between members, and these are the best ways to do it. Please respect the decisions of your Game Master.
Any major event, situation, condition, action, etc. which directly involves another Player's character must be discussed with said Player beforehand, if possible. The Player reserves the right to have any post deleted that directly involves their character and was not discussed beforehand, unless that post was made by the GM. The post will be deleted or moved and sent to the offending Player for editing.
In the case that someone has used your character in some way, or done something that went against one of your plots, sort it out politely and quickly. Attempt to work it out with the offending Player first. If this fails, take it to the Plot GM. In an RP as large as this one to become, it is nearly impossible to avoid all problems, but if we can sort them out smoothly, politely and quickly, there will be minimal difficulties.
Let's all remember to keep OOC knowledge separate from IC knowledge. Don't direct your character to stuff if he/she wouldn't find it by themselves. That includes sniffing at a random moment when a character has no reason to do so and then find someone stalking them that way. If something is hidden, let it be hidden until there is a plausible reason for it to not be. Just because you know a player character is plotting to kill yours, etc. does not mean you can have your character act like he's especially alert for some reason. Keep it realistic.
Q: Is it possible, every once in a while (Like only once or twice in a plot arc) to do this in the name of comic relief?
For example:
A: Only the GM of a plot is okay with it.
Try your hardest to read each and every new post in your roleplay. This cuts down on confusion and prevents conflicts in the storyline from arising. If you don’t have time, at least read the ones involving your ship. Print them if you need to. You are expected to post regularly (at least one RP post a week). If you can’t for some reason, let people know why and kindly excuse your character or arrange for someone else to play her in the meantime.
In each adventure there are two types of plots: The Backbone Plot, and the various Sub-plots. The Backbone Plot takes precedence over sub-plots. Sub-plots must be worked in and around the Backbone Plot in order for the RP to function correctly. This is not to say that because a sub-plot goes against the Backbone Plot it can't be used. It simply means that you must either rework, or put off the sub plot until such a time as it can be used.
Writing is the means with which we interact with one another. It is vital that you write well, so that others can understand you and so they aren't distracted from the RP by errors. Don't bother posting a sentence if you can't be bothered to capitalize it or put a period at the end. The clearer your post, the less the likelihood it will be overlooked or misunderstood.
There are two main ways to roleplay on Star Army:
Most Star Army roleplay is done by posting directly onto a thread (or start a new one), which is called a Single Post or just a post. Sometimes single posts are consolidated into compilations.
Single posting is fairly easy: just post your characters speech and actions into the appropriate role-play thread.
The ideal roleplaying post:
Posts are generally in chronological order. It's not required to wait for every player to have their turn, but it is courteous to give them a chance if you feel the story is starting to move along without their character; however, if the game is lagging and you are able to post, do it. And don't just post to yourself! Try to interact with other characters.
Please start each post by giving the location where it takes place (for example: YSS Aeon Cargo Bay).
Two more more players can collaborate on an in-character post. This is referred to as joint posting (JP). Joint posting saves time and can feel more exciting because it's done in real time. For JPs, we usually arrange a meeting time or just spontaneously start role-playing with whoever is online that fits into a plot. These RP sessions usually last about an hour or two and when we're done, one of the people in the RP session saves, edits, and posts the transcript (the joint post) onto the boards. The above methods of RP are why some parts of the board tend to have big, long posts with multiple characters and few replies–so don't let them intimidate you, they're just giant edited transcripts.
These accomplish several things, including:
Joint posts usually undergo editing before being posted for others to read. All in all, the joint post is here for the enjoyment of all role players on this site! Enjoy the quickly evolving plot, or back and forth social situation your character is a part of! Later, others will be able to enjoy it as well!
Yahoo messenger and IRC were once the most common JP tools but Etherpad type sites have become the most favored and used. They're real-time multi-user document editors that allow roleplayers to write a group RP post simultaneously.
When the needed players are all online, one of them will invite everyone else into a 'conference' to facilitate the JP. Just click 'Join this conference' when the request is delivered to your YIM client. When a GM posts 'ON:' to the conference, this is when OOC chatter should be kept to the plot, until 'OFF:' signaling the end of the JP is posted to the conference.
If you're used to a posting only RPG site, this can get tricky when you're pre-disposed towards longer narratives for your character. This changes however, when you are role playing with many other players and their characters. If you're expecting an answer to a question from another character, don't add on actions that need to take place after an answer is received. A pre-assigned 'order' of posters can help to supplement this.
Example A:
In that assumed space of time before player A could respond, the GM might want to insert an external action. That is why this style can cause problems. Also, the answer Player A's character gave could not have been sufficient enough, or demanded an extended conversation on the part of Player B's character.
To reiterate, a shorter post does not have to mean a bad post.
As mentioned earlier, the order of posting will normally follow a logical order. For example: Between five players, the GM might begin with a post to set everyone in the JP. The character that most immediately needed to post will either do so, or be asked to by the GM in OOC. Then each player has their first post, and they continue in the same order unless a divergence is needed later.
If the above method is not used, or a more strict order is needed, the order should be decided beforehand. It is up to the GM to decide how strict their 'order' is.
Alternatively, we can do a free-for-all method that relies on situational awareness on the part of the players involved. In that case, posts would be entered on an as-needed basis and some characters may be skipped if they're not doing anything notable.
The scene is where the focus and action of the Joint Post takes place, usually, in a space where all the characters (and thus, an imaginary observer) can interact with one another. It is considered rude to post actions and speech which occur outside of the scene, because A) It disrupts the scene and B) characters can't react to it. A scene is generally a room or area, such as a ship's bridge or a clearing in a forest; it is generally specified at the start of a roleplay (eg; ON: “YSS Sakura Wardroom”).
It is both the players and the GM's responsibility to keep things within a unifed scene. Think of the roleplay as an interactive movie. You have one camera–the reader. You can skip between scenes if it makes sense, but DO NOT just throw everything together, or things will get horribly confusing.
Players who post out-of-scene might have their posts removed from the edited transcript.
The best way to avoid being Out-Of-Scene is to have your character join the others.
Once a JP is finished, it should immediately be posted in the appropriate roleplay forum. If editing is not possible (due to time constraints or software problems), post the unedited JP and edit it later. This prevents “post collisions.”
As a player, it is partially your responsibility to keep the game moving. You don't have to wait for the moderator to post to a turn when you're not in a combat situation. The moderator is only there to resolve major events that require mediation. So long as what is happening isn't going to change the face of the world, or isn't combat, don't wait for the moderator. Just continue roleplaying! You are encouraged to develop your character's relationships with others. Forge friendships, find a lover, argue, create rivalries, go out, see the sights! Experiment! Just don't do anything that will change the nature of the game without your GM's permission.
Most GMs even impose posting time limits in order to keep the pace up. If the game is lagging and you are able to post, do it. And don't just post to yourself! Try to interact with other characters to keep things exciting.
The subject is the person or thing taking action in a particular paragraph. If the subject changes, one should start a new paragraph. The subject (generally a PC) should always be mentioned in paragraphs, unless it is obvious (such as a verbal reply when only two characters are speaking). To avoid repetitiveness, you may want to vary the subject; for example, Ketsurui Hanako could be referred to as Hanako, the Shosho, Shosho Ketsurui, the Captain, the Blue-Haired Neko, the Golden-eyed girl, et cetera.
Plot ships are ongoing campaign environments in which a gamemaster, typically controlling the ship's captain, runs an adventure for player characters to participate in. Plot ships are fun because they have lots of player characters to interact with, and because a game master is there to make sure things stay moving and stay fun.
Joining a plot ships generally means joining as a crew member. There are three main types of crew members:
The key difference is that the bridge and engineering crew generally stay on the ship in battle, while the general crew may deploy in fighters or armors, or assist the bridge and engineering crew. Combat crew rely on battles to get their action and should seek an action-packed ship (no one wants to sit around and be useless).
Bridge crew might include first officers; it is generally the quickest way to being a captain.
Plot ship captains are extremely important. You must have dedication, skills, and time. If you are interested, ask Wes about running a plot ship. We can either make you a new character or promote an older one. Because captaining a plot ship means being a gamemaster, you should probably have previous play experience in the Star Army Role-Play (preferably as an officer on a Star Army of Yamatai ship).
To join a plot ship, you will need to get in touch with the ship's gamemaster. The Game Master and available positions should be listed on each plot ship's page. Ships are listed below:
If you don't find anything interesting here, try other Star Army plot ships on the list_of_active_plots.
Here's the concept for these types of ship: Players start as low-ranking officers in the Star Army of Yamatai and are assigned to their own starship. As a player earns his way up the ranks through experience (by doing missions and having battles), bigger, better starships will become available through the fleet's command, and the player may be given command of squadrons or even large sections of a fleet. When a PVP captain does very well, he could actually end up with his own fleet (!).
PVP players are allowed to join forces on the same starship, so long as there are no more than 3 PC crew aboard. If there are more, then the ship is considered a plot ship.
As more player vs. player ships from other factions are available, the First Expeditionary's PVP ships will have more ships to combat.
Speak the the appropriate faction manager.
Exploration ships only require minimal RP most of the time. The idea is that your ship goes out and charts new planets and star systems. On the OOC side, that means you'd be writing up wiki articles about new planets and species; this would be your primary responsibility. If you're bursting with cool ideas for new star systems, planets, cultures, and that sort of thing, we would love to have your help.
And, if you get bored, you can just convert to being a PVP ship.