User:Ceciri/SandboxThree

USS ATHENA GUIDEBOOK

Welcome onboard the USS Athena, launched in July 2016 (Stardate 239307).

We've prepared this guide to help you as you join our ship. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask your mentor or the command staff. We hope you enjoy simming with us, and this is to serve as a welcome and handy guide!

Chapter 1: The Basics

Welcome to the USS Athena! If you're reading this, you've either clicked the link or have been directed here. Whether you have just graduated from the academy, or have been simming for a while as part of the Starbase 118 Fleet, this handbook will serve as a handy point of reference for when you have a question. Just as a note to the wise, this handbook is meant to supplement, rather than replace the one on one guidance that you get from the command staff or your mentor.

Rules

We'll briefly start out with recapping the rules of the fleet. Generally, you should have read the fleet constitution in the academy, but we'll recap several key segments. This is not meant to be a replacement for reading it, just some handy rules of thumb and some brief history.

The fleet was established in 1994, and the constitution established in 2000. It's purpose is to essentially make sure we have a non-profit group that is efficiently and fairly ran. As with most organizations, the constitution controls how our group is ran, and has bylaws, which are passed by a vote of the higher of two councils, the Executive Council. (The scope of amending and other such deals is located here and is beyond this overview.)

As a new player, you are automatically a senior officer of the ship, even as a new Ensign. The rules we ask you to follow are fairly simple - they include, but are not limited to:

Don't be a jerk (or discriminate.)
Don't sockpuppet.
Don't lie.
Don't be disrespectful.
Don't disobey direct orders.
Don't leave without warning

We recognize that real life can often intervene with your ability to sim, and we have a procedure (called taking a LOA) to help you when this happens. All we ask is that you a) message either your mentor or someone on the command staff to say that you're taking an LOA and b) fill this form out here: https://www.starbase118.net/members/personnel/forms/leave-of-absence so that we can keep your seat warm for you when you get back.

Don't violate the Constitution
Don't pretend to have a higher rank than your actual rank.
Don't violate the content limit (i.e Stay PG-13.

Our group posts our sims (our IC work) to the IC Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sb118-athena (which you should have received a link to in your email), and the OOC group is similarly: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sb118-athena-ooc

The current command staff is:

Captain Selene Faranfey (talk)

Lieutenant Commander Sabrina Holly (talk)

Lieutenant Commander John Nugra (talk)

Commander David Cody (talk)

Lieutenant Commander Alexander Bishop (talk)

To contact them, please send a DOOC (email).

We also have a forum on the collective group forums as well, located here: https://forums.starbase118.net/index.php?/forum/505-uss-athena-ncc-97780/

Chapter 2: Formatting a Sim

The Starbase 118 fleet follows what we call modified script style, and while ships tend to have variations, we all share a common style. We'll cover the style we prefer on the Athena.

Thoughts are within thought bubbles, oO Oo. eg. (oO I wish he'd stop doing that. Oo)
Actions are within :: :: eg. (::The bartender shook his head. If he didn't stop doing that, he was going to hurt himself breaking the durasteel table.::)
Speech is: Name: words. eg. (Picard: I'm not sure that's a good idea, Number One.)
We place a location tag at the top of the sim so that everyone knows where we are, e.g ((Escape Pod 121))
Our subject lines for any IC sim are: [NPC Status] [Rank] [Name] - [Sim Title] e.g

Commander Shelther Faranster - Here there everywhere

PNPC Lt. JG Aigle Phos - ‘A little shoreleave trip’

MSNPC Dr. Lilavati Chandur - Incoming message

We sign off with a signature, which is going to look something like:

Ens. John Smith (name)
Redshirt        (position)
USS Athena      (ship)
C230001JS       (writer id)

Formatting for the email itself should be between 12 and 15px, bolding and italics not used if at all possible, and no custom font color and a normal font. (Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri, for example.)
When leaving tags, we recommend you say only Response eg. Faranfey: Response
Unlike other ships you may have simmed on, we don't put any kind of location tags in our header. This is to help encourage everyone to read all of the sims that head your way - who knows, by skipping one you could be missing a masterpiece.

But wait, I copied and pasted replies from someones sim into mine and now all of the fonts are mixed up?

Don’t worry, you're not the first person to have this problem and there are lots of simple solutions! The most popular seems to be to copy and paste your sim into a program like notepad which doesn't understand formatting, then pasting it into your email before you send to make everything uniform. If you're using gMail there is also a ‘Clear Formatting’ button next to the send button, which will clear the formatting of whatever you selected for you. Other email clients may have this option too, so if you use something other than gMail this too may be an option!

Chapter 3: Sim Content

Starbase 118 prides itself on its serious and realistic themes, its free form nature and its interesting character driven plots. On the Athena, we believe that Star Trek and all good drama in general is about the characters, first and foremost. While we do have missions, plots and external forces at play here, our primary focus is on our characters and displaying strong character development.

We do not limit character development to shore leave only. While some ships like to concentrate on the mission while it is running and only allow development posts during shore leave, the Athena welcomes development posts at any time. This doesn't mean, however, that the plot should be abandoned. The quality of writers on board makes it easy to both develop characters and push the story forward at the same time.

Themes

We also tend to be slightly more "European" in what constitutes a PG-13 rating. Generally speaking, this means that we tend to prefer a euphemism ("Frak!") over a censored word ("$@#%!"), we have a number of shipboard romances (and as of 2388, a pregnancy) and we explore these through tastefully written sims and Joint Posts. We also take a relaxed, 24th century view on the personal choices and freedoms of the crew aboard. Our definition of PG-13 is as follows

If you wouldn’t do it openly in front of your Mother (as long as your mother is Reagan era conservative) then it’s over PG-13. This gets bent out of shape a lot, because rude jokes are fine as long as they aren’t too descriptive, but sex itself is mostly Taboo. If you start getting detailed with the heavy petting, clothing on or no, you’re heading rapidly for PG-15, or R territory depending on who is running the joint. Don’t rub someone’s thigh sensually, just rub their hip. It’s a thin line with some things, massages might make some people uncomfortable and yet others might be okay up to literally the point clothing comes off. It’s hard to find a limit here, but generally, keep it toned down. You’re not trying to get away with it, just take it out of sight and to a room if it gets heavier than light petting. About “Lime” rating.

For a more in depth overview, please look here

Accordingly, this means that we tend to avoid scenes with strong violence or gratuitous bloodshed if at all possible- especially acts committed by Starfleet personnel in good standing. While an occasional sim may contain violence, it is unbecoming for officers in good standing to wound or take lives unnecessarily, gratuitously or with relish. The USS Athena fires her weapons only when she has to.

Realism

This ties in with the realism of things that we enjoy on the USS Athena as well. While we do explore plot lines and missions that involve Trek and other fantasy related topics, we try to make things as realistic as possible. For example, children should not be on the bridge, no character should have too many 'powers', and we all pride ourselves with being able to realistically react to events such as death, injury, and animosity. We also believe in the motto of "IC consequences for IC actions." So if your character does something against the rules, it won't be broomed under the rug or ignored.

Ultimately, it is the simmer's responsibility to ensure that their sims are tasteful. Repeated violations of the PG-13 guidelines may result in a warning or disciplinary action. If you have questions, or you simply wonder if a sim is pushing things to far, either tone it down or contact a member of the command staff. They can clear a scene for you and make sure that you are adhering to the PG-13 guidelines. Often we can apply "If you have to ask if something is okay, it probably isn't."

Chapter 4: The Ship, and Our Story

TBA...

If you want any more examples of specific sim examples, look here!

Athena New Officer Handbook
- This contains a simming guide