This page will help you out with posting basics on the Hiroshima – but remember, the content is all yours!
Subject: A creative title of your making. If you’re writing a joint post with one or more others, make sure to indicate such in parentheses along with the number of people who have added to the post (JPx3).
Ex: Double Dutch (JPx2)
First Line: Something that tells your readers that the post is about to begin, usually in all caps. Common usage is ON:, though one can also use OLD: then post part of a previous post followed by NEW: where the new post begins, to give the reader a refresher on the current situation.
Ex #1: ON:
Ex #2: OLD:
Robert watched expressionlessly as the woman’s gaze swept past him as though he were an ear of corn in a cornfield, then came back to settle on him. Yup, he thought to himself, as she predatorily made her way over to the bar. He knew her.
NEW:
[MD3, 2224 – Merlin’s Beard Bar]
Without breaking her hypotizing glance, Rob picked up his rocky glass from the table and took a sip, the cool liquid burning his throat. They said snakes had that kind of stare, the one that could keep you looking, even knowing they were about to strike….
Second Line: This is where you put the relevant details of your post, such as time and place. The standard form is MD1, which stands for mission day one, followed by the time in 24 hour mode, and the location of the opening scene of the post. Remember though, only the command staff can advance days, so make sure you’re not posting ahead! It’s also acceptable to omit any reference to time or day, just as long as when th events depicted in your post are obvious from what you’ve written.
Ex #1: [MD2, 1800, Fondu Fred’s]
Ex #2: <Day 2, 0932. XO’s Office, USS Hiroshima.>
Content: Now you’re free to write your post! Write write write!
Closing:Now it’s time to signal that your post is over. Usually OFF: is used (as it goes with ON:), but you can also use TBC: (to be continued) or END:.
Ex #1: OFF:
Ex #2: End:
Signature: Take credit for your post! If this post is from your normal character, put their name, rank, and position. If it’s an NPC, be sure to put the same details, and include who wrote them (you), especially if it’s a JP.
Ex #1: Lieutenant Commander Jean-Pierre LaSalle, King of the Univers–err, Executive Officer
Ex #2: Reporter Clara Kimm (played by Maree)
Full Examples:
So, now that you’ve got all the details, let’s put it together!
Ex #1:
ON:
<Day 2, 2242. Flight Deck, USS Hiroshima.>
Work was underway on the Gyllir when Iskander stepped off the lift and onto the flight-deck. His eyes scanned the numerous bodies moving about – some operating from scaffolding to reach the upper panels of the flyer while others worked from control panels. From what he could tell, the new vessel would be ready well within the time line he had promised to the Captain – which was good. Not so much for his own reputation, as Iskander knew some repairs took more time than anticipated; but rather, so that the mission could continue on in a timely manner.
OFF:
LTJG Iskander al-Khalid
Ex #2:
OLD:
After the meeting, Akelia had a bit of time to catch a cat nap and get herself ready for the task at hand. Preparing for this mission was going to put some stress on her and her staff that she knew they weren’t going to be use to. She had to orient the new members of the team, namely the tactical department which had all but been replaced with shiny new people fresh out of the academy or freshly promoted petty officers, get the master-at-arms up to speed, and the most important was get a training schedule up for the people she would have to borrow from other departments.
NEW:
[MD3, 1230 – Security Office]
“Welcome to the Hiroshima. I am sure our Master-at-Arms has given you enough instruction on what is expected of you. Now let me explain our situation to you. Due to losses suffered elsewhere, the Hiroshima has been stripped of many of her senior and experienced personnel. Security was one of the hardest hit departments. Until today, we have been running on two shifts and hot bunking it. With this influx and by sometimes borrowing from other departments, we have enough to run a skeleton three shift system.
“To make the situation worse, we are going on a high risk mission that may tax our resources even more. I am going to need all of you to do your very best starting now,” she said calmly as if this was nothing new to her.
Finally she looked down at her PaDD, “Ensign Shoal,” she said crisply.
Lt. Akelia Felnost
Chief of Security/Tactical
Your posts would obviously be a little longer than these examples, but that’s pretty much it! And now, a quick word about joint posts:
Joint Posts: A joint post (JP) is a post written jointly, lol. This happens pretty much any time you want your character to speak to another player’s character about something — you e-mail that player and ask them for a JP, usually explaining a little about what you hope will go on in the post so they have a general idea of where the post is going. There are two main ways to write joint posts.
Example #1: You write a paragraph and then the other player writes a paragraph. This is by no means limited to only a paragraph, and sometimes you can even write just a line in reply, but you want to make sure that you’re reacting and replying to anything the other character has said so they have something to write about. You don’t want to stick them with nothing to say back!
So, let’s say I wanted to write a post with Captain Yearling. I’d first send him a quick e-mail –
“Hey Captain – Jean-Pierre’s having some issues with your command style and would like to duke it out with Evan outside. Wanna do a JP?”
I’d probably get back an answer something like this:
“Sure thing, but you gotta know that Jean-Pierre’s going DOWN! Evan will whip him every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Wait, outside? As in, outside the ship in space? Are you nuts?”
But let’s say we agree and want to do the JP. Since I thought of it, I’ll usually start:
ON: Ready Room Evan kept his eyes on the back of the most recent new addition to the Hiroshima’s crew complement as the man left. When the doors closed, he looked down at the display and closed the file. The young ensign and his colleagues from the USS Pride of the Fleet brought the Hiroshima’s complement up to, well, they did not bring it up by much at all. Worse yet, only one of them was cross-trained. Every little helped, though, and he would have a better idea of how things stood after he spoke with his department heads.
Most of whom, he remembered, were probably busily engaging in planning for the mission to Dal Lor. They did not have long to prepare. The most recent intelligence indicated that most, if not all of the rogue Klingons’ vessels were occupied in Romulan space. Whether they were conducting more attacks with their biogenic weapons was unknown, but their absence presented the Hiroshima with the window it needed to carry out its own mission.
Being finally without a personnel file to read, Evan decided to re-read the recent departmental reports from his senior staff, albeit skipping the one from Operations. He had already gone through Lt. Akemi’s twice, making notations for future reference as he had read. He would send his suggestions her way later. The other departments’ readiness levels were what he was interested in right now, though. In the middle of accessing one of the reports, he looked up when the chime of his doors sounded. “Enter.”
<tag>
So, here we’ve got the start of a JP! The <tag> indicates that it’s the other person’s turn to write something. After Captain Yearling’s reply, she’ll put in a tag and we’d keep tagging back and forth (like a real game of tag!) until the post is finished!
Example #2: Example number one is the preferred method of writing joint posts, but sometimes it can take a really long time to do, going back and forth like that, which is why we always like quick replies. But if you’re really short on time and need to get something out, then you can use the ‘bubble tag’ method, where you put more than one tag into your post.
ON:
<MD3, 0900 – Captain’s Ready Room, USS Hiroshima>
Evan kept his eyes on the back of the most recent new addition to the Hiroshima’s crew complement as the man left. When the doors closed, he looked down at the display and closed the file. The young ensign and his colleagues from the USS Pride of the Fleet brought the Hiroshima’s complement up to, well, they did not bring it up by much at all. Worse yet, only one of them was cross-trained. Every little helped, though, and he would have a better idea of how things stood after he spoke with his department heads.
Most of whom, he remembered, were probably busily engaging in planning for the mission to Dal Lor. They did not have long to prepare. The most recent intelligence indicated that most, if not all of the rogue Klingons’ vessels were occupied in Romulan space. Whether they were conducting more attacks with their biogenic weapons was unknown, but their absence presented the Hiroshima with the window it needed to carry out its own mission.
Being finally without a personnel file to read, Evan decided to re-read the recent departmental reports from his senior staff, albeit skipping the one from Operations. He had already gone through Lt. Akemi’s twice, making notations for future reference as he had read. He would send his suggestions her way later. The other departments’ readiness levels were what he was interested in right now, though. In the middle of accessing one of the reports, he looked up when the chime of his doors sounded. “Enter.”
Having been to sickbay and running around every which direction on the ship, Akelia would have preferred to finally catch a bit of sleep. But duty called and getting the captain up to speed was probably the most important thing at the moment. Stepping in, she said, “Do you have time for a run down ont he current progress?”
“Yes,” Evan said, putting his computer’s display into sleep mode and indicating that the Chief of Security should take the seat opposite him. “How’re your preparations going?”
“Well,” Akelia said as she sat down. “I’ve got the mission detail sorted out. It’s not what I could consider ideal and I am sure some instructors at the academy would have fits towards the unorthodox parts of the crew rotations and assignments that I’ve put in place for the mission.”
“If only every starship had the benefits of a large staff and ideal conditions to draw upon, we’d all be much happier.” Evan’s eyes flicked towards his replicator. He felt it was only polite to offer Felnost a beverage of some description, but he supposed he could not do that every time someone entered his ready room. Plus, his taste buds were beginning to protest at the amount of tea and coffee he was drinking. “I assume you’ve put our newcomers from the Pride to good work. Have you been able to fill any of the major holes?”
<tag>
Evan recognised the name Tahira Shoal, but only just. He had read a lot of new names in the past two days, but hers stood out as being one of the newer ones. He tried to recall some of the information from her file. “She’s admin, isn’t she?”
<tag>
Evan had made what many might have called odd selections himself over the years, and quite a few in recent days, but Akelia knew her business. If Shoal was good enough for her, then she was good enough for Evan. “Which computer specialist and engineer are you taking with you on the away mission?”
<tag>
So just by looking at this example, you might notice a problem. Evan’s first reply to Akelia suggests that her answer to his question about the holes in the Security/Tactical department will mention one Ens. Tahira Shoal, an NPC, when that might not be the case. That’s why bubble tags are usually only done when players are well aquainted with one another, know what’s happening in each other’s department or in times of great hurry, because you never really know where a post will end up going. If you lay it out, you can lose a lot of the creativity that goes along with the process of characters interacting. But, as I’ve said, sometimes it’s necessary!
And there you have it! All the basics. 🙂