Welcome to the USS Republic Play-By-Email (PBeM) simulation. A PBeM simulation is a role-playing game that is played via electronic mail. It is a cooperative story-telling effort where each participant creates and controls one of the characters in the story. This Playing Character (PC) then acts and lives in the game world environment. In this case, the setting is the year 2276. 

If you are familiar with role-playing games (RPGs), then you understand the processes involved in creating a character for a game. In a traditional role-playing game, there are sets of rules that govern what abilities and characteristics your character possesses. In a PBeM simulation, your character biography serves this purpose. It will explain key points about your character so that the other players can visualize and interact with you correctly when they write their parts of the story. In a way, this simplifies the process, as you do not need to read complicated role-playing manuals to figure out how to create your character. You simply have to put pen to paper, and let your imagination paint a picture of who you will be in the dark, sometimes corrupted, sometimes noble world of Star Trek.

If you are interested in being part of the ultimate Star Trek simming experience, here are the few steps that you must follow:

- Make sure you have explored this website to the fullest, reading the episodes' summaries and some of the biographies of crew members to get a good feel of what this simulation is about. This being done, take a look at the "open positions" on the manifest and pick a position that interests you.

When creating a character for the a PBeM simulation, there are a few guidelines that must be followed. Below will outline the entire process for the creation of a character.

You should send an e-mail message to the Game Master; the message should state three things:

1. It should describe a little about yourself. Your experience with sims (simulations) or role-playing games, your likes, dislikes, other interests, etc. This will let the concerned GM get to know you a little better in order to run a better sim for everyone.

2. It should describe the character you are thinking of playing. This can be very sketchy. It is just to give the GM an idea of what you are thinking of, so he can make suggestions, or point out any foreseen problems with the initial concept.

3. It should describe the area in which you would like to be posted. Perhaps you want to be in Engineering, or maybe Tactical, or perhaps you want to be a Doctor. Your initial message should state your area of interest. Sometimes, certain positions will not be available and the GM will make a recommendation. However, if there is a particular position on the roster you would like to have, this is the time to say it.

After receipt of your initial message, the Game Master will reply to you with suggestions, or changes, to your initial character sketch. Perhaps he will add an idea you hadn't thought of, or explain why something in your concept won't fit into the sim. Once the character concept has been ironed out, you will get the go-ahead to write your full-blown biography.

- As soon as you have received the confirmation email from the listserver, or when the GM (Game Master) tells you to go ahead, you can start writing logs and sending them through the listserver, but most importantly, you can start having fun!
 

BIOS

Writing a fictitious character biography can be great fun. In the a PBeM simulation, you are not limited by hard-coded rules from a fixed role-playing system. You are left open to your imagination, and the confines of the Star Trek universe and those of this sim. Keep that in mind as you create a character. Think of what is real and possible in this very storyline and what is not.

Please follow the example below when submitting your character's biography.

Position:
This is for the position that your character will be occupying. For instance, Jane Smith is a 'Structural Engineer'. Your initial email should have already contained the position that you desired.

Rank:
This will be provided to you by the Game Master during your early character developement.

Name:
This is for your character's name. If your character is an alien then please try to think of an alien sounding name. For instance, a Klingon is not likely to have the last name of 'Smith' or any last name for that matter. Though if you are having trouble thinking of one, feel free to ask for assistance on the discussion board or the Dean of Admissions.

Age:
This is for your character's age. We ask that we be realistic in what we have our character's age as. Even in the 23rd century a 13 year old is not going to be taken seriously most of the time unless they have proven themselves. Similarly, a 70 year old is not going to be jumping onto every away mission either. If you are playing an alien please conduct some research into the area if it all possible. If it is not, then feel free to ask the discussion board or the Dean of Admissions for assistance.

Species:
This is for your character's species. Keep in mind that 'species' is not the same as 'race'. For instance, Human and Vulcans are two different species, where as Japanese and American are of the same species (Human) but different races. All are considered equal on this simulation.

Time/Place of Birth:
This is for your character's time and place of birth. It is not a major part of your character's biography but it gives you a chance to flesh out the character more and offer more detail to the character.

Languages: 
This is for the languages that your character knows. It is a general rule of thumb that most people only know one and slightly less than most know two. If your character knows three or more languages, he or she must be a linguist for the character to be realistic. We know that this simulation is set in a fantastic realm of science-fiction but some measure of reality must be maintained in order for our 21st century minds to believe in them. However, never fear, the Universal Translator is here.

Description:
This is a place for you to develope what your character looks like and how others perceive them.  It would also be a good idea to reafirm visual distintions in any alien race that you may be playing.  This helps others who may not be as familiar with that race.

Interests and Hobbies:
This is for the interests of your character; which includes but is not limited to his (or her) likes and dislikes. Please keep in mind the time frame that we are talking about as well. In the year 2276, the leading scientific and engineering minds of the Federation are not likely to be consumed with 21st century music.

Special Skills (optional):
This is for any special abilities your character might have, e.g. excellent night vision, telepathy (in a non-telepathic species), card tricks, whatever comes to mind. But remember: keep it realistic.

Education:
This is for your character's educational history. Again, please be as complete as possible and use what is in the other biographies in the Personnel section of this website. And please use the following format: e.g.
Primary/Secondary Education
Oxford University
Starfleet Academy
Starfleet Command School
Starfleet Diplomatic Corps
etc.

Service Record:
This is for your character's Service or Employment Record. Please be as complete as possible and use the other biographies as guides. Also, please use the following format: e.g.
2365-2370: SF Academy
2370-2375: USS Buckingham
2375-2377: USS Proteus
etc.

Awards and Decorations (optional):
This is for any decorations or medal that your character may have earned. Please specify the name and, if possible, the year. If you want to go into details as to how your character earned a particular decoration, please do so in the Historical Background section.

Historical Background:
This is for your character's background information. Please be as complete and thorough as you can, while still maintaining a good storytelling setting. This section is one of the most important for your character's biography as it really is the 'meat' of who your character is whereas everything else is more of its 'skeleton'.

Special Notes (optional):
This is for anything that any of the other parts of your bio did not cover. It also may contain a "Captain's Note:" or two, which normally will accompany a recognition for some achievement that the individual had done in the past mission.

After you have written your character's biography, e-mail it to the Game Master so that he can review it. After it has met with approval, you will be all set to begin.

The Game Master will then subscribe you to the USS Republic Mailing List. Your bio will be put up on this web page, and you will be introduced to the game in an OOC message. After that, it's up to you to have fun and join in with the adventure. So we advise a pro-active approach and emailing your fellow simmers and inquiring about possible joint logs. Be sure to read their character's biography first, so that you will have an idea of who the character they play is and possibly offer an idea or two of a possible joint log between the two characters. Every member of this simulation will have their email address linked in one form or another on the right hand side of the Personnel section of this website.

You should read through all of the previous mission logs on the website to familiarize yourself with the other characters that you will be interacting with. It is also a great way to get ideas on how to write your own logs and ideas on what to write, as well as bringing yourself up to date on the history of the characters currently simming and the status of the current storyline.

The USS Republic's website is the central database depository for all of the sim information. It will be a valuable reference 'bible' in your writings. With it you will have instant access to everyone's character biographies, the current e-mail addresses of all of the players, and basic summaries of the previous episodes and plotlines.