Introduction Welcome to the Star Trek: Megiddo RPG. This page will provide you with essential information to help you get started as well as guide you through developing your character and contributing to the game. If you should ever have a question or need assistance with anything, we provide avenues to a helpful staff and resources. The administrators and moderators are very hands on and approachable, which means you will not get lost in the shuffle or referred to a series of different people should you ever need anything. We like to approach the site as more of a "mom and pop" store versus a vast corporate operation. Star Trek: Megiddo started as a few simple HTML documents in 1995. Visitors to the site were able to answer Star Trek trivia questions once a week and receive a score. Starfleet ranks were assigned to various point ranges. A short time later, a few players wanted to try a play by email role playing game, so we created a ship, the Sovereign class USS Avenger NCC-60568. More and more people wanted to participate in the RPG and more ships were created. On February 2, 2000, the trivia game was restructured and launched as the online role playing game, Federation Defensive Task Force (FDTF). On July 1, 2003, the FDTF was restructured and launched as the Megiddo Project. On May 1, 2007, the Megiddo Project was rebranded as Star Trek: Megiddo as it had surpassed the status of a project and had come into its own as an established role playing game on the Internet. Megiddo is a hill in Israel near the modern settlement of Megiddo, known for theological, historical and geographical reasons. In ancient times Megiddo was an important city state. It is also known alternatively as Tel Megiddo (Hebrew) and Tell al-Mutesellim (Arabic). According to some interpretations of the Christian Bible, this place will be the venue for Armageddon or the final battle between the forces of light led by Jesus Christ and the forces of darkness led by Satan or the Anti-Christ after the End of Days. The neighboring Mount Megiddo (Hebrew: Har-Megiddo), gave its name to the Armageddon of the Christian Bible. Today, Megiddo is an important junction on the main road connecting the center of Israel with lower Galilee and the northern region. Getting Started The first step in joining is to fill out an application. Please read the application carefully. Incorrect applications could result in a delay or deletion of the application. After the application is reviewed, an administrator will post a welcome message in the Admissions forum. New members must register on the forum before they can reply to the message. The name on the application and the account on the forum must match. Forum registrations must be authorized by an administrator before a new member can post. When registering on the forum, challenge question must be answered to complete the registration. If you do not know the answer to the question, it is included in the email you receive after filling out the application. All applicants must go through Orientation. During Orientation, new members are to report in by replying to the thread that was created in the Admissions forum. Failure to reply to the initial post within three days will result in the deletion of the application, the thread and the forum account. Orientation is completed at the discretion of the Admissions staff. Starfleet Enlisted are assigned immediately following Orientation with the rank of Crewman Recruit. Starfleet Marines are assigned immediately following Orientation with the rank of Private. Starfleet Officers will be directed to a forum where they will be presented with a scenario. Once they have completed the requirements of the scenario, they will be granted the rank of Cadet 4th Class and they may choose their assignment. It should be noted that officers are the leaders within Starfleet. In choosing this career path, a player accepts certain responsibilities and must possess certain qualities and attributes. Among these are: • The ability to act independently when necessary • The ability to contribute to a team effort when necessary • The ability to direct others when necessary We realize that some individuals have more experience than others with online, forum-based RPGs. All members are required to fill out an application and progress through the ranks. The cadet ranks are used as a period of acclimation. This allows a member to familiarize themselves with site procedures and build working and personal relationships with fellow members. By the time a member reaches the rank of ensign, they are better prepared to command at various levels. Colonist only need to reply to the welcome message to acknowledge that they have read it and have successfully registered on the forum. They will then be directed to one of the colony forums where they will post their arrival, in character. They hold no rank and are not assigned positions. Once they have replied to the welcome message, they may post in the Colony forums and interact with other colonist. Enlisted personnel are members of Starfleet who have had no formal training or education in their chosen field. Their knowledge is usually acquired through experience and on the job training. These ranks are generally used by member who do not wish to pursue a command position, or wish to gain more experience before becoming an officer. Although enlisted personnel do not command, this is not to imply that members who have chosen to be enlisted are less capable of command or are sub-par simmers. Some simmers simply prefer to play Enlisted. Officers are members of Starfleet who have attended Starfleet Academy and eventually gravitate to command level positions. The officer ranks are for simmers who have experience and will put in a fair amount of effort and time into the development of their character while contributing to stories. The cadet ranks are a period of learning and assessment. The Admissions staff reserves the right to deny any application, without reason or notification to the applicant. Although this is unfortunate, it is sometimes necessary to preserve the safety and productivity of the community. Some Helpful Hints OOC is a widely used abbreviation for out of character. This is any post that is made outside of the mission/story, as spoken by the player, not the character. Out of character posts should not go in a mission thread. Generally, there is an OOC thread for each mission where people can ask question and work out details. Also, please note that we do not use ON, OFF, or TAG in character posts, nor is it necessary to title each post you write. Anything you write in a mission thread is in character and a part of the story. If you have anything to add that is not in character, it should be posted in the OOC forum or sent via PM (Private Message). The purpose of cadet training is to give members who have chosen to be officers a good base on what's expected of them. As mentioned previously, officers are the leaders of this site. All of the senior officers on Megiddo were junior officers at one time and went through the same learning process each of you are about to go through. We understand that not everyone has the same skill level. As long as you show effort, little things can be overlooked for now. If you're the type of person who tries to do their best, you will be receptive to criticism and use that to improve yourself. This is a game. The administrators and moderators are here to have fun, just as you are. We enjoy writing with the newest members of the site and we want to share our combined knowledge and experience to help you transition into this community. We are here to help, so please call on us should you ever need anything. It is important that you do not confuse our characters with the people who write them. We each purposely write our characters a certain way to add depth to the story that unfolds before us. You may find that you don't like or agree with something someone's character does. This does not mean that the person who is writing for the character is the same way. Be sure to keep the two separate. Above all, we want you to have fun. This is not meant to be a stressful situation. We are all here for the same reason, to role play. This is simply the beginning. You will find so many possibilities ahead when orientation is over. We do not expect perfection, but we do expect you to give this endeavor some effort. With that in mind, here are some notes regarding posting: On Megiddo, we write in the third person, past-tense. If you already know what that means, you can move along, nothing more to see here. If you don't, let me explain. Most novels are written in the third person, past-tense. This means that you're writing from a narrator's perspective as if the events have already happened. Here's an example: Rhino saw a Romulan. Instantly she ducked her head back around the corner and tapped her comm badge. Contrast that with, say, first person, present-tense, which is what we don't want: I see a Romulan. Ducking my head back around the corner, I tap my comm badge. Third person, past-tense. Got it? We also request that you post using the paragraph structure that presents whole or complete thoughts. You can create a new paragraph when new ideas are presented or when dialogue is introduced. For example: "How we got here is anyone's guess people," called Hogarth to the rest of the Away Team. "But here is where we are, so we better get moving!" Squinting his eyes as he tried to read his tricorder through the howling snowstorm, the science officer cinched his hood as tight as possible and began moving forward against the savage wind. Please don't quote the post before yours, either in-character or out. It's clear when read in a linear format what you're referring to. If you absolutely need to include a quote because you're referring to a comment or a question made several posts below yours, please just quote the relevant part and leave out the rest. Be pro-active. What is being pro-active? Being proactive is being anticipatory and taking charge of situations rather than waiting around to see what the people in authority do. If you have an idea or a course of action you'd like to pursue (and it isn't insane) then write it - don't wait to see if it is okay or not. That's being proactive. Teamwork happens in pretty much anything when you're in a community - whether it be your family's home, work, school, or this site. And writing a story is a team effort. Grammar and spelling is important as well, but what you've learned in school about writing and spelling and proper grammar will undoubtedly suffice, but any major problems will be politely issued and suggestions made. The biggest fundamental issue I want to bring up is this: have fun! This site is recreational. It is meant to allow you to have a quick escape from the stresses of your day. If you are stressed while on this site, that truly is not recreational. Our site is community oriented. We are multi-national, multi-racial, and close knit. We have zero tolerance for hatred, bigotry, and harassment in any way. Again, how could someone have fun in an environment that allowed such behavior? Openly recruiting members, recruiting via PM, or putting links in your signature to other sites aren't allowed. The reason? We work very hard in attracting members. We do this the right way - by putting our sites on voting lists and spending a lot of time in marketing our site to Star Trek rpg fans. Poaching members is not only unfair, it isn't ethical. Please respect our rules. Star Trek isn’t real, but it is to our characters. Plausibility and adherence to the universe we are writing in is vital to telling a good story. If ever in doubt, try to picture the Star Trek characters in the situation you are contemplating. Use Memory Alpha when researching the finer points of Star Trek if you want to go there. If you don’t, then just be more vague. If you can’t think of the name of a certain strange particle of matter…just call it a particle of matter. If you can’t remember the breakdown of technical parts in a transporter pad…then just name it ‘the piece of tech in question’. Don’t feel compelled to be an expert on Star Trek Lore, but don’t feel too free in naming things that have already been named. Generalities can be your friend. Aim for good grammar, spelling and punctuation. This isn’t English class, but why write if we have to spend all day deciphering it. Running a post through a good word processing spell check does wonders!!! And it’s quick and painless. Don’t post two line posts. This RPG is not designed as a play by play, my action your action, back and forth format. Try to post at least a few paragraphs per entry. Posts need not be epic or huge, but throwing us a bone isn’t at all contributing to the overall goal. Promotions & Medals Promotions and medals are awarded on the first day of every other month. They are based on participation, contribution, quality of posts, conduct and availability of positions requiring personnel of higher rank. A member must be nominated for promotion by their commanding officer. Presentation of medals is based on the criteria set for each medal. A member must be nominated to receive a medal. Meritorious promotions are granted in cases of appointment. An appointment is defined as a member being assigned to a position that requires a certain rank. Members are not guaranteed promotion based on the amount of time they have been on the site. Certain rank holds responsibilites and if a member has displayed behavior and attributes that indicate that they are not capable of handling a higher rank, promotions will be withheld. Each commanding officer has their own criteria and set of standards for offering promotions. Medals can be awarded multiple times. The number of additional awards is indicated by a gold star under the medal graphic on a member's service record. Transfers Members may transfer from one assignment to another. To request a transfer: 1.Send a request to the commanding officer of the assignment you wish to transfer to. 2.Send a message to your current commanding officer, notifying them of your intent to transfer. Transfer requests are submitted by the commanding officers who is receiving the member as a result of the transfer. Additional Characters An additional character is a priviledge. The administration of this site reserves the right to deny any request for an additional character for any reason. Playing two characters can be difficult for some. It requires more time than having one character and can often become overwhelming. Having additional characters is not prohibited, but there are limitations and standards that we ask all members to adhere to in order to prevent some of the problems that result in having more than one character. Please read this section carefully. If you have a question or are unsure of the guidelines, feel free to ask your commanding officer or an admin for clarification. It must be made known that you are creating an additional character prior to doing so. Should any member be found to create a second character without first consulting the administrative staff of this site, the additional character will be deleted immediately and further action may be taken, including but not limited to, banning, deletion, suspension or reprimand. Players with less than a year on the site may not create additional characters. Additional characters should be created by players who are active on the site. Maintaining additional characters requires time and effort on the part of the player and the Personnel staff. Make sure that if you create an additional character, it is with the intention of enhancing the simming experience of the site as a whole, as well as for yourself and the other players you are simming with. It should be understood that you are creating an additional character to broaden your simming experience. Two main reasons to create an additional character is to sim as a player in a different position than your primary character, or to sim with a different group of people than those you currently sim with. In either case, it is essential that you participate, otherwise, you're just taking up space and wasting people's time. Please do not abuse this priviledge. Requests for additional characters are to be made in the Personnel forum. All additional characters are required to fill out an application and go through orientation to ensure all steps are taken to properly register and assign the character. Only under rare and special circumstances will this guideline be bypassed. Creation of Characters New members to the site must fill out an application and successfully complete orientation. Members that have chosen to be officers must complete a training scenario. Current members of the site may create additional characters. Members must first be active on the site for one year and a notification must be submitted to personnel prior to the creation of an additional character. Members may have a maximum of three character accounts. If an additional account is created, it is done with the understanding that an acceptable level of activity will be maintained. The Personnel Director has the right to deny a request for additional characters. If a member wishes to make a current NPC a player character, and the NPC holds a position or rank, the position and rank is forfeited. This is to avoid a situation where a site member can assume the role of an NPC that has a higher rank without working their way through the lower ranks. However, as compensation for their previous contributions to the site, an enlisted NPC that is converted to a player character may start with a rank of Crewman (E-3) and an officer NPC that is converted to a player character may start with a rank of Cadet 1st Class. Orientation is not required, nor is the training scenario for officer characters. Reinstating Characters If a member requests that one of their accounts be deleted, then decide to return with that character, the character must fill out an application and register on the forum as if it were a new character. Whether or not that character will need to complete orientation, or the training scenario, if applicable, is up to the discretion of the Personnel Director. If the character previously held an enlisted rank of Chief Petty Officer or higher, or an officer rank of Lieutenant or higher, the guidelines for converting an NPC to a player character apply, at the discretion of the Personnel Director. In all other cases of reinstatement of a deleted character, it will be handled under the guidelines for new characters in regards to orientation, the training scenario and rank. If a member "retires" a character, which is to say that they relinquish their position and rank, but request that their account not be deleted, then later requests to be reinstated, the character will be reinstated with a rank two grades lower than the last rank they held. There are cases when a member asks to place their character into the "Starfleet Officer" position. This generally occurs when they relinquish their position, but not their rank. If the member has been acceptably active with that character on the site while unassigned, then decide to take a position, there will be no loss in rank. If the character has been inactive, then decides to take a position on the site, the character will be reinstated with a rank one grade lower than the rank they currently hold. Forums Forums, also called message boards or simply "boards", are the primary means of communication and activity for members of the site. As with all community forums, there are is a code of conduct. Failure to comply with the forum's code of conduct could result in a warning, ban or deletion by a forum moderator or administrator without prior notice or reason. The forum moderators and administrators reserve the right to act in the best interests of the community. Discussions are always welcome, bickering is not. Differences of opinion are also welcomed, provided they are stated in a mature, civil manner. Be sure you are making a post in the correct forum. If you are uncertain, take a moment to ask someone. It is important that your message is posted in the correct forum so that it can be addressed appropriately and in a timely manner. Only authorized personnel may start a thread in the Subspace Standard forum. Once a thread is started, anyone may reply to it, unless otherwise stated. This site is rated PG-13. Some material is not appropriate for children. It is the responsibility of members who are under the age of 18 to inform their parents that they have registered and take part in this forum. Questionable posts should be reported by using the Report Post feature, or by notifying a forum moderator or administrator. If it is found that the post needs to be deleted because of its content, it is to be moved to the Commanding Officers forum to remove it from general view and for review by the moderation/administration staff of the forum. Signatures are enhancements so a user can add an image or text to the end of their posts. Images should be within reasonable size, in terms of dimension and file size. A signature should not be overwhelming. You may not place the following items in your signature; • Links, text or images, to other web sites for promotional purposes. • Images that are not your own creation that you have not obtained permission to use • Images that are hosted on another site that does not allow image linking The administrators reserve the right to remove any image or text from a signature. Exceptions may be granted under certain circumstances. If you have questions regarding signatures, please contact a moderator or administrator for clarification. The message board used on this site is the private property of the owner and has been made available for use on this site. * sections of this page were adapted from posts made by former Officer Training Instructor Harmon Daguerre and portions of the USS Resolute site written by Javier Costala.