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ASR Character Creation Guide
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Table of Contents
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1.0 Introduction
2.0 Creating a Character
2.1 Biographical Information
2.2 Age Requirement and Educational Options
2.3 Example of a Biographical Record
3.0 Language
4.0 Closing
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1.0 Introduction
Welcome to Starfleet!
This Guide will show you how to create a character for roleplay in
ASR. By now, you may have posted some basic information to the
personnel office. Along with the Personnel Officer, this document
will guide you through the character creating process.
If you have not already read the ASR FAQ, you should do so now. The
ASR FAQ is available at the ASR Web Site (http://www.alt-starfleet-rpg.org/).
2.0 Creating a Character
Everyone in ASR starts out as an Ensign. Even if you have a great
deal of experience in other role playing games, you will start out as
an Ensign.
Every Ensign (with the possible exception of medical officers)
entering ALB training has attended Starfleet Academy for four years.
The minimum entrance age (for humans, at least) at SFA is 16.
There is also the possibility of having a character who is in the
Marine Corps. If you are interested in such an option, please ask
the Personnel Officer for more information.
You cannot use your real name for your character. We find that this
policy facilitates interaction in the ASR universe. There should be
a clear distinction between the player and the character. Your
character may share some of your personality traits, your hobbies,
your likes and dislikes, but your character should be more than just
a projection of your own personality.
In order to describe your character, you need to create a
biographical record ("bio" for short). A bio provides information
about your character. Your character's bio tells other people what
you think your character is like, and it is a record of your career
in Starfleet. When your character joins a ship, your bio is the
first thing the crew will want to see. It's a resume and a character
sheet all wrapped up in one. Keep your bio handy and update it
periodically.
2.1 Biographical Information
No two bios are exactly alike. They aren't regulated, but there are
some basic guidelines that need to be followed. Some basic
information that should be contained in every bio is as follows:
* player name (your name)
* player's e-mail address (your e-mail address)
* character name
* physical description
* age
* education (especially Starfleet Academy)
* professional qualifications
* species
* home planet
* current assignment
* current position
Just that would make for a pretty boring bio, however. Some
additional information might include:
Family: parents, siblings, spouse, children
Background: place of birth, beliefs, tradition, service number
Character traits/personality: quirks, ambitions,
annoyances, psych profile
Also, you should indicate any limitations on your character about
which other writers should know. You can also indicate information
that the player should know but that characters would not know by
adding a non-role play game (NRPG) section to your bio.
There are other things that need to be considered when creating a
bio. Certain characters, certain races (such as Q), and certain
powers are simply not allowed. Disruptive characters are not allowed
in ASR and will not be assigned to ships. Disruptive characters
include those characters with active connections to the Mafia,
underworld, and/or rival intelligence communities (members of the
Romulan or Cardassian secret services, for example); extraordinary
psionic capability; 'hard' immortality (Q-like beings), felony
criminal records, training as an assassin, etc. These types of
characters are generally not conducive to good role playing.
Other characteristics (called 'red flags') will be examined closely
by the Personnel Officer, and may or may not be approved. Red flags
include enlisted service experience (mustang or fleet appointments),
special operations training, marine/naval commensurate commissions,
non-felony criminal records, conscientious objection, unusual age,
awards/medals/decorations obtained at Starfleet Academy, unexplained
leaves of absence, obscure racial origins, 'soft' immortality,
extensive psychological problems, and other such exceptional
characteristics. Characters like these need to be handled
responsibly and with maturity. Anything that confers status and/or
advantage over others is subject to a certain scrutiny.
The above restrictions may seem limiting, but there is good reasoning
behind them. Your character is a commissioned officer of Starfleet
and, therefore, must have some characteristics reflecting that fact.
Starfleet Academy would not, for instance, admit any criminals;
neither would it tolerate "troublemakers" and those with
murky backgrounds.
The important thing to keep in mind is that the character should be
believable. This means that he or she should *not* necessarily be
"the best ever" at anything (the chances of this are extremely
small). On the other hand, complete incompetence is also unrealistic
and, therefore, unacceptable. Please remember at all times that you
are playing with other people; if they can't take your character
seriously, they will probably disregard the bio at best.
If you are not sure about whether your character is acceptable or
not, ask the Personnel Officer for guidance.
A good suggestion, if you are having difficulties, is to look at
other bios. They can be found at the web pages of many ships.
2.2 Age Requirement and Educational Options
ASR characters do have a minimum age requirement: it is 20 standard
Earth years (or the equivalent for non-humanoids). This is because
Starfleet Academy, a four-year-program, has a minimum entrance age of
16. Please keep in mind that your character would have *graduated*
from Starfleet Academy by the time he or she joins ASR. Thus, your
character will be a commissioned officer (at the rank of Ensign) when
he or she reports for training.
Starfleet Academy, like military academies of today, provides its
students with undergraduate (college) education in addition to the
professional training. If you want your character to have a degree
from a college other than Starfleet Academy, your character will not
attend Starfleet Academy. Instead, he or she will attend Advanced
Officer Training (AOT), a twelve-week course that familiarizes
college graduates with Starfleet regulations and expectations.
Please note that officers in this category are generally scientists,
doctors, counsellors, and protocol officers.
AOT students must be 21 standard Earth years (or the equivalent for
non-humanoids) or older. Those officers who received their
commissions through AOT are not line officers; this means that they
will not be eligible for command billets or flag rank. Please keep
this in mind if you should decide to have a character with a
non-Starfleet Academy undergraduate degree.
2.3 Sample Biographical Record
Here is a sample bio. Comments throughout are bracketed in [[ ]].
ENS Kitty Chapman [Player: Renee Bennett]
==================================================================
Starfleet document 90275-7359-AJO286
PERSONNEL FILE--CONFIDENTIAL
Name: Katarina (Kitty) Hannalore Chapman
Rank: Ensign
[[ Everyone in ASR starts out as an Ensign. Refer to the ASR FAQ or
the ASR Web Page for more information on ranks. ]]
Serial: 9347-485-865
[[ Service or serial numbers follow no particular format - they are
entirely made up and just add a bit of interest. ]]
Citizen: Ceres, Asteroid Belt, Sol System
Race: Human
Age: 24
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Height: 1.82 meters (6')
Weight: 74.2 kilos (160 lbs)
[[ Starfleet is metric, although many people use both SI and Imperial
units in their bios. But there's no problem if you just use the
Imperial units. ]]
Hair: Blond, short, curly
Eyes: Blue
Skin: Caucasian, very freckled
Identifying Marks: Scar in hairline above left ear, 2.4 cm (1")
Fitness: 12%, very athletic
MEDICAL DATA
Allergies: Synapse enhancers 612 and 4D, chamomile, and tribble
fur.
Injuries: Massive trauma suffered in runabout accident at age 4.
Satisfactory recovery (See Disabilities)
Broken wrist, age 12. Satisfactory recovery.
Appendix removed, age 16. Satisfactory recovery.
Disabilities: Minor aphasia. Due to trauma from accident at age
4, Kitty has difficulty translating spoken directions
into their spatial counterpart. Result, she tends to
get lost when given directions verbally. She has no
difficulty with maps. Once she finds a given location,
she has no difficulty finding her way back from it or
to it again.
EDUCATION
Primary: Ceres Outbound Education (correspondence)
Secondary: Ceres Technical, one year
Mars Engineering Institute, two years
Starfleet Academy, four years
Majors: Pure Mathematics, Warp-field Mechanics
Minors: Logic, Structural Mechanics
Thesis: "Interactions of Gravity Stressors on common Warp-field
Shapes, with emphasis on failure conditions"
Comments: "Kitty is a brilliant and dedicated engineer who truly
enjoys her calling. When faced with a problem, she can
come up with a completely original solution very quickly,
if not always successfully. However, she has a very
persistent attitude: if her first idea does not work,
she will continue trying until she finds one that does.
She is flexible, and unafraid of being proved wrong. In
my opinion, she will be an asset in any position she
serves in."
--Lt.Cmdr. Kyroc Morrio, Instructor, SFA
[[ Fictitious letters of recommendation or memos are used to
establish what other people think about the character. This is a
typical convention in Starfleet. It is also a helpful exercise to
describe your character through other people's eyes.
Also, periodic updates of bios are a must; you want others to know
what your character is like in the here-and-now as well as what he or
she used to be like. ]]
Other:Disciplined twice while in Academy, both times for
practical jokes. The first was a St. Patrick's Day
stunt (all water systems for the main building ran
green for the day, including faucets, toilets, and
showers.) The second was a class joke, during a period
that the instructor had to book off. Kitty removed the
sign announcing the cancelled class, then told her
classmates there was a pop quiz that day, on the
subject of deriving warp-field equations from scratch,
without mechanical assistance. The difficulty arose
when the instructor found out about this escapade; he
had planned a similar quiz (with mechanical assistance)
for the next week. He accused Kitty of cheating, and
the matter had to be settled before the Academy ethics
committee. She proved that she could derive the
equations by herself, and the committee decided that
the original prank was no more than remarkable bad
timing on her part, and disciplined her for a lack of
respect for her instructor.
[[ Remember that not everyone is a high academic achiever - even
those who do attend the Academy. After all, there can be only one
person who graduates at the top of the class! ]]
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE
Beliefs: Agnostic
Ambitions: Chief Engineer on a Galaxy-Class Starship, "build a
better warp-field"
Annoyances: Clutter. "I grew up in a low gravity environment,
with long bouts of no gravity at all. When you live
like that, you realize that if it isn't tied down, it's
hazardous."
Hobbies: Grav ball, swimming, "tinkering", reading warp manuals
for all ship types.
Personality type: stable, friendly, observant.
Comments: "Kitty is a very nice young woman, a little head-
strong at times, but not overly so for someone her age.
She does not panic easily and she can be counted on to
be supportive to the best of her abilities. She tends
toward optimism, but not to starry-eyed optimism; she
tempers her judgements of situations with a critical
evaluation of the information she has at hand.
"Count on Kitty to smile her way through even the
toughest situations, and to offer a hand when needed."
--Dr. Aia a'Aianaia, Counsellor, SFA
FAMILY AND BACKGROUND
Father: Gerald Ambrose Chapman
Mother: Natasha Petrovna Armantin-Chapman
Siblings: Jared (b. 2366) missing, presumed dead (2384)
Tabitha (b. 2370, ad. 2371)
Maxmillian (b. 2373, ad. 2378)
Stevan (b. 2375)
(Katarina, b. 2380)
Alixandra (b. 2382, ad. 2384)
Yvan (b. 2384)
Viktor (b. 2385) (twin)
Regina (b. 2385) (twin)
History: Kitty is part of the Chapmans of Chapman Mines and
Interests, Inc., one of the major mining companies in the
Asteroid Belt of Earth. Victor Chapman, head of the company,
is her uncle. Minerva Chapman, Treasurer, is her aunt. Her
father Gerald is head of Labor Relations. Her mother Natasha
is the daughter of Petro Armantin, head of the Miner's Union.
Kitty and her elder brother Jared were in a terrible accident
when she was four years old. He was piloting a runabout
between two Asteroid colonies, taking them to a cousin's
birthday party. Investigators say that the runabout was
struck by an asteroid approximately 15 meters across,
causing massive damage to the propulsion systems and breaching
the hull. Kitty was severely injured in this crash, including
a skull fracture. Her brother placed her in the main airlock,
which still maintained a airseal, and attempted to effect
repairs on his ship. Investigations show that a second rock,
this one approx. 9 meters, struck the runabout; it is
assumed that it did so while Jared Chapman was outside the
ship and that it carried him away from it. He has never been
located.
Kitty was found by searchers later that week, still alive but
suffering from oxygen poisoning due to a malfunction in the
air mixtures for the airlock. She remembers nothing about the
accident, and suffers a mild aphasia from the brain damage she
received in the accident. (See Medical history.)
For further information regarding this incident, ref. Ceres
Accident File "Chapman 7386-836GO8".
[[ Hobbies, interests and quirks serve to make your character come to
life. Remember, nobody is perfect! Don't make your character out to
be a Superman or Superwoman in your bio. Giving your character a
past to deal with, a problem to overcome, an annoying tendency,
etc., doesn't make your character weak. In fact, it makes your
character more realistic and challenging to play!
Interaction among characters is what makes ASR work, and interests
and quirks help to develop interpersonal relationships in RP; common
interests may make for good conversation openers, for instance. ]]
==================================================================
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End File ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.0 Language
ASR is a world-wide organization and we welcome everyone, but
English is the language used in all correspondence and posts. So,
basic knowledge of the English language is essential. Spelling,
grammar and punctuation are also important; if you have trouble
spelling, the use of a spell-checker is recommended. You do not
need to be a master writer, but your posts should be legible and
readable.
Also, please note that all writing in ASR is done in third person
past tense. That is, we use 'he or she' instead of 'I', and we say
'he packed his suitcase' instead of 'he packs his suitcase'. Please
use third person past tense in all of your posts.
4.0 Closing
A few closing remarks. Remember that the most important thing about
ASR is that we are here to have fun! This Guide, as well as other
resources available to you from the ASR and ALB web sites, will help
you and your fellow players to enjoy the game.
If you have questions, please ask the ALB staff, and we'll be happy
to address them.
And again, welcome to Starfleet!
Respectfully submitted,
Takako Nagumo
VADM Harold T. Douglas
ALB Commandant
tnagumo@earthlink.net
Masako Goto
CDOR Alex Vivnakovekovitch Hartigan
ALB Adjutant
fielding@uic.edu
Laura Ashley
CAPT Clarissa Peyton
Personnel Officer
ashley_laura@hotmail.com
