Effective bridge communication requires all the bridge crew to provide complete, accurate, and timely information that the Captain can use to make decisions, and in return the Captain needs to provide clear and simple to follow orders.
The Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines Etiquette as “the rules indicating the proper and polite way to behave”. For effective roleplay to occur, everyone involved must establish a common understanding of how the participants are expected to behave.
We define role-play as two or more personnel interacting when the participants are IC (In-Character). Although this would primarily involve Starfleet Infinity personnel, it may also involve visitors. Many of the Academy courses assist the new Starfleet Infinity member in getting up to speed with the terminology and tools specific to their branch and duties, so they can take part in role-playing in an effective and non-disruptive way.
Because Star Trek role-play depends on the “canon”—a well-known and well-established set of baseline activities and knowledge—there are unique aspects that require the participants to follow the canon when practical for consistency. This list of tips may assist you in being a better roleplayer.
1. Be involved and attentive
Most role-play scenarios at Starfleet Infinity will be from ninety minutes to two hours. Prepare for this by getting drinks and snacks, using the bathroom, having any reference material required ready, and being in your position fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time. Once the role play begins, pay attention to what is happening in local chat, and in any role-specific group chat(s), and be prepared to respond if called upon. When the Captain orders the Tactical officer to lock the phasers on target and fire, they don’t want to find out the Tactical officer is away from their keyboard. Extended response times to critical story directions are extremely disruptive.
2. You are not the only smart one in the room.
During role-play, use group chat and other options to engage your co-players in your planned actions. They may have ideas you don’t. At a minimum, this will help keep personnel from saying contradictory things.
3. Do not obsess about Star Trek canon and being “right”
Throughout your time in Starfleet, you will hear roleplay that you know is simply not correct. It may conflict with canon in some way. It may be something you know is ridiculous. It may be a simple error, such as the Captain forgetting to drop out of warp. Ask yourself, “how will this role play be improved if I point this error out”? Will pointing it out *improve* the ongoing story?
However, there are scenarios where “being wrong” may affect the story. Imagine that your ship is in orbit around a planet, and a significant target on the ground needs to be neutralized, and this conversation ensues:
Captain:Tactical, lock onto that target and fire a photon torpedo.
Tactical: Captain, if we fire a photon torpedo, we could destroy the planet.
Science (realizing the Tactical Officer is vastly overstating the torpedo’s potential damage): Captain, I have analyzed the expected outcome of a torpedo strike and it will neutralize the target without significant damage to the planet.
An alternate approach to resolve this without anyone losing face would be for the Science officer to IM the Tactical officer to tell her she is overstating the effect of a torpedo, and let the Tactical officer revise her estimate:
Tactical: “Captain, I have re-evaluated the possible effect of a torpedo impact and I am confident we can proceed.”
If you feel you must correct an “error”, think of a way to do it that addresses the point without making someone else look bad. Imagine yourself in that same position. In the example above, we turned a Tactical Officer who does not appear to understand the explosive yield of a photon torpedo, into a cautious one, warning the Captain about a possible negative outcome.
4. Operate within your branch and role
If your role for this session is to be an engineer, do not try to insert yourself into also being a helmsman, tactical officer, and doctor. Focus on doing the best job on your own assignment, and let your fellow players do theirs. The flip side, of course, is not to be so focused on your role that you behave in ways that are absurd. Imagine you are on an away team and your partner gets hurt and requires first-aid. It would be completely reasonable for you to assist the other person until more expert help arrives. You wouldn’t be likely to say “Sorry I am an engineer, you need a medical officer” and refuse to slap a bandage on their wound.
5. You may not have a speaking part
When the mission author creates a scenario for the personnel, ship, away team, etc to execute, they may not create situations where your branch/role needs to be involved. If you are an Engineer, for example, and the ship is operating normally, do not feel you have to insert yourself into the roleplay just for the sake of having something to say.
6. Do not insert your roleplay in a negative way
This can include several aspects:
• Insert unnecessary, inappropriate, and off-topic roleplay into the ongoing session.
• Correcting the role play of others ("You are wrong wrong wrong!)
• Roleplay that contradicts others. (e.g., Captain: Fire torpedoes! Engineer: Can’t do it Captain, torpedo tubes are full of tribbles. Tac Officer: Aye captain, two torpedoes launched.)
7. Adjust your role play to others
You want your role play to be similar to your co-players in length and intensity. If others are giving two-line emotes on what they are doing, and you are writing a full paragraph, your options may be to tone it down, or to find a situation where others are also writing full paragraphs. This can be even more problematic if you are a “para” role player and a slow typist.
8. Give the other participants time to respond
Never feel that you need to “fill the silence”. Make sure you give other people time to absorb what is being described and provide a response. Don’t just keep talking.
9. Be flexible!
The best reputation you can have is that you know your job (role) and that you “play well with others”. Don’t try to steal the show!. Star Trek role-play is a cooperative effort where the members work together to complete elements of an ongoing story, and the main objective is always to have fun. So, be flexible, give others a chance to play, don’t worry about who is right and who is wrong, just relax and have fun.
10. Avoid Godmoding
Godmoding is described as attempting to direct another person’s actions. This is usually seen as stating an action as a conclusion rather than an offer. “I shoot you with my phaser.” Such statements leave little room for the other party to respond. You have told them what happened.
Consider this scenario:
Fleet Captain Dolfke watched with narrowed eyes as the apparently inebriated Commander Soulstar chased an ensign around the table with a bat’leth, knowing she had to end this before someone got hurt. Takes her phaser from the holster, checks the settings, and stuns the Commander, smirking as her target drops to the floor unconscious.
In the action described above, the Fleet Captain gives the other party (our drunken Commander) no option but to fall down unconscious. This is godmoding. You have dictated the other party’s action.
Takes her phaser from the holster, checks the settings, aims carefully, and fires at the Commander.
Now the response is in the hands of the other party. Among other options, they can accept the action, and fall to the floor stunned. They can nimbly dodge the phaser shot and dive under a table. They can throw a bottle at our diligent Captain. Their actions have not been dictated by the other party.
It is worth noting that this *usually* applies to negative actions, that is, actions that affect the other party in some negative way, such as a fight. It’s rare to see positive acts expressed as offers.
The Chief Engineer reached out and patted Ensign Smith on the shoulder. “Well done, lass, you just saved the ship.”Ensign Smith is unlikely to want to dive out of the way, but this is a form of godmoding and it’s a behavior to watch out for. Perhaps Ensign Smith does not like to be touched.
11. Avoid Metagaming
Metagaming is a term used to describe a character taking actions based on knowledge that the character can’t possibly have. Imagine a scenario where your Captain has been captured by an adversary and it is known that she is being held somewhere in the region. The region has a collection of buildings and other features and the away team needs to search for him. The away team splits into smaller groups and spreads out.
Group one role plays its way towards the Captain. “My tricorder is registering anomalous readings to the South West.” “Let’s get up on top of that ridge so we can see better”. “There are signs of activity to the East, let’s investigate”. Group two opens their map and literally walks straight to where the Captain is being held. “We found him.”
You may think this example is absurd and that no one would do this. You are wrong. This is an example of metagaming—using information that their character can’t possibly have—a map pinpointing the Captain’s location. Metagaming is almost always to the character’s direct benefit and is to be avoided.
12. In Character (IC) vs Out of Character (OOC)
Generally, it is expected that if you are in uniform and at a Starfleet venue, you are in character and that you will act and speak as an officer in Starfleet, behaving in ways that are consistent with the character you have developed. If you need to do something Out of Character, you should make this clear by placing the OOC statements in (( double parenthesis)) for example ((I will be right back. I have to feed the cat.)) would tell those present that you have had to excuse yourself for a few minutes for duties unrelated to Starfleet. If real life does interfere, it’s important that you let others know that you won’t be responding to their roleplay.
However, consider ways to accomplish this without stepping out of character. “Please excuse me, everyone. I just received an urgent communication with my PADD that I must read and respond to at once, and it will take me several minutes.” All the others present need to know is that you will be unresponsive. They probably don’t need to know the details.
Conclusion
There is no single right or wrong way to do role play. Everyone has their own ideas and way of doing things. But for any roleplay that involves a group of people, the key elements are:
• being on time and prepared;
• being attentive and engaged;
• knowing your role;
• not dictating the actions of others;
• cooperating with others and helping them be successful.
These elements will make you a successful role player within Starfleet Infinity.