Serenity is a "Collaborative Fan Fiction Environment". It's not quite a standard PBeM RPG.
Traditional RPGs have extremely quick post turnaround, allowing a high degree of character interaction, whereas Serenity is played more slowly and stresses well-written, generally more lengthy and complete posts. Serenity has more in common with the old-fashioned snail-mail RPGs than modern mailing list or BBS-based games. If you enjoy leaving 'tags' for other players to respond to the post you just wrote, then you might not enjoy Serenity. On the other hand, if you enjoy writing elaborate stories in a colorful Star Trek setting with well-developed characters, then Serenity is the place for you!
- Our posts are done in 3rd-person novel style, not script style.
- Our game is human-moderated and edited, not a simple mailing list or BBS.
- There is no minimum-posts-per-week requirement, so there's no pressure on those of us who have lives.
- There is no Game Master to direct things—no 'Captain'.
- There is no set storyline to follow—no 'missions'.
- There are few rules beyond simple good manners and respect for other players and their fictional characters.
What do you do?
Anything you want!
That's the idea behind Serenity. Think of it not as an RPG, but as a general, shared setting in which to write your stories. Your character can be absolutely anything you can imagine—civilian or Starfleet, and you have an entire solar system in which to play. You'll never receive direction from the Base CO; you'll never be tied down by plots you're not interested in; you are your own master. If you want to join with other players in whatever adventure they're having—great! If you would rather go off and write your own adventure, that's great too.
1. Your Character
Try to restrict your choice of species to official Star Trek races, one of the races unique to Serenity, or a species you have created on your own. Please, no Wookies, Cylons, Minbari, Goa'uld, Kilrathi, etc... Serenity is a frontier world, so it is possible that a few non-Federation-member characters would be present (Romulans, Ferengi, etc...) but they should have a really good reason for being there. No god-like aliens, no Borg or ex-Borg, no Gamma or Delta Quadrant races.
2. Other Player's Characters
Follow the Golden Rule: "Treat other players' characters as you would have them treat yours." Treat them kindly. You can't kill them. You can't maim them. Don't write them 'out of character', doing things they wouldn't normally do. If you're not sure, email the other player or the GM and ask! Many of your fellow players would probably be willing to do a joint post with you.
3. Spelling
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check your spelling. That is one thing that can easily be done by you. Your fellow players will thank you. If your spelling and grammar are bad, they will curse your name until the end of eternity. Modern word processors make the job of spell-checking, and even grammar-checking very easy.
4. Content
Serenity is rated PG-13, which means that certain things aren't acceptable:
No pornography. Erotic language and overt sexual scenes are not allowed. No excessive profanity. Mild profanity is allowed when the circumstance permit it. No racism or discrimination or any kind of prejudicial behavior (unless it has something to do with the story and will not cause any damage to any players but your own or any consenting characters). No graphic violence or torture/sadism. No demonism/witchcraft or overt use of the occult.
Yeah, I know that takes the 'fun' out of it for some people, but there are plenty of places for stuff like that on the Internet. Serenity isn't one of them.
5. Resignations
Real life can be demanding, so if you ever need to resign, please email the GM. That way he won't have to email and pester you if you're still playing or not, and room can be made on the Roster for other characters. We all realize that this is just a game, so if at anytime in the future you want to rejoin, you are more than welcome to do so.
To properly appreciate the Serenity website, you need to have the following True-Type font installed on your computer: Square 721 Condensed BT (26k). Click on the font name to download it, then unzip it and install it on your computer. If you need unzipping software, you can download it from Winzip.
