Feb
25
It was the Oscars last night, and the week before we had the BAFTAS, and before that were the Golden Globes. Awards ceremonies recognising the best of cinema. Roleplayers and roleplaying games deserve awards too, and just like movie awards, these also come at once. SimEnc announced their awards last week, and we’re also going to award our “Squiddies” in the coming week.
But for now, how about I tell you who the nominations are? Read More
Feb
24
Name your hobby. Go on. Because I can’t.
When I first started roleplaying I learned that the term to use was PBEM. Sometimes the agreement over capitalisation would alter like PbEM or PBeM, but it’s essentially the same. It stands for “play by email”, the way that I used to play. People would send emails to a newsgroup, to be distributed to the other members. Read More
Feb
20
It’s been another amazing week during the UFOP: Starbase 118 Writing Improvement Month. We really enjoyed the Spreecast video chat with award winning author Lev Grossman, who came to speak with us about all things having to do with writing. The best part was getting to ask him questions of our own, and having him answer us candidly with information we can use to improve our own writing skills.
And Mister Grossman was only the first of many such Spreecast events we have planned for the last bit of the month. Join us this weekend, on Saturday the 23rd, at 3pm EST (12pm PST, 8pm GMT), when Starbase 118 welcomes Star Trek author David R George III who will be sharing his insight on characterization! Read More
Feb
16
We’ve all seen roleplaying games where the posts have fizzled out, sometimes in the middle of an interesting story. So why does the story just stop and die? One of the reasons is a key player might suddenly have been unable to post, or suddenly they became too busy to post, or maybe they just forgot. After a long time the desire to continue fades, as does your memory of recent happenings in the game, and there’s no more posts.
I was interested in a recent discussion on RPG-Directory, where user Cady asked whether it’s okay to “poke, prod & beg for posts”. Read More
Feb
13
Roleplaying in distant lands has been a part of the simming business for many years; one notable early example is the focus of Twilight 2000 on Poland for a number of their modules, a country that most Westerners could not visit in the 1980s. Read More
Feb
11
Roleplaying games are more fun with other members. In OngoingWorlds I’ve made it really easy to approve new members who’ve submitted a good character profile, or decline the ones that haven’t. Here’s a screencast explaining how to do it:
Feb
9
I love listening to podcasts. I’ve been listening to audio podcasts for many years, despite only owning a iPod recently. Usually I burn them to CD and listen in my car on long drives, or just my usual drive to work.
I love podcasts because they’re so specific on a topic, instead of listening to talk radio which usually has to cater for a wide general audience. You can check Radio Waves for latest radio talks. In recent years I’ve been a boom of podcasts, each created by amateurs who are excited about a niche topic. One of these is the Starbase 118 podcast, Starbase 118 is a community of many roleplaying games, which gives them loads of content to talk about in an audio podcast. Read More
Feb
8
Written by Marissa Jeffrey from Starbase 118
The first week for UFOP: Starbase 118’s first ever Writing Improvement month has been wildly successful. Not only was the first event, an IRC Q&A with Star Trek and Sci Fi author Margaret Wander Bonanno, insightful and helpful to writers of all kinds, but it gave everyone involved a taste of what’s yet to come.
Some of our leadership also got together to help create tutorials that could be used by simmers both in the Fleet and in RPG games across the net, to improve their writing. This week’s theme was grammar and research, and how we could use it to write better. Read More
Feb
3
There’s a stereotype that roleplayers are antisocial and a bit… weird. This portrayal states that roleplayers have no friends in the real world, and go online to live out a fantasy life with people they meet online. Read More
Jan
30
This weekend kicks off the Starbase 118 Writing Improvement Month with some exciting events. Overall, the entire month is focused on helping creative writers and gamers improve their skills in writing, with each week divided into specific themes. The first week of the event will feature information about using grammar correctly, general writing tips, and using research resources to improve the posts we write.
Be sure to sign up for the mailing list so that you can be kept informed about the many things going on throughout the month!
The schedule for this week will include various email tips and tutorials, helpful links, and some interactive live events that everyone is sure to enjoy.
On February 3rd, join us for our opening ceremonies and meet the people who will be partaking in the event and who are leading the various activities. Read More
