Biography Guide

Created by Captain Benjamin Byrne on Mon May 31st, 2010 @ 11:01pm

Creating a Biography

You'll find Simming much more rewarding if you take the time and make the effort to create and develop a defined biography. Use your imagination, use the references on the net for canon races. Picture your character in your mind, then delve into his or her psyche to decide on his/her background and what made your character who he/she is. A good place to reference is www.startrek.com or www.memory-alpha.org. Make your character believable. Helpful links are listed at the end of this handbook.

The best way to create your character is:

Select the post you wish to be in, then create the character's talents and history to reflect that. The outline below will give you a good basis for creating your character:

Name:
Previous Posting:
Nickname: (if any)
Age:
Place of Birth:
Race:
Gender:
Marital Status:
Physical Description:
Personality/Psych profile:
Family History:
Personal History:
Academic record:
Official Starfleet record:
Commendations: (if any)
Hobbies:

If you can think up something detailed to put under each of these headings, then you should then have a good base of information to fill out the biography on the join form.

If you are new to Roleplaying, it's best to choose a human character and your own gender. Familiarity is the key to successful roleplaying. There are times that even the most experienced of roleplayers will have difficulty with playing an alien race. If you want to tackle an alien race, make sure they are part of the Federation or have an appropriate story that will seem feasible to be a member of the Federation and, therefore, placed on a Starfleet vessel. If you are unsure, discuss it with your CO or XO. This is especially tricky when making mixed races, as some races are physically incompatible. Your race choice will narrow certain aspects of your biography down, such as place of birth.

Physical attributes are next. How old is he/she? Weight? Height? Hair and eye colour? Don't forget to include how the character wears their hair, including length, style, etc. This gives you and your crewmates something from which to draw upon. Give their general physical build, such as if they are muscular, wiry, etc. Does your character have any other unique attributes, such as a tattoos, big feet, or scars? Some simmers have portraits created, or make JPGs or GIFs from pictures found around the net.

Personality Traits are next, and should be listed under Personality/Psych profile. What are your character's strengths? What are your character's weaknesses? Always give a good balance to your character, as "supercharacters" are boring to play with and only serve to frustrate you and your crewmates. If your CO feels your character is too "super" he or she may ask you to balance it out more. As you create this portion of the bio, a clearer picture of the character will begin to form for you. Think about events in your character's life that may have been instrumental in forming his or her personality.

Now that you've got that sorted out, it's time to write your character's history. Personal and Family history is first, and this covers birth through to the time your character entered Starfleet Academy. This is where you can describe their parents, siblings, places they have been in their childhood, etc. Where were they born? What was their childhood like? Any significant events that occurred? What did their parents do? Were they part of a failed colony? Were they in Starfleet? The more detailed you make that history, the more fun you will have playing this character as you will refer to this history the same way that you refer to your own history in your real life.

The second portion of history is their career life, including academic experiences and Starfleet records. This portion will continue to grow as you role play, so keep your biography available for updates. You will want to include past missions and experiences in it with a timeline (the timeline usually goes in the Service Record part of the join form).

When things happen to your character like an illness, a pregnancy, a death, a divorce, a promotion, these should be noted and kept updated on your bio here on the site. Remember to keep a backup at home!