Guide:Starbase Bravo

Not to be confused with the in-character article about Starbase Bravo.

Starbase Bravo is an ongoing open sandbox for members of Bravo Fleet. Open to everyone (pending completion of the New Member Program), this space is meant to provide people with an opportunity to write character development stories and organic plots to their hearts' content, without relying on direct game manager intervention like a traditional RPG. Members start off in entry-level enlisted and junior officer roles and gain access to higher level positions by posting with others. The more Duty Ribbons you earn on Starbase Bravo, the greater access to ranks and positions you earn. Though meant primarily as a collaborative writing space, this is also a place where members may write solo stories about junior officers, though those posts do not count towards their advancement within the sandbox. This guide is meant to help you understand how to join, what (and how) to write, and what sort of positions you have access to.

Before you proceed, please read the Starbase Bravo Rules.

Initial Character Creation and Joining

Members must have completed the New Member Program in the Academy before they can apply to join Starbase Bravo. It is highly recommended, but not required, that you complete the Character Creation Program, which is necessary for advancement beyond entry-level positions and can help you find many helpful resources here on the wiki to create realistic characters.

Unlike a traditional game, characters are not evaluated based on their fit for the sandbox other than whether or not they follow the Canon Policy. It would be wise to look at the lore office guides as well. Generally speaking, as long as you're not attempting to play as a non-canon or prohibited species, and you're proposing a character within the rank and position guidelines listed below, it will be accepted.

Initial characters should be Tier 1 characters, which means they should have a generic position like Science Officer or Security Officer and hold either an officer rank of ensign or lieutenant junior grade, or an enlisted grade of Crewman or any of the three Petty Officer Ranks. Cadets and enlisted trainees are allowed, and have their own rank guidelines. Civilian characters are allowed, unrestricted by tier. The titles available in the open positions list are available to initial characters.

You should create a character on the BFMS, set to Story Mode, and assigned to Starbase Bravo. Then click here to fill out the application. Note: for the writing sample, you can provide a sample if you desire or just write "Starbase Bravo initial application" in the box, as we will not be evaluating your sample post, just making sure that your character follows the lore policy.

Note: You may apply for more than one position, but the staff will be judicious about approving secondary characters, based on demand. While there can be an unlimited number of junior officers on the station, we'd prefer that people not create a slew of characters all at once, especially in the same department, as this can discourage joint writing. If you'd like to have characters in a few different departments to give yourself more opportunities to write with others, though, that is encouraged!

What to Write

Free reign can admittedly be a little intimidating, but this really is your oyster. While station-wide story beats will be handed out relatively frequently, but we're leaving the individual stories on the ground level to you. The advancement structure hinges on joint posts, so we encourage you to reach out to your fellow members to organize stories together. As long as you don't change the environment/political situation or hurt anyone else's character, feel free to write as you see fit!

This means that you should keep posts and their storylines relatively small in scope. People participate in and write on Starbase Bravo at their own pace, and the game by-design is a sandbox for focused and character-based stories. The game also is very open in terms of who can participate and who can write, and to accommodate for this, no player should be put in a position where they have no choice but to write with a certain storyline or other player. As such, no member-created storyline should necessitate other players and characters knowing about it, to allow people to opt-in and opt-out as they see fit.

This means no plot should affect the whole station - but SB Bravo is a veritable floating city, with over a hundred thousand people aboard. A lot can happen - even big, dramatic, or dangerous events - about which another crewmember has absolutely no idea, or at least doesn't need to drop everything and get involved. Think about it this way: if your idea would necessitate one of the senior officers being informed—a major disease outbreak, an accident involving a starship in the docking bay, an external security threat, major damage to station components—it is likely too big for a member-initiated plot line, so it would be best to ask about it first.

Keep in mind, too, that Starbase Bravo's content is restricted to 111 on the RPG Ratings scale. More information on acceptable content is found in the rules.

How to Write

The Starbase Bravo staff will create a mission either every annual quarter, or sometimes for an applicable fleet-wide Campaign, which will lay out the present storyline. You can directly post in this mission, either on your own or with other people.

It's considered polite to request a joint post with someone before you start the post, so reach out on Discord. If you have a higher tier position in a department, try to be willing to write with others as much as possible. Again, check the rules on content guidelines, and the guide on joint writing if you need technical assistance.

Advancement within Starbase Bravo

There are seven tiers of positions, each of which have rank guidelines. These tiers contain increasingly more specialized and increasingly more senior titles. At each tier the number of positions available gets smaller, because realistically there can only be so many Heads, Deputy Directors, and Directors. Access to these tiers rests on your contribution to the sandbox by writing joint posts, which is a model that is widespread in the wider RPG universe. The actual positions available are listed in the Starbase Bravo positions guide. Members may earn access to the first six tiers, with the sixth tier being reserved for members of the Bravo Fleet Senior Staff, the Deputy Intelligence Officer, and the Deputy Operations Officer and the seventh tier being reserved for the Intelligence Officer and Operations Officer.

Note: You are not required to change your character's position or rank just because you have access to a higher tier. You're also not required to keep the same character, or only use your original character, when promotion to a particular position or rank wouldn't make logical sense for the character's age and service record. (i.e. You don't need to end up a 22 year-old commander because that's what position tier you gained access to.)

Starbase Bravo Position Tiers

Tier	Position Examples	Rank Guidelines	Post Requirements	Other Requirements
Tier I - Entry Level	Security Officer/Specialist Science Officer/Specialist	ENS, LTJG CN, PO3, PO2, PO1	None - Initial Join	Complete New Member Program
Tier II - Specialists/Supervisors	Patrol Shift Supervisor Geology Officer/Specialist	ENS, LTJG, LT PO3, PO2, PO1, CPO	5 Duty Ribbons earned on SBB	Complete Character Creation Program
Tier III - Section Heads	Head of Patrol Section Head of Geology	LT, LTCMDR CPO, SCPO	15 Duty Ribbons Earned on SBB
Tier IV - Department Deputy Directors	Deputy Director of Promenade Security Deputy Director of Planetary Sciences	LTCMDR, CMDR SCPO, MCPO	30 Duty Ribbons Earned on SBB
Tier V - Department Directors	Director of Promenade Security Director of Planetary Sciences	LTCMDR, CMDR MCPO	60 Duty Ribbons earned on SBB
Tier VI - Division Assistant Chiefs	Assistant Chief Security Officer Assistant Chief Science Officer	CMDR MCPO	100 Duty Ribbons earned on SBB
Tier VII - Division Chiefs	Chief Security Officer Chief Science Officer	CMDR, CAPT MCPO	None - BFSS/Deputy IO/OPS Only	Must maintain staff role to keep this position
Tier VIII - Command-level Officers	Executive Officer Commanding Officer	XO: CAPT CO: Flag Officer	None - Intelligence Officer, Operations Officer, BFXO, or BFCO	Must maintain staff role to keep this position
Notes: Post requirements are cumulative, not specific to each tier. It could reasonably take a person a year or longer to reach tier VI, at 8 or 9 posts a month, and this is intended to be aspirational and to encourage you to be as social as possible! For the sake of clarity, cadet and trainee guidelines aren't included here, so check the available positions guide.