Cotips
From Station
Posting as a Commanding Officer (CO)
This is a guide, not a rule set in stone.
Have you noticed that when you read a story or watch a movie they seem to have the same pattern to them? At the beginning there's a hook, something to catch your attention and draw you in. That's followed by conflict. This is the main guts of the story, what it's about. It has what happens, how the characters relate to the conflict, how they act and react to it. Once all of that happens then the story needs to be resolved and we reach the climax. The conflict, the issues or problems get sorted and the story as we know it ends.
We all know that a sim is like a story. An endless collaborative story that goes on and on for as long as the sim is there and there are active participtans and a CO to run her. A lot of this you will already know but it's best to start anything with the basics and work our way up from there.
Your post might focus mainly on the actions of your character. But since you are the CO your actions will affect those immediately around you and have a domino affect throughout the rest of your sim - or will it? To ensure that domino does happen you have to look past what you used to post as a player and post with a different formula in mind. A CO formula and that might look a little something like this:
Background - Action - Continuation
Let me explain...
BACKGROUND - This is where you write about what has happened or if it's the beginning of a mission some background information on what the mission is about. It sets the scene and reminds everyone what just happened or provides valuable intelligence for later on. It's also an excellent place to include your character's reactions, thoughts and feelings to events that have happened in previous posts. Maybe during that battle that has been established as going on against a Romulan warbird, a photon torpedo just impacted against an unshielded portion of the ship in the previous post, the inertial dampeners are offline and maybe your character was flung around, hit by debris? Someone else was hit by debris and is now in need or first aid? Basically you react!
ACTION - This is where you get to move the mission along a little bit. You get to have some action (not necessarily the beat someone up action), finally a chance to act! You're adding something new. It might be that you introduce a surprise Romulan attack, heading up a briefing, getting drunk with that pretty redhead and doing something very un-CO-like, or possibly pissing off your TGCO... Your options are endless. But be careful that you don't do too much, just enough to move the story along a wee bit and still allows the crew to add their own piece. It's a difficult balancing act.
CONTINUATION - This is the really important part for a CO. Sometimes this can be the hardest part of a post as we're all tempted to do a conclusion instead of a continuation. This is where you write something that will continue the story, where you pass it along to someone else (or multiple someones) so they can pick it up and run with it or so you can continue it in your next post. You have to ask yourself 'is there something I can do that can allow others to continue on?' You have to help them with ideas on how to continue the story, guide them to do what you need to get the whole story told and keep it moving. Maybe it's something as little as a door opening to reveal a mysterious someone, maybe you're asking someone to report and they can answer it in their post, or possibly you're giving orders (extremely common and good to fall back on), or end on a nail biting cliffhanger (careful though as some players might feel you have certain plans regarding this and might not post at all for fear of stepping on your toes). Anything really that someone can easily pick up from and tell their part of the story.
Another very simple analogy for posting as a CO is to think of it as a relay race. You see your team mate running towards you with the baton in hand (background). You take the baton they give you and then you run like a mad thing towards your next team mate (action) who is waiting and then you hand it over to continue the race (continuation).
Like I said, it was a really simple analogy.
Remember you are also the guy with the starter pistol, the person holding the red tape at the finishing line and the cheerleaders on the side line. You have more of an OOC (Out Of Character) role to play than just posting. You might also need to run alongside your crew in the form of joint posts (briefings, meetings and interactions), or coaching them through their post to the end of the mission - the finish line.
Note: Also Joint Posts (JPs) are a great way to interact with your players, keep them motivated and give them things to do.