Ahoy, new players, and welcome to Beat to Quarters!

Joining a new site always has the potential to be a bit confusing, intimidating, or even overwhelming. So in order to combat those feelings we’ve constructed this handy little guide to get you on your feet and into the action as soon as possible!

Step one: Join! FirstName LastName is the general format (i.e., John Smith, or Jane Doe), though if your character has a nickname that they go by more commonly than their given name or a title that they frequently include, you’re welcome to use that. If you mess up or change your mind, send one of the admins a PM and we can change your username for you.


Step two: Read the Rules. They’re fairly straight-forward, obvious stuff. The Articles of War forum also contains a number of topics on things such as text-based RP, thread etiquette, and a very useful FAQ.


Step three: Check things out! If you’re thinking of joining, you’ve probably already scanned the site a bit, but we still recommend you give a look at our setting and plot. The storyline here at BtQ is primarily player-driven, so what appears in the plot thread is a frequently updated summary of major events brought about by player interactions. All players are capable of influencing the story with their actions, and we definitely encourage you to get involved!

Feel a little shaky on your 18th-century history? To help players who might not be incredibly well-versed in the specific era where Beat to Quarters is set, we've assembled an entire forum of resources to make historic accuracy easier for all our players to accomplish.

Something else you’ll probably want to check out is the Character Creation Forum, which provides a number of helpful links about character types, our approval process, and policies about female characters. We encourage you to also look through some of the approved character profiles if you get a chance. Now, there are a lot of them, so we don’t expect you to read everything, but scanning over a couple might help give you inspiration for the next step, which is…


Step four: Make a character! Copy and paste the Character Creation Form, fill it out (preferably in a word processor so you can scan for typos), and then post it in the “Pending Applications” forum. The staff will review it as soon as possible and get back to you with helpful feedback. Once your character is determined to be good and seaworthy, you'll be approved and welcome to begin posting!

If you’re having trouble coming up with character ideas, check out the wanted ads. We have a very wide variety of characters here at BtQ, so feel free to get creative! Please note: your first character needs to be a ship-based character since that is the focus of our RPG; additional characters can be land-dwelling.


Step five: So you’ve joined, you’ve read the rules, you’ve made a character, and you’ve been approved. Now what? Well, if you’ve made a sailor or a pirate, we suggest you check out the ship’s rosters for The Sea Hound and The HMS Steadfast, our two In-Game ships, so you can find an open position that you like. Why only two ships, you ask? Well, currently we only have two because we aren’t an especially big board, and if we spread our characters too far apart on too many ships no one will have anybody to play with. If and when we get enough active characters to fill up both ships, we will expand by making new vessels. In the meantime we ask that you find yourself a slot on one of our existing ones.

If you’ve made a civilian or non-nautical character, be counted in the census of the civilian population.


Step six: Now you’re free to start roleplaying! You can make your own topic, jump in on another topic marked "open" in the tag line. If you find that you’ve made a topic and no one has responded, don’t be despondent! Talk to other players, and see if anyone wants to make up a scenario together. Be persistent, be friendly, and be open to anything!


Step seven: So you’re all set up in game! Time to say hello to your fellow BTQers: we have a community forum for you to get to know people and socialize, and a thread for Player Introductions. You’re a part of our quirky little community now, and we look forward to getting to know you!


If you have any questions, thoughts, concerns or suggestions, I encourage you to send me a PM, or drop me a line on AIM! I’m always willing to hear from folks.

Good luck, and welcome aboard!

-Lei