Flashback week is a free week-long virtual event for roleplayers where you’re encouraged to think about something that happened in your character’s past. The rules are simple: write a flashback about your character and your story and tell everyone about it. Oh, and to have fun!
Back-story is important
If you enjoy writing about your characters you’ll know that a good back-story really adds a lot of depth to your characters, but it’s difficult sometimes to make the back-story relevant to what’s currently going on, and sometimes gets written as part of a biography that nobody ever bothers to read. If you write a flashback however the back-story becomes part of the current plot. You could even relate it to something that’s currently going on with your character right now. They might get a visit from an old friend or enemy from the academy, and you can write about when they first met, or they could have encountered a piece of alien technology they once encountered in their first ever mission.
So what do I do to take part in flashback week?
As you’re roleplaying, instead of writing a normal post about your character and current events, switch back to a time many years ago when your character was younger, maybe less experienced and more naïve. You could write about how they first joined Starfleet, when they first fell in love, how they got that scar, or how they developed a certain character trait they have today. There’s some more examples of what you can do in your flashbacks here.
When does it start?
Flashback week starts on the 14th of August (next week, so get thinking of ideas!), and finishes on the 21st.
The Flashback competition!
We’re also running a competition for the best written flashback. The competition is open to all types of roleplaying games, not just Star Trek, and will be judged by a panel of expert roleplayers. If you’re interested in entering the competition, see this page for rules and more details. Winners will be announced on the OngoingWorlds blog.
The final date for entry into the competition will be on the 21st of August (the last day of Flashback week), so make sure to get your entries in by then.
How do I enter the competition?
Either email your story to flashbackweek@ongoingworlds.com or via the online form here.
We look forward to seeing your flashbacks!
This article was written by David Ball
David has been a roleplayer for over 10 years, and is the creater of OngoingWorlds.com for people to write stories together. This is his second year running flashback week.
