Background Section

Why add a background section I here you ask.

Simple answer is to create a unified feel in the story.

What do I mean by this...

Every individual has their own way of interperating things and then conveying them to others. To try to demonstrate I will use the example of FTL (Faster Than Light) travel.

As my story is set in a future involving multiple star systems sooner or later FTL travel will come in to play. Different authors may have their own interpretations of what FTL travel is and how it is accomplished.

They could use any of the following methods (just those I could think of at time of writing)

The BSG(RIS) method.

  In the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica FTL travel was a kind of dimensional jump. Ship disapears at point A to arrive shortly at Point B.

The Star Trek method.

  In Trek the ships nacelles create a warp field around the ship allowing it to achieve and exceed light speed.

The Star Wars and The Babylon 5 methods.

  Both these franchises make use of ships travelling thru an alternate realm, Hyperspace. Yet despite the similarities how the transition from Hyperspace to real space and vice versa is handled differently in each franchise. In Wars the ship use a hyperdrive to propel it into and thru hyperspace and then cut in the sublight drive to return to real space. In B5 the ship use a jump engine to open a jump point, then ship then uses it's standard engines to enter the jump point and travel thru hyperspace. Once at it's destination it again uses the jump engine to create a jump point and returns to normal space.

As you can imagine this could easily lead to threads with varying descriptions of this event which would get confusing for readers.

While those wishing to add threads need not read every background section it will help to avoid what may be perfectly good threads being rejected because it does not follow the established background.