Where Do Our Characters Currently Stand in the Story?

Probably the most important thing is to remember the relevant back story - we are going from Scorpion, so a lot of stuff we typically consider part of our character's cannon hasn't happened yet - and, depending on how you choose to go about it, quite possibly never will. There has been no real contact with the Alpha Quadrant, Tom and B'Elanna haven't confessed their love, the Captain's feelings for Chakotay have slightly cooled due to his severing the Borg alliance, Seven is still of the full Borg mentality, Kes is still developing her telepathic abilities but they've yet to become ship-threatening... things like that. So, while you need to remember what has actually happened and write accordingly, you've got a free reign for the future. Try to make them as real as possible. It might be an idea to go back and watch some of those late season 3/early season 4 episodes just to get an idea of where things stand.

Characters and Character Interaction:

With a sim such as this, where we are working with characters that have already been established, character interaction is bound to be somewhat different from a standard sim. As we all already have a good idea how the characters would interact with each other, it's thus easier to write dialogue for someone else's character. However, as a general rule, do not write for someone else's character unless you've been given explicit permission.

Generally speaking, writing a line or two of dialogue for someone else's character is acceptable if you can't avoid it, but don't go writing long and flowing oratory for Harry Kim when you're actually playing B'Elanna. It's also not a good idea to make new revelations about someone else's character.

For example:

B'Elanna surveyed the morning's breakfast offerings, searching for the least objectionable, or at least most edible morsel. She had just made her selection when a voice said: "Morning B'Elanna" B'Elanna turned to find Harry standing in line behind her. "Morning Harry. Sleep well?"

...are acceptable. Not only does it keep the other character's lines to a minimum, but it leaves the way open for a joint post or at least gives the other character the chance to respond in a following post. However, something like this is not considered acceptable:

B'Elanna surveyed the morning's breakfast offerings, searching for the least objectionable, or at least most edible morsel. She had just made her selection when a voice said: "Morning B'Elanna" B'Elanna turned to find Harry standing in line behind her. "Morning Harry. Sleep well?" "Slept like a log... Libby always used to comment on that. You know, I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he said as she made to add her selection to her plate. "I just got back from Sickbay - the Doc and Tom've been busy all morning dealing with people who've eaten that, and it's not a pretty site." "Thanks for the warning." "No problem," the ensign said, moving off with his own plate.

It makes a revelation (Libby) and carries out an entire conversation without giving the other person a chance to contribute.

NPC's

NPC's are Non Player Characters, which basically means what it says - they are not actually individually participating characters in the sim. They can range from a once-appearing gold shirt who gets killed five seconds into a post, to a full-fleshed out deputy department head who more or less has his or her own life on the ship and interacts with both other NPC's and PC's. NPC's are typically considered the property of the person who created them. So, while you can be more relaxed about their use, it's still nice to treat them with the courtesy you'd extend to one of the actual Player characters. It's always a good idea to check with people other than yourself who are most likely to come into contact with the NPC. NPC's that come with the sim - for example: Vorik and the Wildmans - can basically be written as anyone pleases, although it's a good idea to try to keep them in character (or check to their dept head players to be on the safe side -Doc).

Posting Style

First and foremost, your posts should always be in third person, past tense, and never in the first person except when speaking in quoted dialogue.

This is for a number of reasons, but probably the biggest is simply that this is the writing style the majority of people find easiest to both write and read. Also, having everyone post in the same tense helps the sim gel together - when you have five simmers posting in past tense and two posting in present, you end up with a situation where the majority of the crew is describing incidents that have already happened, while for others these events are still in progress.

Another important point to remember is that you are writing from the perspective of your character - do not write from an omnipotent perspective. That is, don't write as if your character can see inside the heads of others and tell what they're thinking. You should only write for your character and what your character is actually able to observe. The following, for example, is an example, of the omnipotent perspective:

In a microsecond, the tone of the room changed as engineers with plasma burns staggered through the door. Medics carried in someone who had been near a console blast. They went into their routine as planned, with the EMH handling plasma burn victims, while Macintyre and the now-present Counselor Bernandez calmed and comforted them as best they could. Meanwhile, Dr. Holister prepped for surgery and set to work on the blast victim. He worked with a speed and precision which dazzled Powell; she found she had to scramble at times to keep up with his requests. His focus was keen and his hand steady, with not a single slipup. She had never seen anyone perform surgery with such expertise, and knew that alone would warrant him additional protection.

The actual character that is being written here is Dr. Holister. But as you can see, the author has accidentally lapsed into writing from Powell's perspective as well, thus preventing that character from actually writing her own take on the situation. There are few ways to annoy your fellow simmers than by putting your thoughts into their characters' heads. A few modifications to the paragraph and there is no conflict:

...Meanwhile, Dr. Holister prepped for surgery and set to work on the blast victim. He worked with a speed and precision which seemingly dazzled Powell; she was scrambling at times to keep up with his requests. His focus was keen and his hand steady, with not a single slipup, she noted with some pride...

Another important point: check your spelling and grammar - there is nothing more annoying than a badly spelt post.

Incoming Communications & Shipwide Announcemenets

It is customary to use the combadge ( =/\= ) symbol in lieu of quotation marks when writing text which is either coming from your combadge, or heard over the ship's communication system. For those who have never made the symbol, it is: equal, forward slash, backward slash, equal.

The Plot

In any simulation, there are generally only one or two people who know the entire course of the story ahead of time, that is the Story Master (SM) and Assistant Story Master (ASM). They are the people responsible for the A-plot and any major B-plots, and will direct the story accordingly. The job of the rest of the simmers is to fill in the blanks left in those stories for them. For example, the SM may use an attack by an unknown ship as plot device, setting up the scenario but leaving it up to the simmers to fill in most of the actually battle and it's conclusion, again interceding when it's time to negotiate or pick up the pieces afterwards.

You are generally free to improvise and expand upon the A-Plot. In fact, it's quite necessary. But you need to be aware of what the limits are. Generally speaking, unless the SM has told you to otherwise, you don't take a shuttle in the middle of a battle to help harass the enemy, or stumble across a secret enemy military installation while on an away mission.

Basically, follow your common sense and you'll be fine. You are also quite free to create your own individual plots, B, C & D stories, provided they either tie into or don't interfere with the current major plots. For example: a C-plot could be that the Doctor could be having problems with his mobile emitter in sickbay, which can't be resolved because the A-plot has taken B'Elanna off the ship.

Some Do's and Don'ts

Do's:

• Write in such a way that you portray a real person with emotions, habits, weaknesses, a past, and one who may make mistakes, who is just trying to live by their beliefs to the best of their ability.
• Have fun writing your posts.
• Write so that others have fun reading your posts.
• Keep true to your biography, but don't be constrained by it.
• If you have an idea for the main plot, or are unsure about some part of it, talk to the SM
• Get involved with the other characters; a character who spends all their time at work or alone is not only boring to write, but is boring to read as well.

Don't:

• Fall victim to the "Superhero Syndrome". Remember that your character is not god and does have faults. They don't know everything, and they can't save the ship/quadrant/universe on their own - most of the time, anyway. This will be a hard one to avoid in this particular sim as we have several characters already established as "superheroes" by the TV series.
• Killing or seriously harm another character without that player character's prior permission
• Alter the main plot or solve it on your own
• Write a post that locks other players into a set course of action without their or the SM's permission