The USS Excelsior E-mail SIM Manual: part 2 of 2

Many have asked, "How does an E-mail Sim work?" This document will attempt to answer that question by laying out some guidelines.  

First, this manual will go over the mechanics of the E-mail Sim. This is the easy part to master. Later it will go over the etiquette of E-mail simming, which is the important part to master.  

The mechanics of an E-mail sim are quite simple. Each participant (or player) creates their own biography for the character that they will play in the Sim. This biography is important, because it will describe to the other players how your character looks, and acts like.  

Once the character biography is completed, it will be posted on the website so that it can be referenced when stories are written involving your character. You should always read each player's biography (or reread it) before posting a new story entry involving that character. It can save you the embarrassment of making a false reference in one of your stories.  

Example: "Chris ducked to the right as the disrupter blast streaked past her head." Which would be fine as long as "Chris" is a woman, but if it is short for "Christopher"....  

Most Web browsers will allow you to print out and make hard copies of the articles you browse. Feel free to make yourself a hard copy of the player's character biographies for easier referencing.  

When you think of the player characters, you should be thinking of "the stars of the show", that is really what they are. In this Sim, the USS Excelsior has about 750 men and women on board, but really, the few player characters are the stars of the sim.

Along with the player's biographies, a list of all the player's e-mail addresses and the player's positions are stored on the website. These files are updated each time a new player joins the Sim, or an old one leaves. You may wish to download these files and print them out from time to time.

When you turn in your character bio and it was accepted by the GM, your email address was added to an email listserver mailing list. You should have received a "Welcome" message directly from the listserver telling about the sim, and how to turn on and off your email there in case you leave town for an extended period of time. If you need to have your email address changed, or a new one added to the list, you need to email the GM at jgkrok@jgkrokil.com. They will inform you on how to add your address to the mail server.

When you are ready to post your "in character" story to the USS Excelsior email Sim, you will recieve a list of email address that you can send to.

When posting new story entries or Logs to the Sim group, please adhere to the following rules:

If the message is "in character" and intended to be part of the Sim, on the "Subject line" of the message, begin it with the following: 

USS Excelsior:

 The "USS Excelsior:" being the first part of the subject, and you can follow that with any text you like. Such as "Romulan attack part 2" or "party in Ten forward" etc. For messages to other crew members 'out of character' to discuss possible storylines, or congratulate them on an exceptional posting to the sim, please start the subject line as follows:  

USS Excelsior NRPG:

 Where the "USS Excelsior NRPG:" is the first part of the subject, and any additional text you like can follow. That will make it easier to sort out the NRPG - (Non Role Playing Game) messages from those intended to be included in the Sim storyline.  

The last E-mail Sim "mechanic" is that each player is expected to make a minimum of one Sim entry per week. You may post more frequently than this, but I would like everyone to at least post this frequently. If you are unable to post to the game because of vacations, or final exams, etc. Just let the Gm know, (and the rest of the Sim group) with a NRPG message ahead of time.  

There is no order, or "round-robin" rotation for each of the story posts to the Sim. You do not have to "wait your turn" to post into the game as is the case on some role playing games. Of course there are exceptions to this, which will be discussed below, but usually, you do not have to wait for all of the other players to post a new message before you post another one.

Having explained the mechanics of the E-mail Sim, the manual will go into the more difficult concepts of E-mail sim etiquette.

In a true live action role playing game, all of the players get together to participate in a fantasy game, and one person, the Game Master (Gm) takes on the role of referee. The Gm oversees who goes when, and what is allowed and not allowed. In an E-mail Sim, the burden of what is allowed and not allowed is somewhat shifted to each of the players. When you post your creative writing effort, and submit your story to the Sim group by clicking on the "send" button of your mailer, YOU are the GM at that point. And being a referee on a role playing game you should ask yourself a few questions about your submission.

"Given my character's biography and established game play thus far, would my character do this?"

"Given the Star Trek: TNG universe in which we are gaming in, would this possibly happen?"  

"Will this entry greatly affect another player's character, or disrupt a storyline they are currently pursuing?"  

"Have I used this player's character in a way that is consistent with their biography and established game play?"

"Will my post in any way alter the true Star Trek: TNG universe in which we are gaming in?"

Basically there are two things you have to look out for. The first is that you do not write anything in your story entry that will drastically alter the current "story arc" established by the Captain's Logs. If you have doubts about an entry, you can always feel free to send a copy to the Gm for approval before posting it to the group. I do intend to have certain story arcs (episodes) center around different crew members to ensure that everyone gets to be "the star" on occasion. When this happens to your character, you will be in the spot light so to speak, and the other player's character entries will take a secondary, or background role. Like wise, when another character has the spotlight, it is important that you still post into the Sim, but in a way that supports the storyline, and the other players.  

Stories that require a lot of dialogue between two player characters (pcs) are usually best handled in a cooperative effort. One player will write out the story, with dialogue for their character and the other pc, and then mail it to the other player for review and/ or revision. When they both agree on the final story, it is posted to the rest of the Sim group as an official entry. This kind of cooperation is encouraged.

The other way of doing a dialogue sequence between two players is to post a story that puts the two characters face to face, and then each player posts a short entry with their comments, ending it waiting for the other player to respond. While this can work well for short conversations between two players that frequently check their e-mail for Sim messages and respond promptly, it tends to not work well for longer winded, or confrontational dialogue pieces. These are usually best handled "off line" with cooperation between the two players to come up with a completed `chapter' of the story, and then posted it to the sim group complete. This way, a conversation that takes just five minutes of "game time" doesn't spread out over two weeks worth of E-mail postings.

Like all shows on TV (not just Star Trek!) it's not a very good practice to kill off the stars of the show. Since the other player characters are the stars... well you get the idea! Also, I'd like to add that because of our gaming timeline, that of the current Star Trek The Next Generation period, we may occasionally get to interact with "Canon" Star Trek characters in the Sim. When this happens, it's important to treat them as "special guest stars" and also not to hurt or change their established characters in anyway that would cause inconsistencies when future Star Trek movies come out. This would be a quick way to get the GM to frown, as I am striving to make this sim very true to TNG universe.

The GM's role in this Sim will be to establish the storyline and provide guidance to each of the players. When setting up an episode for the crew, the Captain will make an official "Captain's Log" entry to voice his concerns and mission objectives. Outside of the official Sim entries Gm’s will often send NRPG messages to some members of the crew from time to time to let them know pieces of the storyline that they need to describe in their stories. An example might be sending a message to the Tactical Officer explaining that he/she is picking up a warp trail shadow to the aft of the ship. Or telling the Doctor that when he/she examines a particular alien's injuries, he will die if not brought immediately to the ship. Then, in these players up coming Sim entries, they can present the information any way they like, you each have creative license within your Sim entries, so long as the storyline is adhered to and none of the Sim etiquette rules are broken.

The last piece of advice assumes that you write your stories "off line". Use a spell checker to check spelling, and/or use other grammer aids. When you have finished a piece, before posting it to the sim, always check your e-mail to verify that there are no new entries that will force you to have to revise your log.

In regards to NPCs (non player character) or "extras", you can feel free to create any new supporting characters you require, following the original guidelines in the USS Excelsior E-mail Sim Manual in regards to Alpha quadrant races. On the Website under "Crew Roster" there is a complete crew manifest listing all NPCs for the Sim as they are created. They are listed alphabetically and roughly by department to hopefully make it easier to quickly "grab" a couple of officers from what ever department you need. Unlike the "stars" of the Sim, NPCs can be killed without too much worry, (unless it's an NPC that everyone likes, then you'd probably be better off just injuring them.) if it was one you created. That pretty much wraps up how the

USS Excelsior E-mail Sim works. If you have any questions on ANYTHING related to the Sim or your character, or the storyline at all, please send a NRPG message to the GM at jgkrok@jgkrokil.com

We will be more than happy to answer any questions or listen to any input you'd care to provide.