Constitution Officer's Manual/Mission Sims
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Broadly, we split writing time on the Constitution-B into two parts: Mission Time and Shore Leave. During Missions, there tends to be a central plot - a bad guy to fight, a planet to save, or a new phenomenon to investigate.
Creativity in your sims is not just encouraged but is really the reason why we sim. The plan for missions is very loose and can change all the time, depending on what people write. The staff has a base idea of it, but every character, from Ensign to Captain, helps decide the direction of our missions.
That means you can introduce a twist of your own. Maybe your character spots something on long-range sensors. Maybe there's a fight in the ship's bar... who knows. The sky's the limit here. The command staff of the USS Constitution-B welcomes these plot twists and sidelines. It only makes the story that much more interesting for everyone aboard.
That aid, before you go ahead and sim 10,000 Romulan Warbirds appearing off our port bow, stop and think:
- Does this make sense in the context of the mission?
- Have we dealt with the Romulans in this mission? Are we even near to Romulan space?
- Is it logical? Would the Romulans have any interest in this mission?
- Is it possible? Do the Romulans have 10,000 Warbirds?
- Does it evolve the story?
As long as you can comfortably answer all of these questions with a resounding ‘Yes!’ should you go ahead and add it.
The only additional thing to think about is when new additions take control of another writer's character out of that writer's hands. For example, you should never injure another character without talking to the character's writer first.
Also, feel free to be creative! We want everyone to feel free to change this because the more people exercising their creativity, the better the story is for everyone. Just remember, though, that a plausible solution would be grounded in what would make sense.
A solution to the aforementioned 10,000 Warbirds (for a rather extreme example) would not be Hammer Time. This doesn’t mean that the situation would be in the box - it might be something as out there as closing the quantum rift that was causing them to appear. Thinking outside the box and sometimes inside the box are both valid solutions to problems that will come up in sim.
Note: Since we all are equally important to the story in writing it, be prepared that someone else might take your idea and adds their own twist to it. They might add something that changes your idea to something you have not intended. That is okay, we have this happen all the time and that is the fun of collaborative writing. If it happens, go with the flow and see what happens. We do follow the experience that the best laid out plans are being smashed within a few sims and something even more awesome is created by that.
Remember, if in doubt you can always contact your Mentor or a member of Command Staff to run it by!