Science Officer Simming Guide: Difference between revisions

==Pre-mission Duties==

This will depend a bit on the captain and on the mission, but sometimes a science officer will be asked to speak at a mission briefing about what the crew might be getting into. This might be as simple as giving the class of the planet you're orbiting around, or as complex as outlining the civilization you're about to make first contact with. It will vary. If you are asked to give a complex report, hopefully your captain has given you some notice so that you can whip up something good. But whether he does or not, mission briefings can often be moments where a science officer can really shine, where your creativity can have full play. Go wild! If you're worried about something being *too* over the top, check with your Chief Science Officer, First Officer, or Captain before sending something in. They'll let you know...

==In-mission duties==

The other sort of plot twists is the sort that settles things down when a mission seem to be getting out of hand. A science officer *can* be the person who makes the discovery that brings things back to a more even keel. Oh, the Gorn and the Andorians are fighting over this planet because there's a huge dilithium deposit here we didn't know about before. One caveat and one suggestion. The caveat: no player can be superman. No one person solves all of the problems. Even when you're trying to settle things down, you should still be opening up ways that other people can sim, not close them down. You need to close that leak in your shuttle, but only the Klingon security officer has the strength to do it. The suggestion is that often the first sort of plot twist can be disguised as the second. Your brilliant solution which seems to fix the problem can in fact really make things worse (and therefore more interesting for the other simmers), or it could uncover a deeper problem. The new species you've encountered has weapons aimed at the away team and you figure out a way of contacting the ship just in time so that the away team is saved. But then going over your sensor logs you see that the aliens' weapons are powered by Federation energy signatures. Suddenly things aren't as simple as they first seemed. And apparent solution leads to new problems.

==Outside-mission duties==