IKC FHew

The Simm

Database: The Art of Captaincy: Tone - The Feel of a SIMM

Right, so you've got in your head that you want to do a SIMM. You might be thinking, "What race do I want my captain to be?". Alternatively, you might be thinking, "What kind of baddies do I want in my SIMM?". Or your thoughts might be as simple as, "You know, the Nova class is a cool looking ship. I think I might get one..."

Let me encourage you to stop for just a moment and ask a slightly different question. "What sort of feel do I want for my SIMM?"

Think about the different Startrek series'. Each series had things in common, but they did actually have a unique feel that made them distinctive.

The Original Series was always described as a "Wagon Train" to the stars. Thus it had a sort of frontier feel. The captain was something of a maverick, and the ship was always out on the edge of the Federation, fighting interstellar Indians ([cough]Klingons[cough]) and getting drunk in interstellar bars. There was an undisciplined feel to the series, but the crew always won through with youthful enthusiasm and boyish good looks.

Next Gen was like TOS grown up and with a real job. Its captain was a sombre diplomatic figure, and her missions were half "meeting strange aliens and winning them over with good will" and half "being the Federation flagship when the Romulans are playing up". The crew also did a fair bit of sleeping-with-the-human-looking-alien-of-the-week, giving the series a bit of a "40 year old rich bachelor" feel as well.

DS9 was a lot more gritty. There was dirt and politics, and ongoing character issues. People made bad choices, often knowingly, and the young idealists spent a lot of time growing up. Characters had divided loyalties, and had to make hard choices. People got married and saw their spouses die. And later on it put its characters into the middle of a war.

Voyager lightened up a little and went back to a Next Gen type feeling. It also went for a far more "we're out on a limb with no safety net" feel by dropping them half a galaxy away from the Federation so there was no backup. Despite this it was still very next Gen. They didn't play the "we're running on empty" card much. The replicators mostly worked. They never ran out of photons. And the holodeck seemed to be running 24/7. Nor did they spend MUCH time running away. And they still slept with the humanoid-alien-of-the-week without catching anything horrible.

Finally, Enterprise was the sort of "Next Gen as a kid" series. No shields. No real Starfleet backup. All aliens are new and we make plenty of beginner space-explorer mistakes. Add a constant tension with the Vulcans; the "mean older brother" who generally made life difficult but occasionally came to the rescue or had a crisis of their own. The only alien relationships tended to be the occasional schoolboy fling, hampered by the odd teenage pregnancy scare.

Five different series'. Five different feels for a series. All trek, but catering for very different tastes. Now... what kind of feel are you looking at for YOUR SIMM? The choices you make setting it up will make a lot of difference for how it plays, and what players get out of it. Four things to consider are: ship, location, types of missions, and captain.

Your ship will actually say a lot about the SIMM, because ship classes have a lot of character associated with them. A defiant class is a "tough little brawler" of a ship, and any SIMM with one of those will see a lot of hard, fast battles where the odds are stacked against you. A Nova or Oberth class are tiny little science vessels with small crews and little weaponry; their SIMMs would probably involve a lot of "making do with what we've got" and keeping clear of big scary warships. The Excelsior is the "Middle Child" of Starfleet, and picking one practically says "I want to keep my options open in terms of what to do with my SIMM". A sovereign class is the pride of the fleet; they'd find themselves doing big majestic missions, and their battles would sometimes change the fate of the Federation. Even non-ship based SIMMs have to think about this sort of thing. There's a big difference between a space-station SIMM set on a thriving trade hub, and one set on a backwater monitoring outpost.

The location can say a lot about the SIMM. This might be as simple as "the Federation", and your SIMM might be like the Enterprise; wandering around all over and doing a variety of missions. Alternatively, pick yourself a corner of the galaxy, and suddenly local politics and recurring themes matter more. A defiant patrolling the Romulan border has to worry a lot about Federation/Romulan politics and make sure it's Photon stocks don't get low. An Excelsior based near Ferenginar will probably find itself arbitrating a lot of trade disputes. Alternatively, you could set the SIMM somewhere quite unexpected (Voyager style), where you can make up your own politics and races.

The types of mission are, possibly, where the rubber hits the road in terms of planning a SIMM. It's actually a good place to START, as it will influence some of the other factors. If you want to do a medical rescue SIMM, a Defiant is a bad choice as it's light on for sickbay facilities and overstocked for weapons, which no-one likes to see on an "ambulance". If you want to do a political intrigue SIMM, picking a location near the Romulan neutral zone or the Cardassian border will probably work better than near Betazed, where everyone is an ally and they can all read your thoughts anyway (meaning intrigue is tricky). Whatever your preference, sit down and think about the sort of missions YOU want to have on your SIMM. Politics? Exploration? Diplomacy? Rescue? Scientific Exploration? Combat? Espionage? Interpersonal? Romantic? Any of them are possible, and you can certainly have a mix of all of them if you want, but if you have a distinct preference for certain types of mission, be sure to think how you can gear your SIMM towards that so your players know what to expect and aren't fighting you to make it something else!

And then of course there's your capatin or CO. Now, your CO doesn't HAVE to be anything special, but it's worth remembering that the captains of each Startrek series set the tone of the series over all. TOS took its maverick feel from its maverick captain. TNG was older and wiser because its captain was. Your captain doesn't necessarily DEFINE your SIMM, but in a lot of ways he or she should EMBODY your SIMM. The kind of captain you choose should complement the feel of the SIMM, or contrast it in a really specific way (such as the disgraced veteran consigned to cargo duty, or the heart-of-gold medically trained officer thrust into a war-zone). Your players will say a lot about the SIMM, but your CO will be the poster-child, even if he only appears in a limited amount of the posts.

Now, there's nothing wrong with including the more superficial elements in your SIMM. If you love Betazoids and Defiant classes, then, heck, get a Defiant class with a Betazoid captain! Just remember, that's not a SIMM! It's just the icing on the SIMM cake and it's the narrative flavour of your cake that's going to make the difference whether players want a slice or not!

Craig: As I have been looking over everything I need to know and do to bring Sonora Outpost online, I ran across some reference material I used to create my command in the other fleet. The biggest thing is a mission outline. This is very simple, but KISS principles apply:

Mission Name: Obviously, your mission needs a name
Abstract: An overview of the Mission
Plot: What is the mission going to accomplish?
SubPlot: Are there any side plots going on?
Departmental Tasks: I think this is one of the most important things. You can specify how you expect each department to participate in a mission. This can also help you decide on if you need a specific department or if some departments are redundant.

Thorin : There is another aspect to an episode, and that is how it fits into your story arc. For example, on the FHew we had an episode which was focused specifically on our chief engineer. It was a character piece allowing her to explore aspects of her past. As this was happening, a sub plot about the ship being impounded under suspicion of piracy went on. Ostensibly the sub plot was to give the other characters something to do while the main plot progressed, however it also introduced the notion that there was a group trading in House Matlh weapons. In another episode we were sent to rescue a stranded Klingon merchant. It was an excuse for the Klingon crew to be violent and blow things up. At the end we found out that the merchant was working for a secret faction within House Matlh and was linked to the piracy we had been accused of earlier. This will build to a climax in a few episodes time where these hints are revealed to be a major change to the players and the SIMM. Because the story has been laced through the other adventures it gives it an epic feel.

Likewise, on the Prometheus, there have been hints of things on the planet that shouldn't be there; people vanishing, strange readings on the tricorder that just vanish, ancient artifacts suddenly shooting at them. These sort of snippets and hints of a grander story can make a major difference to the quality of all posts as players get involved and try to dig and develop the theme.

One other thing that this sort of planning does is allow up and down times for individuals and the crew as a whole. I would recommend that your first few episodes run along the following format: Strengths, Challenge, Character.

Strengths:

Challenge: