Epic'ism

[Treymiar]

Epic'ism

Okay. I'll understand if this sounds like I'm complaining. That's not my intent.

The issue: CO's need to be cognizant of the burdens they place upon players. Epic'ism, as I'll call it, is one of them. Sims grow. Bases, garrison ships, departments, parallel missions. I was in one sim which eventually imploded where the CO had all of us, in effect, running our own sub-sims. It got to the point where I realized, "This is crazy! I should be running my own sim for all the work, here."

I have a saying, "Men are wont to complexify." It's our tendency, and that's how bureaucracies burgeon out of control in magnitude. CO's need to realize, if you have your players juggling a half dozen NPC's strung out over a half dozen different scenarios, then they're basically writing in a half dozen different virtual sims.

That's not helpful for other Trek sims that are starving for characters.

Now, am a adverse to a healthy compliment of NPCs? Not at all. In my book, they are extremely useful as a participation enabler. For example. My marine isn't going to have much (meaningful) to do on a non-combat situation. A variety of characters allows me to remain a participant in virtually any different scenario.

However, this is where a crucial difference must be recognized:
- Playing any ONE character vs. playing ALL characters at any given time (non-JP). The writing burden becomes exponential.
- Parallel missions begin to bog down to a grindingly slow pace.

Summary? CO's, be cognizant of the writing burdens your players are under. Yes, absolutely, there will be times when it's all hands on deck. A bus load of Klingons have invaded starbase for a party. That can be fun and challenging for short periods of time. But that shouldn't be the norm. Reasonable expectations will enable players to participate in more sims.

- PSF