Advice For Healthy Simms
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:35 pm
Advice For Healthy Simms
I'd like to offer these with the following dynamic kept in mind.
Joining a simm is like getting married. After the honeymoon, it takes effort.
Untended commitments crumble marriages and simms alike.
1. CO's - BE the participation that you'd like to see from your players.
CO absenteeism is guaranteed fatal to a simm. I have endured this on ship after ship.
One cannot blame the players. I admired, marveled at the creative talent of the others.
Yet, despite efforts way beyond the call of duty, the ships failed.
Lead - By - Example!
2. Joint Posts - Fish or Cut Bait.
Mission-related JPs are essential to the health of the simm.
If you're in one and can't consistently update it, then have the courtesy to bow out.
Another player or NPC can be rewritten in.
You shouldn't be held back by 'it's not my official ship role'.
TOS did that all the time, characters taking on roles well outside normal duties.
Other players are waiting, time is precious, and life is short.
What does it take, five minutes to log in and add a response line to a JP each day?
3. Solo Posts - Icing, but Not the Cake
If JPs are the cake, then Solo posts are the icing. They make the cake great, but they cannot substitute for it. Do I object to solos? Heck no! I luv 'em. My simm histories attest to that. But a simm with dead mission threads turn solo posts into a kluge of unrelated mini-fanfictions. That, I'll reserve for an original space opera published in Kindle books. Otherwise. I'd like to balance out my solo posts with community writing, the very reason why simms were created.
I'd like to add that I hate being the only one posting. It makes me wonder if I might seem dominating the simm or, worse yet, hijacking the mission threads.
4. Hesitant? Don't know what to post?
One thing which holds many back is, they simply don't know what to do in a JP.
There's an easy solution for that. If you don't know what to DO, then share how you FEEL.
Dr. McCoy did it all the time. This actually is more valuable contribution than one might think. It draws the reader into the situation, establishes points of empathy.
On a general basis, McCoy shared feelings, Spock made suggestions, and Kirk was big dam hero.
Everyone has personal reactions to situations. What is your character's? You don't even have to voice dialog. Just type in what your character is thinking! It's easy.
Don't be intimidated by lack of experience. Welcome to the club. My early writing capital-S Stunk. It was pathetic. You get better by diving in there and doing it.
I'd like to offer these with the following dynamic kept in mind.
Joining a simm is like getting married. After the honeymoon, it takes effort.
Untended commitments crumble marriages and simms alike.
1. CO's - BE the participation that you'd like to see from your players.
CO absenteeism is guaranteed fatal to a simm. I have endured this on ship after ship.
One cannot blame the players. I admired, marveled at the creative talent of the others.
Yet, despite efforts way beyond the call of duty, the ships failed.
Lead - By - Example!
2. Joint Posts - Fish or Cut Bait.
Mission-related JPs are essential to the health of the simm.
If you're in one and can't consistently update it, then have the courtesy to bow out.
Another player or NPC can be rewritten in.
You shouldn't be held back by 'it's not my official ship role'.
TOS did that all the time, characters taking on roles well outside normal duties.
Other players are waiting, time is precious, and life is short.
What does it take, five minutes to log in and add a response line to a JP each day?
3. Solo Posts - Icing, but Not the Cake
If JPs are the cake, then Solo posts are the icing. They make the cake great, but they cannot substitute for it. Do I object to solos? Heck no! I luv 'em. My simm histories attest to that. But a simm with dead mission threads turn solo posts into a kluge of unrelated mini-fanfictions. That, I'll reserve for an original space opera published in Kindle books. Otherwise. I'd like to balance out my solo posts with community writing, the very reason why simms were created.
I'd like to add that I hate being the only one posting. It makes me wonder if I might seem dominating the simm or, worse yet, hijacking the mission threads.
4. Hesitant? Don't know what to post?
One thing which holds many back is, they simply don't know what to do in a JP.
There's an easy solution for that. If you don't know what to DO, then share how you FEEL.
Dr. McCoy did it all the time. This actually is more valuable contribution than one might think. It draws the reader into the situation, establishes points of empathy.
On a general basis, McCoy shared feelings, Spock made suggestions, and Kirk was big dam hero.
Everyone has personal reactions to situations. What is your character's? You don't even have to voice dialog. Just type in what your character is thinking! It's easy.
Don't be intimidated by lack of experience. Welcome to the club. My early writing capital-S Stunk. It was pathetic. You get better by diving in there and doing it.