SIMming is a game in which we simulate or pretend to be members of a crew of a StarShip or Space Station. In Final Frontier SIMulations International (abreviated to FFSI) we are governed by the organisation
bylaws, which when in doubt should be used as a reference manual for the do's and dont's of this organisation. Currently FFSI operates 376 years ahead of our current year, while TPC is set several hundred standard Earth years into the future of this.
To begin with each new SIMmer will be required to select a SIMulation they wish to take part in, aswell as a vacant position to assume. After an application has been sent to the Commanding Officer of the SIMulation and you have been granted the post applied for, each SIMer will be required to attend the academy (which is essentially the purpose of this pack), which comes in two forms IRC or E-mail. After passing throught the
FFSI Academy the person will assume the rank of Ensign, or equivillent rank. Promotions are achieved over a period of time, with the time being open to the discretion of the Commanding Officer. Before any SIMmer can decide which SIM to join, they need to decide what style of SIMulation would suit them best:
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. An IRC SIMulation is a realtime SIMulation which operates, in FFSI's case, either on
Stormdancing or
KDFS IRC Networks. IRC SIMulations take place at a certain time each week and lasts approximately an hour. To attend an IRC SIMulation we recomend you download an IRC Client such as
mIRC for Microsoofted Windows™ based computers, however a basic Java chat is provided by
Stormdancing IRC Network for SIMulations on stormdancing and can be accessed easily through the miscellanious section on this website.
KDFS IRC Network also provide a Java Chat function, but you will be required to access it through their Website.
E-mail SIMulations, as the name suggests, use e-mail and mailing lists as the primary method of communication. In an e-mail SIMulation the Commanding Officer sends out a directional log, and in crew logs reactions are shown. Due to the way e-mail SIMulations run, each SIMmer may help advance a plot as frequently as they like by writing extra logs. One log per week and reading other officers logs is all that is required for this type of SIMulation.
Generally in e-mail SIMulations each character has there own, or joint with other characters, sub plot which can develop into a main SIM plot, but frequently is used for character development.
while hybrid SIMulations isn't an independent type (it will be predominately IRC or E-mail depending) it is worth noting that these exist. A hybrid SIMulation operates with both logs through email and also has an IRC time slot. Exactly how these operate is down to each commanding officer and whether it is primarily IRC or E-mail based.
In FFSI, SIMulations generally follow a set of generic systems designed to make SIMulations easy to understand. However due to the number of different procedures each SIMulation will use them slightly different, so beware and consult the SIMulations Commanding Officer for variations on this Guide.
During a SIMulation it is important for crew members to know where other crew members are, a list of many of the ship locations are displayed below:
| E |
Engineering |
| S |
Security |
| AW |
Away Team |
| TL |
Turbolift |
| TF |
Ten Forward |
| BB |
Battle Bridge (if applicable) |
| RR |
Ready Rooom |
| TRx |
Transporter Room x |
| SBx |
Shuttle Bay x |
| Fx |
Fighter x |
| C |
Conference Room |
| * |
Unknown Location |
There are two different ways of showing your location in an IRC SIMulation (with only two exceptions). Firstly you could change your nick to state location. To do this use the following procedure:
1. Go to location
2. Type
/nick <rank><surname>-<location abbreviation>
Following this procedure will leave you with a nick that looks similar to
VAdmHorne-E. This method above should be used if you itend on staying in a location for an extended period. You may not use this system if you are in an unkown location as * is an illegal character as part of a nick.
The second method is to state your location before everything you say or do, for example:
<VAdmHorne> E> Ensign, status report?
There is only one occation when you do not state your location, and that is if you are on a ships main bridge or a space stations operations (Ops).
For an email SIMulation, the location should be stated at the top of the log in an out of character Comment. If the location changes in the log, this should also be specified, but not necessarily in an out of character comment.
During SIMs, every SIMmer will require to make their character do certain tasks. These are accomplished throught character actions, the most basic but useful of all actions takes the form as shown below:
:: Action Performed :: (substituting as appropriate)
<VAdmHorne> e> ::looks around for the engineer::
Command action is a special action that may
only be used by the Commanding Officer(CO) of a SIMulation. These command actions should be used to inform the SIMmers of whats occuring, not necessarily the characters. The standard format is shown below for this kind of action:
ACTION> Action Performed (substituting as appropriate)
<VAdmHorne> ACTION> AWAY TEAM CONTINUE TO GET PERSUED BY AN ALIEN CREATURE
The above case is an example of when not all if any of the characters are aware of anything happening and so a reaction should be taken. Actions such as "Ship is rocked by torpedo" is meant for everyone as the entire crew are effected by what occured.
Certain personnel such as Tactical and Security officers will have access to weapons - whether they be hand phasors or torpedo launcher on the ship or station - and each of the weapons has their own unique method symbols as shown below:
Hand Phasor:
------------------------> Target (substituting as appropriate)
Ship/Station Standard Phasors:
================> Target (substituting as appropriate)
Ship/Station Pulse Phasors:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=> Target (substituting as appropriate)
Ship/Station Torpedo Launcher:
=*=*=*=*=*=*=> Target (substituting as appropriate)
Some races, such as the Betazoid, have telepathic abilities. For characters whom have telepathic abilities, persuation and passing on messages are entirely possible. To send place a telepathic message or suggestion we use the following format:
{{ Intended recipitent: message }} (substituting as appropriate)
e> {{ VAdmHorne: Our power has failed and we're about to core breach }}
Out Of Character Comments are comments that the simmer wishes to make to other crew members but not as something the character would say. These Out of Character Comments uses vary between simulation types, and the amount of permisable usage is dependent on the simulation Commanding Officer. Out Of Character comments should always follow the one format, whether it be on an e-mail or IRC/Voice Simulation:
<< Comment you wish to make >> (substituting as appropriate)
As already metioned the use of Out Of Character Comments changes with simulation type. In an IRC or Voice simulation these are generally used for things like "LOL" at something funny that was said or to inject more humour into the simulation. Other uses of this may be to tell a character he forgot his location abbreviation.
In E-mail simulations Out Of Character Comments play an important role. At the beginning of a log they can be used to place the log. This means that in e-mail simulations logs do not have to be sent in a chronological order. In the middle and end of a log they may be used to state references or comments like this will be continued in next log.
An IRc SIMulation breaks down into three main sections - Briefing, SIM, Debriefing - details of what occurs at these are explained below.
Before the briefing begins the Executive Officer (XO) will call for Attention on Deck, it is customary to go to attention by using
::attn::.
After the crew is at attention, the Commanding Officer (CO) will give out mission instructions and other information valuable to the crew at the time. Following this (s)he will ask if there are any questions - if you have one Commanding Officers appreciate raising your hand and waiting to be asked before asking your question. Also, there should be no use of Out Of Character statements during this time.
This pack is not intended to be a stand alone learn everything about simming pack, this is only the basics. We recomend that as well as reading this pack you also take the time to read the Bylaws, Promotion Guide and various other articles that will be added to the guide section through time.
As well as reading this pack, you will be required to sit a simple exam/IRC instruction, the purpose being to make sure you have understood this pack and are infact confident enough to sim to the best of your ability.
We will be correcting and updating this pack at regular intervals, if you spot any errors (be they errors compared to how simulations are conducted or spelling/gramatical) we would be most appreciative if you would let us know the section and the mistake.
In conclusion, we hope this information pack has been helpful, informative and has made you eager tso join us. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Vice Admiral Barry Horne as he is always willing to help sort out problems.