Rules

The Rules are simple:

1. Be polite, respectful to fellow crew, and of others in and out of character.
2. Avoid modern day politics/ politicians and obvious modern politician analogues / hot-button topics. We're here to have fun and escape from the stress of life.
3. No swearing or slurring directed to fellow crewmembers or groups of people in general. All people have inherent worth and value.
4. We are an Alternatrek simulation, where we follow most of Star Trek aside from Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and JJ-Trek. Ship classes from FASA, Franz Josef, and online sources may be added into this universe, just check with the admiralty.
5. God-modding is not allowed, super-heroic characters, nor Mary Sue characters who are perfect at everything, everyone falls in love with them, or can do no wrong. Don't use your out-of-character knowledge to give your PCs/NPCs in-game knowledge they otherwise shouldn't or wouldn't have in a way that doesn't flow with the game. Also, try to stick to your character's biography, and don't spontaneously create new skills/talents/abilities on the fly to give your character an unfair advantage or resolve a situation too easily. TV shows that do that 'jump the shark' and lose audience.
6. Canon characters and relations to canon characters are not allowed, nor would be using actors who portrayed characters in a canon media as established or new characters.
7. Disrespectful treatment of fellow members of this sim, other Alternatrek sim members, or the command staff will not be tolerated. After a warning, if it continues, you may be banned.
8. Harassment of any kind on any basis on any platform associated with this sim or Alternatrek will not be tolerated. This includes posts, private messages, emails, OOC discussions, Discord channels and any other associated communication. If any player is found to be harassing others, they will be banned immediately.
9. Bringing in modern-day politics, politicians, or tension-causing issues should be avoided. For example, do not use George Bush or Bill Clinton as your character image or as an in-sim character; do not put in an obvious reference to the 2016 or 2020 US Presidential elections even if thinly disguised as an alien planet. Things that might be very important or emotional for us will not be so for people 300 years in the future, so remember that your character will care about modern-day issues as much as you care about issues from 1722. Doing that will be deleted and if repeated can result in banning.
10. Posts with other writers should be posted with permission. If you are finished with a joint post (JP), sign the post with your rank, name, and position. That's how other players know you're done. Don't add players that don't belong to you to the footer.
11. Promotions and awards will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, mostly at the end of a mission.
12. In or out of character, flaming and/or personal attacks will not be tolerated, unless it's been agreed to by both characters in order to further the plot. If there's an issue, please contact command staff for mediation.
13. While there's no limit to the number of characters you can have, don't spread yourself too thin. You only have so much time in the day to role-play on a sim.
14. There are 3 warnings on a given issue. If the third is given and the behavior has not stopped, the command staff reserve the right to remove the offending player from the sim.
15. If you have issues with fellow players within your department, go to the department head; then go to the Second Officer, the First Officer, and finally, the Captain.
16. Activity - there's no minimum word count, but this is a collaborative sim, so you do need to remember to make post contributions that effectively convey the actions, dialog, and thoughts of your character. Please use the Grammarly plug-in if it will help you; please make at least 3 posts or post-contributions within a 2 week period. If you need to take time off, just tell us *before* it happens. Life can be tough, we know. Just let us know!
17. Inactivity - if you've been inactive for 30 days, the commanding officer will try to contact you to see if there's anything he/she can do to support you with your writing. If after another 7 days (37 total) the CO has been unable to contact you, your character will be moved to inactive.
18. Promotions - promotions will be made to deserving characters based on how active they are, the quality of their posts, and how they have developed their characters during a given mission.
19. Realism/Conflicting Details - This universe is based in Star Trek, so things should have some kind of realistic-sounding scientific basis for what's happening. Please do not stretch things to the point that realism breaks down and it becomes ridiculous, just keep plot-lines and your characters within reason.
20. Character limits - This ship is within Starfleet, starting in 2368. Your character should not be a race hostile to the Federation, a Q, otherwise-god-like, Section 31 agents (one or two time helping or coerced to help would be acceptable), or an Augment (but a character who has been unknowingly, unwillingly altered may be accepted depending on the specifics), or a Mary Sue (excessively intelligent, more competent/knowledgeable than everyone else, etc).
21. Joining - no one under 18 is allowed to join this sim, and no character shall outrank the CO and XO. When joining, start as an Ensign, or as a Department Head, Lt JG. Your character must be at least 22 (officer attended Starfleet Academy), 20 (if enlisted), or 18, unless it's the child of your character.
22. Posting - posts are 3rd person, "he/she said" not "I said." Reply within 3 days of a tag, please. Personal logs are not required, but are encouraged to provide character development for your characters.
23. Ratings - the sim itself is 333 for side posts and personal logs, as people can avoid things they prefer not to read by not reading it. Main mission posts should be 212 so that all players can feel more comfortable participating. That is similar to TV-MA or NC-17 for side posts. This may be altered depending on how professional fellow players are during their posts. Please remember to tag your post 18+ if it contains anything that would be considered R rated or further. With a 3 in language, that means all kinds of cursing is on the table, but remember you're playing a professional three hundred years in the future, within a space navy, so don't expect a string of curses at or around a senior officer won't result in brig time. Likewise, the 3 for sexual content is for side posts to allow players to be descriptive, while main posts should be kept to roughly PG-13; main posts should 'fade to/from black' in such instances, and any such content in side posts should be marked 18+. Remember that all characters must be over 18. Violence in main posts should avoid excessive details.
24. Please follow all SIM Central rules, regulations, and guidelines as well. Please also follow the guidelines for the SIM Central Discord sever, and join the Sim Central server ( https://discord.gg/simcentral ).