Rules

Glad to see that you are no longer conflicted about joining us!

Overture:

Greetings and warm welcomes to the USS Musashi, a small yet mighty Ares class starship situated in the Federation territories of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, monitoring the Klingon Empire during this period of the Klingon Cold War. I am, the Game Manager for the Musashi, but in character I am known as Donatella Figueroa, Commanding Officer the USS Musashi. The crew and I appreciate your interest in our starship and would be delighted to have you aboard. However, before you come aboard, let's have a look at the rules and expectations of the Musashi.

Conductivity:

This is a wonderful community that has been built by and continues to grow due to incredible writers who go above and beyond to help make this place an accepting and imaginative community. We ask that everyone here be kind and courteous to everyone here. Time, experience, and character rank does not have any ruling in who obeys or follows our rules and regulations. All members out of character are to be treated equally with the utmost respect. Like our characters, we all are different ages and come from very different and diverse backgrounds. Please be sure to do the following:

1. Treat and show with the same respect you yourself would want shown to you.

2. Do not engage in any form of harassment. We take harassment here quite seriously.

3. Do not post sexually explicit aka pornographic material. Please keep our age rating of 18+ in mind.

4. Understand time zones and work schedules. We all have different backgrounds, responsibilities, and careers. Some of us, like myself live in Japan. You may have to wait several hours for a reply. Please be patient. We do, however, have policies on posting and tagging. Please consult that section in our rules for additional information.

5. If you have a disagreement with a fellow writer over something. Nip it in the bud. See if the two (or how many ever is involved) can peacefully come to a consensus and move forward. If the problem can not be solved between you, bring the matter up to the First Officer and myself, and we will step in arbitrators and determine our best workable solution.

6. Out of Character discrimination and derogatory language is highly unacceptable! The USS Musashi is about community acceptance. Nobody should be called offense names or discriminated against for sex, gender, race, ethnicity, intelligence, religion, political affiliation, age, physical disabilities or anything of the sort. Anyone found doing this will receive a warning, and continued behavior may result in expulsion from the Musashi

Activity and Posting:

1. The Musashi depends on its writers and crew to post regularly in order to help command staff move missions along. You may be just one writer, but you are part of this community and your character is a member of the crew. The community may be composed of several writers, but each writer is a cog in our machine. If you neglect tags or don't post, you could hold things up for everyone.

2. Ideally, you should shoot for publishing a post at least once every week to two weeks. This means publishing as in finished and posted. You should be writing and working on things a couple time a week, even if it is just an hour or two each weekend or so.

3. Believe me, we fully respect and understand that things will come up. You may have a family emergency, a planned vacation, or the electricity goes out during a week of storms. What we ask is that you do your best to let us know about your situation and urge you to please look at taking a LOA (Leave of Absence) or ELOA (Extended Leave of Absence) when you need it. Even if you feel optimistic that you can fit a post or two in while on vacation or what have you, place yourself on LOA just to cover your bases.

LOA - It is recommended you take a LOA if you plan to be away or have limited access from 14-21 days (3 weeks)

ELOA – If you are going to be gone more than 21 days and closer to 30+, take an ELOA. You can safely be placed on an Extended Leave of Absence for a maximum of 60 days (2 months) without repercussions. Failing to take a ELOA or being gone for longer than two months may result in loss of position. If your character is a Department Head or member of the Senior Staff, they may be knocked down in position.

REMOVAL – Should you be gone much longer than two months and closer to four or more, the command staff will do their best to contact you. If you do not respond in a timely manner of three business days, your character will be removed from the manifest and we will take liberty to carefully writing them out. Please note that under Bravo Fleet laws and our own respect for character ownership, we will not kill off your characters without your written consent. They would simply be reassigned or transferred elsewhere.

4. If you are tagged into a large in character Senior Staff/Department Head Discussion, it is mandatory that your character or attend unless otherwise noted, arranged, or agreed upon. Therefore, you must contribute to these discussions in character or at the very least show your character's awareness of what is being discussed in said meeting(s).

5. Away Missions – Nobody presently placed on a LOA or ELOA (including the First Officer) will be included on these away missions. The First Officer or officer placed in charge of the away mission will select their own away teams in character. However, it is common courtesy that the Commanding Officer, First Officer, or whomever is leading the away team, check with the writers of the characters to ensure they are willing and/or able to write for the away missions. If they cannot or will not, the character will not be assigned to the away team.

▪ Note: Away Teams are typically lead by the First Officer. However, this is not always the case. Someone else may be chosen to lead an away team. The Captain themselves may lead an away team, however, this is rather rare after The Original Series. Because of our setting though, you may see Fig lead an away team.

▪ Note: It is standard procedures that all away teams consist of at least 2 members. Ideally 3-5 is the usual amount sent down. However, additional support may be needed at times.

▪ Note: It is standard procedure for all away teams to have at least one member of the security department assigned to them. This may be the Security Chief or someone else. This may also be substituted for a marine or an Intelligence officer with proper security and weapons training.
▪ Note: The Second Officer is usually, but not always, assigned to the away teams. Aboard the starship, the Second Officer may hold another (primary) position such as Data was Chief Operations Officer, but was indeed the Second Officer. Other notable second Officers include:
- Scotty (Chief Engineer)
- Jadzia Dax (Chief Science Officer)
- Worf on DS9 after Jadzia's death (Chief Strategic Operations Officer)
- Charles “Trip” Tucker (Chief Engineer)

Age Restrictions and Content:

▪ 18+ (General Audiences):
1. Sim may only include occasional use of mildly offensive language (cursing).
2. Sim may contain violence, but must not contain graphic description of violence or injuries.
3. Sim may only contain references to sexual conduct, and may not contain any descriptions of sexual intercourse or erotic situations.

Character Creation and Restrictions:

We love character diversity aboard the USS Musashi and leave it mostly in your hands as writers to bring us the character that you have a strong connection to and want to write for. Remember that it is you who will be telling their story, so really think about the kind of character you create or transfer over to the Musashi. We are of course quite welcoming of human characters and of Bajorans, Vulcans, Orions, and what have you. However, we would like to remind everyone that the United Federation of Planets consists of hundreds of canon species. Don't be afraid to apply with an Amazzarite, Benzite, or something quite strange looking.

Additionally, you may have a character that is fully Romulan, Cardassian, Ferengi, or belong to a species that is not a Federation member. This is okay. Starfleet Academy accepts applicants of these species so long as they have a sponsor. Alternatively, we can accept non Academy graduates and provide them with a provisional rank. Provisional ranks will used in special situations as they were shown on screen in Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager. Captain Picard gave Wesley Crusher the provisional rank of Ensign (acting Ensign) early in the series before Wesley went to Starfleet Academy. Alternatively, Captain Janeway took on Maquis crew members, some of whom never served in Starfleet or were Academy dropouts like B'Elanna Torres. Just PLEASE remember that the sim setting is 2255 so a Romulan or Klingon character would be against canon and highly unlikely UNLESS you are applying to write an enemy.

However, there are some limitations that you should know before applying:

▪ The Q , Organians, and other omnipotent, immortal, or near immortal species are not allowed. The fact of the matter is these species or entities are just too powerful to the extent they seem limitless in what they can do. There just wouldn't be much fun to be had by everyone with a powerful Q in the crew.

▪ Cross-over species are not allowed. Basically, you cannot take the Ithorian species from Star Wars and bring them right on over into Star Trek. We are a Star Trek sim and we must use Star Trek species, or you may create a species and send a proposal of it for review.

▪ Can I be Worf? Hey, as much as I love Worf and let's face it...Worf is awesome, you cannot apply with a canon character. You also may not be the sibling of or child of a canon character. It is somewhat possible that you may be somehow related to Jonathan Archer, but many generations have since passed.

▪ Boy/Girl Genius... Shut up Wesley!. We mean no offense to Gene or the writers of the early seasons of The Next Generation, but the boy genius who saves the day is a long stretch at best. Your characters may be excellent in an area or two, but please make them well rounded and have some flaws. They might be good engineers, but hopeless when it comes to medicine or command. This is not to say they cannot be geniuses or extremely intelligent.

Coda/Outro:

In closing, If you have properly read through the rules stated above, you may submit your application to us. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the game Manager at: DontatellaFigueroa@protonmail.com We look forward to having you aboard. Please be aware that it may take a full 24-48 hours to read through and discuss applications between the Commanding Officer and First Officer. However, in most cases, you should receive word on your application well within 24 hours.