What is simming? A guide to text-based roleplay
A shared story, written in turns by a crew of people who each play one character.
The short version
Simming is a kind of text-based roleplay. Each writer plays one or two characters aboard a ship or station. A game master, usually the commanding officer of the ship, sets up a mission. Everyone then writes short scenes that move the story along, and those scenes are shared with the whole crew.
There are no dice, no points and no winners. The point is the story, and the habit of writing a little of it regularly with the same group of people.
Sim: short for simulation. It can mean the whole game ("I write for a sim"), one crew's story, or a single post.
How it differs from other text-based roleplay
A lot of text-based roleplay happens live, in chat rooms or Discord channels, with short lines traded in real time. Simming is slower. A post is usually a full scene of a few paragraphs. The writer sends it when they have time, and the crew reads it over the next few days. It reads more like a serial novel than a conversation.
Most sims are set in the Star Trek universe, because the format grew up among Star Trek fans. A starship crew also suits it well: a fixed cast, a chain of command, and a new mission every few months. Sims set in other worlds exist too, and the same habits carry over.
A short history
Play-by-mail games, where players sent their moves through the post, came first. When email and online message boards spread in the late 1980s and 1990s, fans began using them to run shared stories set aboard starships. Several of the groups started then are still writing today.
The basic form has not changed much since: a crew, a mission, and posts sent to everyone. What has changed is the tooling around it. Many groups now keep wikis for their characters and ships, archive every post, and use a chat server for planning.
Words you will see
- Sim
- The game, a single crew's story, or one post, depending on who is talking.
- Post
- One piece of writing sent to the crew. Usually a scene from your character's point of view.
- Joint post
- A scene that two or more writers build together, trading lines back and forth before it goes out to everyone.
- Mission
- One story arc, like an episode or a short season. It ends when the plot wraps up.
- CO
- Commanding officer. In most sims the CO is both a character and the person who runs the game for that crew.
- PBEM, play-by-post
- Play-by-email and play-by-post: the same hobby, named for where the posts go. See play-by-email explained.
Who it is for
People who like to write and want company while they do it. You do not need to know much about Star Trek, and you do not need to be a polished writer. Most groups teach newcomers the basics and pair them with someone who has done it for a while.