Rules

General Requirements

- All members of the NX-03 Challenger must be eighteen (18) years of age or older.
- All members are required to be respectful to each other with a no-tolerance policy as it relates to bullying and conduct disruptive to the group.

- All potential players must join the Sim Central Discord prior to joining. Players who leave the Sim Central Discord are assumed to be resigning the Challenger Sim.
- Our players are considered members of Sim Central and as such are required to follow all Sim Central community rules.


Activity Requirements

Challenger cannot function if its players do not post in a relatively timely manner. It puts added strain on existing players and damages plot momentum. By joining you agree to keep up with minimal posting requirements.

Minimum Posting

All members are expected to participate in at least one published post per calendar month, unless they are currently involved in a longer joint post or have been excused via an LOA (Leave of Absence).

Joint Post Replies

Members should respond to active joint posts at least once every 72 hours. If you need more time, please communicate with your writing partners and GM staff to manage expectations.




Leaves of Absence (LOAs)

- 
If you are unable to meet activity expectations for any reason, please let us know. Life happens, and we’re happy to work with you. LOA notifications can be submitted in the #nx-03-loa channel on Discord or directly to a Mod.

- LOAs are not requests for permission — they’re simply a heads-up so we can coordinate around your absence.

- Short-term schedule disruptions or busyness can also be shared informally in Discord. Communication helps everyone plan better.




Extended Inactivity


If you have not logged into Nova or communicated with the Game Management Team for more than 30 days without an LOA in place, we reserve the right to retire your character(s), conclude or reassign any associated plots, and remove access to crew areas without notice.

Ghosting the game can block others from engaging with your role and slows down collaborative storytelling. Please keep us informed — we’re happy to accommodate breaks when we know what’s going on.

Writing In Character


All writers are expected to avoid some basic potential pitfalls of writing science fiction characters.
- Only write for characters assigned to you.

- Metagaming" - using your out-of-character knowledge to give your characters in-game knowledge they would not otherwise have.

- Avoid "God Syndrome" or "Super-heroism." Stick to your character's biography and don't spontaneously generate new skills or talents to solve a crisis or give your character an edge.

All characters are subjected to the consequences of their actions in character and some consequences may be directed by staff.

- Staff may find it necessary to drive certain responses for progression of the story.


- Department Heads and other players in supervisory roles are responsible for coordinating writing activities within their areas of responsibility with writers in subordinate character roles and the writing of NPCs as necessary.
- Staff will be available to help in these tasks for department heads, other supervisors, and any other interested member


- An appropriate location and timeline information (date, time) are required for all posts and should coincide with the general storyline regardless of order published to the website. This allows for multiple writers to keep active and not always wait on items holding up our timeline, etc.

Sim Rating

The most important rule of thumb when considering injecting violence, gore, sex, nudity or language in to a scene is: what does this serve? How does this deepen an understanding of the situation and/or the characters involved?

Violence / Gore

Scenes of violence can be depicted, but should be done with taste. Please do not include excessive or gory details. Scenes depicting topics such as physical torture should be faded to black/from black. Scenes with injury such as in the Infirmary or upon wounding do not need to be described gratuitously. Sexual violence is prohibited in any way. Do not depict or suggest rape scenes or sexual assault. Depicting the latter will result in immediate expulsion and/or character application rejection.

Sexual Content / Nudity

Scenes depicting sexual contact with or between children or sexual violence/contact toward children are prohibited and will result in immediate expulsion from the Sim.

No "Smut" or basically, no written porn- no sex scenes that don't serve a purpose. Scenes with sex are "fade to/from black." Sexual counters and described nudity can be initiated but should cease with penetration or "past foreplay" whichever is lesser.
 If a post contains sexual contact, please include a warning at the top of the post indicating that nudity and sexual content is included.

Sexual characteristics may be described tastefully. Please do not sexualize a normally mundane scene. Extended scenes of nudity or near-nudity are acceptable, but do not go on with over-describing the details. Ideally nudity serves a purpose in the scene.

Language

Mature language and swearing is permitted with some limitations (nothing excessive or inflammatory toward modern minorities, etc.). DO NOT ever use modern slurs. Remember that in the 22nd century use of even contemporary racial slurs is likely to draw unwanted attention by one's peers.

The above rules are fairly standard conduct for most Sim Central Sims. Many of these specific rules have been copied and/or inspired by the rule sets aboard the Starship Ulysses and Starship Sojourner.