The Sim

This page explains the in-universe and real-world details of the sim.

THE STATION

Deep Space 13 is a Starport-class starbase in the Beta Quadrant. The station is currently operating on a skeleton crew of Federation and Romulan Free State officers. Of the six docks, only alpha dock is operational.

The Starfleet crew are fascinated as to why the Romulans would painstakingly recreate a station that never existed, but the Free State has no answers for them.

STATE OF THE GALAXY

We follow the broad strokes of existing canon as it becomes available, but our story is designed to exist outside any other continuity.



In mid-2402 when DS13 begins operations, the Federation is ascendant.

The Romulan Free State is resisting the breakaway of warlord factions known as Imperialists, many former Romulan worlds have requested Federation membership or been annexed by the Klingon Empire. They are bruised, but proud, and nearly on their feet.

The Klingon Empire still grows daily into unincorporated space, but at nowhere near the speed of the Federation. Martok's rule is unchallenged, but cultural attrition means many of the Empire's underprivileged and powerless are tempted by the egalitarian promise of the Federation.

The Ferengi Alliance has a special status as an independent Federation Protectorate in the wake of an invasion by Cardassians, Breen and other local powers in 2398, known as the one-week war. The war lasted only a week after the Federation entered the struggle, and both the Sheliak and Tholians accepted similar deals as the Ferengi when surrendering, giving the Federation control of their borders in exchange for peace, independence and residential consideration on suitable worlds for their very specific colonial needs.

The Cardassians and Breen lost scores of occupied worlds before surrendering, and there are few direct paths out of their own space except through Federation territory. They lick their wounds and quietly plan revenge, but treaties with the Federation and its allies limit their military capacities. While the Breen remain staunchly independent and isolated, millions of Cardassians have fled the Union as refugees, and many worlds openly seek Federation membership.

Relations with the Dominion have normalised since the treaty of 2395. A number of Jem'hadar, Vorta and other Dominion members now serve in Starfleet, with the Federation free to explore and occupy the unclaimed areas of the Gamma Quadrant.

The Borg have not been found in any significant number since the events of the battle of earth in 2401, Starfleet estimates that fewer than a trillion drones remain intact across the galaxy, with most likely disabled.

THE GAME

Deep Space 13 is a text-based RPG played by Nova and Email.

What does that mean? A simm is a text-based role-playing game. We each play a character in the Star Trek universe and together write a Starfleet crew and their adventures. There's no points, no dice no rules or regulations beyond good manners and common sense, just imagination and the wealth of decades of Star Trek infrastructure to tell a story in.

Nova is the software this website runs, it allows us to write collaboratively and, store our adventures and characters and send emails with alerts or updates.

The Command team will lead the story, but we encourage and enjoy collaboration and forethought on where it will go and how it will get there. You can choose whether you want to help shape the unfolding story or simply have the plot and your potential responses to it outlined to you as it comes, or anything inbetween.

The only writing rules are common sense and decency, players will write their character's actions, interactions and responses, giving others a chance to respond with tags that can be open ended or aiming for a specific response. While we allow adult subject matter, including sexuality and violence, it should be tasteful, and not gratuitous or excessively descriptive. If it is introduced in a post with another player, any mature content must be discussed and agreed to ahead of time.

Obviously we all have lives offline, and this is supposed to be fun, not work, but like a shark, a story must keep going forward to survive. We expect every player to get to their tags at least once a month, or check in if they're unable to. It's nobody's idea of fun to have to enforce things, but it's a writing game, and if we're not writing, we're not playing the game.

ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE

This is a Star Trek sim, but the multiversal nature of our game means characters do not have to be from the Star Trek universe. If you can think of a character, we can probably figure out a way to make it work, just have a chat with the command team.

ON MATURE CONTENT

If sexuality and/or violence or other adult themes are the natural end result of a character's decisions, then everyone should feel free to take stories wherever they think is most interesting. Where mature content is concerned, less is more, subtlety is key and the most important thing is making it fun for reader and writer. That said, everyone here is an adult, so as long as it's tasteful, let your minds wander.

THE ANOMALY

The Dreizhen system is home to an anomaly that serves as a bridge between universes, fixed in our reality, but jumping randomly through others. Once discovered, it becomes apparent that it can be used to explore other universes like and unlike our own.

This will primarily include the worlds of other science fiction and fantasy stories, but our focus is on the ideas and features of other realities, we are unlikely to meet any named characters from existing canon.