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So why plan? Role-playing is a collaborative effort, and the crew is going to have a lot of ideas that surprise you, which is going to pull the sim in directions you not only didn't intend, but couldn't even foresee. Think of your plan as an itinerary or a road map for a road trip. You're going to want to have places to stay for the night. You're going to want to have directions, so you don't get lost.
Now, once you've started on the road trip, you can -- and should -- be ready to take road detours; to stop at places you didn't know about but can see from the highway, like, say, a roadside diner. But when you start off, you need to know where you're starting, where you're going, and at least a general idea of how you plan on getting there.
This accomplishes a few things:
It helps you evaluate where you are. This way, you can track your progress, and see what parts of the crew need more attention than others -- or perhaps some nudging to keep them from holding back the rest of the crew.
It tides you over while you're at a loss for ideas. If you have a bad day, or just can't come up with anything, instead of dreading posting, and possibly skipping it, you have a plan to fall back on for inspiration.
It keeps you sane. Having a plan helps keep you pointed in the right general direction. Having a weak plan you might be able to still entertain the crew, but it probably won't make you feel any less stressed.
It lets you identify weak spots before you start. If you map out a rough outline in advance, you can see things like -- oh, the science department has nothing to do the entire mission. This way, you can come up with something for science to do before they get bored, not afterward.
You might try to divide things up into acts, sometimes three, sometimes four, sometimes five. What this does is it gives you a few milestones along the way. That way, you can reassess where you are at each act break. If there are crew members or staff sections that are running behind the rest around the time of an act break, you should give them a push in the right direction. It gives you points where you can clearly figure out how closely you are to the plan, and take some time to re-evaluate the plan. Remember, there's anywhere from 12-20 crew members on the ship; there's only one of you. The only tool in your box you have to deal with that -- other than brute force -- is the ability to plan ahead. (Crews do NOT enjoy the brute force approach.) You want to be at least two steps ahead of the crew.
And most importantly, it gives you a sense of accomplishment somewhere in the middle of the sim, a little bit of good feeling that will hopefully be able to tide you over for a while.
In the Academy sims tend to last about three months on regular ships most average five to six months, that doesn't mean you should let your sim meander along for years. Presenting a journey too long and arduous can make the players bored and/or frustrated long before they reach the end. Those obstacles mentioned earlier, the ones you throw in the path of your crew to keep things interesting: Make sure they're surmountable. Learn from experienced GMs
"I remember a sim on a ship I commanded that resulted in the entire senior staff being locked in the holodeck. The engineers who remained free tried all kinds of things to break into the holodeck, but the GM never let them succeed. Rather than keep trying, the players went AWOL after two weeks of trying to solve the puzzle." (Unknown GM)
"Never try to outline every movement that will take place within a sim. It is extremely important to allow the players to have some flexibility within the sim; people will undoubtedly come up with ideas that the GM would never think of, and it's important to keep that in mind as much as possible. By the same token, though, it's equally important to not let the players run away with the sim by grandstanding, et al. If one person tries to run away with the sim on his own by doing something that's next to impossible, then the GM needs to put the skids to that so that solving a sim can be a team effort." (Unknown GM)
"It was my first official sim. I planned the whole thing out, from beginning to end. I had every event worked out. I was very inflexible as the sim progressed, not having experience with running a sim. The result: The crew lost interest, and I had to narrate the end just to get the darn thing over with! That was my bad GM experience."
"A new GM was supposed to take over [after my sim was finished]. When that person AWOLed, I was put in the GM spot again. This time, I had nothing planned - I hadn't expected to be GMing! As it turned out, this was a good thing. My next sim was very spontaneous, and I had no trouble compensating for crew interest and keeping all departments active. The crew posted almost 100% daily by the end. It went great. Overall, I would advise new GMs to be flexible. Don't hold to your perfect mental image of what should happen - make sure the crew's having fun. Don't plan everything, just have a couple of good ideas." (Unknown GM)
Homework - 104: Using your sim idea from 102 write a plan, for this plan show where you might break it down into acts. Explain what key points you would want to be achieved by the end of each act.