If you attend a creative writing course there is a lot of discussion about pace. Short stories require a fast pace, Novels require different levels of pace depending on the action or where you are in the book. The same is true of a sim. Probably the most common problem trainees have is that the sim just won't start. Trainees are on a deadline, they need to get started and show what they can do so that they can shake off the GMM. Sometimes the crew just won't play along, how do you fix this?

Then there is the other problem with pace, the sim seems to grind to a halt, Houston we have no pace. Things were sailing along nicely and then it all goes pear shaped. Causes of this can be as simple as people are getting confused to key crew members going AWOL or LOA. Maybe the command staff aren't providing good leadership in character. As GM it's your job to keep the momentum going, but how?

Sometimes you'll find a crew totally ignoring part of the mission, or the crew won't participate in the sim. They may be more subtle, and head off at a tangent on a side sim ignoring your sim. This is when you need to sit back and evaluate your own posting, your sim idea. When this course looked at planning a sim the following was said "Something important has to be at stake, something that the characters on the ship will care about and something the PLAYERS will care about." Can you fix your sim? Maybe this is one of those times where being flexible and following the players will pay off.

Then there are the days where you just want to beat your head against the nearest brick wall. The crew won't pick up on a seemingly obvious clue. Worse still, you find yourself up against the crew that seems to wait for the GM for every tiny little detail, although some crews will tell you it’s just as bad to be facing the GM who does the same. This is where flexibility comes in, but also patience and a bit of ingenuity help. Failing that a private email to one of the crew giving them a big tip off is not frowned upon. Just don’t use this method too often; if you find this happening then maybe you should check you aren’t the GM that the crew were moaning about.

Crew is given a scenario that should be able milk for side plots but they ignore or side plots are offered to "spare" departments and they ignore them and continue moaning they have nothing to do. First rule, just take another look at those options you've been offering are you really giving them something reasonable to do. If you are and they still continue to moan and obstruct then ask the Captain and First Officer to have a word. Sometimes it just takes one person saying uh see the sick people? Heal the sick people. Much better if this comes from the CO or XO, it’s their job, and they may be able to help you figure out why your brilliant ideas are being ignored.

At first you may think, why would this be a problem, if the crew want to make life harder who am I to object. But when the moment comes in a sim, you'll understand. Maybe the crew has decided that all GMs and therefore all GM characters are evil and will not believe anything a GM character tells them. You may have set up a very helpful character to act as a voice for you in the sim. You have given this character excellent references, down to being a relation to Mother Therese no less. Yet still the crew treat every word that she says as suspicious. Is there a solution to this? How can you make the crew believe you? You may need to engineer some emergency where this character saves the crew, something to gain their trust. Chances are you won’t be able to, and will have to instead change tack and find a new way to communicate.

Then there is the time the crew decides to do something that will take months but won't actually solve anything or move the plot forward. Maybe they think it is helpful to the main plot but you know it isn't. This is where a GM has to really take control, but in such a way that the crew possibly don't realise they've been shunted down a different track. You may need to up the stakes a little more, sometimes a little damage to the ship, or a crew member can refocus a crew. Try to make the path they are choosing so difficult someone realises that there has to be another way. Final resort might be to email a member of the crew and tip them off. Grovelling and begging for mercy, while a possibility, is not good for the reputation of all GMs.

Overly complex responses to a situation that are unreasonable, but you can't cut someone off mid-post... sometimes you might just have to do that. But how you do it is the key to keeping everyone happy.

Player tries to be too smart and just sit in his office and use gravity plating to solve all problems, even though gravity plating can't do that and certainly not for an Ensign. Sometimes the best option with this type of player is to talk to the CO and XO. Then if you still have a problem you might have to start voiding posts, better still get more imaginative and come up with something to shake them out of it.

This, leads nicely to some of the golden rules of GMing that you will run up against...

There are paragraphs of rules about this in OGRE, and you can void away as long as you keep within those rules. However void too often, or void without thinking and you may upset not only the player but the whole crew. When voiding a post sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons, talk to the CO, try talking to the player. A good GM can often write their way out of having to void a post, and fix the situation. Golden rule, don’t void unless you absolutely have to and then make sure you follow the rules to the letter.

A player may have driven you mad beyond belief but you cannot kill his character off, nor can you put him in a situation where there is no way out. While this is a genuine possibility in the real world, in STF respect for other people’s creations is given, thus we do not kill another person’s character. Of course like all rules there are exceptions to this, you can use death warnings, to find out more read up on this in OGRE.

So it's fun to blow up a ship, all GMs understand this, but to save on the paperwork and so forth STF has rules about this. Many GMs delight in hull breaches, failed shields, and sparking bridge consoles. Before you lose matter/antimatter containment on that warp core, however, make sure you have the blessing of both the captain and fleet commander. You'll find the up to date rules in OGRE go see. It is probably in the exam.

In STF we have a set list of references that are considered canon. You can find them at http://www.star-fleet.com/library/textbook/eng-105.html (Engineering Course: References). Honor Star Trek canon and keep it holy. Always anchor your storyline with plausibility. It's true that the universe in which we play is one of science fiction, but that's no excuse to create things that don't mesh with Trek physics. If you're not sure about the plausibility of a plot point, research it. Here, ignorance is not bliss. By the same token, do not rewrite that which has been written. You cannot rewrite Trek history.

Creative roleplayers often have little side sims going in addition to their participation in the main sim. If you see a way to incorporate their story into yours, be sure to ask them before you take over. Often a little word in the ear or email of another player can go a long way to making your sim so much better. Don't underestimate the value of outside input.