Rules

General Membership Requirements
1. All members of the USS Sojourner must be sixteen years of age or older.
2. 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.
3. All members are considered members of Sim Central and as such are required to follow all Sim Central community rules.
4. All members must join the Sim Central Discord server and accept the rules of the community and sim to join.


Activity Requirements

• To keep the Sojourner thriving and the story moving, we ask all players to maintain the following activity standards:
  
  
  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 #sojourner-loa channel on Discord or directly to a staff member.
  • 3a. LOAs are not requests for permission — they’re simply a heads-up so we can coordinate around your absence.
  • 3b. 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:
  1. Only write for characters assigned to you.
  2. "Metagaming" - using your out-of-character knowledge to give your characters in-game knowledge they would not otherwise have.
  3. 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.
  1. For the story to be interesting not all evolutions undertaken by the crew should be successful.
  2. 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.
  
  The USS Sojourner is a 2-2-2 rated game. All members are required to follow the appropriate limit on adult content while writing. For ease below are guidelines in response to some of the most common questions about games with this rating:
  1. Mature language and swearing is permitted with some limitations (nothing excessive or inflammatory toward minorities, etc.)
  2. Scenes with sex are "fade to/from black." An act of sex can be mentioned, initiated or concluded, but not described. If a post contains sexual contact, please include a warning at the top of the post indicating that nudity and sexual content is included.
  3. Scenes depicting sexual contact with or between children or sexual violence/contact toward children are prohibited.
  4. Scenes of violence can be depicted, but should be done with taste. Please do not include excessive or gory details.
  
  
  Disclaimers
  1. The Staff of the Sojourner (Game Manager, Assistant Game Managers, and others as noted) have full authority on all matters within our community.
  2. These rules and policies may be updated at any time and it is the responsibility of the members to be familiar with them. All updates will be announced to the membership when made effective.