Hire the Handicapped – They’re Fun to Watch!

There are times when I don’t think I’m playing an RPG, instead, I think I’m babysitting a bunch of children. We got a new message board over at Band of Brothers, which encourages in character messages. Our message board, however, is for discussing character development, story ideas and other mundane type things.

I started a thread entitled “Crew Interaction” and Our Science Officer immediately jumped in with a post saying that he has been writing scripts for movies and plays and while none have sold (yet), he sees my character as very off-putting and that I should work on some off-duty time things for her to be approachable. Well, that’s a good idea, except in the way he presented it. I spent a few hours yesterday in tears because this is supposed to be ‘fun’ and I didn’t want Anna Tuttle to be me, and yes, she’s a spitfire, and yes, she tends to speak her mind, but she’s also fair, and will fight for you if you’re in the right.

But Lt. Piche cut me off at the knees, in a public forum. He said that he’d been writing scripts (none had sold YET), and that he saw Anna Tuttle as a person that would be hard for others to play off of. That I needed to change the character, because she was hot-headed, jumped to conclusions and basically created a wall around herself. Excuse me? I answered with an email explaining my real life situation. That I’m confined to a wheelchair, that I used service dogs for 18 years. I am one of the top disability and service dog experts in the US, and yes, it’s going to color what I say and do, and how I play games like this. I also explained that Anna Tuttle wasn’t the way I am, she is someone that I am playing as a character.

He apologized, saying he was talking to my CHARACTER, not me personally. Yeah, right. If his Science Officer is a playwright, why isn’t it in his bio? He panicked when he realized that he ‘beat up’ on a disabled person and fell back on ‘I was doing it in character’. Damn, I hate it when people do that. His apology means really nothing, because he was ‘in character’ when he tore me apart.

I came very close to just saying “screw it” and resigning as the XO. I still may. We shall see. I don’t need some ‘normal’ telling me how to play a character. I may be new to this kind of simming, but I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since High School as well as other RolePlaying games. This guy sounds like he’s in his 20s and full of himself.

I also think I scared him when I listed all that I am currently doing, including working for Roddenberry Productions doing Star Trek on Audio… as well as all my service dog advocacy work. I think he didn’t realize that I do know what I’m doing on some things, and even though I’m in a wheelchair, it’s the body that doesn’t work, not the mind.

I’ve also been in Starfleet for 25 years. I’ve held positions ranging from Computer Sciences, to Assistant Science Officer, to Chief Science Officer, Executive Officer, Commanding Officer, and Regional Coordinator. It’s not like I’m new to this stuff. I just haven’t done it in the SIMM enviroment, where you write a story with x amount of other people in chat, or back and forth in email… writing your own part and waiting for their response. THAT is new.

It’s fun, and I’m having a blast, except for things like the above. Oh, well, live and learn.

I’ve got a new hobby… okay, maybe not quite so new… I’ve not posted it here though.

I’m the Executive Officer of the USS Constellation, a Star Trek based RPG. Set in the time around Voyager, but we are exploring the GAMMA Quadrant, (compared to the USS Voyager exploring the Delta Quadrant), You are an officer aboard the USS Constellation, a Constellation class (what else?) starship. It’s an online RPG, with ‘posts’ which are stories done by the members of the crew.

It’s different in that the stories aren’t just written by one person, you are your character, and any mission post that is written, that uses your character, you are involved in. For example, Cmdr. Anna Tuttle, (my character), will interact with the various crew, but most notably with the Commanding Officer, Captain Tersus Aram, a Bajoran. Now, when we work on a story, and we have a basic idea (sometimes), and we go back and forth with each paragraph. Sometimes the results can be hilarious. I have a story that I am working on with the Captain, the Chief Engineer, and the head of our Marines, in our Officers Mess. Anna is trying to get the replicator to make a simple combination pizza. What came out of the replicator was um, interesting.

Anyway, in the course of the story, she suddenly has a ‘DATE’ with the Chief Engineer in his quarters as he makes a combination pizza to scan in to replace the corrupted computer file. THAT I did not see coming.

The USS Constellation is an independent RPG, not belonging to Starfleet International (where I, in another persona, command the USS Daniel Soule). We are not part of starfleet.org, (we just host the website there).

The Captain and I are partners in this – we run the sim and talk EVERYTHING over… which can be hard when you want to do something and surprise the other.  It’s a lot of fun, and a lot of work, but you can’t just sit around and expect fun to happen.

We have very few rules.

Our major rules are that you must post once every 7 days, and that any posts other than yourself are to be done with the others and not just alone.

The rules are simple and posted directly on the website.

If you would like to apply, please check us out at:

http://ussconstellation.starfleetuk.org