Rules
(Dark Universe Version)
Rules and Regulations Inspired by Players
Written By: Kelly Ride
(Updated: 02/15/2026)
NO ONE SHALL DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANYONE FOR ANY REASON (Race, Creed, Walk of Life, Sexual Orientation, financial status, or other)
A 3.3.3/Rated M/18+ simulation
All political and religious discussions will be kept to oneself, IC, or RL.
Words Defined For This Guide:
The following section is a sort of dictionary of the important terms used in the sim in general and A Destiny Story in specific.
Sim: This is short for simulation. Lenora Sim is a simulation within Sim Central.
Pose: This is what it is called when you write into a post what your character does/thinks. This is often used interchangeably with "tag," but they are slightly different.
Tag: This is a signal left in a post to denote that it is someone else's turn to post.
Post: This is a completed piece of writing done either by a single player or by multiple players, which gets sent to the whole group by the Nova when one of the authors clicks the "Post" button on a post's edit screen.
IC and OOC Life
In-character (IC) actions should not be construed as personal. This environment is a game, not reality, and must be regarded as such. If a player takes offense to an in-character event and is unable to discuss the matter civilly out-of-character (OOC), they should reconsider their participation. The staff endeavors to create an engaging experience, which occasionally involves storyline developments that prominently feature a player's character. While this can occur spontaneously, notification is typically provided. Any participant found to be personalizing IC events OOCly will be requested to take a hiatus from the game until they can maintain separation. If this distinction cannot be maintained, we advise deferring the submission of an application until such time as the applicant is ready.
Spell Check & Grammar
All posts, before you post them, need to be spell-checked and grammar-checked. We understand the occasional slip-through, but before it is posted, it must make sense, or we will send it back to be edited by the authors for further editing. This also includes posts you're currently in. Make sure when you hit save, the pose/tag in the post makes sense. If you take the time to take care of your poses/tags the first time, you save less confusion later. If there are issues, first attempt to work them out with your fellow writer(s). If you are unable to work them out, please speak to the command staff. DO NOT address your concerns in the Discord channel. (See “Grammar Rules” Section below for more details.)
Late Poses/Tags
If you are joining a post or posing late in a post, please reflect that in your pose/tag. This is a good thing to remember for each post regardless of back posts or not. If you are added to a mission/post or they are just adding your first pose/tag to a post that has a lot of material, reflect that in your pose/tag. It helps not only the players but the story as well.
Important to note:
This SIM can only be successful with everyone participating. So that means we need your input on missions and logs to help make those missions move forward. The logs are also how we develop characters, so if we don’t get those things, we really don’t have a SIM.
Activity and You
Should your lack of posting hit our radar and you have not informed us (CO and XO) personally, which happens after two weeks' time, staff will set you on an LOA. If you are gone for longer than three weeks, you will be placed under Extended LOA. Should you go four weeks, staff will set your account to "Inactive player," and your position will become available to other/new players. Everyone is on Discord; everyone knows how to reach the CO and XO.
POSTING GUIDE
~To break a page into OOC area, I have decided to just go with the following:
OOC AREA:
Kelly: I lika ta doa the cha cha
~If the post is already OOC use the _ mark to separate it from the information above:
___________________
~Telepathic messages directed toward someone should be in brackets like this:
{Hey Kelly. I love you so much.}
~If you are in two areas in a post and you need to define that, use <center>, 5 of =, the name, then 5 more of = and </center>:
<center>===== Bridge =====</uncenter>
~If you are thinking something, use italics:
<i>’Kelly is one sexy beast. I could just eat him up.’ </i>
~To talk to someone using a compin/wristband in another section of the ship/planet go for the compin-style look to make it stand out :
+cherp+ Kelly, I must have you now! +cherp+ (Avalon style)
+taps+ Kelly to Bridge, get us out of here. +taps+ (Iris Style)
=/\= Kelly to Bridge, we need to get out of here, now. =/\= (Lenora Style)
~ Timelines should be set up as follows in the example below and must be kept track of for all posts:
241202.07
~ Tagging other players is a must now. To do so, we are now going with an option that will make the tags easier to identify in posts. Do as such, and you will have success:
<b>TAG KELLY</b>
~ If you are wanting to do something in the sense of a flashback within a post, that is perfectly acceptable. Note how many days, months, or years it has been up until the point of the current post you are making, like so:
<center> ===== USS Nimitz - Six years ago===== </center>
Then when done with the flashback,
<center> ===== Now =====</center>
~ If you want to do something that is a BIG flashback, feel free to use the other mission entitled Flashback.
So far this is what I have to help along posts. If I see something, I will add it and am open to suggestions on how to make posts more clear and uniform.
GRAMMAR RULES
I would like all Sim posts to be compliant with these rules. I don’t mean to be a grammar nut or imply that some people don’t write very well, but if everyone follows these rules, it will make reading the Sim much easier.
New paragraphs with each speaker. – This is one of the most important rules in novel (or RPG) writing. Whenever a speaker different from the last starts talking, make a new paragraph! For example:
Good:
“Lt. Smith reporting as ordered, sir!” The pale-faced officer said as he entered the ready room.
“Good. Good.” The captain replied as he stood up and straightened his uniform. “I need you to assist Commander Korrell in Engineering.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good. You’re dismissed.” Smith nodded once and exited the ready room.
Poor:
“Lt. Smith reporting as ordered, sir!” The pale-faced officer said as he entered the ready room. “Good. Good.” The captain replied as he stood up and straightened his uniform. “I need you to assist Commander Korrell in Engineering.” “Yes, sir.” “Very good. You’re dismissed.” Smith nodded once and exited the ready room.
As you can see, when you cram an entire conversation in one paragraph, it becomes much more confusing and more difficult to decipher than if you write it correctly.
SPELL CHECK!! – If there is a most important rule, it’s this one. When you misspell a word (or more) it drastically slows reading time as the reader has to unconsciously figure out what word you actually meant. Punctuation and capitalization is also important.
Good:
Phasers burned against the shields of the small Defiant, causing the ship to shudder violently. The science officer, Lieutenant Grayson, was thrown through the door as a torpedo detonated the panel behind him.
“What was that?” That captain inquired imperatively as the ship shook again.
Poor:
phazers burned aganst the shields of the small defient causing the ship to shutter violantly the sciense officer lutenant grayson was throne threw the door as a torpedoe detanated the panel be hind him “what wuz that” the captain inquierd imparativly as the ship shook again
That was an extreme case of course, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any posts that bad, but you get the idea. The first one is a lot easier to read, right?
A spell checker can usually fix this up with no problem. (In fact, my spellchecker kept trying to correct that bad paragraph as I was writing it!) Word has a great spell checker, so if you type that in, you shouldn’t have any problems. If you don’t have Word, another option is the Firefox browser. It has a built-in spell checker in its input boxes, such as the reply box, and it’s free. If you don’t have Word, and you hate Firefox, don't be surprised if you find your work corrected. (Please do not rely on this as a crutch, but rather learn from the corrections!)
Rank abbreviations – In the past, I’ve seen some people tend to refer to others and their crew in an almost ‘gamertag format’.
Good:
Ensign Carr ran into Admiral Rounds, sending them both crashing to the floor.
Poor:
EnsCarr ran into VAdmRounds, sending them both crashing to the floor.
This isn’t as critical as the two above, but it still helps the flow of the post when you type the whole word rather than collapsing it into a single name. Also, notice that I didn’t put “Vice” in front of the Vice Admiral's name. While you should put the full rank down occasionally, the extra words such as "Executive," "Rear," "Vice," "Junior Grade," and "Sub" are more formal terms than simply "Admiral" or "Lieutenant."
An exception to the abbreviation rule is Lieutenant. It is perfectly fine, encouraged really, to use Lt. as long as you keep it separated from the name or rank with a space. IE: Lt. Grayson or Lt. Commander Koll.
No making up your own grammatical formatting… While it may make sense to you, it does not make sense to anyone else.
Past Tense Usage
As for Destiny Story, we aspire to write stories like a book rather than a script of live action. So in order to do this, we write in what is called past tense. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as follows:
“past tense
noun
Definition of past tense
: a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past:
a : a verb tense expressive of elapsed time (such as "wrote" in "on arriving I wrote a letter")
b : a verb tense expressing action or state in progress or continuance or habitually done or customarily occurring at a past time (such as was writing in "I was writing while he dictated" or loved in "their sons loved fishing")“
As part of Tempest, we ask that we adhere to this as much as possible. While we understand that not every writer is used to this, we ask that you make your best effort in this. If you need further help or wish someone to assist you in correcting this, speak to one of the command staff or fellow post writers to help with this transition. If there are issues, first attempt to work them out with your fellow writer(s). If you are unable to work them out, please speak to the command staff. DO NOT address your concerns in the Discord channel.
Minor Characters
There is to be NO underage sexual conduct on this sim. Ever.
- If the character is a rapidly aging person who reaches full maturity in a shorter time, making them an adult at 4 in human years, then this is an exception, as the character is fully grown.
- Underage (18 and younger) requires that the character still be in the adolescent stages of their race. Thus, making any sexual gesture towards them statutory rape and thus inappropriate in any form.
- Even if both parties are agreeable, the situation has been deemed too inappropriate for any Sim and its players, thus having a negative effect on the Sim Fleet itself as well as player morale.
- If it is part of a backstory, a vague mention may be allowed as it did not occur nor will it occur on the sim website.
- If there is a story arc in which an attempt upon a child might be made. It is to be vague and must be prevented before anything actually happens to any underage victims. That also means limited to no exposure of genitalia to said victim.
XXX Posts and You
We here in the fleet accept sex posts under the following rules and guidelines
.
- All XXX posts must go to fade to black before clothes are fully removed. If you wish to create this content off site, feel free, but please do not link it as there are minors on SimCentral, and we need to keep their innocence intact.
Any sim not following these rules must have one hell of a good reason for not and must have Kelly Ride’s permission. It also must be noted on every sims page the rating. http://rpgrating.com will be useful to you.
If this rule is broken, it will be dealt with henceforth by Kuna, the creator and owner of Lenora Sim. Mod votes will not be allowed on such subjects, and the players involved will all face repercussions that he will decide.