The following is a guide to help new players and current players that are members of Stelvik Station to understand gameplay and how the world works. This is an out-of-character guide on in-character gameplay and writing.
Canonical Year
The canonical year for the simm is based on the year the station came online. This is referred to as Station Year or SY. Any event prior to SY is simply referred to as BSY or Before Station Year. The number that follows SY is the number of years after station activation and the number of years after BSY is the number of years in reverse.
- SY 88 is eighty-eight years after station activation.
- BSY 5 is five years before station activation
The Universe At Large
The universe around Stelvik Station is set in the Milky Way Galaxy. At some point in human history Faster Than Light (FTL) travel was discovered though nobody really knows when this was. Humanity expanded into the stars and multiple human civilizations formed and expanded.
The two most powerful of these civilizations are the Federation, which controls Earth and Mars, and the Confederate Free League. Stelvik Station is not part of either of these civilizations. In fact Stelvik Station is considered an independent station that only controls one planetary system within known Human space.
The most important aspect and thing to understand is that Humans are the only known intelligent lifeforms in the universe. The second most important aspect is that most of humanity at this point in history have never seen the planet Earth. Many of the current generation on Stelvik Station were born on Stelvik Station.
Economy
The economy is a background mechanic that impacts the factions and politics. It’s almost purely for a small bit of realism within the in-character environment. There are no hardcore tracking systems in place, however, the players are expected to be reasonable.
- Universal Currency: Credit(s)
Politics
Politics, and largely the station government, is an in-character system. There is a larger political system at play across the in-game universe, however, Stelvik Station is by all accounts considered independent.
For Stelvik Station the station government is relatively democratic in its operation. There are four political offices while station services are ran by unelected officials. The effective head of government is the Primarch, and the legislative is a group of three councilors. The three councilors are commonly referred in-character simply as the Council of Three.
Government
The government is effectively a faction with unique qualities of its own. The government is not a corporation and while the economy and currency are important, political capital is more important.
There are several different political parties some are more powerful than others. And at any one time there are at least one or two out of power completely. The government is purely in-character and for the political aspect of the simm.
As stated the positions for the government are as follows:
- Primarch
- Council of Three
- Station Services
The Primarch is the head of the government and is purely an in-character position. The council of three acts as the legislative part of the government working with or against the Primarch. Station services are unelected officials within station security and station engineering.
Every four years an election is held. The Primarch is nominated from the council of three by the citizens of the station. The political parties select who they are going to run for the council and the citizens vote for the council members. The Primarch election takes place at the beginning of the year, the council elections are the middle of the year, and the positions are filled at the end of the year.
The judiciary falls under station security services with a jury selected from the station population. Everything is purely democratic from criminal prosecution down to the government elections. There are no term limits on the station, though falling out of political favor within your own party can result in losing your seat.
Factions
There are four major corporations across the station that control a large portion of a market share. While smaller businesses that are independent of the corporations control much smaller portions. The major corporations are:
- Ascension Global
- Vitalis Solutions
- Zeno Mining Corp.
- Eclipse Logistics
The station government also acts as a faction, though it has its own unique qualities. Smaller businesses do exist on the station and many are independent from the major corporations. They form smaller factions when they join forces or may be entirely independent from the faction system.