About
So what is it?
"Red Dwarf" is a popular British science-fiction comedy TV series started in the 1980's. Dave Lister on the JMC Red Dwarf was put into stasis and woken up 3 million years later to find his fellow crewmates dead.
This is a sim is about the "JMC Blue Dwarf", the Red Dwarf's sister ship, sent out to find the Red Dwarf after its disappearance. The crew of the Blue Dwarf use this fruitless mission as an valid excuse to "bum around" in space.
So what IS it?
The JMC Blue Dwarf is a text-based role playing game, often referred to as a "sim".
You'll think simming is very cool if you:
- Have a good imagination
- Enjoy reading
- Enjoy writing
Even if you've never tried writing, give it a go, it's just good fun. There is more information about siming here.
There are no dice, and no scores. It's all about creating a kick-ass story.
We use a Yahoo! group to post each section of the story. Members all submit their pieces of written work to the group to build up the story into one continuous list.
So what IS it?
This sim was set up in 2000 by David Ball, and the story has been going extremely strong ever since. We've had well over 100 members, from various countries across the world. It is the most popular Red Dwarf sim on the internet anywhere!
Joining up
What do i need?
Requirements are dead simple, all you need are eyes and fingers to type with. And even if you are blind, you can use a screen-reader, and if you have no fingers, find another appendage to type with.
You need no graphics card or anything like that, all you will be doing is reading the stories that other members have posted about their characters, and contributing by writing your own post about your own character.
The universe of Blue Dwarf is varied, but is mostly a blank slate ready for fellow members to add to it. Over the past few years we have written many interesting and funny stories about our characters exploring new worlds and meeting new beings and monsters.
The universe is vast, and you have no clean socks.
The plot thickens
The story started in 2000, so we have quite a lot of story by now!
Don't worry about having to go back and read the several years' worth of stuff we've already written, we don't normally revisit the same places twice.
While we don't expect you to read all of the back-story, it will be useful and interesting to see how major characters have evolved over the years. If you're unsure about anything just ask.
Creating your character
The first concept to grasp is your character. This is the imaginary person that you will write about in this crazy made up world. You will write about this person going on adventures, exploring new planets, fighting alien monsters, and interacting with other player's characters. When you sign up to join our group, make sure you think up a good character, with interesting character traits, unique skills, flaws and weaknesses. The most interesting characters to write about sometimes have crippling weaknesses.