Second and Third Story Techniques
What is the purpose of a second or third story?

The purpose of these story lines is to provide a greater sense that there are multiple decks on the ship. Though there may only be 5-12 crew members on the bridge with a doctor or another actor, it should feel like they have many people working under them. I usually point down when I describe the crew that works for them so that they think there is another floor to the simulator and not just their own floor.

Helping the crew to feel that there is more to the ship than what they see breaks the mindset that they are just in a school. It encourages them to interact with the characters on the phone and through messaging more naturally rather than suspecting that there is just one or two people on the other end making everything up. By adding this detail it adds a great layer of significance to what they do.

Lastly the Space Center experience is largely about creating memorable moments that they can relive and share with their friends. A well told secondary story line can be shared by those crew members who were involved to those who weren’t. If the captain is saying to their friend at a different position, “I had no idea that was going on. So how did you fix the problem?” you’ve done a good job. A feeling like they didn’t get to experience everything there is to experience in their visit helps them to want to come back and try something new.

In the Phoenix, Cassini, and Magellan, there are second stories, and only in the Magellan are there third stories.Second stories are internal, and third stories involve the Magellan’s fleet and things happening outside of their ship.

Who do you generally get involved in these stories?

The answer to this is those who don’t have an active role in the primary storyline. For instance, in the Cassini typically if it is near the beginning of the mission you are likely to involve the security officer unless the mission has actors that will be coming to the bridge soon. They need to get involved in the lower decks of the ship because nothing is going to directly impact them on the bridge until later in the primary story. Those individuals who are not a part of the main story are those who you need to consider when deciding what story to start, how to adapt it, and who to involve.

The involvement level is something else to consider. You might have a phone call made or supplies delivered as part of the story, but you might not want to fully pull in certain officers because they are about to be busy transporting something at a critical moment of the mission. Or perhaps an officer is falling behind in their work and so you don’t want to add to their load. Balancing out the amount of involvement can be just as important as selecting who to involve.

Pay attention to the personalities of the crew as well. You might have a crew member that is enthralled and content to watch the primary storyline unfold even though they aren’t directly involved. If they are clearly happy to do so then it might not be good to distract them. Some crew members might be overly excited or they tend to shout out to everyone every little thing they are doing. Certain storylines will get out of control quickly with these people if they are involved so you need to be aware of them.

How to make sure your story doesn’t interfere with the main storyDon't repeat intense parts of Main Story

What I mean by this is, if there was just a bomb, don't do another bomb. If there was just a bomb and you do another one, it might steal everyone's attention again because they are just starting to get over the previous bomb. Bombs are not a good idea to do most of the time anyways. If there were just intruders, don't do a big massive intruder thing again, you can continue the intruders but branch off. There are plenty of other things that can happen in a ship! In the Magellan there are 40 decks and 6,500 people. In the Phoenix, there are 4 decks with 80 people! Things are bound to happen!

How to use actors to help keep control

Let's say you want to have two officers arguing about something and you want an officer to help with the situation but you don’t want to get anyone else involved. You can have another Volunteer dress up as a Security officer, to have them go up and say “Hey, there are these two officers fighting in the other room and we can’t get them to stop, would you mind coming and helping out for a minute?” and then have the Volunteer Security Officer take the chosen Officer(s) off the bridge to dissolve the situation. This can help ensure that the Captain, and some other Officers we don’t want, don't come along and leave their job or the Main Story. If the Captain starts paying more attention to your secondary story than the main story, you will need to calm the story down immediately. It can be hard for the Flight Director to give the experience the crew needs when they don’t focus on what we need them to. Make sure that you always get approval from the FD or the Supervisor for these types of stories.

Children can't handle too much intensity

Children can get very easily excited here. So if you do a bomb, for example, the children will freak out and start telling all their crew buddies and then we lose focus for a while. With children, you can't do things that would be too exciting or too intense because they will get distracted.

Adults can handle more intensity

Adults are generally able to handle more intensity in a 2nd Story. For example, they could handle a small away mission to fight off an intruder better than children would. The adult security would see it as their job and take care of it, children would be screaming, running around crazy, and getting everyone involved and distracted from the Main Story. But adults also will not respond as well to silly second stories that to them may seem as a waste of time, so make sure your stories are engaging and have a purpose when it comes to adult crews.