ABSTRACT
The Emmys and Oscars have hosts. These people set the tone, welcome the audience, and move things along. Similarly, many Short Sims should be designed with coaches. The coach can discuss theory with the player, set up a role-play, end it, and even interrupt it to add new wrinkles. A coach can narrate impacts, good or bad, of decisions. The coach can, at any time in a scene, break the fourth wall and have a discussion with the player. The coach is both smarter than the player and can present any hard rules, but also willing to go along with the player and let the player makes mistakes. Sims, with a coach or without, happens in a situation. Coming up with the right situation, a step which occurs after the initial research and decision around type is often the first real decision in the design of the Short Sim.
