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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John Maxwell wrote:
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I am exploring the possibility of starting a new Lego-based RPG based on
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Sector 62 and Starship. I encourage anyone who has an interest in joining me
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in this endeavor to contact me, either here (I would prefer here, as this is
readily available and visible to the entire Lugnet community) or at the forums
currently being established for my faction, at www.crayven.net/darkage.
John
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After having explored the deeper reaches of the galaxy where communications are
blocked by dark matter... Oh let’s cut to the chase.
I have not been active in quite some time with the hobby, but the brick calls
out to me. I tried to cleanup/refresh my Starship sites a while ago which made
them non-active. If Starship goes through a ‘reboot’, I would not mind house
cleaning being done to my sectors and ships -- NOT because I will not be
participating, but because I got so lost with work, uh exploring other
dimensions, that I cannot remember where I was or what I was doing with
Starship. Sorta of a fresh start.
That being said, I have projects once again in the works for building space
vessels made out of ABS brick. I would like to see Starship active once again, I
will make time for it, seriously, to some capacity.
John Maxwell, I did a search for the Sector 62 you mentioned. What is that,
exactly? As for Starship, I hope to get back into the swing of things assuming
that an active community can be revived.
Good to see you Hendo and Richard!
-Avery
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John P. Henderson wrote:
> Also, both my front pages to the game and Richard Parsons' ship registry are
> still active websites. I spoke by email to Richard just over a year ago and
> he said he was more than willing to keep his part of the site up - though I
> don't know what level of commitment he can give to updating, changing, or
> maintaining it.
Still about. Happy to keep the data up to date. Old email address still works.
I'd be happy to join in as a player, probably not as a sector mod.
Might need a new ship though. Something with a couple of dropships and
fighters, and a contingent of marines, maybe in keeping with the Mars Mission
stuff - ha! and a surface rover.
HES Alator has a nice ring to it. 27 ship's crew + 15 flight crew + 24
troopers, veterans of the suppression of the odd green lozenge creatures on
Mars. 3 space capable dropships (2 pilots, 2 crew, max 8 troopers), 3 single
man space capable fighters, and a rover (2 pilots, mission crew space for 8 and
consumables for 2 weeks).
Might need a gunship to support the slicks...
Richard
Still baldly going...
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John Maxwell wrote:
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Very well. I think five days is adequate time to wait for replies before
replying to my own post.
Evidently, this group isn’t currently active. With that in mind, I’d like to
post a notification here, to all interested parties, advising that I am
exploring the possibility of starting a new Lego-based RPG based on Sector 62
and Starship. I encourage anyone who has an interest in joining me in this
endeavor to contact me, either here (I would prefer here, as this is readily
available and visible to the entire Lugnet community) or at the forums
currently being established for my faction, at www.crayven.net/darkage.
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Hi John!
I wish I could say otherwise, but no this group has not been very active over
the past two years. Everyone involved (myself included) were slowly pulled away
for “real life” during the year or two before that. I myself have been
experiencing a “Dim Age” with the hobby, and though I would love to be involved,
I cannot yet promise the level of reliability I offered when Starhip was new.
That said, I do know a few Starshippers still lurk out there, and I have been
saving email addresses of one or two other players that have expressed interest
in joining if anything starts up again.
Also, both my front pages to the game and Richard Parsons’ ship registry are
still active websites. I spoke by email to Richard just over a year ago and he
said he was more than willing to keep his part of the site up - though I don’t
know what level of commitment he can give to updating, changing, or maintaining
it.
Currently, his site includes all the ships that were in the game two or three
years ago. If the game does go for a “reboot”, I wonder if that database should
be wiped and restarted, or if it should stay as-is and just be added to for new
players. (I like the latter idea, as it would give the impression that the
galaxy is well populated.)
Also, the Sector Registry and map (maintained on my site), most likely would
need updating, as only sectors with active members running as SM’s should be
open to travel.
-Hendo
(Stick a “j” in front of my email address shown on Lugnet to contact me
directly.)
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Very well. I think five days is adequate time to wait for replies before
replying to my own post.
Evidently, this group isn’t currently active. With that in mind, I’d like to
post a notification here, to all interested parties, advising that I am
exploring the possibility of starting a new Lego-based RPG based on Sector 62
and Starship. I encourage anyone who has an interest in joining me in this
endeavor to contact me, either here (I would prefer here, as this is readily
available and visible to the entire Lugnet community) or at the forums currently
being established for my faction, at www.crayven.net/darkage.
John
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:::walks into the dusty, darkened thread, coughing several times as stale air
fills his lungs:::
Hi folks! Question from a very, very interested newbod - is this group still
active? I think it’s a fascinating, well-thought-out concept that caters very
nicely to a niche market. I recently discovered the ancient Sector 62 site, and
would love to participate in something like that. Anyone still lurking here that
might be interested in picking the concept back up? I’ve got my own roleplaying
site - www.crayven.net - and am definitely willing to host a dedicated site and
forums for it.
John
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John P. Henderson wrote:
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In a recent email, player James Howse suggested the idea of a beginner’s
guide and/or intro-sector. Inspired by this latter thought, I’ve started
thinking about how an intro-sector would work. For starters...
• This could be a sector moderated by the GM.
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If the GM is up to it, ok.
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• We could *require* that every new player’s first ship start here (a player
who builds later vessels would skip it).
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Yep.
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• Gameplay in the sector would offer *brief* adventure with the new ship
visiting an independently operated space station - one that routinely suffers
problems like attacking space ameobas and meteor showers. The idea here
being that the intro-adventure would offer just enough play-by-email to
provide a *sampling* of combat, movement, and character interaction.
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Sounds good.
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• While a new ship is adventuring in the intro-sector, the GM could petition
the SM’s to see who most needs a new player ship in their current adventure.
This might even be a standardized form, wherein SM’s would indicate 1) an
honest 1-3 ranking of how badly they need players, 2) how many player ships
their adventure already has, and 3) the kinds of vessels (e.g. military,
exploratory, cargo, salvage, etc.) that would be best suited or most welcome
in their adventure. Such petition (prompted by the GM or sent in at any time
by the SM) would only be accepted from SM’s of *adventure* sectors and not
sectors dedicated primarily to trade & social role-play. ...The GM would
then use the petitions to best determine where the new ship should be
encouraged to go after leaving the intro-sector. That is, in-game, they
would be given some hint or motivation to push them towards the given
adventure sector; the long range goal here being to improve the level of
activity in adventure sectors as opposed to non-adventure[1].
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Encouraged, to go. I’m with you there.
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• Considering this latter idea, it might be worth considering that the
intro-sector also be one of those already currenty marked as having a
JumpGate. As the proposed space station would be independent non-player
character based (and run by the GM), this seems logical to me.
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That would speed up that whole traveling thing.
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So, as always, I conclude by opening this discussion to all Starship
participants. Any thoughts or ideas? Do you like or dislike these
proposals?
-GM Hendo
[1] The issue of non-adventure vs adventure sectors being another point
recently mentioned that might need attention, the idea here offers to
alleviate that while also offering intro-play (a two birds with one
stone scenario, if you will).
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As you can see, I agree with this idea. I have already stated my opinion on the
adventure/non-adventure topic. This idea’s intro via multiple bird killing seems
sound even despite what I have said on the same said topic. I say we go with it.
-Avery
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Richard, I do believe you have hit the proverbial self-sealing stem bolt on the
head. Keep it the way it is, most especially including the example of the
adventure of the Sirius which is very helpful in terms of what to expect for
adventuring.
I got nothing to add, really. Just chiming in and saying yay.
-Avery
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John P. Henderson wrote:
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In a recent email, player James Howse suggested the idea of a beginner’s
guide and/or intro-sector. Inspired by this latter thought, I’ve started
thinking about how an intro-sector would work. For starters...
• This could be a sector moderated by the GM.
• We could *require* that every new player’s first ship start here (a player
who builds later vessels would skip it).
• Gameplay in the sector would offer *brief* adventure with the new ship
visiting an independently operated space station - one that routinely suffers
problems like attacking space ameobas and meteor showers. The idea here
being that the intro-adventure would offer just enough play-by-email to
provide a *sampling* of combat, movement, and character interaction.
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I think this is a good idea - something simple that takes them through 6 or 8
‘turns’ including docking at a station, that gets them travel documents to enter
adventure sectors (if they survive ;-). It’s a bit of a load on the GM, but a
very handy idea.
While I am not up for running a full adventure, I would be happy to take some of
these into New Pacific. Some example missions might be:
looking in on a lost or damaged ship
encountering a derelict
seeking shelter from a storm or raider
being shot up by said raider
taking meteor damage and dealing with a meteor borne infection of the crew
or something.
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• While a new ship is adventuring in the intro-sector, the GM could petition
the SM’s to see who most needs a new player ship in their current adventure.
This might even be a standardized form, wherein SM’s would indicate 1) an
honest 1-3 ranking of how badly they need players, 2) how many player ships
their adventure already has, and 3) the kinds of vessels (e.g. military,
exploratory, cargo, salvage, etc.) that would be best suited or most welcome
in their adventure. Such petition (prompted by the GM or sent in at any time
by the SM) would only be accepted from SM’s of *adventure* sectors and not
sectors dedicated primarily to trade & social role-play. ...The GM would
then use the petitions to best determine where the new ship should be
encouraged to go after leaving the intro-sector. That is, in-game, they
would be given some hint or motivation to push them towards the given
adventure sector; the long range goal here being to improve the level of
activity in adventure sectors as opposed to non-adventure[1].
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Agreed, but no need to over-engineer it just yet, until we are overwhelmed with
new players ;-) Probably enough to just send an email around. How many SMs
runnning active adventures do we think there’ll be?
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• Considering this latter idea, it might be worth considering that the
intro-sector also be one of those already currenty marked as having a
JumpGate. As the proposed space station would be independent non-player
character based (and run by the GM), this seems logical to me.
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Fair enough. I am relaxed about being one sector away from a jumpgate for this
purpose.
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• And to encourage your imagination with this topic, I offer you the
following, my first ever micro-scale MOC, to consider as what the
intro-sector’s station might be like...
the Starport
Awakening
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Nice. I have some stabase schematics I send to visitors, but hadn’t rendered
them in abs. How slack am I?
Richard
Still baldly going...
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, John P. Henderson wrote:
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Not to drown out the other threads recently started in .starship, I wanted to
throw this one out there too, to get the brainstorming going.
Inspired by numerous emails and comments over the past year or so, I am
thinking an FAQ page on the Starship website would be worthy of considering.
While perhaps I as GM have been asked and the most frequent questions, I
would like to ask all participants to share their suggestions for questions
and answers that would be appropriate for such a page. What I am looking for
should include the kinds of out-of-character questions that seem to be asked
of players and SM’s rather often, especially by newer players.
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Cool idea too. All this imagination! You want to be careful drinking too much
of the red cordial there, you’ll spoil your dinner.
Questions that spring to mind (with some cautious answers for SMs to consider):
What do I need to play?
I think this is covered well in the rules.
How often does the game move
As often as the SM says, usually once a week, sooner if players and SM like.
Do all players in an adventure get the same emails - how does this work?
No, not normally. Maybe the first email or two at the start of an adventure
will be common, but once you start doing things other players don’t, the SM
drafts a different email for each player based on the player’s specific actions.
What happens if I don’t reply in time?
Its up to the SM - normally you just miss out on that opportunity, and can join
in again next week. Do it too often, and the SM will probably put you on a
course for deep space and leave you alone :-)
How long do games run? (what am I committing myself for?)
As long as you’re enjoying the experience. Players can leave at any time,
either by formally disengaging, or just not replying to emails. SMs make a
commitment to see an adventure through. But there is usually no fixed
timeframe. I’d guess once a week over 3 or 4 months would not be unreasonable.
How do I know what I am allowed to do? What does the SM do?
You can try to do anything you like with your own ship and crew, and to your own
ship and crew. You can change course, look for specific things, shoot at
things, lay out your captain’s mindset for what he plans to do if he encounters
little green men around the next moon. The SMs job is to tell you where you are
when you change course, what you find when you look, what happens when you shoot
at things, and what is around the next moon. You can talk to other players, or
other non-player characters. How other players respond is up to them. How
non-player characters respond is up to the SM. You can’t simply say you’ve
fired on and destroyed another vessel, or your sensors told you that the Key to
All Enlightment is 3 feet inder the surface of the crater to the left. You are
your crew’s minds and hands, the SM is reality and everything in it except your
crew’s minds and hands.
Have a read of the logs of a previous adventure:
http://www.portblockyards.com/spraw/log-sirius.htm
How do I know what the other players are doing?
You don’t, unless they are in reach of your sensors and doing things you can
see. But you could ask them, or try to scan them, try to plant bugs on them, or
try to destroy them (so you know that they are not doing much of anything)
depending on your particular ethos. Some players choose to co-operate, sharing
sensor data and spoils.
I don’t want my crew/captain/favourite tharg killed - how do I make sure this
doesn’t happen?
Tell the SM. The SMs goal is for you to have a fun time, not end up freeze
dried, twisting silently in the space between stars. So you’d probably have to
do something mindnumbingly stupid, or breathtakingly risky to suffer a
spectacular undoing. Even then, there are a thousand ways you can fail an
adventure without your favourite tharg getting killed. You might find your ship
with weapons destroyed, main drive inoperable, minimal life support, and with
the vertical height adjustment on the captain’s chair completely shot, but
fortuitously, the last impact can send you sailing out of the system tumbling
end over end on a course that will take you near a starbase someplace else. And
experience indicates that many players are are only to happy to render
assistance to the unfortunate. Some SMs confer brownie points for such worthy
exploits.
Is there a prize for winning?
Nope. There is a prize for participating (for both players and SMs) - the
expansion of your imagination, a holiday in a shared imaginary universe, where
you get to do things and be things you are unlikely to be able to do and be
elsewhere. Also, fun.
Richard
Still baldly going…
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Not to drown out the other threads recently started in .starship, I wanted to
throw this one out there too, to get the brainstorming going.
Inspired by numerous emails and comments over the past year or so, I am thinking
an FAQ page on the Starship website would be worthy of considering. While
perhaps I as GM have been asked and the most frequent questions, I would like to
ask all participants to share their suggestions for questions and answers that
would be appropriate for such a page. What I am looking for should include the
kinds of out-of-character questions that seem to be asked of players and SM’s
rather often, especially by newer players.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions for this, let me know.
-GM Hendo
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