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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.
• 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].
• 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.
• 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
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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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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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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:::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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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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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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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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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, Avery Christy wrote:
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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!
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And hello to you too Avery!
Sector 62 was the precursor to the precursor of Starship. Though the adventure
ended, the site still exists at... http://www.ozbricks.com/sector62/
More info on predecessor ideas to Starship can be found here...
http://www.valyance.com/starship/background.htm
-Hendo
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