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@Kestrel @bairloch

Take the developer's first space flight video and play it at 2× speed.  Add this song.

Then imagine that instead of a calm and carefully controlled demonstration, that it's me frantically trying to figure out the space controls while trying desperately to avoid crashing into a planet.

Baring any major issues, we are tentatively planned to release at 2PM PST (5PM EST) on Saturday. 

Why be silent when you can give valuable negative feedback, like 'If starmourn's only boring GET TEN BEAR ASSES quests I'll be hugely disappointed.'

Poor Song.

I've been vacillating a lot, but the fact that Song seems the least popular so far might solidify it as my choice.

The newsletter I sent out yesterday incorrectly said the release would be on Friday the 15th. That is not possible. It will be Saturday the 15th.

Sorry about that.

We will let you know the exact time we open up the server in the next day or so.

Are we excited?

Space Oddity!

Hello!

Disclaimer: I'm not staff and have no intention of acting in any kind of staff-like capacity.

This thread is inspired by Rules and Suggestions (According to Groot) and some of the discussion over in Roleplay & You.

I've stated before that I'm interested in making a pro-RP OOC clan, open and welcoming to everyone, to function as a kind of matchmaking service for those interested in specific kinds of RP. I believe that fostering a bountiful RP and storytelling environment as a communal project would benefit people like me who are interested in this as their primary reason for playing Starmourn, as well as helping and encouraging anyone who hasn't previously been invested in RP to dabble and explore new ways of writing their character.

One of the things I've noticed over in Roleplay & You, and via discussions on the Unofficial Starmourn Discord, is that people have very strong opinions about paragraph RP that go both ways. Some (like me) would consider it essential to their enjoyment of RP, while others consider it detrimental or completely irrelevant to the topic of enjoyable RP.

This shifted my plans from creating a one-size-fits-all clan that just promotes 'RP' — an overly general and perhaps even arbitrary term — to one that serves to let people advertise specifically what kind of RP they're after. For example the clan could have a directory of RPers listed under various headers of what they do and don't go for; e.g., gore, paragraph RP, sexual themes, romance, politics, antagonism, character rivalry, etc. So if everyone marks a y/n for each preference (I haven't yet decided on a suitable list of checkmarks, so suggestions are welcome), it would be easy for anyone interested in violent paragraph RP to quickly find others who feel the same way, and easy for anyone averse to graphic content who prefers punchy one-liners to moderate their experience as desired.

It's obvious that some aspects of RPer preferences are highly subjective, like paragraph RP, and that it wouldn't be fair to define RP on subjective grounds or exclude people who have different ideas of what RP means from being involved.

However, are some aspects of what RP is/isn't non-subjective? Are there any grounds that should reasonably exclude someone who would be a detriment to RPer communities, or at least should some lines in the sand be drawn as a warning not to overstep?

Some examples of what might constitute non-subjective RP rules could be (YMMV):

• Nonconsensual attempts to force participation in mature content, particularly with the malicious intent of causing an explicitly uninterested party some emotional discomfort. (E.g., nonconsensual rape RP.)
• Godmoding, i.e. asserting control over the actions and intentions of another player's character through your own emotes, particularly if this is a repeated offense after the other party has asked for it to stop.
• Metagaming; I consider this to be a pretty tricky rule because it's often very hard to prove, and I've seen the assumption of metagaming cause just as much harm as actual metagaming. I also think metagaming can be expanded into a very broad definition, with some people for example considering the very idea that you might decide to seek out another player for RP based on OOC knowledge that you both enjoy the same kind of RP to be metagaming in and of itself. However, for a more clear-cut example of metagaming being detrimental, we can focus on non-victimless crimes and call it something like 'Repeated attempts to harm another player's enjoyment of the game, or expose secrets about their character they're striving to keep in confidence, in order to benefit your own character through the employment of OOC means. E.g., information learned via an alt or explicitly OOC conversations which the victim did not intend to make available for IC use.'

In order to foster a healthy pro-RP OOC clan that creates a net positive for the maximum number of people invested in RP, I believe it may be worth considering the exclusion of some people who've been proven to be repeat offenders, based on accusations from multiple sources, to protect other members of the RP community who agree to follow some standard of behaviour. For example, if the clan has a rule against malicious metagaming, and three different people point the finger at someone they say has used OOC means to attack their character IC, they're out and will no longer be listed on this directory. 

So my question is:
  A ) Would you be interested in a RP matchmaking service of this type?
  B ) If A, what are some community standards you would like to see enforced for members of this clan?
  C ) Which of these community standards are subjective and which are not? For anything that can't or shouldn't be considered a rule, I'd nonetheless be interested in compiling a list of RP etiquette tips that shouldn't be considered as grounds for anyone to be excluded, but rather can be read as advice for good manners.

Incidentally if staff are reading this thread, I'd be interested in your input and whether you'd be willing to help moderate such a clan; so for example if someone says 'X is a metagamer', you could step in, examine the facts from an overhead perspective, and determine whether or not the accusation has merit.

Here's my drawing of Caelia! She's a human scoundrel!

Here's my void kith W'hoorn.