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Hello! It's the Head Mod here. Today is the day when the Second Test Drive Meme would have gone up, but there has been a sad change of plans. After accessing the current activity of the game and the foreseeable future of the mods, I have come to the decision to close Space Race. There will be no second Application round and no more game updates past this point.

I am sorry for my failings to the playerbase: for not being able to actualize the ideals and concepts of the game, and for not being able to provide the game that people wanted (including myself.) But I am glad to have tried, and am grateful to every player who gave their time and trust to the mod team for Space Race to have its best shot and lent their characters to the game during its life. I am thankful to every one of you for the support, and only wish that it could have been better rewarded.

I wish the best in all your future RP endeavors, wherever you may go. Safe travels out there.

- The Space Race Mod Team
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CREW RECRUITMENT MEME

- Post a comment for your character with the below form.

- Form your own crew, or join someone else's!

- Look around and schmooze!




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Hello!

Based on the poll results Unique Monthly Test Drive Meme Prompts and Adding Ship Section on Applications have won out. Thank you for participating and contributing your input to the future of the game. The changes will be made for the upcoming game cycle, and the new revised application will be ready by the time of the next TDM.

Coming up: OOC plotting for this month's "mini-event" will go up on December 6th, along with a ship/crew planning meme. See ya there!

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Greetings Privateers! It's been a couple weeks now and the modteam hopes this post finds you all well. Now that people have settled there are a couple of community announcements to make:

ACTIVITY
Because this is everyone's first month, no one has to do activity check for any of their characters in November. In addition, since it is customary to waive Activity in December for the Holidays, no one will be held to Activity in the second month of Space Race. Thus, there will be no Activity Check for the first two months of the game. Keep an eye out for January!

POLLS

The modteam will like to ask the community a question about future testdrive memes and applications. Because these answers will affect potential applying players as well as existing players, these polls are open to all.

Should every Test Drive Meme take place in SUPERBIA, or should the location change depending on the upcoming event?
Arguments: Canonically every character in Space Race appears in SUPERBIA and receives or retrieves their ship upon joining the game. Players may wish to greet new characters or give them assistance escaping the dangers of SUPERBIA. However, the playerbase may wish to skip playing this phase now that the game has opened and they have played this out for themselves. Some might prefer the alternative of having unique TDM prompts based on the upcoming event planet. This comes at the expense of "spoiling" the next month's event and perhaps being redundant with it.

Should there be a Ship Section to the Application?
Arguments: Space Race is not intended to be a "crunchy" game. The inventory of characters is not moderated, and obtaining new spaceships and exchanging space ships is easy in-universe and can be handwaved as occurring at any point. However, the mods may be overestimating how often players will want to change spaceships. In practice, players may be very attached to their original spaceships. Players may appreciate more concrete details on each other's space ships being written down, even if it results in a longer application and opens space ship design to more mod scrutiny.

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Dropping a set of coordinates in the logs of every Privateer space ship with no further elaboration or explanation is a way of delivering a lead that only SUPERBIA would do. What awaits at the site of the coordinates is not a civilization, nor an unpopulated rock, but a planet-sized tourist trap: The Dayton Entertainment Platform, the host of the biggest space ship race in the tri-galaxy area, the Mobius Prix.

For a place where everything is happening, none of it seems to matter for a treasure-hunting Privateer. The coordinates may seem like a total non sequitur, or a passive aggressive suggestion from SUPERBIA to take it easy. Until one starts hearing the rumors that the prize for winning the race was carved from a piece of Fortuna itself...

Read more... )

An Update

Nov. 10th, 2022 03:45 pm
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Cross-posted from the game's plurk:

Read more... )
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Player Intros and CR Meme

Welcome everyone to the Grand Opening of Space Race! Thank you all for being here!

Introduce yourselves, meet each other, and have fun!

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WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD
Your journey only happened because of your benefactor, so it begets that it starts at your benefactor as well. SUPERBIA, which is as much of a location as it is an entity, is where everyone's search for Fortuna begins.

There's not much of a welcome party: shortly after their fateful encounter with SUPERBIA, in which they swore to join the quest to find Fortuna, the new Privateers will find themselves afflicted by a sudden change in perspective. See, teleportation is a tricky process, so from SUPERBIA's point of view, why not make the target destination none other than itself? One highly disconcerting moment later, and the Privateers find themselves inside the belly of the beast.

The vast mega-structure is shockingly lonely, void of anyone other than the Privateers. Those who look off the metal satellite and to The Network for intelligence (or take a skim at the Space Wikipedia article) will find out that the surrounding space is clear for lightyears; rumors have it that the place is cursed. It won't take long to understand why.


1
Overclocked




The innards of SUPERBIA are that of an impossibly scaled up computer, and the Privateers start right in the middle of it. You are the spider living in the dusty PS4. Literal rivers of coolant, transistors the size of mountains, landscapes made entirely of circuitry. The sky, bounded by a distant metal ceiling, is constantly alight with coursing electricity that cracks the sky with lightning storms. It can be assumed that the Privateers are the first living things to set foot here, because such a place is not ever meant to be traversed by delicate, organic, mortals that worry about things such as "temperature" or "voltage". SUPERBIA needs not lifeforms to continue its operations; why design for them? Traversal itself is difficult: unscalable walls and perilous drops are common to encounter. The only company the Privateers will find are oddly adorable maintenance robots, which sadly seem too occupied by their directives of maintaining the massive machine to offer any assistance (or even acknowledgement of their new guests).

It is immediately clear that the most urgent priority is to get the hell out of here. Before your adventure ends at the starting line.


2
Skeletons In The Closet

If one stays inside SUPERBIA, either by getting horribly lost or losing all common sense, one will notice a peculiar pattern emerge as one gets deeper into the bowels of the mega-structure. Passages shrink and become more level, and the incredible hostility and danger of the surroundings fade away, until one comes across areas which were definitely intended for humanoid organisms to use at one point.

The construction of these areas is cramped, unfurnished, and dreary; they are reminiscent of artificial environments meant to handle harsh external conditions like a submarine or bunker, but they are entirely livable. One can eventually find distinct rooms, but everything in them has crumbled to dust and their original purpose is nigh impossible to discern. Deeper investigation may reveal the few items that have stood the test of time. While it is more plausible for life to have existed here, that doesn't seem to be the case now. What happened here?

3
The Shipyard

In the opposite direction, when one finally reaches the outer edges of SUPERBIA, they will be rewarded with the place to pick up a spaceship and a stunningly beautiful view of outer space. The outside of SUPERBIA has no atmosphere to get between you and the stars, and they shine brightly, like a beacon calling one out into the first steps of adventure.

The shipyard is already filled with countless space ships of every size, form, and function, all autonomously constructed by SUPERBIA's factories over the countless years. What's the harm in taking one or twenty out for a spin? Even if one has no intentions of permanent ownership of the vehicle, it's not like SUPERBIA will miss it. For a Privateer with a more specific vision, however, there are kiosks around the yard which will allow one to design their very own space ship down to their exact specifications. When the process is done SUPERBIA's matter printers will have it out and space-ready right before your very eyes.

If a Privateer has a ship, vehicle, or large item that they intended to bring with them, they will also find them here, neatly parked in the Shipyard. Why didn't SUPERBIA extend this courtesy to the pilot's themselves? The answer is revealed as soon as the owner makes a closer inspection: the inner contents have been rearranged, like a whirlwind was unleashed inside and assorted loose items thrown around. Now aren't you glad your transportation was given special attention, and the same didn't happen to your innards?

4
Hot Crewmates in Your Area

But how will a single Privateer man an entire space ship? No worries: when one steps into a ship, the strangely endearing maintenance robots will suddenly take acute interest. The robots will follow inside and immediately start assuming the duties of a spacefarer, eliminating the need for extra hands on deck.

Even still, there's just no eliminating the want for a human touch, though. Thankfully even that dilemma has a contingency plotted by SUPERBIA.

Communication devices are easily available on every space ship. They come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from huge stationary consoles to portable smartphone-like screens. But whenever a Privateer attempts to access the Network, a pop-up will appear, obscuring the whole screen.


The device will be rendered unusable until one relents to the pop-up's demands and provides answers to its questions. What will these be used for? The mystery will be solved when a social media app mysteriously installs itself on the same device, with profiles preemptively made for every Privateer. Each Privateer's profile consists of their given answers, paired with embarrassingly candid photographs. SUPERBIA has eyes in many places it seems.
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MOD CONTACT

MOD TEAM ACCOUNT
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[plurk.com profile] thegreatspacerace

MOD MYCO (HEAD MOD)
[plurk.com profile] mycophobia

MOD 02 (CO-MOD)
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MOD 03 (LIST MOD)
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CANON UPDATE
Please fill out the below form and comment to this page if you wish to canon update your character.
CANON UPDATE FORM
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HIATUS/DROP
HIATUS FORM


DROP FORM

ACTIVITY

Sep. 27th, 2022 11:55 pm
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ACTIVITY
Activity check for every month is the sum of 10 comments. Up to 2 threads can be used to reach activity. There is no distinction between network threads and log threads for comment counting purposes. Threads used for activity must have been started in the month of the activity check. Inbox threads can be used for activity.

Characters just accepted do not have to do activity check for the month of their acceptance.

When a character is accepted to the game please make a top level with the character account on this post, with the character's name, character canon, and player's name as the subject line. Reply to this top level with the form below each month, with the month as the subject line.

A one month hiatus can be requested at any time through the Hiatus/Drop page. If a player wishes for a longer hiatus, please contact the mods to arrange details. Put HIATUS in your activity comment for the month if the character is on hiatus.

Players are allowed to take one strike every six months. The strike must be made up in the immediate following app round, or the character will be removed from the game for inactivity. Put STRIKE in your activity comment for the month if you are taking a strike.


FORM FOR ACTIVITY

RULES

Sep. 27th, 2022 08:42 pm
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RULES
No hateful speech whatsoever
Space Race is a strict no hate zone. Racism, queerphobia, and other forms of bigotry are grounds for an immediate ban.

Foster a friendly environment among your fellow players
Be nice. Being found guilty of harassing players, even on other online platforms (e.g. discord and plurk), can make a case for a ban from the game. Mods reserve the right to restrict players based on their judgement on what makes a good game environment.

No godmodding or infomodding
Keep in mind your own character's limitations, and never exert control over another player's character.

Tag content accordingly
Please label potentially traumatic or triggering content on the game comms as appropriate.

NPCS

Sep. 27th, 2022 07:13 pm
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NPCS

SUPERBIA
The mysterious benefactor of the Privateers. Physically, SUPERBIA (always spelled in ALL CAPS) is a computer the size of a small moon in orbit around an uninhabitable planet. While SUPERBIA is capable of holding conversation (and has done so with every Privateer when they were recruited), it doesn't go out of its way to be available. It's easy to stonewall people when faced with the difficulties of addressing an entity the size of a planetary body. (It has plenty of ways of reaching YOU, however.)

SUPERBIA is not exactly good or nice, but it's not capable of being malicious either. It is completely bound to its original directive of finding Fortuna and pursues that goal with a Hal 9000-esque literalness.


https://pastries.dreamwidth.org/

PLANETS

Sep. 27th, 2022 07:12 pm
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PLANETS

!! This is your header; keep it punchy! !!
!! Your content here !!

!! This is your header; keep it punchy! !!

!! Your content here !!
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BUILD-A-SHIP

CHOOSE YOUR CHASSIS
The chassis is what the entire ship is based on. It determines both the appearance and the "stats" of the ship, and thus has the most influence on the ultimate identity of the ship.

Color, shape, and other cosmetic features are not restricted and can be freely chosen by the players. Ships do not need to be aerodynamic, because after all, no atmosphere in space.

Smiley face Armor, speed, and size can be abstractly represented as a triangle with the classic "want three pick two" arrangement. A ship can have a compromise of two stats at the cost of one, or be all in one stat at the cost of the other two. So you can have a respectably large and armored ship that isn't fast, or an extremely fast ship that is tiny and made of paper.









WEAPONS
The average ship can outfit a single major weapon. Ships which are large at the cost of armor or speed can have up to 2 weapons at a time, and ships which are large at the cost of everything else can hold 3 weapons.

Installing a new weapon and swapping between weapons is a fairly cumbersome process that requires a certain amount of uninterrupted time. Weapons cannot be changed mid-engagement.

Weapons can come from many origins. They can be developed in-house, so to speak, by SUPERBIA (SUPERBIA maintains that all weapons development has been to the end of furthering discovery and not boredom oh no not at all), purchased from arms vendors, or even ripped from other ships. The opportunity to get more and new weapons will appear at different points in the game, but some weapons are common and easy enough to come across that their possession does not need to be justified.

Despite the name, defensive and functional tools (such as shields or force fields) also count as "weapons", and take up a weapon slot. So a large ship can have a shield generator in one slot and a gun in the other. As a rule of thumb, if it's useful in a fight it is a weapon. That said, we will not stop you from strategizing about the combat uses of a mean Mai Tai.

COMMON WEAPONS:
Assault Cannon
A gun that fires bullets has its use even in the far reaches of space.
Anti-Vessel Missiles
These explosive weapons are known for their massively destructive AoEs.
Seraphim v-13 Laser Array
Algorithmically guided lasers will turn opposition into Swiss cheese.
Projectile-Repelling Force Shield
This extra layer of defense must be broken before armor can be hit.
Stake Driver
The nonexistent range on this weapon is made up for by its devastating effects on armor. Popular among Space Pirates.
S-01 Orbital Laser Canon
Completely useless in dogfights, invaluable for warcrimes.


THE HEART
The heart of the ship includes everything that isn't in the above categories. These are the truest indicators of your crew's needs, wants, and priorities. This is the "personality" of the ship.

The capacity of a ship is dependent on its size. The tiniest ship can't have any extra rooms, and an average sized ship can have only one. A large ship can have two of these accommodations and a very large ship can have up to five.

EXAMPLES:
Tiki Bar
With an Absolute Zero Superconductor Chiller and Beverage Replicator, infinite Mai Tais can be yours.
Menagerie
Take along a living souvenir from your interstellar journeys! Well-researched environments within the containment units guarantee 24/7 comfort and enrichment for your extra passengers.
Laboratory

Smiley faceSophisticated sensors and computers allow for on the fly analysis of any strange samples brought onboard, intentionally or otherwise.





Rec Room
With spacious courts, and the equipment to play every ball-based game in the local galaxy, your crewmates will have a perfect place to unwind.

CREW LIST

Sep. 27th, 2022 07:08 pm
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CREWS

To establish a new crew, comment to this post with a SHIP NAME, CAPTAIN, CREW LIST, WEAPONS, SHIP FACILITIES, and IMAGE

To report changes in crew lineup, simply comment to this post.

Ship Name

Captain:
content

Crewmates:
content

Weapons:
content

Facilities:
content

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
OUT OF CHARACTER
What Is Space Race?
What kind of characters can I play in Space Race?
How many characters can I play in Space Race?
When do applications open? When do events go up?

GAME MECHANICS
How do we get around finding this treasure?
Why would my character want to find the treasure?
How did my character become a Privateer?
What about housing/money/resources?
Can we revisit previous locations and planets?
What happens to a character's powers in the game?
Can my character bring [X] from their canon?
What happens when a character is dropped/a player leaves the game?
What happens when I change a character's canon point by canon updating them?
What happens when a character dies?
Is there a network?

ACTIVITY CHECK
What is the monthly activity check?
Can I take a hiatus? How about a strike?

CREWS AND SHIPS
How do I get a ship and a crew?
What determines what crew I'm on, or my title within a crew?
Can my ship be shaped like a [X]?
What weapons/rooms/etc. can my ship have?
If everyone has their own ship, aren't these fleets and not crews?

OUT OF CHARACTER
What Is Space Race?
Space Race is a panfandom roleplay game about Space Privateers hired from across the multiverse to search for the ultimate treasure: Fortuna, the Lucky Star. Inspirations include Borderlands, One Piece, Lancer, FTL, and Metroid.

Along the way characters will be able to pilot space ships, found their own crews, join other crews, commit mutiny, get marooned on an asteroid, and much more. In Space.

What kind of characters can I play in Space Race?
  • Canon Characters from a published series
  • Original Characters from a setting of the player's creation

Duplicates of characters are not allowed. If a character is on the Taken List, they cannot be apped for. Customizable characters that experience a canon plot (such as Bioware protagonists) count as canon characters, but not distinct characters, and cannot be apped if one already exists in the game.

How many characters can I play in Space Race?
Currently the limit is 3 characters per player. There are no plans for an overarching Game or Cast cap so far. These numbers may change as the game grows.

When do applications and reserves open? When do events go up?
Applications and reserves will open on a bimonthly basis.

The current, rough schedule of the game is as follows:

Month 1 Day 1 Applications are closed and accepted.
Month 1 Day 6 Crew Recruitment meme goes up. Major Event OOC Plotting Post is posted.
Month 1 Day 7 Major Event is posted.
Month 2 Day 6 Minor Event OOC Plotting Post is posted.
Month 2 Day 7 Minor Event is posted.
Month 2 Day 15 Test Drive Meme is posted. Reserves open.
Month 2 Day 23 Applications open.

GAME MECHANICS
How do we get around finding this treasure?
The structure for the search for the treasure will be mostly linear. Each major event will introduce a new planet which is known to contain some clue for the treasure, which will lead to the next planet, repeating indefinitely until the treasure is found or the game explodes.

Why would my character want to find the treasure?
While the precise nature and description of Fortuna is never consistent, ranging from a weapon to a natural phenomena or even a person, it is universally agreed that it is capable of granting anything one could ever desire. Winning a war, bringing a deceased loved one back to life, gaining peerless power and talent, all are possible reasons for a character to want the treasure. Or it could be scientific motivation, or even simple curiosity, that drives one's character to seek the Lucky Star.

If one truly cannot argue for any reason whatsoever for one's character to want to join the search for the Ultimate Treasure, we can only offer the advice of picking a different character to apply.

How did my character become a Privateer?
At some point, your character came into contact with the A.I. SUPERBIA and agreed to become one of its Privateers. The circumstances of this meeting are up for the player to decide. If your character comes from an advanced space-faring setting, it could have been as simple as responding to an ad from a periodical. On the other hand, in a more primitive society the meeting could have been more fateful such as encountering a meteorite that turned out to be a satellite. The only mandatory detail is that recruitment by SUPERBIA must have been completely voluntary.

What about housing/money/resources?
SUPERBIA, the A.I. created with the sole purpose of finding the Ultimate Treasure and the entity responsible for bringing the characters together, is a completely self-sufficient mega-structure the size of a small moon that provides its Privateers with infinite resources through ships, money, and even manpower (or robotpower). Material needs can be handwaved as being given by SUPERBIA.

Can we revisit previous locations and planets?
When a planet is discovered, a fast travel point is constructed, allowing anyone to visit it from any other previously visited location. However, the general assumption is that all clues and plot leads will be on current planet. The game will be, for the most part, a straight line to the end instead of a true sandbox.

What happens to a character's powers in the game?
Generally, powers are not nerfed. If a mod decides that a power is too disruptive for the game in the application stage, they are able to request that the power be modified.

Can my character bring [X] from their canon?
Because of the scale of the game and lack of power nerfing, items of practically any size can be brought over. The issue of transportation will have to be answered on your own, however.

"Pets" such as Pokemon, companion A.I.s, summons, etc. are allowed. If a pet is determined by the mods to be a playable character in their own right they may reject the request, however.

What happens when a character is dropped/a player leaves the game?
The character makes off like Poochie and returns to their homeplanet, forsaking the life of a Privateer (at least, for now).

What happens when I change a character's canon point by canon updating them?
Characters from the same canon arriving from disparate canon points will be chalked up to irregularities caused by anti-time dilation technology. Canon updates are returns to the character's homeplanet, explained by the same time peculiarities.

What happens when a character dies?
Dying in the Great Space Race is just as real as anywhere else. There are no respawns and death is permanent. If a player would like to plan a character's death and work it into the plot, please contact the mods.

Mechanically, the moment of a character's death, they are effectively immediately dropped from Space Race. From then on this character can be reapped by the same player or by different players with no memories as a Privateer. Mod trusts the players to not abuse this system for "extra lives". These "revivals" are likely the result of SUPERBIA pulling from extremely similar universes across the multiverse, but characters are free to speculate in-universe.

Is there a network?
The network, uncreatively titled The Network, is available to all characters through easily obtainable communication devices. It is equivalent to the modern internet, with videos, memes, dating apps, and all.

Like the internet, various private channels can be created, with different levels of security based on their nature.

ACTIVITY CHECK
What is the monthly activity check?
The activity check is a minimum of 10 comments. Up to 2 threads can be used to reach activity. Threads used for activity must have been started in the month of the activity check.

Can I take a hiatus? How about a strike?
A one month hiatus can be requested at any time through the Hiatus/Drop page. If a player wishes for a longer hiatus, please contact the mods to arrange details.

Players are allowed to take one strike. The strike must be made up in the immediate following app round, or the character will be removed from the game for inactivity. Strikes cannot be taken more often than every six months, to prevent them from being abused in conjunction with hiatuses.

CREWS AND SHIPS
How do I get a ship and a crew?
Ships do not need plotting or approval to be obtained. Every character has a minimum of one space ship by default, provided by SUPERBIA. Characters can also handwave having crews of nameless NPCs, whether they be robots or recruited mercenaries. Player crewmates require asking the players involved, of course.

What determines what crew I'm on, or my title within a crew?
Crews and their internal hierarchy (or lack of) will be left for the players to decide amongst each other. There will be a crew recruitment meme posted every other month for players to plot.

Can my ship be shaped like a [X]?
All cosmetic features are allowed for space ships.

What weapons/rooms/etc. can my ship have?
See the Build-A-Ship page for common features of space ships.

If everyone has their own ship, aren't these fleets and not crews?
Correct, but crew/crewmate sounds more pirate-y than fleet/fleetmate, so crew it is.