Soban
Convention Veteran
A while back there was a discussion about paying for aspects of star army to encourage RP. As a result, I got involved in a few ArtRPGs. Let me tell you they are wild! Mostly drawn art? There not really being a cannon? Using other people's characters casually? It was crazy. Anyway, that experience left me with some thoughts about how we could use some of their 'systems' to encourage RP. I've been thinking about it, and I came up with some ideas. However, I want to get community feedback and thoughts before I submit it as a suggestion.
Ok, so there is a military tradition called shadowboxes. I short, they are displays of things that a soldier has done. Ex. Rank insignia, challenge coins, patches so on and so forth. Given that Star Army is a military RP, this seems appropriate. We even have a lot of art assets that we can already use for this.
So what would a shadowbox be and how would it be used?
It would be a special wikipage that only the shadowbox admins could edit. In it would be pieces of art and other awards that are in some way limited.
It would be on a per-character basis. It would contain links to the RP/Art submitted for that character. So if someone else uses your character or you commission art for them, both of them count towards getting stuff in your shadow box.
At a minimum, every shadowbox will have a waist-up or full-body portrait of the character. With a custom or one of a number of preapproved backgrounds. (A custom background might be something that you need to spend Shadowbox points on. Also possibly special backgrounds might be a thing. IDK.)
From there, things can be added. For example, rank pins. In order to gain a rank pin, you will need to have written a certain amount of words or created some pieces of art in addition to fulfilling the requirements for the rank. So let's say you've created a new character that is a Taii for the plot and you want their rank in the shadowbox. As a character, they have been a Shoi and Chui. So what you would do is either write a story or get some artwork as a Chui, then as a Shoi, then use the RP you are currently in as written stuff for qualifying for the rank.
Because of this, a character might be a higher rank in RP than they have in their shadowbox or alternatively, if they have been demoted or are no longer doing a higher-ranking job, have a higher rank pin than they have in their box.
But this sort of reward doesn't just have to be rank pins. It could be anything really. From citations for bravery to Mindyies, to model space ships. ex. the Kaiyo sword. Something that only a few examples exist of. It might also be a ribbon rack, where to get a ribbon you need to either do a rp or write the story of how they got it. For example, your character was at Glimmergold, but the Glimmergold event was a long time ago so you didn't get to participate. You write a story about where they fit in at Glimmergold for that award.
The possibilities are endless and I'm probably not explaining it perfectly. There is going to be administrative overhead, But I think we can use the artificial scarcity of a Shadowbox to encourage RP. Thoughts?
Ok, so there is a military tradition called shadowboxes. I short, they are displays of things that a soldier has done. Ex. Rank insignia, challenge coins, patches so on and so forth. Given that Star Army is a military RP, this seems appropriate. We even have a lot of art assets that we can already use for this.
So what would a shadowbox be and how would it be used?
It would be a special wikipage that only the shadowbox admins could edit. In it would be pieces of art and other awards that are in some way limited.
It would be on a per-character basis. It would contain links to the RP/Art submitted for that character. So if someone else uses your character or you commission art for them, both of them count towards getting stuff in your shadow box.
At a minimum, every shadowbox will have a waist-up or full-body portrait of the character. With a custom or one of a number of preapproved backgrounds. (A custom background might be something that you need to spend Shadowbox points on. Also possibly special backgrounds might be a thing. IDK.)
From there, things can be added. For example, rank pins. In order to gain a rank pin, you will need to have written a certain amount of words or created some pieces of art in addition to fulfilling the requirements for the rank. So let's say you've created a new character that is a Taii for the plot and you want their rank in the shadowbox. As a character, they have been a Shoi and Chui. So what you would do is either write a story or get some artwork as a Chui, then as a Shoi, then use the RP you are currently in as written stuff for qualifying for the rank.
Because of this, a character might be a higher rank in RP than they have in their shadowbox or alternatively, if they have been demoted or are no longer doing a higher-ranking job, have a higher rank pin than they have in their box.
But this sort of reward doesn't just have to be rank pins. It could be anything really. From citations for bravery to Mindyies, to model space ships. ex. the Kaiyo sword. Something that only a few examples exist of. It might also be a ribbon rack, where to get a ribbon you need to either do a rp or write the story of how they got it. For example, your character was at Glimmergold, but the Glimmergold event was a long time ago so you didn't get to participate. You write a story about where they fit in at Glimmergold for that award.
The possibilities are endless and I'm probably not explaining it perfectly. There is going to be administrative overhead, But I think we can use the artificial scarcity of a Shadowbox to encourage RP. Thoughts?