STAR ARMY

Sci-fi roleplaying and worldbuilding community

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guide:new_players

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New Players' Guide πŸ”°

Welcome to Star Army! This article has the basic steps and info you'll need to participate. Please read it thoroughly.

Setting Overview

We don't know how far away from Earth we are, or how long ago humans first left Earth. Incalculable knowledge has been lost to war, plagues, and alien occupations, and now Earth is merely an ancient legend. But humanity survives in the form of its distant colony worlds.

From the ashes, a new pocket of civilizations arose in this unusually habitable corner of the kagami_galaxy. Peace is carefully maintained in besieged nations like the Yamatai Star Empire whose overextended military forces continue to constantly fight off against alien invasions and insurrections while frontier regions struggle to survive against scarcity and lawlessness.

Star Army is a shared, living world that is always growing. Your writing can add to the setting, and your RP may be affected by events in the setting. Because you'll roleplay with other people, expect to be surprised sometimes! Have fun and be brave.

Roleplaying Overview

In Star Army, you and other members create characters who live in the high-tech fictional universe of Star Army and then use your imagination to write your character's actions and dialogue to create collaborative stories. You can create and play characters forged by this unique universe and their actions will affect the setting for future players.

Star Army is a play-by-post roleplaying community, which means we operate by posting text on the forum. Unlike tabletop roleplaying games, Star Army is mostly just writing and does not use complex game mechanics (math). Most story plots have a Game Master (GM) assigned whose job is to guide the story, describe the setting, and write the actions of background characters (NPCs). In the Open Roleplay forum, the creator of the RP thread may act as a GM.

Most RP occurs in ongoing RP plots. After their second RP thread starts, they can get their own subforum. A plot in this case refers to an ongoing role playing story and its group of players. In the Star Army RP, these are often based on starships. Before you make your character, if possible, do a little background reading on the role-play and get an idea of which plot you want to join.

In Star Army RPs, we usually write in third-person past tense, the way most novels do. For example: A scowl of disgust appeared on Sayuri's face as she watched the lizard creatures eagerly gnawing on the abandoned corpses.

For the full guide to roleplaying on Star Army, see Roleplaying.

Flexible Time

At a site-wide level, a year in real life is equivalent to a year in the Star Army universe. However, you are not required to stay aligned with the actual dates throughout the year. To help keep track of space and time, please include the location, date, and time at the start of your posts as needed.

See also: Yamatai

Account Setup

Star Army is an β€œaccount per player” (APP) site, which means each member should only have one account for the forums. The same login will be used for all of your characters. You must be 16 or older to join Star Army. There is no cost to join or participate. Before joining, you should probably read the Site Rules.

Register an account on the forums by clicking β€œLog in or Sign up” on the upper right corner of the page. You're invited to then introduce yourself in the Introductions & New Players Forum.

Optional: Create a wiki account. The wiki login system is separate from the forum one, so you will need to register for both. You'll need a wiki account to create and edit wiki articles (such as if you want to make a page for your character). Register an account for the wiki.

:!: If you have trouble registering, contact the admin. See the Questions and Assistance section below. Star Army uses advanced anti-spam methods that may occasionally flag a legitimate user for further review based on IP address, email, username, or other characteristics.

Creating Characters

When you're ready, start making characters using the guides found on the Creating A Character wiki page. Once your character is approved you're free to start Roleplaying by joining a plot group or by joining or creating a roleplay thread.

Star Army is a community, so get the most out of this site by being proactive; get (and stay) involved. Make friends of your fellow roleplayers by showing them you're fun to write with! It doesn't matter how long you've been a site member: what matters is what you're doing.

Questions and Assistance

Getting into Star Army is easiest when you ask someone to mentor you through it, and we're happy to do that! If we haven't volunteered yet, just ask! You've got questions: there are many ways to get answers or help:

Roleplaying Jargon

The following are some common terms in the Star Army Roleplay Community.


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guide/new_players.1515884993.txt.gz Β· Last modified: 2023/12/20 15:52 (external edit)