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Want to experience the Star Army universe with the maximum amount of freedom? Consider creating an independent character. Independent player characters lack the usual attachments such as loyalty to a faction or a membership in a plot group.
There are pros and cons to playing an independent character. On one hand, you are able to go anywhere in the setting at your leisure, only interacting directly with faction managers and the setting manager when necessary. On the other hand, as a role-player it may be difficult to find other player characters for yours to interact with and not all of your threads may be considered “canon.” Rather than having a forum to roleplay in, you will generally be using the top-level forum of the nation your character happens to be in, (for example, the Abwheran Star Empire forum) or the Other Factions and Independent Ships forum. Sometimes you may be the only poster in your thread. For this reason, we recommend independent characters for motivated, prolific writers with some familiarity with (or interest in researching) the SARPiverse.
We want to empower you, the roleplayer/writer, to do your own thing within our shared universe.
In the words of admin Wes: “We need an alternative to the traditional plot where the GM is in control, plays the captain, the players play grunts, and the party goes where the GM feels like instead of making its own choices. If we get a player that says “I want to make an RP thread where my Freespacer travels the galaxy visiting all the major factions to gain their culinary knowledge” or something I want them to be able to do it. I think that playing a Star Army soldier is a core part of the Star Army RP…but there's more to us than that…”
In general, we try to include all roleplay as canon—meaning that your RP becomes an official part of the SARP history that must be acknowledged by and accounted for all the other role-players on SARP. For example, if your character crashed a spaceship on a planet in your roleplaying thread, the debris could be noted on the planet’s wiki page and appear in other roleplay threads (maybe they want to salvage it).
Reasons that RP threads might be considered non-canonical include non-canon elements (e.g. unapproved tech), or major events and changes to the setting that were not discussed/approved with the people responsible for the affected factions or characters. People have worked hard on their toys; try not to break them without permission or they might ask that the offending post not count.
If you talk to the GMs of plots, you may be able to arrange cameos and crossovers in which your character appears in an ongoing plot to assist, antagonize, or just add fun to the story. Just be careful of the timeline, since different lots might not align.
In general, you can use one of the species-specific guides found on the Creating a Character article and modify your character to suit your needs.
Below are some some ideas for what your character's occupation might be.
We suggest before you start your thread, you post your ideas on the roleplay and setting discussion forum so that you can get some feedback on them, and find other characters that may want to participate in your thread.
When you post your thread, tag the post with [Open] or [Closed] to let other players know whether it is okay to join without permission (closed threads do not allow others to join without your approval).
In the case of conflicts between players, thread RPs are the under the jurisdiction of the faction managers, who can decide whether they want something to be canon or not. In most cases, we should try to be flexible and accept the thread based RPs as having effects on the universe. It's also okay for FMs to have GMs or delegates to help them with this.
These are some suggested neutral locations for faction-independent roleplay:
Here's some recommended starships and small craft for independent characters:
This page was originally created on 2013/01/09 09:36 by wes.