Welcome one and all to the event of the season in Starmourn – The Floating Market 976 A.E.!
This year the market will be floating around Fontain Station from November 15th-25th, which should be plenty of time for folks to thoroughly check it out. As always you may either fly to it or take ground transports.
Img from r/AIFantasyWorld
What does one do at this market?
At the illustrious Floating Market, players can purchase things that will only ever be available from the Market, as well as some promo items available for purchase with marks instead of credits.
Some goods will be rare. Some will not. There may be only one of some items. The stock may change while the market is open. There is no guarantee you will ever see anything at one market at the next market. You might. You might not. Go in with the mindset that if you want it, you should buy it. The Floating Market is -entirely changeable-.
For this round, many of the shops our veterans know and love are returning in some form or another, giving our new folks access to their fantastic wares. However we’ve also added several brand NEW shops and NPCs to meet!
What if I want to sell things?
Players can claim a market stall (one per person!) for 50k marks and sell their wares during for the entire span of the market for the chance to make several loads of marks and even earn new titles!
All wares and props will be cleared automatically at the end of the market, so be sure to remove anything from your shop before it resets! We hope for this place to be a hub of roleplay while it is town.
If you are interested in hosting a shop as a seller, please send me a message in-game by November 4th if possible so I can get you in ahead of time to set things up. Also so I can track it and ensure we have enough space!
Happy shopping!
Your Starmourn Admin Team
What’s that? Who’s there?!
For those of you not already in the Discord, here’s your mid-month reminder: Rapadruk Season is upon us, Starmourn! As the night’s shadows encroach on the day’s glow, the gloomy holiday brings out the band of Candy Dans and all sorts of trickery across those populated planets and ALL known racial homeworlds of the sector.
Rapa’ruk Mansion
Check out HELP RAPADRUK for more info on this Krona holiday, then head to Gunurash III to talk with Candy Dan or explore the Drukula brothers’ infamous Rapa’ruk Mansion (v15087) for some frightful fun! Within the Mansion, you can explore two paths on an interactive journey through the scariest tales of the Starmourn Sector, if you dare…
Oh, and set your calendars for October 19th at Sync-1 for a bonus, ritualistic experience before the Starmourn Round Table talk. It’ll be a bloody good time!
Lucent Radiowaves STAR SEARCH
We’re also going to start a new, smaller contest to add some spooky vibes to the Lucent Radiowaves in the form of a new band and their top hits.
The winner of this contest may see their band come to life, and all submissions will be put up for consideration to be added to the Lucent Radiowave’s new Genres: Goremetal + Synthedge, and Moods: Spooky + Scary.
Your entry should include:
- The new band’s name
- A description of 2-3 band members, including what they look and sound like
- 2-3 song names as well as the song’s lyrical theme, genre, and mood.
For example:
Band: Gringle’s Grungles
Lead Singer: Gringle – A Loroi with a long flowing braid dyed blood red, wrapped around her neck like a hangman’s noose. She speaks with a rasping voice, as if she’s smoked straight exhaust fumes her whole life, but she sings in a haunting warble that’ll send a shiver down your spine.
Song 1: Rapasu Quake Killer (Synthedge, Spooky)
A groaning, lilting melody about the loss of a puppy to the monstrous maw of a Northern Usum Rapasu worm that peaks in a roaring crescendo.
Song 2: Nightstalker, Dream Eater (Goremetal, Spooky)
Sung by someone that sounds like they’ve just been stabbed and are trying to pretend they’re fine, this anthem is about lost love, but winds its way through strange metaphors and dreamlike sequences.
We’ll accept a maximum of 1 band, 3 members, and 3 songs per entry. Please send your entry as a Pastebin or Notepad file to Argus either in-game via Message or on Discord.
Scare the Storytellers 2024
And of course, this also kicks off our Scare The Storytellers contest for 2024! This year we will not be limiting the contest entries to a story from your race’s – As long as it’s scary, creative, and rooted in lore, we’re happy to read what you can come up with! More details will be posted soon, including this year’s prizes.
WHAT WE WANT:
A new story outlining something r4ethat inspires terror across the denizens of the sector. Whether it’s a scary monster, a haunting philosophy, or a tale of warning, we want to read stories rooted in lore that would inspire goosebumps across a Ry’nari’s hide.
CONTEST RULES:
- Your entry must include ALL required information detailed above.
- One entry per player.
- Collaboration is ok, but only the person who submits the entry can win the prize.
- No stories or creepypastas lifted directly from current Earth culture. Taking inspiration is fine, but the final product should be unique and wholly yours.
- Goes without saying, but no AI generated content. We’re on the honor code here – This should come from you.
SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY:
Entries should be sent as a Pastebin, Notepad file, or Google Doc link to Argus in game and will be shared among game staff for judging, crying, and screaming in terror! (Not necessarily in that order.) Your deadline is 11:59pm EST on October 31st. We’ll take a couple days to decide, then announce the winner!
You are welcome, though not required, to use this entry form: https://pastebin.com/nGDPEvBH
WINNING PRIZE:
The winning entry will receive a unique item of some kind or a minipet loosely based on their creation, subject to admin discretion. Details about the creature will also be added to our public wiki and the main website, solidifying the fruits of your depraved imagination into game canon forever.
In addition, everyone who submits an entry will receive:
– 25 credits
– A special mask only available through this contest
To check out entries from previous years, you can check out the website https://www.starmourn.com/scare_the_storytellers/ or go right to the wiki https://wiki.starmourn.com/Scare_The_Storytellers!
Cowering in fear, but excited,
Your Starmourn Admin Team
Now that things have settled a bit with the Newbie Experience, check out the roster of fun end of year holidays the Starmourn sector is known for!
October
Rapadruk Season is the Starmourn analog to Halloween, and the Sector decks itself out with ENTHUSIASM for all the spooky theming and parties similar to the Earthen holiday.
Join us for the reopening of Raparak Mansion, trick-or-treating across the Sector, and of course our annual tradition: Scare the Storytellers! Check out previous entries here.
We might also have a few treats up our sleeves… You’ll have to log in to see!
November
The Floating Market is ON! Running for only a week in November, the Floating Market serves as an opportunity to get unique, one-of-a-kind and limited run wares from NPC shopkeeps, plus serves as a place for players to host their own shops and make incredible marks sales. There are also wedding and concert venues, so be sure to check it out while you can. More details to come!
We’ve outfitted a variety of new vendors and improved on the offerings of some returning classics so new and veteran spacers alike have the opportunity to grab something hot ‘n fresh from the limited time market offerings. Learn more about the Floating Market here.
December
Closing the year, we celebrate our annual holiday of Winterflame, when Ironbeard raises his ship and flies across the Sector to drop presents and glee to all!
A Tukkav holiday at its core, Winterflame is the celebration where spacers of every race and creed set aside their differences to come together in warmth and friendship, to exchange gifts, and to build a chosen family that is as important as blood. Learn more about Winterflame here.
Every year the Admin team works to bring about a unique event or game system for players to enjoy as our gift to you, and we end the year with Player Nominations – A chance for y’all to give kudos to each other for all you’ve accomplished over the course of the year.
Other Fun Things & Dev Updates
The Admin team regrouped last week to discuss dev plans and ideas, as well as to create a roadmap of our releases for the next few months. We’re hard at work building new areas, planning a Xenohunt weekend, and otherwise developing fun content for y’all to enjoy, so stay tuned and keep an eye to the blog!
Reminder about the REQUEST system, whereby any player can build out their RP journey and get admin assistance for new experience, events, areas, and more! If you’ve got an idea you’ve been wanting to explore, send Argus a message in game or consider submitting an RP REQUEST today.
With much love and excitement,
Your Starmourn Admin Team
First of all, a huge shout out to ALL the new players who have joined the Starmourn Sector since the New Tutorial released just one week ago! We are beyond thrilled to see so many new faces joining the game and really taking to it.
Celebrating the New Tutorial
We announced on release day that ALL spacers would get a FREE rainbow tesseract upon logging in AND would get to take advantage of DOUBLE XP for the rest of the month.
Then on Monday this week, we announced in game that ALL players are eligible to receive up to 8 additional rainbow tesseracts just for playing! Every 10 hours spent in game until the end of the promo period = 1 more tesseract to share with friends.
Players have gone wild, teaming up on hunting expeditions, taking to the skies in pursuit of fortune and fame in the stars, and celebrating in style by organizing parties to maximize the rewards of this period.
We are so grateful to all of our veteran players for welcome new folks with open arms, branch-ends, wings, tendrils, and such. Y‘all are truly the heart of this game, and you make the Sector a wonderful place to play.
New Archaeology Digsite: ISHBI
We are deeply delighted to dish some dirt on a dazzling new digsite that Archeology aficionados have been waiting ever so patiently for;
Scatterhome’s Ishbi asteroid, a dry rock full of dusty saloons, tarak beetle ranches, and a wilderness of strip-mined canyons has recently unearthed some items that may be of academic and historical interest.
Photo by arash payam on Unsplash
Six new fossils and three new antiquities are waiting for the collective You to dig them up, dust them off, and dash them to pieces on the research table.
As a reminder (or an FYI to our new friends), Archaeology is a system of roleplay collaboration, allowing groups of people to get together to uncover some in-world lore and gleanings of history from the fossils and antiquities of the past. We encourage all of you to seek out your Faction’s Curators to learn more!
QOL Update: WELCOMEBACK
Implemented today, players will now be offered a WELCOMEBACK package if returning to Starmourn after 60+ IRL days on the ice.
This command will give you any armor you’re missing and a full set of class appropriate weaponry based on your MIL, as well as some marks and clothing to help you get where you need to be.
Pat-patting your frost-laden cryo chambers,
Your Starmourn Admin Team
To those who’ve been thinking about taking their first steps in the Starmourn Sector or considering a return from an extended cryo nap- It’s time!
As of Sync on Friday (0:00 GMT), the revamped Starmourn Tutorial and newbie experience will be officially live and available to the public.
I could never give enough kudos, but shout out to our incredible volunteer team and the player BETA testers who completed over 20 test-throughs throughout 4 rounds of testing to help ensure the new system is fun, informative, and… hopefully unbreakable. You are all truly incredible, and we are so grateful to have such an amazing community.
In the new tutorial, you can:
- Meet many new NPCs and explore Starmourn’s lore
- Trial run every class and practice your skills
- Get an intro to KEY systems and QOL configs
- Complete additional quests with the NPCs of the asteroid city
- Earn and discover takeaways from the tutorial that you can keep and use in the main game
- Meet with Cassandra Min and optionally jump right into the Main Quest when you finish the tutorial
- Plus everything we discussed in our last post here
What’s that? You think we can sweeten the experience even more?
Well, you’re absolutely right! For the next two weeks:
- Firstly, everyone who logs in to Starmourn will get a FREE rainbow tesseract to open for artifacts, credit prizes, and more! Open in a room with friends and EVERYONE present will also get a gift!
- Second, we’ll be offering DOUBLE EXPERIENCE for everyone to help supercharge your run to MIL 75. Find some friends and start hunting to make the most of this boost!
And who knows? We’re so giddy with excitement, we may choose to sweeten things even more.
As a reminder, Starmourn is now entirely FREE to play.
There’s a wealth of activities to participate in including space exploration via starship, PvE combat that uses a variety of class skills, nuanced PvP combat opportunities, archaeology and freeform RP museum research, loads of design tradeskills, and more! Add in player and admin led events and the potential is practically limitless! Check out a more complete list on the Things To Do page on our website.
You can also get ahead by checking out our Official Discord Server (the hot place to be, RIP Forums) and discussing this further on our most recent Reddit post!
Don’t miss out – Dive in to the interstellar world of Starmourn today!
Small yet mighty, the new Starmourn Tutorial zone packs a punch in a compact space with the goal of onboarding new and veteran MUD players alike into IRE’s unique sci-fi title – And it’s completely free-to-play!
Round two of BETA testing for the new tutorial has officially kicked off today, which means we’re another step closer to releasing the revamped Newbie experience for everyone to try!
For those who missed the last update
Here’s what you can expect to be able to accomplish in the new tutorial:
- Learn how to engage with and navigate the world
- Actively develop a roleplay-based backstory
- Learn about key systems including wetwiring curing, HETE cloning, modding, and tradeskills
- Learn about Faction history and racial lore
- Try some local fare at the Bodegani cantina
- Experience a holo-performance from a celebrity band
- Learn and practice the basic attack and healing abilities of up to all five classes
- Learn how to use armor and slot mods to improve your stats
- Befriend a slew of unique new allies on the most remote rock in the Sector
- Pet a goredog puppy
- Kick some butts and thwart some evil schemes
Our goal with this new tutorial is to ensure new players get the lessons they need for a sturdy landing at Omni Station as they start their Starmourn adventure.
Players will have the option of skimming through for just what they need, or really immersing themselves to learn LOADS about the Starmourn sector before diving in with other players. Either way, thanks to round tables and many discussions with veteran and new players alike, this new tutorial has been designed for YOU!
Oh yeah. You wanna pet that dog don’t ya.
Ready to join us?
If you’re thinking about playing Starmourn, but want to wait for the new Tutorial’s final release before making a character, check out our Things To Do page for an overview of all the new things to do in game! You can also click around to learn about our game systems, classes and skills, player races, FAQ, and more all in one handy spot.
For all you lore junkies looking for more- The Starmourn Wiki serves as a rich library information for you to scour as you prepare to join the Sector.
And lastly, get in touch with the Starmourn community in our official Discord server. We’d love to meet you!
Sincerely,
The Starmourn Admin Team
Think we're pretty cool? Tell your friends!
