Roleplay / Starpath

Sounds better than Spaceship Crew RP.

Starpath is an online Play by Post RP space series originally made by Doomevil on the Facepunch Forums. The series consists of two games so far: Journey Across the Galaxy and Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway.

Journey Across the Galaxy is set in the year 2382 as humanity has become a member of the United Galactic Community. A company called HarkArk has recently exposed their new model called the Archius XI, looking for new members around to explore the outer rims across the galaxy. Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway is set two years after the events of the first game. Players play as crew members under different professions. The game is based on luck and decision, as each crew member's action will probably affect the ship in some other way.

They have their own Steam Group too.

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This roleplay series contains examples of:

General tropes

• Alien Blood: In Journey, Bruta's men and possibly himself are revealed to have green blood when one pirate dies.
• Aliens Speaking English: How most of the non-human characters communicate.
• The Alliance: The United Galactic Community, containing races who have registered. Subverted by the end of Journey.
• All Deaths Final: Being an RP that takes place in a Sci-Fi setting, this trope is enforced.
• All There in the Manual: Some specific details, like the drink orders of some of the characters, can be found on here on TV Tropes. Others are located on the Wikia.
• Badass Crew: In Journey, the main crew consisted of a bunch of crew members who had barely seen combat throughout their lives, but even beside that, they still kicked plenty of ass on their first day. In Scoundrels, considering the circumstances, it is a given they are this.

• Commie Land: The Kanad Collective fits the bill, replete with cold-weather, old concrete architecture, bureaucracy, and drab clothing for everyone.

• Faster-Than-Light Travel: It exists.
• Fantastic Racism: Kanads distrust Humans due to their tendency to colonize other planets.
• Illegal Religion: Following the acceptation of Humanity's seat in the UGC, the Solar System Gov proposed the secularization of the system.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Being an RP set in the future in space, this trope is quite inevitable. In fact, because of this inevitability, in Scoundrels, a rule was made to specifically subvert it.
• No-Paper Future: Averted, even in 2382 people even aliens still use paper for documents, reading books, or writing notes.

• Promoted to Playable: Inverted. Inactive players have their characters become NPCs.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The entire crew members have a variety of backgrounds including but not limited to:
  • In Journey, a former soldier who has his conscious transferred into a robot, a master chef, a mad gene scientist, a bartender, and even a food critic.
  • In Scoundrels, a former wrestler turned cook, a being turned android who lost most of his memories, an ex-racer, and a gynoid turned engineer.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.

• Story Arc: Invoked.
  • Journey had the Pirate Arc, the Bug Hunt Arc, the Termina Arc, the Gadon Arc, the Meteor Arc, the Duroma Arc, the State Security Arc and the Crimson Arc.
  • Scoundrels refers to its arcs as chapters.
• Superior Species: The Kanad very much see themselves as this, compared to their galactic enemies, the humans. In Journey, the Archius' resident Kanad, Yanim Sidikan, even tried to one-up one of the first humans she sets eyes on.

• The Unpronounceable: The native name of the Rwadi is nigh-impossible for other species to pronounce.
• Viral Transformation: The Gold Dusts sell Lusurian sex slaves which transform their partners into Lusurians.
• World War III: In Journey, Lion remembered when his grandfather taught him about all three World Wars.

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Journey Across the Galaxy

• Air-Vent Passageway: Subverted. Issac crawls into one to hide from pirates, but becomes hopelessly stuck. He reappears the following day, having spent the whole night in the shaft.

• Archaeological Arms Race: This is HarkArk and the Crimson Son's goal. In order to out tech each other, their only option to create new big technologies in a fast pace without starting a major war for every race to notice is to find the pieces of the Oracle.
• Attack of the 5-Foot Tomato: The giant tomato that suddenly attacks the crew as they're approaching Termina Central.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Harken Saw succeeds in destroying the Oracle along with most of the Crimus Hierarchy including the Richter. Sacrificing many lives such as his company and many other allies just so he can commit genocide.
• Battle Trophy: Lion cuts off the head of the Screecher Queen they killed and places it onto the wall inside the bar.
• Batman Gambit: Jeremy pulls one when Bruta demands them to hand over the Oracle, by making a clone of himself with the help of Arthur, playing Russian Roulette with Bruta.
• Bee People: Screechers are drones that work for the Screecher Queen. Sometimes there's even an Elder Screecher that guards their nest.

• Bittersweet Ending: So bitter that it's on the edge of being a Downer Ending. The Crimson Son are finally defeated and the Oracle is destroyed. But at the cost of many being exploited and killed such as Jeremy, Varn, and Lion. It also reveals that Harken Saw started the entire conflict a hundred years ago and wins. On the other hand most Archius members have survived the Battle of Zeruel and HarkArk collapsing shortly after.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: The Archius Crew are far from saints, some had bad pasts that they hide from their everyday jobs, some even hide their criminal origins. However, they're still willing to do what's right and choose a peaceful solution first while some organizations they encounter are even worse in the setting than they are.

• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Madman's Vision becomes useful later on when the Archius Crew fights Sertum.
  • Harken Saw's cybernetic eye ends up uploading the entire conversation between him and Dwan in his office to Yanim.
• Chekhov's Skill: Arthur's skill on genetics such as cloning or gene splicing becomes a huge part of Jeremy's Batman Gambit when said captain clones himself in order to take out Bruta.
• Church Militant: The Divinity Creed fit the bill perfectly, they're deeply religious who brainwash recruiters to further their agenda. They actually have fleets in their cause.

• Dance Party Ending: Subverted when Sledge tries to start one after destroying the giant mutant tomato only for Viper to hand him a mop and order him to clean up the mess he'd just made.
• Darker and Edgier: Act 3 is heading this way after the hostage massacre on Duroma and literally confirmed by Word of God.
• Death of a Child: Archius Crew doesn't just see one child get murdered but rather a lot more get killed when they fail to rescue hostages.
• Death World: Oltanis is said to be covered in severe thunderstorms and other threatening creatures due to "biological changes". Now it's simply a danger world.
• Deconstruction: While the first Two Acts has a somewhat lightened mood on the typical Badass Ragtag Bunch of Misfits going on adventures and seeking fortune, fighting off the morally black. The Third Act deconstructs this attitude when a member attempts to negotiate by bluffing thinking the Leader holding hostages will fall for it. Not only does it fail but it results in a child being murdered on the spot. The entire situation escalates and several bystanders die, including the hostages. This shows the major consequences of what happens when the badass doesn't realize that sometimes the stakes are high and you need to think realistically or else the people around you will pay for it.
  • Gets deconstructed even harder during the Third Act when the apparent deaths of Lion and Dwan takes a toll on everyone, especially Jeremy. Despite overcoming odds against their favor, the harmful effects from such conflicts are clearly visible that after these events it's questionable if the Archius Crew will ever heal from the scarring.
• Drop Ship: The Archius has one HarkArk Adeptor-class dropship in their hangar bay whenever they want to land on a planet. Later on they decided to name it Roughrider.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Happens to Odenia, causing the Galaxy to go down into instability. Later happens to Zeruel.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Dolosus sees the low gravity in the elevator shaft as a good vantage point to shoot from. This works until the elevator car nearly crushes him.
• Esperanto, the Universal Language: Played for laughs. While the UGC uses it as the official lingua franca for human-xeno communication, absolutely no one uses it. Subverted when it, along with all other Conlangs, lose their status as lingua francas.
• Fighting Your Friend: This happens on Gadon when Iska goes into The Berserker mode and Viper needs to calm her down. A solution left Viper strangling her until she blacks out It works, but backfires in the long run on both of their favors.
• Feed It a Bomb: Lion's plan to throw a concussion inside the Screecher Queen's mouth. It fails. But later Varn throws another grenade, causing a chain reaction

• Flowery Insult:
  • Dropped by Yanim on Arthur.
  "If every human were like you, no human would be like you. Indeed, science would begin and end with the pursuit of a cure for your personality."
  • Unfortunately for her, Arthur finds her hostility endearing.

• Foreshadowing:

• The story Folter tells to the Archius about Timmy and Chad foreshadows what really happened between the Crimus and HarkArk.
• Earlier the Privateers are shown to act rude and are sometimes shown out of line. Later on their usage of brutality among Crimus soldiers is a clue they're willing to kill anyone in their path, even if it means citizens.
• Harken Saw has an awful amount of antiques and old objects in his office. Makes perfect sense when he's been active in the Galaxy for hundreds of years.
• In a discussion Gataska questions if there's any mention of people Harken Saw stepped on to become the man he is today. The people of the Crimus would like to talk about that.

• Gargle Blaster: Valhalla Gin, a bartender is seen giving one to Iska and Varn. Thankfully Dwan tests it out for them. Unfortunately he goes unconscious within a minute. Regardless Varn still wants to take the challenge despite Dwan's warnings. Best explained by the GM:

"Imagine a drink so strong that even the gods will take pity on you for drinking it, its not pain that does you in, it'll be like combining hallucations, past memories, and strange shit in a container. The after effect suprisingly would probably be nausea and vomiting, but that would be all. Once you drink it, you've convinced yourself you're the strongest person in the world, if not the universe."

• Groin Attack: Sledge delivers one to the killer tomato, of all things. It was brought about when Game Master doomevil misunderstood that a "crotch-chop" is a taunt, rather than an attack. The resulting dice roll was a critical success so Sledge went with it and kicked the tomato anyway.

• How Unscientific!: Dwan and Iska discuss caldiur/bloodmagic in the bar, prompting Yanim to reveal herself as a skeptic by dismissing it all as "nonsense."

• Insult Backfire: A belated one during Sledge's first conversation with Yanim. When Sledge brings up that most Kanads call him a "Yatara Barbem" Yanim's auto-translator picks it up and translates it to "clueless cock bulge". Despite being a much worse insult than he'd originally assumed, Sledge finds this hysterical.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Though, Kr'fenir was a jerk, Jeremy did made a plan without telling others, especially Kr'fernir, the Chief Engineer of the ship. Kr'fernir calls him out on this and the captain apologizes.
• Just in Time: Yanim successfully shot a dud vintage grenade before one pirate was about to shoot Joseph's head off, blowing them up to pieces.
• Large and in Charge: Bruta is the leader of his own pirate gang, it's revealed he used to serve in the Kercan Civil War, becoming a deserter later on.
• MacGuffin: The Oracle.
• Magic by Any Other Name: Caldiur.
• Mama Bear: The Screecher Queen, she gets pissed off when she fears her eggs or workers are in danger.
• MegaCorp: The company called HarkArk is this. Their influence has spanned across the Galaxy and almost everyone in the civilized worlds knows about them. They even created the main ship Archius XI where the main characters work at.

• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sledge literally knocks a man's head off as retaliation for his gang's slaughter of children on Duroma.
• No One Could Survive That!: Dwan and Lion received this after escaping certain death by explosion at Hanza Fuel Farms.
• Novelization: One is currently in the works, with the intent of "bringing order to the original RP", as well as fix grammatical errors, inconsistencies and etc. Adaptation Expansion is even planned.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Dwan introduces the terms caldiur (the scientific term for magic) and caldury (the science that involves the study of caldiur) to the Archive Dictionary, aswell as caldic (a synonym for magical).

• Precursors: The Kauzen, an advanced race who once claimed the entire Galaxy eons ago until they disappeared. They're also the ones who made the Oracle.
• Running Gag: At the bar, Arthur orders a drink from a non-space related fictional universe. Dwan then pulls out said drink from his exotic drinks cabinet.
• Sequel Hook: Before the destruction of Zeruel, an average citizen is shaking Sertum's hand and cue's to Folter POV. After that Mariahlus's body is still not found. Later on Deadeye mentions how it's simply "Not their call." An even bigger one mentions how Vara explains that beyond the Conduit He might come back.

• The Syndicate: Bruta during his final days mentions the organization that hired them to take the Oracle was named the Crimson Son, having a corporation as a front so they won't worry about hiding their crimes.

• We Are Everywhere: Harken Saw describes the threat of the Crimson Son to be all around the Galaxy. They could be your friend, your local councilman, or even your crew member.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After a harrowing life-saving surgery at the hands of Joseph, Viper is rehabilitated by a robotic suit designed by the engineering team to actually enhance her abilities.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Invoked by a dockworker at Termina Central. It appears that, three centuries after the kanads decimated the population of Koda, the injustice goes unrecognized.
• You Have Failed Me: One of the big reasons why the First Figure decided to kill off the Tainted Raiders combined with He Knows Too Much
• You No Take Candle: Yanim carries a translator device to compensate for her lack of English skills.

Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway

• Ascended Extra: The returning main character Yanim is The Leader of the Belladonna Company. Faction-wise the Collective are also the main conflict between the Belladonna Company rather than the medium-sized threat they were previously.
• Crapsack World: Even more apparent after the events of the first game. UGC has fallen and rendered powerless as members leave. Kanad Collective are reigning over the borders states with their resources. Criminals and mercenaries are at an all time high and are gaining power.

• The Dreaded: By the time the sequel rolls out Harken Saw has become a taboo legend after his killing spree.

• N.G.O. Superpower: With HarkArk collapsing, a new alliance of corporations has emerged as the Elysium Combine.
• Rescue Arc: The prologue involves the rescue of Yanim Terika, the Boss of the Belladonna Company.