Bluebear's Hosting Policies

As a STARS! Host, I run multi-person games for the players. This page is intended to outline some of my basic Hosting Policies.

COMMUNICATIONS & TURN INFO
To start with, I communicate with players using MIME attachments. This is a very common way that email programs transmit attachments (such as .m files to players and the .x files they send back). Both Eudora Lite (which I use) and Pegasus (another very popular email program) can handle MIME attachments. Both of these can be downloaded for free from sites such as Tucows. Netscape Email can handle MIME attachments -- but only with some very tricky settings. Therefore, Netscape's Email Utility is NOT recommended.
Turns are due once a day. All moves are due in at 12:00 midnight Pacific Coast Time (generally about 8 am GMT). I will almost always generate the turn within three hours (usually sooner) -- I do so just before going to bed. For most North Americans this means that turns are generated while you sleep.
There is an exception to this. IF all moves are in sooner, I will generate at that time. This allows games that are prompt in getting turns in to have much more time for the next one. And, sometimes, to play more than one turn in a day.
However, players will always have at least 20 hours to get their turns in (and often considerably more). Note that, updates to moves are quite welcome -- however, remember that since I will generate as soon as all moves are in, IF you know that you are going to send in a subsequent "updated" move, then send me an email letting me know that and I will delay turn generation until your turn comes or midnight (whichever comes sooner).
If I am forced to "delay" the game for any reason (such as being informed of a technical problem), I will inform everyone in the game of the FACT of the delay and the REASON for it. Such delays are also for only 24 hours. I also try to provide a "status report" about 4 to 6 hours before the deadline on whose turns I've received each day (note that this is not a promise, but that I seldom fail to do this).

UNIVERSE INFO
Most of my games will be set in Medium Universes. This is for a number of reasons. First, I want to hold the number of stars and the distances to be travelled down to reasonable limits. Also, I prefer to run games that have only 5 to 8 players. This is because it allows far more player interaction. If there are 16 races in a game, you often don't run into everyone. In fact, if you start in a corner of a large or huge universe, you might not ever even see any ships or planets of the eventual winner. It does happen -- but in the Medium games with a half-dozen or so races, you get to interact with every race; and you can get by without ram-scoop engines (although they certainly help), thus giving you points to spend elsewhere if you so choose.

STYLE OF PLAY
I am very fond of "player interaction" in a game. I like my players to "role play" their races. For that reason, I ask that players submit a "public" description of their races. To get some idea of what I have in mind, go to my Race Descriptions page. And, if you are having trouble with designing your race, take a look at the sample races on my Sample Races page.
Perhaps because of my Theatre background (or maybe my RPG days), I feel that the style of play found in many STARS! games has little more flavor than playing against the AIs. Right now, in one of the games a player who has spent most of the game near last place is, because of his good "in character" play and diplomacy, the most influential player in that game. This is what I like. So I try my best to encourage players to "have fun"!
Sure, play the game with good tactical sense; and keep on top of the "stategic situation"; BUT go ahead and enjoy yourself as well.

GALACTIC ENQUIRER
As part of the "fun", I tend to run an anonymous "tabloid" newspaper, the "Galactic Enquirer" in my games. All players are free to submit articles (as long as the language is clean) about anything pertaining to the game. Authorship of these articles is generally not mentioned (unless requested), so nobody knows who sent in what -- and the "Galactic Enquirer" is proud of the fact that it NEVER checks the accuracy of the articles submitted.

This STARS! Network site is owned by
Bluebear.
(Jeff Hudelson)
Want to join the STARS! Network?

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This page was updated on September 14, 2000
This page was created in September, 1997