Over the last week, millions of people have protested the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. Citizens of the United States and other countries are demanding justice and equity. We’re seeing a movement for change that hasn’t been seen in our lifetimes, and it’s long overdue.
First, we stand with the Black Lives Matter movement. We stand against racism. We stand against police brutality. We stand against systemic injustice.
That said, what are a bunch of words from our little company going to do in the grand scheme? Not much. Real change doesn’t come from making posts on social media and sending newsletters. Real change comes from taking direct action. Real change comes from replacing ineffective and bad leaders and changing harmful laws and procedures.
We recently watched Barack Obama’s speech about the George Floyd protests. We’re not going to pretend everyone shares his political views, but we feel Mr. Obama made good points that transcend our differences.
His main point was that while the protests highlight problems in our society we need to combine protests with action and create realistic solutions based on research and data shown to effective. We need to make local leaders put evidence-based procedures in place that we know work. If you haven’t watched this presentation, here is a link:
In short, protest if you’re willing, and then take other action as well. What action can you take? You can call local and national leadership, sign petitions, and donate to charities and programs. And, of course, you can and should vote out those who act as impediments to change.
Many of us at Iron Realms have been out protesting and making donations to a wide variety of groups related to Black Lives Matter, and we strongly encourage you to do the same. Here are some of the groups we’ve been giving to, in case you’re looking for somewhere to give and aren’t sure where:
- https://blacklivesmatter.com
- https://www.restoringjustice.org/
- https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com
- https://www.naacpldf.org/
- https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
- https://action.aclu.org/give/now
- https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory
- https://www.nlg-npap.org/donate/
We’ve also found this to be a useful top-level resource for all sorts of info and resources around BLM:
We’re living in historic times. Let’s all work to make sure we come out of this better than we were before.
In solidarity,
Jeremy Saunders, Matt Mihaly, and the Iron Realms team.
Starmourners, for the past two weeks, our game, and the rest of the Iron Realms games, have been raising money to donate to a special charity. Here to tell us how we collectively did (spoiler: amazing, and I for one am so proud to have been a part of this) is our President, Jeremy Saunders.
Iron Realms Entertainment is excited to announce a donation of $15,000 dollars to the Covid Heroes Fund from RIP Medical Debt. This is a direct result of your credit and pet purchases. Everyone at Iron Realms would like to thank our players for their generous donations. The support and response to this effort was amazing. Players purchased over 500 pets in the last two weeks.
Your donations will help American first responders and healthcare workers by purchasing and abolishing their medical debts. Healthcare workers around the world have been laboring nonstop to assist the sick and elderly during the global COVID pandemic. Many of these people have struggled with inadequate safety equipment, protection, and wages. Combined with the financial stress of job loss and medical debts, many of these families are struggling to survive while continuing to help others in their communities.
Your purchases help relieve the pressure on these families.
You can read more about how this money goes to work on their website. https://ripmedicaldebt.org/campaigns/
RIP Medical Debt will make a purchase of debt with your donations later this month. The moment we receive the details about this purchase, we will share the details with you.
I want to thank you for helping make a positive difference. Your support encourages us to continue finding ways to help our local and global communities.
Jeremy Saunders
To put things in perspective for everyone, $15,000 in donations will purchase a substantially larger amount of medical debt – it could be as much as one hundred dollars per dollar donated. That’s incredible, and will make a huge difference to people who really, really need help. So from everyone staffing Starmourn to everyone playing Starmourn, thank you for your part in this. We could not have done it without you!
Dynasties have been a unique feature of Starmourn since launch, and they’ve been well overdue for an update. That update has arrived – along with some bonus changes to how player factions are run! Let’s go over what’s new when it comes to dynasties and factions in Starmourn.
Dynasty Changes
Complete Customization. Rather than relying on the number of members in your dynasty, you can now simply purchase upgrades to your dynasty with marks – which will be subtracted from the dynasty account. So start saving, and get your family running exactly the way you want it to.
Secret Societies! Ever wanted to make a secret club with a cool name like the Order of the Faceless, the Tenth Shroud of Gallen III, or the Black Hats? Anonymity is now among the many perks you can purchase for your dynasty. When purchased, the leader can toggle secrecy on and off, and member identity will not be disclosed when speaking on the dynasty’s channel. Dynasty info will no longer reveal the leader or who can induct, and dynasty logs will also be shrouded in secrecy.
Quality of Life Changes! A whole bunch of tweaks and changes have been implemented to make dynasties easier to navigate and more pleasant to be involved in. Among many other things, leaders can now mute troublesome dynasty members from talking on the dynasty channel, anyone can RENOUNCE their surname if they tire of wearing it, and, long requested, dynasty members will at last be able to see their designs.
More New Perks! Dynasty members will now be able to purchase the STORAGE and SHIP perks. The storage perk works identically to faction storage, while the SHIP perk transfers ownership of a ship to a dynasty so that everyone can use it.
Faction Changes
New to factions are a few tweaks to how leadership works in the Celestine Ascendancy and the Song Dominion.
Automatic Rank Gain for Leaders: People in leadership positions (Leader and Council) will slowly gain rank over time as they stay in office. To go from rank 1 to rank 6 through this process will take a few months, but will allow leaders to focus on actually leading, rather than grinding rep! The rank stays if that person no longer holds office.
Leader Honors: HONORS <person> will no longer display their faction rank if they are part of leadership but will rather indicate that they are in a leadership position
Whether your goal is to run a whole system of government, start a secret society, or just have a small, cozy family, there’s something for everyone in the dynasty update. We hope you’ll log in to check it out!
…
Oh, and, before I forget, a quick reminder! Until the end of May, Starmourn (along with the rest of the Iron Realms) is donating a portion of our proceeds to the Helping Covid Heroes charity fund. There’s just a few more days to help if you want to get in on the action or claim one of our limited edition charity minipets, so read the details here. Starmourners, we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve contributed so far. The response has been out of this world!
Hey Starmourners. Eukelade here, to introduce a very special message from our CEO, Matt Mihály. I’ll have more Starmourn-specific things to tell you after the letter, but for now, let’s read what Matt has to say! I think it’s pretty important!
Greetings, citizens of the Iron Realms,
I hope everyone’s doing as well as they can in these plague times. I feel like we’re living through a really badly-run event in one of our games, and whoever is running the event has completely forgotten that they’re supposed to be fun.
In any case, while people are being laid off left and right (my wife was laid off last week), Iron Realms is in a position where our work hasn’t really been disrupted. We all work from home offices anyway, and remotely working together is baked into our company’s DNA. We haven’t had to lay anyone off because of Covid, in fact, for which we’re all grateful.
So, we want to do something to help. We looked around, and decided that we want to support a charity called RIP Medical Debt. It got some fame a few years ago when John Oliver bought $14m in medical debt for $60k and gave it to them to retire.
What they do is buy and pay off the medical debt of people for whom it is a large financial burden, at 1 penny on the dollar. In other words, $1 can pay off $100 of someone’s medical debt. For those of you who don’t live in the US, our health system here allows people to go into crippling debt because they got sick or injured, to the point of financial ruin. According to one study from 2019, about 530,000 annual bankruptcies in the US are at least partly-caused by medical debt.
In this case, RIP Medical Debt recently started a fund – the Helping Covid Heroes Fund – that specifically buys up and pays off the medical debt of healthcare workers and first responders who are seriously financially burdened by the debt (so a doctor making $300k isn’t getting her student loans paid off by this, for instance).
I saw that and immediately thought, “This is what we want to support.” The impact per dollar is just so high.
We’re going to be doing two things for the rest of this month:1. Each game is creating a minipet that’ll be for sale on the website for $5. 100% of revenue from these will go to the Helping Covid Heroes Fund. https://ripmedicaldebt.org/campaigns/
2. We’re going to donate 20% of our revenue (minus revenue from the minipets as we’re already donating 100% of those), up to a max of $12,000, for the rest of this month.If we raised $12,000 from #2 and another $3000 from #1, that’d pay off $1.5 million in medical debt for Covid heroes!
We’ll announce how much was raised after the bookkeeping is done in early-ish June, and donate the money raised then as well. It’s not a world-changing amount, but it could be life-changing for the people whose debt is paid off.Finally, we’re also going to increase daily free credits available each day until the end of the month – your game producers will post details themselves there.
Stay well,
–Matt/Sarapis/Aurelius
CEO, Iron Realms
Thanks, Matt! We at Starmourn are really proud to be part of this initiative. Let’s go over how this will affect Starmourn players specifically!
- As the letter said, we are donating 20% of our net revenue for the rest of May to the RIP Medical Debt Fund.
- For the rest of May, Daily Credits on Starmourn have increased to 30 available per day, AND the first two daily credit tasks you do a day will give you double the reward!
- Available for purchase on our website are two items – a HugTech Friend-o-Matic[R] and a miniature blood darter. Both items are exactly five dollars, and we will donate 100% of the proceeds to the charity, as Matt explained. Here are the descriptions for both items:
The HugTech Friend-o-Matic[R]
Do you love your HugTech Adorabuddy[R]? Of course you do! Adorabuddiez[R] are designed by the finest Cuteologists in the galaxy to be as appealing as possible to everyone! But have you ever wished your Adorabuddy[R] was just a little more, hmmm…alive? You’re in luck, because HugTech Industries is proud to unveil the Friend-o-Matic[R]! Simply give your favorite Adorabuddy[R] to an unactivated Friend-o-Matic[R] robot, and watch it transform into a lifelike companion! Don’t worry, your original Adorabuddy[R] won’t be consumed in this magical process – after having its personality scanned and extracted, your beloved toy will be returned to you. Available for a limited time only. (HugTech Industries is not responsible for any psychological catastrophes resulting from damaged Adorabuddiez[R] or Friend-o-Matics[R].)
A miniature blood darter
Bred from the huge, aggressive flying insects found in the swamps of Ghenla, the miniature blood darter is the product of relentless experimentation by a Fantom Laboratories branch on Biloxan. Despite the many laws governing the export of blood darters off of Ghenla, this smaller, more docile version has apparently diverged far enough from its parent species (and, perhaps, enough money has changed hands) to make the restrictions and penalties of owning one decidedly murkier.
These are limited items, and will ONLY be available during this sale. We hope you’ll buy them – it’s for an excellent cause. Once again, if you want to read about the charity we’re supporting, heading to https://ripmedicaldebt.org/campaigns/
Thanks for reading this far, Starmourners. Stay healthy and stay safe.
The year is chugging along, and Starmourn is chugging along with it. It’s April now, and while the weather is getting warmer for most of the northern hemisphere, things in Starmourn are heating up too. In fact, we’ve been experiencing a bit of a population boom lately. We welcome our new friends, and once all these government shutdowns are over (as soon as possible, please!?), we hope that at least some of you will find a way to stick around!
Here’s a few things you might have missed if you haven’t been logging in.
Murder at Scatterfest
Remember that music festival we talked about? Yeah, that happened…but things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
The mood was high and energized after successful sets from KONF3KTION and Orrin Omnifarious, and the crowd was more than warmed up for the
headlining band – the famous Space Rogues – when they took the stage. However, halfway through the first song of their set, disaster struck. During some kind of lighting malfunction, the lead singer, Silhouette, appeared to be killed on stage. Naturally, the festival descended into chaos, with accusations being thrown at everyone from the event organizer to other bands about who was responsible. The Space Rogues pleaded for Scatterhome to take responsibility for the crime that had been committed, and the Marshals Woodro Phis’tor and Poet tried to keep order in an increasingly riotous crowd. Hope, Orrin Moonchild, Agi Ironbound, and many other individuals swiftly began to investigate.
Things are currently under investigation in Scatterhome, and there is a bounty for any information active and waiting to be claimed. Could the recent, violent overturning of a Bodean warehouse (and the destruction of several valuable security bots belonging to a local collection agency) have something to do with this, or was it just an unrelated coincidence? Murder and mayhem are awfully common things in the rowdiest faction in the game, after all.
The Sabiak Teahouse and Spa
We know life has been stressful for a lot of people lately. So it might interest you all to learn about the Sabiak Teahouse and Spa that recently opened on Atria, the Decheeran homeworld.
Whether you’re a Decheeran or not, Thistletwig and Filbert hope you will come visit. Enjoy a rootsoak or a scented infusion, enjoy the many varieties of tea that are available, and help feed the poikos (or take one home to put in your fishtank.)
With five new quests, a bunch of cool souvenirs, and even a hidden title (can you find it?), this establishment was a labor of love, with wholesome, leafy delight in every detail.
April Promo
In April, the Worldbreaker’s Wheel is once again the game of choice in Starmourn sector. This month, we have a bunch of new, spring-related items and artifacts that can be won from the Wheel, including:
Items
- RoamTek Botanicals is proud to release their gardener’s starter kit. Perfect for hobbyists, this rustic crate will be a charming addition to your decor, and has also been packed full of everything you need to get started with growing your own flowers. Comes with a random assortment of seeds sourced from all over the galaxy!
- Straight from the exotic greenhouses on Jerzah comes a potted heik-il plant. Don’t let those who say this species is a dangerous, toxic weed dissuade you from owning one of these unique companions. They’re really rather friendly, and very easy to feed – they’ll eat just about anything!
- An experimental environmental control panel has been released by Clear Skies Consolidated, allowing you to manipulate the very atmosphere and environment of your ship. Installed with cutting edge software that is intelligent enough to construct a pleasing environmental response based on your vaguest voice commands.
- A fresh new issue of Downhome Spacer is abloom with springtime fashion tips this month, along with gardening related news and articles from all over the sector.
Artifacts:
- The Repopulator – Little is known about the workings of this device, as it just popped up on the market recently, without disclosure of origin. When activated, it reboots the neural activity in the brain of all denizens in the area and sends their regenerative systems into overdrive, effectively reanimating everything in the area. (ACTIVATE REPOPULATOR to respawn all mobs in an area every 2 hours). The Repopulator is available for free purchase at any time for 1500cr in the ARTIFACT LIST
- Camou-foliage – The latest in stalking and spying, the Camou-foliage will erect a believable holographic field around you, masking you behind the image of a large shrubbery to all prying eyes. (Hides you in the room until you perform an action. Leaves a shrubbery visible in the room though)
Collectibles:
A new collectible set has been released in our ‘historical’ category. Collect all five cards to learn about these historical Decheerans and their influence on the sector, and as always, collecting a complete set of normal or foiled cards will allow you to receive some unique bonuses. The normal set bonus will grant you a unique nature/plant themed message when you are killed and will also alter the look of your corpse to fit this theme. The foil set bonus will allow you to COLLECTIBLES ACTIVATE 12 to call forth a mass of writhing vines in your location. The vines will last for 2 minutes or until a personal enemy attempts to leave the room, where the vines will pull the person back into the room, put them off balance and prone them.
Check out HELP COLLECTIBLES for more on how the collectible system works!
And as is always the case, you can earn yourself a free Wheel spin every day after playing for at least an hour, or buy as many tokens as you want under the ‘artifact packages’ section of our website.
What’s Next?
We are leaving out a lot of stuff, here. We haven’t even talked about our recent Discord discussion led by Bandus, the activity level and enthusiasm of Saio and Damiel (our newest Storytellers), the recent glut of updates to our public wiki, or the upcoming Enterprise system (spoiler alert!). And don’t even get us started on what we on staff have been tossing around as an idea for a big summer blockbuster event…it’s a doozy.
If you’re reading this, we hope you’ll consider logging in and getting in on some of this action. As one of our players said back at launch, the game is here, and ready to welcome you with a shot of whiskey, a mug of hot cocoa, and a greeting full of sarcasm of profanity. See you there!
Hi, Starmourners! Wow, the world has gone a bit crazy since the last time we posted, huh? While we can’t wait for things to get back to normal, we also want to encourage our players to stay indoors as much as possible, for the safety of themselves and those around them!
Which means that if you, like many people these days, find yourself with a lot more time on your hands than you used to – you might want to log back into Starmourn. We’ve made some changes, and if you haven’t played in awhile…they might be up your alley.
Talents
Reached the level cap, and don’t know where to go after that? We’ve got good news for you! The game doesn’t end at level 75 anymore.
Once you are level 75, any normal experience you gain will be dumped into a new “talent experience pool”. When you have enough experience in this pool, you may spend it to gain a talent point. You can then spend this point to enhance a number of aspects related to your character. This system effectively removes the cap on experience gain, as you can continue to gain post-75 talent experience and points for a very long time. Naturally, the more points you get, the more experience it will cost to gain the next point.
To interact with the system, you can use the TALENTS command.
TALENTS LIST – List your talents and distribution.
TALENTS SHOW <name> – Show information about a specific talent.
TALENTS ACQUIRE – Acquire a new talent point (if you have the xp)!
TALENTS INVEST <name> – Invest a point in a talent.
TALENTS RESET – Reset your talent distribution.
Xenoslayers
Fantom Laboratories, a respected scientific institution, has recently broadcast a universal commsphere message filled with worrying news. It seems that, due to unknown circumstances, certain creatures in the wildernesses of the galaxy have begun exhibiting abnormal behaviors and enhanced physical and mental abilities.
The fine people at Fantom Labs have vowed to help keep the galaxy safe from these threats and to find out what lies at the root of these mutations. They are calling upon able-bodied hunters to bring these things down as they appear and bring them the corpses for scientific study. They will kindly alert everyone on a wide band frequency when a new specimen is spotted…code name and location included! And they swear, they probably didn’t have anything to do with this.
What does this mean?
Periodically, a random mob from a wilderness somewhere in game will be elevated to either Betarch or Apex status. This status will enhance that mob until its death and grant it new powers. A Betarch will receive one power, while an Apex will receive two powers. Alongside these powers, the creatures themselves will be tougher to kill and will deal more damage. If you probe them, you will see what powers they currently have – which could be any number of deadly things, from toxic poisons to berserker strength.
What you need to remember is that they are almost impossible to take out by yourself – you’ll need to bring friends in order to succeed.
Killing these creatures rewards MUCH more experience than normal, better drops and there’s a guaranteed loot token for each kill. Also, Fantom Laboratories are interested in the corpse (for science!), so whoever will deliver the dead creature to one of their laboratory locations on Krell, Kovalar or Delphi will gain a mark reward and increase their standing with Fantom Labs (you might want this for the future). If you’re looking to redeem your loot tokens, each lab has a secretary or accountant that will help you with this – each lab grants a different lootset from the past.
RANKINGS XENOSLAYERS shows the current top monster slayers in the game – will you be one of them, or will you be left in the dirt?
What’s Next?
Don’t forget, Starmourn’s daily credit system has been up and running for awhile now. Logging on and participating in various activities will see you netting yourself a tidy handful of credits each day.
As for these new systems we’ve introduced – they are still in the balance stages, and we’ll be adjusting them on the fly for a little while to come. To that end, we could use your help! Please give us your feedback – our forums are a good place to start!
We know times in the real world are tough and stressful for a lot of people these days. Social distancing won’t last forever, but while it does, try to relax and have fun where you can! We’re with you, and we’re here for you, and we hope to see you in the stars whenever you’re ready.
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