Across the Sea of Stars

The Questionnaire

The next run of Across the Sea of Stars has not been scheduled.

We, your GMs, are honored and amused to have you join us for this adventure through the vast 'Great Dark' between the stars. Across the Sea of Stars recycles, extends, twists and steals blatantly classic science fiction themes from books, movies and television, as well as inventing a lot of new settings. In order to help us cast you in a role that you will enjoy as much as possible, we need to farm your brain, sequence your DNA and understand those mass media cultural references that you are knowledgeable of at the current time.

Please take your time and fill out the questionnaire below; yes, we know it's very long - but it tells us what we need to cast you as ideally as we can. This is a long, involved game, and we want you to enjoy it as much as those who've gone before you. When there is a scheduled run, we'll ask you to copy the text from here into an editor, make your changes, and send it back to us by an appropriate date.

Basic Information

Your name:

Your age:

Your preferred gender pronouns:

Your email address:

Your game day telephone number:

Character Gender and Orientation

Across the Sea of Stars is written with male, female, and gender neutral roles. There are a limited set of choices who can be non-binary gendered. We cannot guarantee you will get your first choice, and will do the best we can. Please rank your preference in play, with 1 being your first choice, 2 as your second choice, and using an X to denote "I do not want to play this:"

Across the Sea of Stars has a few romantic heterosexual pairs of characters.


Your Playing Style

Most people use a combination of three general approaches when playing a character:

The PROBLEM SOLVER: wants to figure out what's going on, solve puzzles, investigate clues, follow up on plots and check off every item on his list of goals. A PROBLEM SOLVER is more likely to want to know what happened to everyone rather than talk about the specifics of how their character ended up here.

The ACTOR: wants to make things happen with his character, play to "the audience,"" act out the dramatic scenes, have loud arguments, gesticulate wildly, and fondly talk in detail about old times. An ACTOR could talk for hours on just how much danger they were in before ending up here.

The ROLEPLAYER: wants to identify with the character, internalizing the character's goals and acting and reacting as the character would, regardless of what else might be going on. A ROLEPLAYER would react to the current situation as their character would: a party for some, a crisis for others, and nothing out of the ordinary for the rest.

On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is 'hardly at all' and 5 is 'most certainly me', please rate yourself with respect to how you prefer to play your LARP characters:

How much experience do you have as a LARPer? (describe please)


Where might we have seen you or played with you before?


What you'd like to play in Across the Sea of Stars

Please rate the following emotions you want to experience in game, on a scale from 1-5, where 1 is 'Not at all' and 5 is 'Yes, Please!':

Using the same scale, please tell us the types of activities you would like to experience:


Your Science Fiction Background

Across the Sea of Stars falls into the hard science SF genre, with its stories and novels based one step beyond current scientific reality. This is Isaac Asimov, Stephen Baxter, Ann Leckie, Alistair Reynolds, CJ Cherryh, Nancy Kress, and Charles Stross (and more) science fiction. The Tech page provides the rules this Universe runs on. This is our galaxy, but a few millennia from now.

We're also looking forward to these answers, as it inevitably reveals a gem or three we haven't read or watched yet.

What are your three favorite science fiction books:

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What are your three favorite science fiction movies:

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What television science fiction series is your absolute favorite? Why?


What is your favorite 'really awful'/'guilty pleasure' science fiction? Why?


If you could play any science fiction character, who would you be, and why?


We're curious to dig a little deeper. For each of the following categories, please name your favorite for that category and its source. (e.g. favorite drug is thionite, from E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman universe) If the answer is not obvious (Susan Ivanova is obvious, of course), feel free to add why.


Essay Questions

Across the Sea of Stars contains Tales from three ages in history: The Age of Expansion, The Age of Contact and The Age of Federation. Thus, the first three essay questions below. There are two other ones that raise interesting thoughts, providing us some insight into your wetware.

Please pick THREE (or more) of the essay questions to answer. Brief answers work. Longer answers have been brilliant. Answering the complete set really warms our cyborganic oxygenation fluid pump. Cloning the best answers from previous runs is wrong. Putting nothing down makes it harder for us to cast you.

1. Age of Expansion question:

Your race's space program has been underway for a few decadecycles. You have been chosen for the mission that takes your people the next step along the way into the Great Dark. Where are you going and how are you getting there?


2. Age of Contact question:

You are dropped onto a planet for the sole purpose of making contact with whatever form of life may be there. You have minimal equipment for your own personal survival. You will be picked up in one daycycle to report your findings. Describe your actions and activities for making contact.


3. Age of Federation question:

You are relaxing in a spaceport bar and a brawl ensues. Within your reach are a Book of Vogon Poetry, a Noisy Cricket, and a Theremin. What do you do to resolve or inflame this interspecies disagreement? Describe what you use and how you see the scene unfolding.


4. General Future History question:

You have just been reanimated after being in a stasis pod for 1000 yearcycles. What is your biggest surprise? What is something you would expect to be here that is missing?


5. Cosmic Sensitivity question:

Where do your socks go when one goes missing, how does it get there, and who/what does it meet along the way? If you could go there as well, would you go and would you be happy?



Player Safety and Accessibility

Player safety is crucial, and this LARP has a lot of potential triggers. We are still trying to categorize them rationally, because this is a HUGE game. We will have some safety tools in the game, but that may not be enough for some players. You know your limits, so please help us to cast you appropriately.

What are the things that would be unsafe for you in a LARP?



The Tales are small LARPs, which means 2-4 pages of material for each character in the Tale. You will get into a random Tale, to play one of the characters in the Tale. You will play several of these Tales over the duration of the LARP. This can be a lot of reading.

Do you need some kind of reading accommodation to help you with your Home Character and all the Tale materials? If yes, please explain your need:



Do you have any other accessibility requirements of any kind?



Last Question

Is there anything else we should know about you?


And you're done! Thanks!