Thanks for your suggestions! I think a cast cap of one would be a little too restrictive - but I was leaning towards having it be AU or memloss from the start. I don't want to prevent people from playing an arc with their castmates or even with a canon ship (because I've had a few canon ships myself that developed almost entirely offscreen and would love to play something like this), but I also don't want anyone to be expected to play the canon ship.
Would there be a way to strike a good balance between "you can play a ship with a castmate" and "but you don't have to, even if it's canon"? I was leaning towards memloss (or AU where it's assumed that none of the characters know each other) because it'd eliminate pre-existing relationships and the problem of characters being madly in love with someone back home and having to either go OOC or angst about betraying that person the whole time.
Maybe a rule like "If you have a specific ship in mind or your character's canon partner is in game, we encourage you to contact them before you app and see if they're interested in playing it", with the understanding that some players might want to do something different even if they like the canon ship.
OP
Would there be a way to strike a good balance between "you can play a ship with a castmate" and "but you don't have to, even if it's canon"? I was leaning towards memloss (or AU where it's assumed that none of the characters know each other) because it'd eliminate pre-existing relationships and the problem of characters being madly in love with someone back home and having to either go OOC or angst about betraying that person the whole time.
Maybe a rule like "If you have a specific ship in mind or your character's canon partner is in game, we encourage you to contact them before you app and see if they're interested in playing it", with the understanding that some players might want to do something different even if they like the canon ship.