World Building and Costume Conundrums

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  I could come up with lame excuses why, but you've heard it all before.  Sadly, they're still reasons I've been kept away from this blog for too long.

At least I've got a modern browser on my work computer now, so I can start updating while I'm at work during breaks.

So what has DarthGM been up to in September?  Well, I've ordered a new costume.  Not for me, for my father.  He tried on my Biker Scout at the Dover Mini-Maker faire this past August and really liked it.  So we talked with a few folks and he has a suit of un-assembled Scout trooper armor on a UPS truck en route to his home.  Ideally we should have it set up for St. Pats day (if we troop it)

We also need to make some upgrades to his Old Ben Kenobi outfit.  The outer robe shrunk and the inner robe stretched out during one of the rainy parades he trooped in.  We got new material for his inner robes, but the wool army blankets I ordered to make his outer robe from never shipped.  Never even heard back from the eStore owner I bought them from.  That transaction is now in dispute with Paypal and I'm waiting for resolution.

Preliminary work is being done on a Cade Skywalker outfit for my stepson.  He'll be 18 by the time we go to Anaheim for Celebration VII, which means we can get him into the Rebel Legion group photo if we do a good enough job on it.  It's simple, yet difficult to make.  Gotta make it look right.

I wonder if we can submit him for a BH or SL designation in the 501st.  He was a Bounty Hunting, drug using scum who collected a bounty on a Jedi, and he did go dark-side for a while there.  If Mara Jade could do it and get SL designation, why not Cade?

I promised my stepson that if he got the costume all ready by his birthday, I'd get him Cade's lightsaber.  I thought I was going to have to build it from scratch, but Ultrasabers actually has a really good saber that looks right.

(Looks like Ultrasabers won't let me link their photos, but this is what I see as "close enough!")

Even my wife is starting to look into costumes.  She expressed interest in a couple; we'll see when we can move forward with one of them.

And me?  Cripes, I don't know.  I've been meaning to kick my EVA Jedi Knight/Sith Acolyte into high gear for a while now.  It's all about finding the time to work on it, which means I have to start neglecting something else.  Probably Mechwarrior Online is the next thing I really have to ramp back on.  Too bad, because in December they're releasing the King Crab, and it looks bad-ass.

Oh look; something else to fit into my already tight schedule!

I'm reminded that I was going to release my GenCon Module "The Big Leagues" for public consumption this month, or at least to those who backed the Order 66 Podcast/GamerNationCon 2015 Kickstarter.  I really need to get on that.  Building these characters using the Force and Destiny careers and specializations should prove a fun exercise.

I've made some changes to my "Another Longshot" campaign.  Previously I was running my Tuesday night game (dubbed the "Wild Cards")  as a prelude campaign to "Another Longshot".  I've had some inspiration with what I want to do with the overall Longshot campaign and right now the Wild Cards don't really fit into that.  I've split the Wild Cards off as their own campaign on Obsidian Portal and made a new Another Longshot website.

I've put some time and effort into mapping out a sector of space where the Longshot game will predominantly occur in; the Hagen Sector.  Thanks to Pro Fantasy and their Campaign Cartographer, I was able to slap together a pretty cool map of the area.  I then went and applied my "Eons System Generation" method I talked about a year ago and came up with some pretty fun locations.  I haven't fleshed out every system, but I've got some neat ideas.

And with that, I think I'll call it for another blogpost.  Gotta get back to work.

May the dice be with you.

A Funny Thing Happend at My Brother's Wedding

Going to be a bit of a quick post this week.  I've been having some good luck with my GenCon Module, and the playtesting of the highlight encounter.  I've actually got another test run Wednesday night with the Smuggler Companions.  Should be a hoot.

I didn't quite realize how much of a monster I made Bowdarr.  Meh, that's okay.  Risha's actually pretty obscene too with her tricked out Blaster Sniper Rifle, with mods and Jury-Rigging and Tinkering.  High damage, high accuracy, Pierce, low Crit Rating; not too shabby for an Outlaw Tech.

Armored Groom

But the big thing I wanted to talk about is another secret project I've been working on for most of the year, but couldn't talk about it because my brother reads this blog.  He got married this past weekend, and me and a few others got together and picked up a suit of Imperial Knight armor for him to finish off and get approved for the Rebel Legion.

I had some trouble working on it until the weather got decent in New Hampshire...which was sometime around the first weekend in May.  Prior to that it was either too cold or too rainy to spray paint.

It trimmed out pretty well.  I was still having problems coating the suit in three layers of Red Valspar for Plastic.  It was either so windy the paint went sideways, or a Goddamned bug would fly in front of the spray and plaster itself into the wet paint on the armor.  I had to sand and re-spray three pieces because of that, including the back-plate.  Damned bugs...

So anyway, three coats of red, and eventually will put on a coat of clear protective glossy to preserve the finish and give it a nice shine.  I ran out of time so I sort of put the armor together haphazardly and mounted it on my duct-tape dummy that I have.

It still needs the undersuit and belt.  And the cape is just the material draped over it, not really sewn into it's proper shape yet.  Still, it's progress towards getting my brother into the Rebel Legion with an Imperial Knight. 

Actually, the 501st Legion also recently approved this outfit for membership.  It's a good guy, but it's an Imperial Knight.  Got the cogs and everything.  It falls under the "TR" designation for the Flagship Eclipse Detachment (basically the place for all the Expanded Universe costumes).

Let's see how long it takes my brother to get this finished.  I'd love to see him as a Rebel Legionnaire by the end of the year.

We'll see!

March Madness

It's been a heck of a winter.  Cold, long, bleak, seemingly endless.  Massachusetts had a blizzard on Wednesday, assuming you lived out on Cape Cod, but it still reminds me that I live in New England and the phrase "snow in May" is not as alien as one may believe up here.


This weekend was the Manchester, NH St. Patrick's Day parade.  It would have been a nice, short parade that mirrors the route of the Christmas parade.  Only during the day.  In March.  Instead of December.  At night.

Vast improvements, that.

Sadly, it was cold, rainy, and we (the Legion) didn't want to potentially ruin hundreds of dollars worth of costumes.  So we cancelled.

I planned to wear my green Jedi outfit, and my dad was to be returning to (kinda) active duty by borrowing my Scout Trooper.  We had a bit of a dress-up day this past weekend to see how it fit; it fit him better than it did me, that's for sure.  So much so that I'm going to have to pin a few things in place to make sure they stay where they need to; like the belt.  It also sparked a discussion of "I could see getting one of these".  So now we add Scout Trooper to the growing list of costumes my dad would like to do, joining the ranks of Royal Guardsman, Imperial Grand Admiral, and Tusken Raider.

I've created a monster.

GM Sam 

A notice just posted that Sam Witwer will be coming to the Boston Comic Con in August.  I'm excited, but apprehensive.  Because of my peripheral contact with him on the Order 66 podcast, and meeting him once at DragonCon, there are times where my ego thinks I've got more of a relationship with him than I actually do.  "I really feel like he's a buddy!  We're both gamers, and Star Wars Nerds, and we've been in the same guilds together online!"  Pffffft!  Means exactly as much as the value of the webpage this is posting to.  Still, it will be cool to say "hi".  Maybe Erich and I can get him to do an interview for AWRI, assuming that's still alive by then.

I also don't want to come across as a complete psycho stalker (a.k.a. "A nutter").  There's a fine line there, and I'm very cautious about not crossing it. 

Eh, I over-think things too much.  He'll show up, we'll chat or we won't. BCC will be fun regardless.

Order 65

My Order 65 campaign had another session this past weekend.  Here the PCs were able to manipulate the senate into hearing charges against Chancellor Kenobi, charges that implicated him in the murder of Chancellor Amidala twenty years previous.  Kenobi was arrested, and his former padawans attempted to rescue him.  It was a vicious fight where the PCs faced off against an Enhanced Nemesis (Kenobi), and two regular Nemesis NPCs (Master Ahsoka Tano and Satine Naberrie/Leia).  I got to see just how painful Enhanced Nemesis characters are, and what someone can do with a Force Rating of 6.  I also saw how painful lightsabers can be; the only reason Kimber's Jedi Knight lived was because she went "Old Republic" and picked up some Heavy Battle Armor and Lucas rolled well enough on a Streetwise check to locate a Cortosis weave attachment.

Good times, good times.

Just a quick update for now.  This Thursday I hope to have the first of many PC stats for my GenCon Module.

And maybe March can finally be over.

2013 Finale

Here we are, at the end of 2013 and the cusp of 2014.  We have a Government we dislike, a new Doctor Who, and a Hobbit movie that's about 80% new material.  This coming year we get the Age of Rebellion core-rulebook, several neat supplements that cover Corellia and Hired Guns, and an adventure that's "Ocean's 11 on Cloud City".  We also get the rough draft of official rules for Jedi Knights later this year with the Force and Destiny Beta. 

Will I be on-hand at GenCon for it's release?  Signs point to "no", but someone might kick the Magic-8 Ball and see if the prediction changes.

Until then, I've got some updates of my own to do on the Edge of the Jedi document.  I think I finally fixed the Twin Strike issue, thanks to some feedback from Dono.  I also decided to add in a couple house rules I'm using for Force Use and for "Kinetic Combat" with the Move power.  I also officially direct folks to Dono's Ways of the Force document for Healing and ideas for NPCs with his "Injure" power.

I also did some changes to Shien and Djem So.  I made mastery in them about to redirect damage back to the attacker for three Threats or one Despair, and had them both deal base weapon damage from the attacker's weapon instead of a flat out 10 damage.  I might bump it back up to 10 damage, since it has such a high requirement to activate, and it's not negating the damage the player takes, just sends a bunch of it back to the attacker.  And it's 25 XP into a secondary (or later) talent tree.  Actually, I think I will do that.

I love it when I game design mid-post.  Makes me look so erratic and unprofessional.  Oh wait...

I think my first post in 2014 will be the Version 1.03 rules for Edge of the Jedi.  Stay tuned.

Costuming

One of my presents from the Wife was a commitment to have the Jedi Shadow finished by the end of February.  The costume's been so close to done for so long, it's just fallen by the wayside with all the crap that's gone on in my home this past year (sadly that statement is more literal than I'd like).  That being said, I think we decided a whole revamp on the skirt is needed.  I'll want to save as much of the pain-in-the-ass work as much as possible, like the large-runed bottom skirt, but some of the upper layers will need re-doing.

I've noticed that the New England Garrison needs more red sabers.  More Darths.  We have Vader and Maul, and a very good Nihilus.  Occasionally we see a Revan.  But we have a ton of Jedi in Alderaan base, and our parades will include several of them.  Occasionally, Nihilus or Maul will wade into them during a parade and do a little scripted duel.  I think it would be awesome to have more of that, and that means more Darths.

I've been all about doing Darth Malgus for years now, even went so far as to pick up Ultrasaber's interpretation of his lightsaber.  There's a guy out there I'm following who's going to start doing pieces of his costume "soon".  Do I wait?  Do I start working on something else?  I'd love to do Darth Adraas, it's a sick look.  Something like "Renaissance Iron Man meets Munch's The Scream".  It's a solid look for a Sith, and it's even a solid masked outfit.  Additionally, if I am able to Malgus later, I can repaint Adaraas to be the generic "TOR Jedi Knight", since they use the same armor (only the handplates are different).

I've got a lead on a suit of this TOR Jedi/Sith Armor, and several people out there are making the mask.  Tempting.  Very tempting.

We'll have to see.

Back on the Air

Thanks to some huge help from Mr. Dan Decker of Echo Base, the All Wings Report In podcast is back on the air.  It's crude, a little rough, and doesn't do the job well as nearly as it should thanks to the absence of my usual wingman, Erich, but at least it's an episode.

Not sure when the next one will be, but I hope Erich will be back sooner rather than later.  The show suffers without him.  I'm just going to do what I can to keep it going until he's able to get back into formation...

Closing Time

I think that's going to do it for this post, and for this year.  Thanks again for everyone who's subscribed, and who visits this page from my links.  Hopefully I'll have many more posts filled with useful (or at least interesting) tid-bits in 2014!

Reapercon 2013

For my birthday, I took a trip to Denton, Texas to visit the offices and gaming store for Reaper Miniatures.  Denton is the backyard for GM Dave and GM Chris, hosts of the Order 66 Podcast.  For the past few years, D20 Radio has flooded that convention running games and having a grand time with the folks from Reaper.  Many listeners as well as the folks from Chris's various Star Wars games have some to Reaper and made it a sort of unofficial "D20 Radio Con".

At Celebration VI this past year, I got to hang with Chris Bradshaw (a.k.a.GM Chance) from D20 Radio.  We got him and his Republic Commando spot-approvals so he could be in the big photo-shoot with the 501st Legion.  While talking about various other conventions, and he invited me out to Denton for Reapercon.  I'd wanted to go since I heard about it when I first started listening to the network, and figured it would be a cheaper con to see the D20 Radio folks at than going to GenCon, so the plan started.

Around about November another plan was put in motion too, but I'll go into that later.

At the Airport

I left on my birthday; Thursday, April 18.  Getting off the Logan express shuttle with my suitcase, computer backpack, and duffel bag.  The suitcase got checked, which contained clothing for 5 days and my Jedi Knight outfit.  Also crammed in there is my 24" short-blade for my lightsaber.  The lightsaber itself was in the duffel bag; I didn't trust it going through checked baggage screening and it not getting damaged by TSA agents.  This was 3 days after the Boston Marathon bombings; if I'm a TSA agent and I see a bag go by with a metal cylinder with wires in it, I'm going to search that bag.  Now I've got some TSA agent showing all his buddies the lightsaber he found in some nerd's suitcase, and blinding his buddies with the high-power blade-LED because they don't understand how bright Rebel Star LEDs can be.

So I've got it in my duffel and I get up to the first person at Security; the woman who checks boarding passes and licenses.  I let her know I'm a Star Wars costumer, on my way to a gaming convention in Texas, and I have a replica lightsaber in my bag and want to declare it.  Explaining that it's a 16" long metal tube, she gets an odd look of "that could be used as a weapon" across her face.  I suppose it could be, because that's exactly what I want to do with my custom and very expensive lightsaber prop; bludgeon some stewardess and try to take over an AirBus A320 with it.  Maybe I could blind the pilot when he looks through that peephole on the cockpit door.

She asks me to place it in the bin on the conveyor, and tell the next TSA agent about it.  They might want me to check it with my luggage. I shrug, and I get to the next guy, an older gentleman with a blue-collar look about him (a little rugged, a little surly, but mostly business).  I let him know about the lightsaber, and my travel plans.  He looks at it, ponders for a moment, and then says the Supervisor should probably take a look at it.  I head through the body-scan machine, and the supervisor comes over.

The supervisor looked about my age, and heads over to the x-ray viewer for the conveyor.  I can tell exactly when my tray passes by when his eyebrows pop up and he get's a small smirk on his face.  The tray comes out, and he asks me to get my other belongings and come over to him when I'm done.  "Take your time!" he says.  He heads to a test counter, and I get my stuff and go over to him.  By then three other TSA guys are standing there and a fourth is called over "Dude, you're gonna love this, get over here."  After a brief period of several exclamations of "DOOD!" and "Sweet!", the quick demonstration of the lights and sounds of my saber, and the cursory confirmation that there are no explosives in it, I'm allowed to move on with the saber in my carry-on.

Out of Service (i.e. "Broken Plane")

My flight was supposed to leave at 1:05.  The plan was to arrive at 4:30, get a quick bite, and head right to Reaper to play in a Star Wars game run by GM Chris.  At noon, we were informed our flight was delayed.  At 1pm, we were told that our original plane was taken "Out of Service" and a new plane was on it's way from Orlando.  It wasn't going to arrive until 2:45.  Figure at least a half hour for it to deplane, load up our luggage and passengers, and get moving.


Even the President is delaying my departure...


Oh...and we had the announcer come on, asking for someone to please claim a black backpack that was left at the counter.  THAT request got everyones attention.  Thankfully, a nice lady did.  Swiftly.

I got to Dallas at 7ish.  Went right to GM Chance's place and got settled in.  GM Chris, his wife Krista, and GM Dave showed up soon after and started pulling out Edge of the Empire books.  I ended my birthday hanging with the folks from D20 Radio, playing Star Wars.

Gotta admit, only one way the day could have ended better, but sadly the wife was at home...

At the Con



The non-Star Wars game I played: Warlords In Wonderland

I have to say if you're looking for a great little gaming convention to go to, Reapercon 2013 is it.  I've been to some of the bigger conventions, like Origins, many times.  Reapercon is a fun little con of a few hundred attendees, and has a real family feel to it.  It helps that a good number of D20 Radio folks are there so it feels like you're coming home to old friends.

I got to play GM Chris's new Convention Module Series, Enemy of my Enemy.  It's actually available for download on the D20 Radio website.  Any of my PCs who want to play it should probably stay away, but for folks who want to run it go and give it a read.  Maps used are available from Chris West's Maps of Mastery site, or you can use a white board to reproduce or your imagination.  I do like Chris West's maps, tho.  They're pretty.


GM Chris runs a mean game, and has a snazzy hat!


As a review, Enemy of my Enemy is a wonderful tale of mystery, adventure, and difficult moral choices.  Don't worry if your character doesn't have a skillset for combat (assuming you use the pre-gen characters).  Look at what you're good at, then look at the environment to see how you can contribute to the encounter.  You get XP for survival, not for opponents defeated.  I got to play Tyrix the Gand, who had disgraced himself in the eyes of his society so he only referred to himself as "Gand" (it's established Star Wars canon; look it up).  A tech and slicing god, I was searching for computer terminals and machines to play with in every situation.

Reapercon 2013 represents the first time I've been able to play in an Edge of the Empire game.  It's also the first time I've been able to play in a Star Wars game since my brother failed to finish his Dawn of Defiance* module series.  It's funny, I found myself willing to skip right into danger, and where I thought the Game Master expected the module to go.  Maybe I've spent too many years as one myself.  I got a sense of where we needed to go to continue the adventure.  I could see some players at the table really getting into the persona they perceived for their character to have, but I found myself looking at the game going "what actions move the plot along" and trying to figure out how to get there.  Maybe that hurt my character's role playing, but it kept the game moving.

* - totally taking shots at my brother for that; he earned it...

Friends of the Legions

Back at Celebration VI, I met Chris Bradshaw from the D20 Radio network and became fast friends.  We made idle plans for me to come out to Reapercon the next year (because GenCon was likely off the table).  Sometime around October I was on the D20 Radio forums, and saw Zrissa's post about Jon Stevens being inducted to the Rebel Legion as a Friend of the Legion.  Jon wrote material for two of the Saga Edition books.  Thinking things over, I looked at all the work GM Chris and GM Dave have done with the Order 66 podcast, and how the Gamer Nation really flourished under their banner.  Checking the Legion rosters, other podcasts have been inducted as Friends of the Legion (since Chris and Dave haven't worked directly on a Star Wars product, they would be eligible as "Friends of" not "Honorary Members"). 

A plan was put in motion.  A petition was sent to the Command Staff of the Rebel Legion, and to the 501st Legion founder Albin Johnson to approve the induction of Chris and Dave into the Legions.  The requests were approved, and the plans for the ceremony were put into motion.  While GenCon might be a large venue for an induction, I was going to be at Reapercon.  Bradshaw would be there, so there would at least be one other member of the Legion(s) in attendance.

There was a period of nail-biting after I booked my airfare and con ticket that Dave wasn't going to be at Reapercon this year.  Thankfully, the trip he was planning was delayed a month and he would be in attendance. 

After several days of hanging with the Boys and the other folks from D20 Radio, Bradshaw and
I surprised Chris and Dave mid-live-broadcast by excusing ourselves and returning a while later in full costume, presenting the induction awards to them live on the air.  Sadly, JustinTV has since dropped the visual recording (possibly to return in 14 months) and the audio from the episode was a little tough to listen to .  It's one of the many hazards of recording with a different computer, like a laptop; it likes to be "helpful" when you plug in cameras and records off the camera mic instead of the 4 good-quality microphones.

Transparent Plaque Fail

At any rate, mission accomplished, GMs humbled and giddy all at once, and forever supported by the 501st and Rebel Legions.

Aftermath

Given the time and opportunity (and funds), I will return to Reapercon sometime in the future.  Maybe not next year, maybe not the year after, but soon.  I'll bring a game to run, or run one of Chris's modules.  And it will be awesome, because I'll be hanging out with friends from D20 Radio and Gamer Nation.

Next week, I'm thinking of returning to the subject of gaming.  Star Wars Gaming.  I think I've got an interesting exercise ahead of me and need to get it going.

Until then, be safe everyone.

Chillin' at Reaper, 2013

Jedi Knight: APPROVED

Another post from an airport!  Maybe this time I’ll actually get it written and post this one.  Last time I tried this I was on my way to Disney with my wife and step-son…

…sorry, that kinda gets me now and then.  “Wife” and “Step-son”…heeheehee…

…anyway, so I wrote a post, didn’t finish, and didn’t post that week.  Disney takes a lot out of you, and I really didn’t have the time that week to finish up the post and get it up.  That was the end of February.  Today is different.  I’m off on an adventure, and it’s my birthday.  So my birthday gift is to write up a blog post for you all!

Jedi Knights

So my personal big-news of the week is that I finally have joined the ranks of the Knights of the Jedi Order; at least, the group with that title in the Rebel Legion.  My “Generic Jedi” was finished and photographed by my lovely wife.  I’d wanted to sew much of it myself, but once the project really started to get going, I knew that I would not be able to finish it in time nor be able to do it anywhere near as well as my wife could.

Generic is such a poor term for the costume.  I mean, sure; it’s not a “Face” character.  It’s a costume based on the pattern of outfit the Jedi wear, but with colors and styles that are unique and personal.  Many do the typical outfit; earth-tones in the brown spectrum.  But a large number do things differently; they use deep blues, or greens, or crimson and maroon shades of red.  They use more interesting, subtle tones, and include embroidery or graphics printing in their costume.  This is where I wanted to take my Jedi.

I’m glad the Preacher boots worked out.  I love the pouches Nick Perry from R.H.Mardigan made for me.  I’m thankful that my Jedi Food Capsules arrived in time to submit for approval.  I’m glad the covtech knob on my lightsaber is just far enough to one end that the lightsaber hangs tip down (I was worried it would be centered, and more likely to spin in the clip-mount like a propeller).

Join the Jedi Council?

So what does being a “member” of the Knights of the Jedi Order mean, as far as the Rebel Legion is concerned?  It means I can get the exclusive KJO swag, for one.  (They’ve got a neat 5-year Anniversary  Challenge Coin in gold that I’m drooling over. )  It means that I can be nominated for Detachment Leader at election time.  It means I get to be in the KJO photo shoot at the next Celebration, assuming I bring my Jedi (here’s a hint; yes, I’ll be bringing my Jedi to C7).  I think it also means I could become a Jedi Costume Judge, if my interests lie in that area.

Regardless of what I want to do with it, I’m happy to have a finished Jedi, to be a Jedi Knight, and to have yet another “Legion Approved” costume in my closet.

It's Called A "Cliffhanger"

I mentioned I was at the airport, and on an adventure for my birthday.  Actually, I hope to make a few adventures this weekend.  What am I talking about, and where am I going?  I can't tell you this week, but I promise a couple interesting tales next Thursday...

...well, they'll be interesting to ME, I hope you'll enjoy reading about them too...

...Oops...

So Thursday the 11th came and went without a blog-post update.  Honestly, I have no clue what happened other than an unusually rough week at work mixed with some frantic costume-fitting with the wife.

I promise this Thursday will be a much more interesting blog update.

And not just because it's my birthday.

Here's a teaser.

Jedi Knight: The Costuming




The KJO: Allowing nerds like me
to dress up like a Jedi Knight
since 2007...

  This week I return to my work on the Jedi Knight...okay, maybe not the Jedi Knight Career that I made for the Edge of the Empire system.  No, I mean a Jedi Knight costume.

I really wish this was a progress post on my Jedi Shadow costume, but it isn't.  My recent, major setback (in that I've misplaced a box that contained 40% of the costume and over 30 hours of work) has derailed the costume significantly and sapped my motivation to complete it. It's going to be difficult to find the right material for the robe again, and the skirt had over 30 Mylar-thread-embroidered aurebesh runes in it. The thought of doing it all over again (or rather, ask my wife to do it all over again)...well, I'm just not ready for that.

We also made the discovery this week that the wife's good Fiskars shears were in the box too...bollocks.

Changing Gears...er, Eras




Corran Horn makes
green Jedi robes look good...

I'd really like to get a Jedi done and approved in time for the 5-Year anniversary of the Knights of the Jedi Order group (they're the Jedi "detachment" of the Rebel Legion). I'd also like to finally have a soft costume for the Rebel Legion, so I don't always have to "Represent!" covered in hard, restrictive plastic. So, I've shifted focus for now from the Jedi Shadow and will be working on a generic Jedi costume.

Now, I wouldn't say I push the envelope of approvable costumes and color design, but I certainly want to be unique and interesting in my outfits. Most Jedi are in earth tones, more specifically various shades of brown.  Brown is fine for leather and desert camouflage, but I want something with a little more style.  I'm thinking green, mostly to match the lightsaber hilt I made.  While I don't want to make a pure-green "Corellian Jedi" outfit, I was intrigued by a shade of green I found at the local fabric store. A nice, deep hunter-green that had a darker tone to it.



That's going to be the fabric for the tabards and the obi. Don't let the flash fool you, I swear it's got more earthy tones to it. It's green, but not the GREEN! that the photo presents. It's one of the things that really gets to me about digital photography, and that's how a lot of casual photos (like these) don't really grab colors right. 

My 3-years of college-photo classes is screaming at me to fix it, but I don't have the time for that.  Besides, back then, we worked with this archaic stuff called "film". 

The outer tunic is going to be this fine material. 



It looks like its brown-grey here, but the fabric has a faint mint-green tinge to it (again; stupid digital flash photography).  The pieces have been mapped out, and cut out, based on the recommendations by KJO temple master Roger Allen.  My wife actually drew them out by hand right onto the fabric.  No need for this "tissue paper pattern" tom-foolery for us!  We did a placement fitting of the pieces last night.  The tunic will come down to just above my knee, and the shoulder tabards will come down just beyond that.  I'm designing the shoulder tabards to tapering down to points, so when they're together they make a chevron.  It's a little more style than just having them end at a right angle like a scarf.

The Other Stuff

I have a pair of khakis for my jedi pants (yes, that's what most people wear for Jedi pants.  Works just fine).  I've got the Preacher boots I mentioned last week.  I've got the leather belt, it just needs a fresh coat of dye to make it closer to the boots in the shade of brown.  I think I only need to get the belt accessories (pouches, food capsules, commlink; I need two to get the Formal rating, I believe).

I will eventually make a cloak for this, but that's going to be a little ways off.  Besides, summer is coming.  Last think I want is to put on another layer of clothing.


Lekku Master Molds by Twi'lek Pam


I'm also doing research to get a pair of lekku to be a twi'lek Jedi when the opportunity allows. We keep seeing all these human Jedi in the various bases, and I feel we need more aliens represented. Not a huge fan of a full latex mask, I'm opting for the less-prosthetic wearing alien races. I might also want a set of zabrak horns too, because with my frequently-shaved scalp there's a lot of real estate up there for some good zabrak horns...

Elegant Weaponry For An Elegant Era

It dawns on me that I have yet to talk about my lightsaber.  No, not the double-bladed one I got from Ultrasabers for my Jedi Shadow, I mean my own, custom lightsaber that I mostly built for myself with parts from The Custom Saber Shop.  Back in the summer I decided I wanted to really get this custom lightsaber thing going, and build my own saber.  After all, you can't be a Jedi Knight until you've built your lightsaber.

I poked around with TCSS's java-based saber design program, that utilizes the parts from their "Multi-Hilt System".  It's a fun little program and quite a time sink for making a million lightsabers with.  After some debate I came up with this design.

For six months I had been picking up various parts from TCSS.  As my ebay sales would complete, I'd occasionally pick up a piece of the hilt, or part of the electronics.  I ended up going with a larger pommel, and the switch box is a trapezoid, not a rectangle.  My wiring diagram was poor, and I couldn't get anything to work.  I feared that I fried the sound-card, and the speaker.  Fortunately a trip to my local sabersmith helped me discover that the wiring was wrong, but the sound card and the speaker were fine.  We got it set up and working like a champ.

After throwing the electronics into the hilt, it ended up looking like this...

It's a serious beast of a hilt; almost 16" long.  A bastard sword of lightsabers, it begs for the less flashy styles of sabercombat like Ataru and Makashi, and more for the beatstick end of the spectrum like Djem-so and Juyo.

It's at this time that you can scream "NEEEEEERD!"  It's okay.  I get it a lot.

 

Serious Fat Nerd is Serious

Clones, Clovers, and Costumes

It's Thursday, so it must be time for another update to the "Fragments from the Rim" blog.  Much like last week, this week is going to be a varied discussion topic.  I'll be jumping from subject to subject, interest to interest; try to keep up.

One Sore Trooper

The Rebel Legion and 501st Legion prepare to take on Southie

I'd like to say that my sore back and legs are from the monumental troop that is the annual South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade, but I'm sure that digging out my driveway from another foot of snow on Tuesday is a large contributor as well. 

This year's St. Pats parade with the Rebel Legion and 501st was much different from last year.  In 2012 we had temperatures in the 60s, little police presence that I noticed, and large horse droppings to dodge for most of the route.  This year, we had temperatures in the 30s, a large police presence, and all the horse droppings were pretty well scooped (or at least given a good try).  We had more to fear from South Boston's lack of road maintenance than Boston's Finest Pony Patrol; seriously, some of those potholes could have eaten a jawa (and we had a few marching in the parade!)

The one part of the parade that I dislike the most are the drunks.  They're everywhere, and all ages.  They all want to see "Daath Vayda!" and ask "Wheah's Chewie!?".  They want us to pretty much stop the parade so they can get their drunken duck-face photos with a stormtrooper or a rebel pilot.  We try to tell our people to "stay in formation" and keep marching, and only tempt fate to walk the crowds when we've stopped, but some of our number just didn't care for that, and would constantly get left behind as we marched on without them.  I nearly ran over one of our members several times because she would stop short and pose.  This is the one time of the year that the TV "reality" show Southie Rules is accurate; it's the one time when many in South Boston actually do act like the moronic pricks that show portrays folks from Southie to be. 

Even so, the main reason we were there, the kids, loved us.  We got them jumping out of their chairs and off the curb to see us.  They lit up when we came into view, and went nuts for us as we passed.  I love that part of the parade, and as long as those kids are there and respond like that, I'll keep coming back year after year.

Rites of Passage

The St. Patrick's Day Parade holds another place in the hearts of the New England contingent of Star Wars Costumers.  For years, the mentality has been "you haven't trooped until you troop St. Pats".  It's four miles in weather that could be sunny and warm one year, to near blizzard conditions the next.  The only time we haven't trooped it was the year it rained.  A lot.  Vader doesn't react well to heavy rainfall, neither does any other costume.  You're in-costume from 11am to about 4pm.  That's a long time to be in armor, without many chances to even take off your helmet.  You come out of St. Pats appreciating the Library events, where you stand around in armor.  Stadium events where you can pose for 20 minutes and then take a break for another 20.  Heck, even other parades later in the year where you think "Hey, it's 45 degrees out, and only a mile and a half long.  With a slight drizzle.  This is nothing."

Your armor can take a lot of abuse during St. Pats.  Aside from the drunks who try to take home souvenir shoulder bells and thermal detonators, marching four miles can put stress on seams and edges of armor.  My Commander Fil suit got some extensive repirs after Celebration VI last year, but looking at the armor after the parade has me worried.  I'm missing chips from the shin-guards.  My thigh plates are missing pieces too.  The cod and butt plates are trying to stay together along their seam, but storing them the way I have been has not worked well.  I need to permanently afix the two together, since that's how they're stored.

They're made of HIPS (High-Impact Polystyrene), as opposed to ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene).  What's the difference?  To my understanding; detail.  HIPS holds detail a lot easier and better when used in a vaccuform machine.  ABS is a bit stronger, but shows less detail off the mold.  Having made a clone with each type, I can say I was more pleased with the look of the HIPS over the ABS.  It was easier to work with too.  The issue is that the HIPS is starting to wear out, and break down.  Fil is two years old now, and may need replacement parts soon.  Thankfully, the molds are still being used to make suits, so matching replacements might be available.  It's just that it means more money into the suit.

A Softer Choice

I really need to make a Jedi.

I know, I have a SWOTOR Jedi Shadow in the works, but the writing on the wall tells me that costume is likely to sit in it's current state for a while.  In the meantime, I have several items that work for a generic Jedi:

"Preacher" Boots
Jedi often preach, right?

• A pair of boots that Rebel Legion costume judges think will be fine for a more traditional Jedi
• A pair of khaki pants that I bought specifically to use for a generic Jedi
• Jedi-style undertunic from a LARP costume
• Jedi belt that has been stripped of weatherproofing and is ready for dye to match the shade of the boots more closely (was a more natural-leather color)
• A rack of lightsabers begging to be used for more than just wall art.

The only parts I'm missing for generic Jedi approval in the Rebel Legion is the outer tunic, tabards, obi, and belt accessories (pouches, food capsules, and/or Jedi Communicator).  Theoretically the costume parts of that could be done in a weekend; I'd just have to find the cloth to do it.  The trick is finding it in the color I want.  I'm thinking of a forest green-to-olive shade for the outer tunic, and tan tabards and obi.  I just need to find the fabric. 

Oh, and room in my house to work on it.  That would be spiffy too. 

All Wings Report In

So Erich Shafer and I have been chugging right along with the official Rebel Legion Podcast, All Wings Report In. Seriously, if you're into the Rebel Legion or Star Wars costuming at all, I highly recommend giving it a listen.  You not only get to hear about the Rebel Legion and what we're doing, but we've also started getting more "tips and tricks" segments into the show.  Also, we occasionally get to do interviews with folks in the Star Wars family, like the one we just had with Dee Bradley Baker.  Dee is the voice of the Clones for the entire run of The Clone Wars, and it was a privilege to talk to him the other day.  We split it off from the main episode run, so you can grab the 13 minute interview on it's own if you just want to listen to that.

Otherwise, the show seems to be going well, has a good following, and is continuing to evolve and grow.  Now if only some other folks from the Clone Wars would respond to our interview requests...

New Year, New Game, New Podcast, Old Habits

Welcome to 2013!

I look at this dust-covered blog and think "wow, you're a slacker.  You haven't posted since July."  To be fair, my life has been something of an anarchic ball of chaos these past six months.  Buying a home takes a lot out of you, and if you work in mortgages in this time of low prices and lower rates, you get drained a lot due to volume of work.  You seek diversions more, and creativity less.  I haven't written much for any table-top game, for the Gamer Security Agency, nor have I worked on any costume in the last half of 2012. 

That being said, my Old Republic characters have been steadily chugging their levels along into the 30s and 40s...

Changes have happened, my life is starting to stabilize, and there are some exciting developments coming down the pipeline.  Let's start with the gaming, shall we?



New hotness...

 Edge of the Empire

Back in August, it was announced a GenCon that not only was Fantasy Flight Games working on a new Star Wars RPG, but they actually had a Beta Book available for purchase at the con.  The concept of a "Beta" game book for a table-top RPG was new to me, but as I look back on it, it makes sense.  Why have a limited playtest group of a hundred players when you can release a beta ruleset and get thousands of folks playing and giving feedback.  Paizo's done it with Pathfinder, Evil Hat is doing it with their FATE ruleset, so it's a brilliant move for FFG to do it with Edge of the Empire. 

I originally balked at the game and the system for two reasons.  First, the game has a very narrow focus.  Its designed for running games for characters living on the fringe of society in the Outer Rim, during the Rebellion Era.  The system mechanics are very bent towards Obligations (debts to enities & organizations, duty, addictions, family, etc.) and the periphery of the Rebellion Era, and has very little for Force Users or pure Rebellion characters.  Makes sense, because the next two books are Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny.  The problem is these next two "Core books" are due out in 2014 and 2015 respectively.  I have to wait until 2015 for a more in-depth ruleset for Force Users and Jedi?  Pass!

The second reason I was resistant to change was that I am a fan of SAGA Edition.  Its the game that got me involved with the d20 Radio network, which lead to my involvement with podcasting for All-STOP and the Holocron 2.0.  It's what started me doing the Fragments from the Rim segment on the Order 66 podcast, and led me to start this blog.  I've got a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in SAGA Edition, which likely made me hyper-sensitive to anything in Edge that didn't come close to fulfilling the depth of crunchy material that SAGA has.

When I went to Star Wars Celebration VI, FFG was there with their X-Wing game and with a stack of Edge of the Empire BETA rulebooks.  I decided to drop my $30 and give it a shot.  I should at least read through it because Chris and Dave on the Order 66 Podcast were raving about it.  What little I read got confusing (11 pages just on the dice mechanic?) and discouraging (Yup, no Jedi!  Argh!).  With the chaos of my home-life, it was easy to put Edge asside and focus on other things for a few months.  Then in November the Order 66 Podcast announces they're changing formats from SAGA to FFG's system, and I have a conundrum.  "Do I keep doing Fragments from the Rim for the Order 66 guys?  Do I branch it off for something else?  Do I let it go?"  I had already lost a podcast when Fiddleback decided to stop playing The Old Republic, so I was about to lose my "radio presence" entirely if I didn't change too.  Plus there was something about Edge of the Empire that stirred within me, something that reminded me of the games I played way back in the day, when I first started gaming with the West End Games era of Star Wars RPGs.

I picked up Edge of the Empire again and forced myself to read it, and try to understand it.  After 200 pages (and an additional 12 pages from eleven weeks of Beta Rules updates), I found myself liking the system.  Yes, it's fringe Star Wars (Some would say it's "Firefly Star Wars" but screw you guys.  The show lasted 13 episodes and a movie.  It's never coming back.  Get over it.), but fringe Star Wars is where it all began, wasn't it?  Looking back, how many of you played in a Star Wars campaign where you were all Han Solo types, freebooting around the Outer Rim refusing to join the Rebellion but sticking it to the Imperials every chance you got?  I don't think you can say you played Star Wars until you've played a game or two in that theme.  Everyone's played it, so it makes sense to start a new game there, with something familiar.

The nostalgia for SAGA was slowly transformed into a nostalgia for Star Wars gaming as a whole, and the Edge of the Empire captured that for me.  It's also shinny and new, taking Star Wars gaming from a more tactical-heavy RPG to a more free-form narrative-heavy/map-light game.  I look at Edge of the Empire and I'm amazed how easy it would be to adapt a game session to the players going "off the rails".  I can eyeball NPC stats a lot better, and even make them up completely on the fly.  Creating NPCs themselves are more organic, less formulaic; I can simply say "I want this NPC to have these skills, these stats, and these abilities".  It doesn't matter if a PC couldn't do it, it's an NPC, they shouldn't follow the same rules as PC Character building.  Yes, I could do that with SAGA, sure.  But I don't know; something about SAGA compeled me to make NPCs "the right way", to follow the same rules and progressions as Player Characters.  Giving them an extra feat or talent felt like cheating somehow.  I like how I can make the NPCs do what I need them to do in Edge, without causing their defenses, hit points, or other stats to change dramatically beyond what the PCs can handle.

So I'm working on Edge of the Empire, and getting involved with the Gamer Nation on the d20 Radio boards with home-brewing rules.  Specifically, I'm eager to help brew rules for Jedi; because I sure as hell am not waiting until 2015 for Jedi PCs, not if I am now leaning towards using FFG's system for my "Another Longshot" campaign.

Fragments For the Future

This transition from SAGA Edition to Edge of the Empire means another slight change to the focus of my Order 66 segment.  When I made the decision to switch to EotE, I also decided to make some changes to how I produce my Fragments segment for the show.  Instead of the "persona" of Darth GM, and introduced by one of my "loyal minions", the segment is now introduced by a female bartender character, and my persona is one of a mysterious cantia patron named "Ji'em Fil".  He's an explorer who seeks out and shares little secrets in the galaxy (and the game).  He also may be Darth GM-in-hiding, but we'll see how that develops.  The first installment was in Episode 2 of the new Order 66 podcast, and seemed to go over quite well.  I'm looking forward to the next few episodes. 

The focus on the Fragments from the Rim segment has been to highlight one specific aspect of the game, be it a character ability, talent, or Force power.  Sometimes I'd even do a segment on gamemaster aids, like music or props.  I'm going to continue to do that for the Order 66 show, but it's going to be a little while before I can focus on the character talents and game mechanics choices of the system.  Until then I'm digging through my old West End Games books looking for inspiration that can be used in the new EotE system. 

You Can't Stop the Signal

Back in September, Fiddleback and I recorded our last episode of The Holocron 2.0 podcast, our podcast for the d20 Radio network for Star Wars, The Old Republic.  Fiddleback was ceasing his subscription, and was no longer interested in the game enough to keep playing, even given the Free-To-Play model the game was switching to in November.  So once again I found myself without a podcast to host.  I took a few months off, and then was approached by my good friend Erich Schafer to co-host a new podcast for my other hobby (and focus for this blog); the Rebel Legion. 

The Rebel Legion has been wanting a podcast for some time now, and Erich thought I'd make a good co-host with him.  We got the first podcast of All Wings Report In out the door at the beginning of January, and are currently in the process of lining up the next few shows.  It's going to be a monthly moouthpiece for the Rebel Legion, but it won't just be for news of the Legion.  We're going to have a variety of topics to talk about, including in-depth looks and discussions about the costumes in the Legion, adapting and acting in-character for the costume you're wearing, and hopefully interviews with Honorary Members of the Legion (i.e. Celebrities).

It's good to be on the air again.

Dying Hard

Now to the subject of old habits; I have them.  I cycle through interests like a juke-box.  I have "Attention Deficit-...OH SHINNY!" disorder.  How many months will I be updating here before I have another dead air period?  Good question.  So, in an effort to try and stick with this, I shall do my own version of Sterling Hershey's "Star Wars Wednesdays".  My goal is to have something up on this blog every Thursday (simply because reading Sterling's blog should remind me to update my own.

And hopefully my next update will involve some progress on my Jedi Consular costume...