Homebrewed Hotness: The Jedi Knight, Part 1

Here I am writing for my blog, just like I said I would last week.  Good intentions and all that survive the first week!  Pop the corks and pass the glasses!

Today we're going back to the Edge of the galaxy, and talking about some custom creations that folks are working on out there in the Gamer Nation.

If They Don't Give You Something, Make It

Talking about Edge of the Empire here; anyone who's been following the game's progress (or read my last blog post) knows that the game takes place in an era of Star Wars where the Jedi...well, they aren't around.  The Jedi were just about wiped out to a man, thanks to the rise of the Empire.  There are a handful of Jedi still in the galaxy at this time (two, if you're a purist who only acknowledges the movies).  Because of this narrow focus to the game the only Force-Users we see for Player Character options is a talent tree devoted to the "Force Sensitive Exile" and three Force Powers: Sense, Influence, and Move.  So the game gives you the chance to be a Force User, but a wicked under-powered one*.

Several folks over on the D20 Radio Boards are in the process of writing up their own version of Jedi; trying to develop their own take on a Jedi Career (or at least a specialization).  Some are focusing on the character who wishes to become a Jedi, and either finds a master or some other way to unlock the lost secrets of the Jedi Order.  This is exemplified by a poster named "Awayputurwpn", and his "Jedi Novice" talent tree.  Former SAGA Developer Jonathan Stevens is working on his own rules set, but has kept it under wraps.  No idea what his focus is on.  Many other posters have been kicking around options for Deflecting Blasters, and Redirecting Shots.  Questions on how to replicate Force Speed and Force Jump have also cropped up, and sparked some debate over whether they should be Talents (and incorporated into Career Specialization trees) or represented by a Force Power (effectively giving it it's own tree).

While I wait for "Dono" to release his work-in-progress, I've decided to dust off the cogs of creativity in my cranium and get some ideas on Jedi and Force Use down on paper.  Or at least computer screen, such as it is.

 

Jedi Initial Thoughts

After taking in the Gamer Nation's views, creations, and commentary on potential Jedi in the Edge of the Empire rule-set, my first task is to find a place to start.  Am I making a specific talent tree?  Am I making a Force power?  Am I doing a whole talent tree?


I feel the best place to start is to begin at the beginning.  I want to use Edge of the Empire rules to tell my Star Wars stories, but my storyline is bigger than "Fringers in the Outer Rim during the Rebellion Era".  The rules as written for Force-users is inadequate to my needs.  I need a full-blown "Jedi Career".  Starting with that, I have to look at what makes a Career.  Currently in the Beta Rules Set, Careers are Star Wars Archetypes; Bounty Hunters, Colonists, Hired Guns, Smugglers, Technicians, and Explorers.  Looking over my roles, Jedi are just that; Jedi.  There's my career, I'll build from there.

Jedi Guardians

Under each career are three specializations.  These specializations further define what your character's career focus is at game-start; Doctors heal the injured and sick, Pilots are great with speeders and starships, Mercenary Commanders excel at leading small squads, Assassins are good at killing people.  Your specialization helps to define your character's role, and can contribute to your personality and style.  A Bounty Hunter who specializes in Gadgettering is likely to have a much different outlook than one who specializes as an Assassin.  But maybe not, that's the fun of playing a PC; being extraordinary.

As I think about a Jedi Career, this "specialization" step has already been done for me.  Since the release of the original Knights of the Old Republic video game, there have been three basic "Jedi Classes" that keep popping up; Guardians, Consulars, and Sentinels.  Guardians are the noble fighters, the ones best trained in combat and being a martial symbol of the Jedi Order.  Consulars are the mediators, the negotiators.  They are also the ones who tend to specialize in unlocking the greater mysteries of the Force.  The Sentinels are the investigators, the hunters of Sith lore, and the clandestine protectors of the Order.

Sounds like three distinct specializations to me.

 

Skillful Choices

Now that I've got my specializations, it's time to start writing in the details.  Each Career has eight skills that are "Career Skills"; skills that are keyed to your chosen path and can be improved a lot easier than non-career skills (i.e. lower XP Cost).  Looking over the list of skills, I'm looking for Skill options that every Jedi should have access too. 

• Athletics; because Jedi of all types are seen as physically healthy and capable.
• Cool; being emotionally centered and maintaining their calm are hallmarks of your typical Jedi.  Also used for occasional initiative rolls.
• Coordination; linked to Athletics, many Jedi seem to have good balance and grace.
• Discipline; almost required, as this is the skill most often linked to Force use (or Force resistance) and Fear checks.
• Lightsaber; a new Skill that works like Melee, but focuses on the special training needed to wield a weapon that you could very easily lop your own extremity off with.
• Perception; because an unaware Jedi is a dead Jedi.  Plus the Force can help out greatly in this regard.
• Resilience; a Jedi needs to have boundless energy and recuperative ability, because the Galaxy seems to need him 27 hours a day.
• Vigilance; the more-often-used initiative skill, and another skill often linked to Force use.

Jedi Consular

 This lit offers a pretty good baseline for the average Jedi hero.  It's a lot of good combat and action skills, sort of a cherry-picked list between Hired Guns and Smugglers.  I feel these skills are necessary for the average Jedi to have access too, and help represent his upbringing within the Jedi Order.

Each Specialization within the Career adds to the Career skill list, adding in up to four new skills.  There is the occasional skill overlap, which means the player can select the same skill twice during character creation and start with it at Rank 2 at no extra XP cost.  For my three Jedi Specializations, I came up with the following skill choices:

• Guardians: More martial than other Jedi, Guardians add Brawl and  Lightsaber to their skill lists.  Guardians don't always use their lightsaber for every situation, but when they do they tend to be a bit more skilled with it than purely Consulars or Sentinels.  Guardians also tend to have commanding personalities, and can motivate others to great acts, so I added Leadership.  Finally, there are many Jedi Guardians who are portrayed as good pilots, so I selected Pilot (Space) as their fourth skill option.
• Consulars: With more of a focus on knowledge and diplomacy, the Consular skill list gives options to help the character in more social challenges than Guardians and Sentinels. Consulars get Negotiate as a skill choice, to reflect that they have great ability at mediation.  Knowledge (Education) gives them a basic understanding of the galaxy and the sciences, as well as how to interact with government entities. Some Consulars are great healers, and many have at least a basic understanding of Medicine.  Finally, Consulars have always explored the greater mysteries of the Force, so Discipline is added as a skill option to allow a starting Consular to have 2 Rank choices in that skill.
• Sentinels: These Jedi don't always solve problems with the Force, and tend to be more well-rounded in the skill choice department.  These Jedi work in the shadows, and build contacts to help in their investigations.  Stealth is a necessary component to their chosen mission style, and Computers and Skulduggery help the Sentinel gain access to places where subtlety is needed. Finally, Knowledge (Streetwise) gives the Jedi insight and contacts in the far-flung corners of the Galaxy. 

Jedi Sentinel

It took me some time to whittle down the skill list for each of these four steps.  The next part, choosing talents for each Specialization's Talent Tree, is turning out to be another complex puzzle.  The talents in the books provide a good base to start from.  My first pass at a "wish list" for the Jedi Guardian left me with 23 talents to choose from, and that wasn't including the few home-brewed talents I wanted to include.  Considering the talent trees only allow for twenty talents, and a few of them appear more than once (since their effects increase each time purchased), I have some talent-pruning to do.

I'll share the talents I'm considering for each specialization and the reasoning for them in my next post.  After that, it's on to figuring out the Talent Tree, and when you can buy each talent.  Maybe somewhere in there I'll take a break to talk about Force Powers I'm working on, or NPC abilities, or costume work**.

Stay Tuned!

* I'm from the suburbs of Boston.  I get to say "wicked" and have it be grammatically correct for my culture.  Be thankful I type my Rs...
** Sweet christmas, I need to get some progress done on a costume; either a new one or my Jedi Shadow.  Feh.

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...

Jedi Shadow: An Update

This build has been anything but easy...

Let's start with some reference images.

 

Now let's look at what I've got...

The basic look is there, but it's pretty far from done. Also, these pictures were taken on a very warm day, late at night, and after a while of trying to wrestle with the "unique" design of how the belt closes. I know it's not sitting right, and the skirt isn't hemmed up right, but it's pretty much a preliminary fitting.

 

My fiance had a great idea to embroider the runes with mylar thread.  Awesome plan.  Too bad each rune took her an average of 40 minutes to do, due to how easy mylar thread snaps in a sewing machine.  Still, they do glimmer.

 

The start of my hand wraps.  Again, a long way to go.  I'm using a pair of nice Nike baseball batting gloves as a base.  That way I'll be more assured to have a good grip on the lightsaber.

 

Fun with EL Tape...glowing runes...

And here's my hairy legs in foot wraps.  I've got to clean them up a bit.

I've got a ways to go, and not a heck of a lot of time to do it...I really need to have this done by the second weekend in August to even have a shot at getting this approved for the Legion.

Ah well, onward and upwards...

Flashy Build: Phase Six - Payoff

It's been an interesting few weeks around the DarthGM homestead when it comes to Flashy.

After three rounds of priming and sanding, Flashy was ready to mold.  You all saw what state he was in last week.  This week, the plan was to use some mold-release on the first half and pour the second half of the mold.  So Sunday night I sprayed it, mixed 3 starter kits of Moldstar 16, and let it "bake" for a half hour.

It seemed to be ready...

 The intention was to pull off the sides of the mold and be able to just pull the mold into it's two sections.  Instead, I got this.

 

...a nice brick of blue rubber, with my master encased within.  The coating of Mold Release failed.  Completely.  Maybe it was too warm, maybe I didn't use enough.  Who knows.  Who cares!  After going to town on it with my box-cutter, I was able to sever the mold in half and remove Flashy.

Sadly, all my guide keys were gone.  The mold was in rough shape.  The master broke off one of it's details.  I was disappointed, and thought that I'd just blown a couple hundred bucks worth of chemicals with nothing to show for it.

So tonight I invited over Erich, one of my colleagues in the 501st/Rebel Legion, and we tried to save the mold.  After three attempts, the cutting of a few more channels in the rubber to let air out, and the construction of a wooden shell to go around the gun to keep it from being squished in key points, we ended up with this.

She may not look like much, but after a few passes with an x-acto knife, we got something else.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Flashy-Version 1.0"

 I had to trim away a lot of flash (ba-dum dum), and sliced my pinky open pretty well while doing it, but I think it looks pretty good, and pretty workable.

This build has been a real learning experience, and I'm not just saying that to sound wise, or to sound like an after school special (do they even have those anymore?)

I got really discouraged yesterday after all the failures with the mold.  I want to be good at it, and I want to be good at it now.  I need to accept that things aren't always going to work out how I want them too, no matter how badly I want them to.  Some things takes time, and practice, and you're going to fail along the way, or stumble, and it's important to learn from failure and pick yourself up when you trip, because you may still make it to where you were going.

This is the first time I'd ever done something like this, and I can tell you it won't be the last.  I'll probably do a Flashy 2.0 at some point, incorporating the knowledge of what I've done on this build into the next, and improving it.

My second suit of armor was better than my first, and my third was better than my second.  Practice, experience, and patience are hallmarks of this hobby.  I need to remember that, and enjoy the process as much as the product.

But man, when the product works, even partially, it's really neat.

I likely need a night with her and a dremmel before working on her apperance, but all and all I'm happy with my first pull. Now it's on to cleaning up the pull, detailing, and painting.  And that's something I have experience with.

Big thanks to Erich Schafer for the hands on help, and Brian "stormtrooperguy" Anderson for the inspiration and words of advice.

Costume Updates, Cacophony Style

So it's been a while since I posted anything about any costume or prop, so I'll just post it all!

Flashy

Casting Flashy got...interesting...

We started with a box and a lot of clay.  Next time I do this, I'm going to remember to fill in the clay more, and smooth it out better.

 

We thought that one container/package of mold mix would be enough per side, and we had a third kit in reserve.  I grossly underestimated the amount of volume this box could hold, and ended up using all three kits just to make one half of the mold.  Not just that, but I had to tilt the box and stick one of the empty bottles into the mixture to force the volume of the mix to shift so there would be enough over all of the gun.  

She hardened up nice, and left me with half a mold.  My buddy Erich is heading to Reynold's Advanced Materials later this week, and picking up another 3 mix-kits for me.  Hopefully late next Sunday I'll be able to pour the last half of the mold, and maybe pull a blaster the following Monday.

  
Darth Malgus

My work on Darth Malgus is interesting and entertaining.  I'm having fun experimenting with building his armored parts from Pepakura files and EVA Foam mats. 

 

The don't look too bad, if you ask me...

 

 

There are slightly thnner mats out there, so I may make yet another pair of gauntlets soon.  I guess I'll just have to use these for LARPing or something.

 
Jedi Consular

The Jedi Consular is coming along, dammit. I wish there was more to show, but Sarah has been working on a lot of aspects of it at once, and it's sometimes dizzying to try and keep track of it all.  We're actually pretty well along.  I'd say it's about 60% done.  All the pieces are cut out, and are starting to come together.  We're just finishing up on a lot of the detail work that needs to be done when it's in it's component pieces.  I can show what I'm going to be doing for the glowing runes that run up the seams of the leather over-robe.

I'm cutting them out of leather, so that we can place a material behind them to illuminate them.

EL Tape, my friends.  EL Tape. 

These runes are gonna glow.

For the large runes on the bottom of the Skirt, sarah's basically embroidering them with mylar "mint green" thread over a white shimmery gauze, and then running an iron over them to fuse them together. 

What she's done so far (not pictured here) LOOKS great, but it takes so damn long to do.  Sarah is giving herself a recurring back ache working on this part.  Each rune takes about an hour to do, because the machine needs to chug along at it's slowest possible speed or the mylar thread snaps.  And it snaps a lot.

501st Clone Trooper

My 501s Clone Trooper has actually been down for a while now.  To get into this helmet, I actually cut away the faceplate and have it secured with a series of Rare Earth Magnets and metal brackets.  Well, it wasn't really holding too well that way, so I replaced the Rare Earth Magnets with  Even Stronger Rare Earth Magnets.  This seems to work well.  I also trimmed out the visor a little more so it wasn't completely crushing my nose (which was contributing to the old magnets not being able to hold the face on properly).  The suit is wearable again, even if I do still need to upgrade my ab plate.

Going Forward


Got a bunch of projects to finish up, a few more I want to start, and eventually to start gathering pieces for the lightsaber I want to built. (Boy, is that going to be inexpensive...NOT...)  Most of it will need to wait, tho.  I really need to kick my packing into high gear and get my house packed up.