Updating Every...uh...Month?

It’s been a frustrating few weeks.  I’ve been trying to get something up on the blog, but I feel like I’ve been conspired against by forces unknown.  Everything in my life has felt so busy, so time consuming.  But it really hasn’t.  What’s actually been going on is my usual track record of throwing all my effort and free time into the latest shinny thing to cross my path.  It’ll eat up all my free time as I want to advance and make progress.  When that shinny thing is a video game, everything else that doesn’t carry a tangible consequence tends to fall off the radar.

My Star Wars games get attention because every other Tuesday night five of my buddies are online waiting for me to start the Google

Hangout and run a game for a few hours.  Same thing every six weeks with my Order 65 game.

Every two-to-three weeks  GM Chris and Dave (along with a good portion of the listener base, apparently) wait my Fragments from the Rim segment and the font of wisdom that is Ji’em Fil.

There’s the Mechwarrior Online tournament I’m in, and the team I’m on that has practice Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  With a recent turn-over, I’ve bumped up to something of a veteran’s position and have become one of the Liaisons for the big tournament we’re in.

Then there’s the family and household obligations.  If it’s a tangible thing, like dishes, snow-covered driveways, or laundry it tends to get resolved more often than the intangibles, like spending time with the wife (which definitely carries consequences).

Work is work.  I suppose it should really be at the top of the list, since my paycheck theoretically allows for everything else to happen.

But beyond that, I’ve not been too great about management of my other interests.  I’m the new Executive Officer for the New England Garrison of the 501st Legion.  I’ve got the All Wings Report In podcast that needs to get a show out in March, because it took until February to get the January episode out (damn tech snafus).

AWRI is a big problem for me, because my erstwhile co-host remains erstwhile until April.  If he’s able to do the show again, I think it’ll get better.  Until then, it’s a waiting game.

CLONE WARS and REBELS

I’m pretty excited about the coming of two Star Wars offerings; the “final season/lost episodes” of The Clone Wars, and the news coming out about Star Wars Rebels.  The Clone Wars episodes are coming via Netflix on March 7.  I’m sure they’ll be available elsewhere, but I’ve got to try and get some Netflix access on the 8th (the 7th is my anniversary, see above for obligations to the wife).

Rebels looks to be a rompus good time with a bunch of new heroes that scream “We’re a PC party in an Edge of the Empire campaign”.  Hot twi’lek pilots, Jedi Cowboys, Street Urchin Force Sensitives, scrappy Mando punk-chicks, alien hired muscle, and a droid with a foul mouth bigger than Artoo’s.  All this and a return to the threat of the Empire and it’s faceless horde of Stormtroopers.

I’m hooked.  The summer premiere can’t happen soon enough.  Sadly, I don’t see a lot for new outfits for me from this show.  Not yet anyway,
I’m sure something will come along.

COSTUMES

If I can disconnect from Star Trek Online (easier now that the Anniversary event is over) I may finally be able to make some progress on costumes.  I think the wife finally figured out the issues with my Jedi robe; it was twice as wide as it should be.  Maybe a simple miscalculation when we cut it, or maybe it was given a generous amount of extra material for “gathering” at the neck and hood.  Either way, if I can get that done, maybe we can start working on getting my dad’s Obi Wan back into play (he lost a lot of weight lately and suddenly, the wrong way.  He’s doing well, now) or the Jedi Shadow.

If I can make it out of EVA foam, I want to get my Sith Acolyte started.  I’ve got a few sabers that are begging for some use and love, and would go well with the closest thing to a “generic Sith” the 501st Legion has.  I could make a unique one for Dark Empire but…eh, I don’t know.   Dark Empire is a good organization, to be sure, but right now my interests lie more in replicating existing costumes than making something new.

If I were making a sith costume for a LARP or something, that’d be different.

ORDER UP!

Six months; that’s the maximum amount of time I am giving myself to bring Order 65 to a close.  The PCs have discovered that there is a new Sith Empire, that they have Star Dreadnaughts and a Death Star, the help of the Mandalorian Death Watch, and that Chancellor Kenobi may or may not be a willing pawn in their schemes.  They also found that they now have help from Senator Organa’s secret alliance, access to the Katana Fleet, and to 16 million Clone Troopers looking for something to do after being discharged as a part of Kenobi’s military reforms.  The PCs now have to confront Kenobi, destroy a Death Star, and face the leaders of this Sith Empire.  That feels like at least three solid sessions.  Maybe four.

Either way, when Order 65 ends, Another Longshot truly begins.

REPLAYS FROM THE RIM

At the request of a few, I’m trying to figure out a way to get my Fragments episodes up on the web.  Either as an RSS feed or maybe just as a link to an audio file on Archive.org.  Might just be a limitation of Blogger, because I know Fiddleback is doing it with Skill Monkey.  I think he’s on wordpress, as is AWRI. I just dislike Wordpress’s interface.  Anyway, it’s something I’m working on and hope to have soon, so folks can just listen to the snippets of Fragments from the Order 66 Podcast, and not have to try to find it in a 3 hour episode if they want to listen to it for some reason.

TOPIC CRUNCH

I need to come up with something to write about here.  A costume project.  A supplement.  Campaign work.  Something.  If I have a reason to write and update here, then I’ll be more likely to stick with it and actually give you folks a reason to come back here every week or so.  I know I get pissed off when someone doesn’t update their blog or comic when they said they would, and I’m sure some of you are pretty disappointed with me too.  I’m open to suggestions.

Projection of Projects

I wonder at what point I should just change my release schedule to “Fridays”.  Probably never, as I like having Friday as a catch-up day.  Any later and I’m into the weekend and then WHO KNOWS where my schedule goes.

I suppose another reason why I haven’t been as hardcore to posting anything lately is that I simply haven’t been working on much of anything of late.  The holidays, while a lot of fun, really take up a lot of time.  It’s a natural pause for a breath of fresh air in the middle of the worst of the seasons.  It’s also a time to set your signs on where the coming year is going, and what you have to look forward to.

Hey, that’s what I could do; a 2014 Projection!

Q1: January – March, 2014

Much of this month will be split between wealth accumulation (annual bonus from work and tax returns) and spending of said funds for some fantastic adventures later in the year.  It will also be spent on a frelling boat. 

Right now, I’m setting up a party for Sterling Hershey’s Beyond the Rim adventure for Edge of the Empire.  My stepson bought it for me with the ulterior motive that I run a game for him to play in.  Four other players have been located, and characters are set.  It’s looking like it should be a good time.  We just have to figure out when it starts, as my stepson might be running in track-meets for the next several weeks (alternate on the relay team).

In February, I’m on vacation.  Folks are taking us on a cruise with them, hopefully.  Dad had an operation recently and there’s a question on whether or not he’ll be recovered in time to join us.  I’m hoping he will be, because it wouldn’t be the same without him on the boat. 

February marks the annual anniversary for Star Trek Online.  I’ve been playing that a lot recently, enough features and new content were added to make things interesting again.  Not sure how long I’ll be playing it, but I hope it will be entertaining while I’m there.

I'm also getting a  little bit of a bug to finally dive into STO's community created content generator; the Foundry.  Much like you could in City of Heroes, players can create their own Star Trek adventures and post them up for folks to experience.  A lot of it is reportedly crap.  Some of it is genius.  I'll be happy if I can write something that falls in the middle.  I need to play at least ten different Foundry missions (my own limit, not the game's) before I get an idea of what works, and what doesn't.  Then it's on to poking at the interface.  We'll see if that pans out while I have all this other crap I want to get done this year.

March is GamerNation Con in the DFW area of Texas!  …and I will not be going.  Because that weekend is also about the time for my 1^st anniversary of being married to the hottest chick I know.  I’m not missing my first anniversary for a gaming convection.  Third or seventh, maybe.  But not the first.  I wish the guys at D20 Radio nothing but success for their convention, and look forward to hopefully attending in the future (assuming they hold another one). 

I'm not sure if I'm marching in the South Boston St. Pats parade this year.  That weekend is the same weekend I was likely to be celebrating my anniversary with my wife (and the same weekend as GamerNationCon).  We'll have to see.

Sometime in this quarter is the start of the Marik Civil War (Season 3).   It's a fun Mechwarrior Online combat league where your unit's performance in best-of-five combats determines how the Civil War is going on a large map.  With the current absence of Community Warfare in MWO, this is a nice indicator of what it could feel like if the Devs get their acts in gear and get us Community Warfare sometime before 2015.  I'm the Tournament Liaison for the 1st Skye Jaegers of the Skye Rangers Brigade.  Basically I'm there to handle communication between us and our opponent for that round of combat, arranging when we are to meet up, and trying to help synch the drop (no private matchmaker yet, have to time it and hope the game matches the two teams up).

By the way, if anyone out there is looking for a tournament team for Mechwarrior Online, come look us up.  We're not the Steel Jaguar Regiment, but we don't do too bad either (good enough to be in the top-tier team bracket, but SJR and a couple other teams have a better Win/Loss ratio against us)

Quarter 2: April – June 2014

And so shall begin my last year as someone “in their thirties”.  I’d like to start it with some sort of party.  Not sure I’ll get the chance, but we’ll have to see.  I’m certainly planning on ending my last year in the thirties with a bang, hopefully drinking it up with my Rebel Legion and 501^st Legion cohorts out in Anaheim at next year’s Star Wars Celebration.

With any luck, I'll also get to start doing "All Wings Report In" podcasts with Erich again this month.  Filling both shoes is hard, and sucks.  I got burnt out doing ALL-STOP because of the work that was needed before and after each episode.

Somewhere in here, Age Of Rebellion should get released.  Not sure when yet, but assuming there are no weird production delays, it should be in April or May, instead of July like Edge of the Empire was.  I'm really looking forward to this book.  By far, my favorite era of Star Wars is the Rebellion Era.  It's the one I grew up in.  I just feel like all the stories in that era are told, even though I know that's not the case.  It'll be interesting to see if there's any more stories in there for me to find with this book, or if later this year FFG plans to have something tie in with the Star Wars REBELS cartoon.

In May, my brother gets married.  I'm the best man.  Not much to say here at this time, but it's of import so I'd better include it.

Quarter 3: July - September 2014

I'm looking forward to this quarter like no one's business.  This year I'm going to GenCon.  Funds have been set aside, plans for room and board have been made.  Super Secret Plans have been put into motion.  I have no clue what to expect.  I have no clue what I'm going to do, or play.  I know a couple events I need to hit, a few folks I want to meet, but beyond that GenCon 2014 is an open canvas of possibilities.  I will buy a damn copy of the Force and Destiny Beta if I have to ambush Sam Stewart and Andy Fisher with Legion back up.  I will game with GM Chris and GM Dave from the Order 66 podcast, and hopefully a lot more folks from Gamer Nation.  It had better be glorious, if only because I demand it.  I'm going to meet my goal of "GenCon before 40, or when I'm 40".  Celebration Anaheim kills me going when I'm 40, so this is it.

My big question will be "will I have enough money to really enjoy it".  We shall see.

In September, I will hopefully...HOPEFULLY...get my creative cohort back.  My good buddy Alex and his family are supposed to be coming back to New England this September, which will allow me to formally kick off my Another Longshot multi-group campaign.  Fingers crossed, buddy.

Quarter 4: October - December 2014

October brings the Woburn Halloween parade, and is the target goal for my father.  He wants to be ready to troop that parade, and in parade shape for it.  His Old Ben outfit needs to be in similar shape as well.  Good enough for the Legion, his current outfit is getting pretty worn out, and there was an unfortunate incident with his cloak that caused it to shrink from a great cloak to something slightly bigger than a hooded bathrobe.  We'll need to work on this throughout the year to get Ben ready for JoeBi-Wan to troop in.

This whole quarter has a lot of good events.  Woburn, Rhode Island Comic Con, Manchester Christmas Parade; gotta be ready.

And of course Thanksgiving, Christmas and we do it all again in a year.

So in all, it should be a good year.  Looking forward to a lot of it, and I hope to be able to bring you all along for the ride.

New Year, Par for the Course

Here we are on January 3rd, the first Friday of 2014, and I've already missed a blog-post.  I could pawn it off on the blizzard we just had here in New England, but I won't.  I spent all of last night playing Star Trek Online, part of it with my former STO-Podcast co-host, Gonzo.  Good to get some time at the helm with him, even if it was for only about an hour, and with some toddler aggro that he had to attend to while we were facing the Borg.

 

It was a decent New Year's Eve.  I got to spend it with several nice folks in a mellow, low-key gathering.  It was a nice reset that set the framework for the coming year.  It'll be a year of challenges and celebrations, and require a bit of focus on my part.  I can honestly say I'm going to give 2014 a chance to be awesome, and work towards it being so.  If it isn't, it won't be because I didn't try.
 

Here Comes A New Challenger!

I almost called this section "Level Up!", but then I realized that's a bad, misogynistic live-action tv-show about MMO players.  This is nothing like that.  This is all about the "Edge of the Jedi" document and me finally fixing a few things in it. 

 

Changes!  Corrections!  Updates!  Let's begin!

 

CAREER TREES: I'm happy with the Specialization trees as they are in 1.02.  No changes here.  Move along, move along.

 

BALANCED LIGHTSABER STYLE TREE: Now we're starting to see some changes, specifically to that useless Twin Strike talent.  After talking with Donovan Morningfire, I've moved Jar'Kai to the 15xp row, and moved Twin Strike to the 20xp row.  Twin Strike now "adds a boost die to any Lightsaber Combat Check when using Two Weapon Attack or when using the Autofire option while wielding two lightsabers".  Adding that boost die increases the odds of rolling enough Advantage to trigger that second attack, or use that Autofire option.  You no longer total up the damage between the two, which really would only be an issue if you're attacking a vehicle with Armor 1.  Since that comes up so infrequently (i.e. hardly ever), this makes the talent actually worth something.  Since it's a 20 point talent in at least a second specialization, I made it a free-bee (no cost to use).

 

I got some fun feedback on Shii Cho, and Shii Cho Master.  "It's fun!" was the synopsis.  Many minions died to bring me that feedback.

 

STRONG LIGHTSABER STYLE TREE: More changes here to three of my Forms (well, 2 technically).  Shien got a big change.  The problem with the original Shien is that unless you had the 25 point Deflect Blasters talent from the Jedi Career specs, you didn't get any benefit from the talent.  While some may say that's okay, I decided to change the Shien power to match the old Shien Master; spend Threat and Despair on blaster weapon combat checks against you to deal damage back to the attacker (note that it doesn't say if the attack hits or not; it works in both cases).  Shien Master now drops the cost of activating Shien to two Threat or a Despair.  And no, you can't burn 4 Threat or 2 Threat and a Despair to deal 20 damage back to the attacker...unless your GM really is feeling generous.

 

I changed up Djem So Master too.  Instead of making it a mirror of Shien Master (now regular Shien), I went back to the description of Djem So for inspiration.  Djem So is all about blocking attacks and responding with strikes of your own.  So instead of dealing a flat 10 points of damage back to your opponent, you now deal your Lightsaber damage back to your opponent, and include any passive abilities the lightsaber has (like Breach 1).  Note that you don't get to use the regular Djem So (or Ataru) bonus damage in that hit, since you're not making a Lightsaber combat check.  Cost to activate remains the same as before.

 

Juyo got a lot simpler.  Also at Dono's suggestion, Juyo is now simply "1 strain to upgrade the next Lightsaber combat check once".  You get aggressive, you exert yourself, you increase the odds of hitting and something nasty happening to your opponent.

 

THE FORCE: Also added is about 2/3rds of a page on home-brewed house rules I've used in my games recently.  The first being the inclusion of a pseudo-talent, Power of the Force.  For 20 Xp you can spend 1 strain to turn a Dark Side Point into a Light Side Point.  This can be done with every Force Die roll (except the one at the beginning that determines Destiny Points for the game, you are rolling that one, not your character).  You can take this "talent" any time, during character creation or once play has started, only that you need to belong to a formalized Force tradition to take it.  The theme here is that by belonging to a formalized tradition, like the Jedi, they train you to tap into the Force reliably.  That training is what allows the Force User to at least get some use of the Force when they need it.

 

Another house-rule I've made concerns the old KotOR Campaign Guide power "Kinetic Combat".  The third Control upgrade in the Move power states you can use Move to manipulate objects with precision, and we judged that this could include wielding weapons.  It's not as easy as wielding them yourself, a level of control is required and your perspective on combat is slightly off.  It takes an Action to trigger Move to set up the power, and then in subsequent turns you need to commit two Force Dice to keeping the power going.  Also, you need to activate Move to be able to lift an object with a Silhouette equal to the Encumbrance rating of the weapon.  It's not that the weapon is that heavy, it's that Strength is a good indicator on how much "grip" or "finesse" you have when you use that weapon effectively.  Lightsabers are easy, Vibro-axes are hard, and Heavy Repeating Blasters are really hard to coordinate their bulk, aim, and firing all at once remotely. 

 

And hey, if you don't roll high enough to control the weapon, you can still use it as a projectile with Move (dealing it's normal damage based on the Silhouette, of course).

 

Making attacks with Kinetic combat increase the difficulty by one.  Turning off Kinetic Combat is a Maneuver if you want the weapon to return to your hand (or someone else's), or an Incidental if you want the weapon to just drop.

 

Finally, I also pointed folks to Donovan's Ways of the Force document for additional Force Powers like Healing and Injure.

 

So here it is!  Update 1.03 for your gaming pleasure.

 

Edge of the Jedi v1.03

 

I'm tempted...so tempted...to do an "Age of the Jedi" document at some point.  Possibly something to work on later in the year, or after I see exactly what's in the Force and Destiny beta.  If I had to do this all over again, I'd make three Jedi Careers; Consular, Guardian, and Sentinel.  I'd have three Specializations under each Career.  I don't think I'd change my Lightsaber Style trees, but I may consider adding one for "Force Wizard" specs.  I could also see doing a non-Jedi career; Force Adept.  I could likely come up with three Specializations for that too.  It's hard to think about all that right now, knowing that 8 months from now I'll have a better idea of how Fantasy Flight Games is doing it.

 

We'll have to see, now won't we?

Help from the Mandalorians?

I've been getting gameplay feedback from some members of the Gamer Nation; "Kell Ordo" and his family.  Pretty sure Kell is a member of the Mando Mercs, and possibly soon to be a member of the Rebel Legion if he's not already, based on some of the costumes he's stated he's working on for Celebration Anaheim.  He's got quite a list lined up.  Got me thinking about costumes, and specifically Mandalorians.  If I were to do a Mando, it would be one of Maul's Deathwatch members from his final arc in The Clone Wars, probably with the "Zabrak Horns" on the helmet.  I dig some of the custom stuff the Mercs have done over the years, but I have to say a lot of it has not appealed to me.  I'll admit it, I have a high-standard when it comes to Star Wars costumes, and I guess to costumes in general.  I'm starting to find myself looking at cosplayers thinking about what could be done better, or how it could be made better.  I'm not even what I'd call an expert or anything, I'm just a guy who's put together three armor kits and conned his wife into making him one and a half Jedi outfits.  Oh, and put together a lightsaber from parts.  My one and only prop-making project turned out like I expected; serviceable but in sore need of a redo.  So my pedigree is very "quick to judge but can't do himself".  Still, the Mando Mercs have gotten better over the years, and I do like the work some of their really dedicated members have done.

 

Final Thoughts

Man, 2014 is going to be busy.  Real busy, depending on how some things turn out.  I've got a lot of projects to get under way, and a lot of plans to make.  We'll see if the money and my wife's sanity hold out.

 

I'm curious about something.  If you have used my Jedi Career document, let me know.  Either here, or on my G+ or Facebook link; just a quick comment that you've tried it out.  By all means, if you have feedback or any cool stories about these rules, I'd love to hear them.

 

Anyway, see you around the new year, folks.

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!

A Holiday Poem Disguised as a Blog Post



T'was the Thursday before Christmas

And while opening his blog,

Phil was wracking his brain

For a subject to log.

 

Gaming, or costumes,

or holiday woes?

He couldn't decide

So he settled on prose.

 

"He's done this before"

Some readers will tell,

Years back on a podcast

(It went over well...)

 

But that was long back,

This problem is now.

The "why" he should write

The "what" and the "how"

 

"It's the Holiday season,

I could write about that...

Of past Christmas presents

like the TIE and AT-AT."

 

But no, that's a cop out;

A big, lame excuse

To fill space in his blog

"It's just no use"

 

"I'm stuck in a rut

About a subject this time."

That would probably explain

Why he's stuck in this rhyme.

 

"Time to bust out

and get back on track.

To write more about gaming

and the costumes I lack."

 

"Malgus and Jedi

Of a Shadowy sort,

The Jedi's nigh-finished

before we had to abort."

 

"And then there's my dad

Our own Old Ben,

Who's looking to upgrade

His costume again."

 

"He also would like something

For the old 501st,

And thin out which costume

Screws his sight up the worst."

 

Guardsman, or Admiral

(Of the "Grand" persuasion)

Or his own Tusken Raider

For villainous occasion.

 

Phil smiled as he thought

Of the coming year's plan,

Of vacations, and conventions

And being his brother's Best Man.

 

"It'll all be here soon,

Just like this deadline.

Maybe more Jedi work

There's some points to refine."

 

"Like Jar'kai, or Twin Strike.

Wow, that was a mess.

How I could write that talent

Is anyone's guess."

 

"I think I'll change it

To a boost die for strain

To increase your dual attack.

...might not be a pain..."

 

"And Dono's comments

About a simpler Juyo.

'Just upgrade the attack

Like Ferocious, you know?'"

 

"Other than that,

it's about set and done.

No massive rewrite

Just play testing fun."

 

And he looked up and saw

The volume he wrote.

This long-verse poem

Instead of a note.

 

"Jeebus I ramble,

Look at this post.

I think I should close it

With a Holiday toast."

 

"Thank you for reading

And coming to my blog

And listening to my bit.

So raise your egg nog!"

 

"To family and friends,

On this cold winter season!

Because you're all awesome,

That's a good enough reason!"

 

"Keep on coming back

For more fun next year.

I'll post all about it,

Of this have no fear."

 

And as these things end,

In this season of white;

"Merry Christmas to all,

And to all a good night!"

 

 

Edge of the Jedi Update

Wow, I'm behind in my posts.  But that's okay; one week it was Thanksgiving, and the next week it was...something else.  Eh, regardless; I'm not going to let another week go by without an update to the old blog.  You all deserve it.  You deserve better!  I can be better!  Give me a chance!

Or at least give me until January, when I plan to re-commit myself to a weekly update.

Jedi Power Battles

One of the files I've been meaning to get around to updating is the title of the article, my Edge of the Jedi document.  I'd finally gotten a chance to playtest some of the mechanics, and take a second look at a lot of creative decisions.  After a few months of work, I'm able to present to you the next iteration of my Jedi Rules for the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG.

In addition to changes based on playtesting, there are also some new talents added from the Age of Rebellion Beta rulebook.  There are some neat toys in there, and I had to find a place for some of them in my document.

Edge of the Jedi v1.02

Just about every tree had some revision, and even a few re-mappings.  Let's go over the what and the why, shall we?

Guardian

After looking at the Guardian spec, I felt it connected certain coveted talents too easily.  Where there was once a lot of lateral movement allowed in the lower branches of the tree, now there is more focused paths.  I broke the link between the 20-point Sixth Sense and Superior Reflexes.  I also added a connection between Sixth Sense and the 15-point Balance, to allow for more character choices, and less requirements to focus on Melee or Ranged benefits.  Other than that, and a correction to Jump Up that it's an Activated Talent, Guardian was pretty much left alone.

Consular

This spec received some pretty major change ups; new talents, talent shifting, and tree re-mapping.

The first area of focus was the talent Well Rounded.  It moved from a 5 xp cost talent to a 10.  It was actually a 15, at the recommendation of several in the Gamer Nation based on where it appeared in other trees.  However, with the release of Enter the Unknown, there is now precedence to have it appear at a cheaper cost.  It flipped locations with Researcher.

The next change is the removal of Steely Nerves and replacing it with an Age of Rebellion talent, Force of Will.  Sixth Sense was also removed from the tree, and replaced with another AoR talent, Invigorate.  Looking at these talents in AoR, I knew I had to fit them into the Consular.  This does mean that every Consular that picks up Dedication will be able to replace their Willpower for any other Characteristic on one skill roll a session.  In all likelihood Willpower will be the Characteristic raised with Dedication, and I'm okay with all this.  The removal of Sixth Sense forces the Consular to rely more on additional training to improve their defenses, and does help convey that a pure Consular is not the greatest Jedi combatant.  I'd thought about replacing Deflect Blasters instead, but I just felt that was too key to any Jedi character to remove from the Specializations.

The Consular received a much larger re-mapping than the Guardian.  Gone are the links between Overwhelm Emotions and Deflect Blasters, and between Dedication and Sixth Sense. Overwhelm Emotions and Touch of Fate are broken, too, replaced with a link above them between Sense Emotions and Body Guard, which now links to Touch of Fate.  The progress of talents there flows nicely for a Consular who focuses as a mediator between potentially hostile parties.

Sentinel

There weren't too many changes to the Sentinel.  I worked in a fantastic talent from AoR; Sleight of Mind.  Replacing the 10 point Grit, the Sentinel adds a Boost die to Stealth checks against any opponent affected by Force Powers.  Grit moved over to replace Sense Emotions.  No other changes to the Sentinel specialization this time around.

Lightsaber Form Trees

None of my Lightsaber Form specialization trees had any form of remapping.  Additionally, no talents were replaced, but several were modified.

Niman: Spend a Destiny point to roll Force Rating as part of a lightsaber attack action.  If two Light Side points are scored, the Jedi may move a target at Short range to Engaged range (and then make a Lightsaber combat check against that target) or from Engaged to Short range (after making a Lightsaber combat check)

Niman Master: When using the Niman incidental action, if a total of three Light Side points are scored, the target may be knocked prone at the end of its forced movement.

These changes were made to simplify the excessive die rolling that my previous version of Niman was causing.  I also tried splitting up Niman into two Force powers from SAGA, Draw Closer and Pushing Slash.  This change makes it a simple addition of Force rating dice to a combat check, and allows a character to target an opponent at Short range (hoping they score at least two pips on their Force dice to pull them to Engaged range).   Niman Master's additional insult-to-injury of knocking the target prone after the movement is easy enough to execute if the Jedi wants.  Either roll the Force Dice first to see if three Light Side points are scored, or just add the boost die to the Combat check and Force Rating roll.  If enough Force Points to move the opponent aren't generated, the Combat Check results are ignored.

Logistically, versus a PC it should probably be a Force Rating check, followed by the combat check, that way the target knows if it needs to use talents or options like Dodge.  NPCs don't usually have this issue, as they have the always in-play Adversary talent in place of strain-costing defensive options.

Seems like that whole side of the Balanced tree got a re-write...

Twin Strike: When making a Two Weapon Attack action while wielding two lightsabers, spend 2 Advantage to add 5 damage to the first strike instead of triggering a second strike.

So this rewording allows a duelsit to-

...waitaminute....

You know, upon looking at this talent again, I suddenly see a problem.  The original intention is to stack the damage instead of splitting it, to allow the Duelist to get around the Soak value.  Instead of subtracting the full soak value from each of two 10 point hits, it only applies once against one 15 point hit (plus successes, of course).  The problem I just now realized is...Lightsabers have Breach 1.  They already ignore 10 points of soak.  This really isn't useful at all.

And already I'm making notes and changes for v1.03. *sigh*

I think I might just ditch the talent and concept entirely.  Find some other talent to take its place, or move Jar'Kai up and find a new 20 point talent.  Speaking of Jar'Kai...

Jar'Kai: Increase Melee Defense by 1 when wielding two lightsabers.

I'll admit it; I don't get how Defense stacks, or doesn't.  Or when you add.  Or when you take the best.  All I do know is I want the duelist's melee Defense to be one better than normal when wielding two lightsabers, and this seems like the best way to word it.

Soresu: Take a Soresu Maneuver to gain +1 Defense against all combat checks until the end of your next turn.  Apply 1 Setback die to all attacks made until the end of your next turn.

Intent-wise, there's no change with how it was worded before.  Previously I tacked it onto the existing Guarded Stance.  Now, it clarifies that it works like Guarded Stance, but applies a bonus to defense against all Combat Checks against the character.  Guarded Defense describes its effect as "gaining Melee Defense 1", meaning it doesn't stack with any other Defense score and pointless if you're wearing any armor granting defense (at least to me it does; remember my comprehension issues with Defense?)  Heck, now the duelist could use this and Guarded Stance and get to Melee Defense 2 and +1 ranged defense as long as he's willing to eat a penalty of 2 Setback dice to all attacks he makes for the next round.

Soresu Master: Take a Soresu Master action; until the beginning of the character's next turn, all combat checks against the character are opposed by the character's Lightsaber skill.

No real difference from before, just now it's worded differently.  By the way, the intention of this talent is for it to stack with defense and defensive maneuvers like Dodge.  In the lore, a practitioner of Soresu is nigh-uninhabitable, as long as they don't want to actually attack.  Masters are occasioanlly able to launch attacks, but even they are more about maintaining defense, and waiting for the right opportunity to strike (or parlay).  This could fit that well, I just need to playtest it more (or in this case, at all; Soresu isn't a "flashy" style, in spite of the "barrier of light" a Soresu master makes around him).

Use the Force, Ya N00b!

One of the issues I was still having with all this was the fickle nature of Force Use.  Even with three Force Rating Dice, the odds are still pretty good for a Jedi to roll no useable Force Points at all, and be stuck with a character violating decision to use the Dark Side to get them out of a poor situation. 

While looking over the stats for the Forsaken Jedi in the Edge of the Empire book, I noticed a little blurb at the very end of the Abilities header.

On the Edge: Spend 1 strain to turn one Dark Side Point into one Light Side Point, once per Force check.

This is a game-changer.  The Forsaken Jedi is able to at least score one Light Side Force point without it costing a Destiny Point and strain to use Dark Side pips to power Force powers.  I have to figure that something like this is going to be in effect for Force Users once Force and Destiny is released. 

I found this the night before may last Order 65 game session, and elected to let everyone give it a try and see how it played.  No extra XP cost, just "Boom, once per roll spend 1 Strain to make 1 Dark Side Point into a Light Side Point for powering Force Powers and Effects".  It worked extremely well.  The Swashbuckling Force-empowered duelist from the Taipani sector was able to reliably use Force Leap under the Enhance power to leap from one train to another during an epic chase scene.  The "Jedi Sage" was able to empower his Move and actually be able to use his Force power.  He might have not been able to pick up the original item he wanted, but he could at least do something.  And the Jedi Duelist...well, she's addicted to Force Use anyway, no matter what side of the Force Powers it, so she still flipped a Destiny Point to get 3-4 Force Points on a couple rolls, so it didn't really impede her character choices at all.

This ability could work well with this "Advanced Talents" option I'm hearing about coming in the Splatbooks like Enter the Unknown.  But at this stage I'm probably going to just handwaive it for the Order 65 game; just let all my Force Users have it.  It's not game breaking (any moreso than any of my other homebrewed rules, anyway) and it allows them to actually feel like they can use the Force.

Work in Progress

So it looks like I'll be doing a version 1.03 of this document sooner than expected.  Such is life.  For those of you using it, hope you enjoy the latest revisions and let me know if you come across any glaring issues.

Personal Stuff

I'm currently enjoying a warm house in cold weather, during my most favorite time of the year.  There are lights up, my ipod is currently cycling 245 different Christmas songs, and I'm really starting to get my Holiday Spirit on.  If my future isn't looking bright, it's at least looking bearable and more favorable than not, and sometimes that's all it takes.

Happy Holidays, folks...

Brevity Is Not Usually My Style, But Its Been A Long Month...

Dear Blog,

Today I woke up with heat in my house.  It was a very good day...



Seriously; I could hide, like,
five bodies in there!

In all seriousness, I'm happy to report that my heating issues have been dealt with.  New furnace, new duct work, happy Darth.  There is now a good amount of  heat in my home, and just in time.  Next week is supposed to be "Damn Cold".
 
As an odd consequence to this home improvement, I discovered a "void" in my home's floor plan that would cater quite nicely to a new closet.  Some nut-job just threw up a wall, instead of making a closet.  The home has space issues to begin with, why would you wall off 48 cubic feet of usable space?! 

Talking with a carpenter to see what they think it would cost to convert into useable space. 

Three's a Charm

Anyway, games!  Just ran my third session of my Wild Cards game.  I have a standard that I live by...more of a track record, really...that if a game can make it through three sessions, then it'll go.  It'll get the momentum it needs to carry on for years.  I've had one anomaly to this in recent years, my Earthdawn game only made about a year of games before "game-fading".  It fell apart around the time that the 2012 LARP season started, as soon after I started house hunting and house packing.  My new home doesn't cater well to large groups of people, and my own attention to the campaign faltered, so it sadly is off the radar.

Could it be run online?  Eh, maybe.  I'm finding it difficult to run games entirely on my PC.  It's one thing if I'm running a game with half my PCs in the room, and the other half on Roll20.  Especially if the ones online have web-cams.  My current Wild Cards party has one person with a webcam, the rest are all still images of the players.  And even then they're about 200 pixels high.  It's hard to connect with the players, at least that's what I feel.  No visual cues, can't tell if they're engaged or looking at websites between combat actions.

It is only the third game, though...  *shrug*  Maybe it'll change.

Also, my gaming space is pretty tight.  I'm at my desk, crammed in the corner of my library.  My "table top real estate" is pretty tight.  If I try to have a book open in front of me, it doesn't work out too well as far as room to type goes.  Heaven forbid I need to have a second book open too, as that will be in my lap.

Eh, maybe it's time to figure out a new desk set up, or room layout, or something else entirely.

As far as the campaign goes, I'm having a pretty good time.  I'm going to try to keep the Wild Cards episodic for now, with every 3-4 games being one story.  Maybe the 4th "episode" will tie directly into their back story.  I figure we'll need at least three episodes to get the PCs used to each other, and with me, really.  I've got two new PCs (never before played), one PC who I've had at my table twice before (a campaign that only made it to session two), and two "hardened veterans" who will likely be able to see several plot themes coming.  The vets are the only ones who have played together in prior games, too.  I think.  Regardless, it's a real new group so it'll take time to gel.

Still, at least I'm gaming regularly again.