Ushgarak
Well, though it is lumbering rather like a vast sloth than skipping like a nimble gazelle right now, my Star Wars game is finally coming to a close- the finale will start shortly. Three years work, all done with... (sighs).
But never mind that! We can look to the future. If people are interested, there is always more to be done in what is, when it comes down to it, my favourite franchise.
The current game is five years old in conception. It was written just after The Phantom Menace as part of the new Star Wars wave sweeping the world at that time. It is very much a Phantom Menace mood game- over the course of it you have seen parts of the crumbling Republic, Jedi turned bad (a cliche, but c'mon, this is STAR WARS, that is part of the deal...), great sabre fights, background trickery and deception, and the continuous background presence of the supposedly extinct Sith.
My brother and try and make a great effort to try and make the mood and style of things suit the source. In that respect, we may have done rather TOO well. We have an elegant, traditional Dark Jedi from an equally traditional world, who is a nobleman of his family, and salutes his opponents before fighting in a classic, one-handed style, akin to fencing. Had my brother known of Count Dooku before inventing Kuylen, things may have been different. For a start, Kuylen would have one of those curved-hilt sabres...
We had an area of space called the Confederacy trying to declare independance from the Republic. This is almost plagiarism from GL! Oddly, though, that gives us opportunities. For the older players who remember Damagran, a return may be in order- once the Confederacy of Independant Systems comes together. Damagran would be a powerful ally for Dooku.
We had a tooled up bounty hunter... but frankly that was all based from Boba Fett anyway so Jango hardly copied that. BUT, my brother was VERY gratified that Balek's arm shield, specifically designed to be able to defend against Jedi and Dark Siders, was copied and used by Durge in the Clone Wars cartoon. He will be expecting royalties soon...
In any case. The season of the Phantom Menace is long gone... we need to look forwards. There is a HUGE campaign that is ready tom go- though right now the Dark Side part of it is very fuzzy. The Campaign tells the story of between now and the start of the Clone Wars (and yes, there is a Clone Wars campaign as well, for some distant future...). This is the ten year gap between TPM and AOTC. There are notable differences between the current game and this new one.
1. Less linked stories. In the current game, the episodes come together in one narrative, with very little time seperating them. In the new one, each episode will be its own mini-story, with months or even years between each one. But, there will be a slowly building continuous plotline in the background of it all.
2. More split. Many of the stories will explore multiple things at once- the groups, especially the Jedi, will most likely be split up.
3. No continuous vendetta! This one may disappoint people... but on the whole, Light Side and Dark Side will be SEPERATED. You won't meet. It is simply silly to have you guys continually meeting each other once every few months, shaking your fists at each other, and going home. You wil be following your own agendas in your own stories.
There are some compensations. For example, neither side will be slowed down by the other any more. And you never know... things you do might just affect each other, and you may just meet again one day...
4. More to do with the films. The Phantom Menace was a very particular story; unless I put you guys on Naboo or Tatooine then 'interacting' with it was hard. AOTC told of Galactic events, as Star Wars really rather should! Hence, opportunities to mix film and game are more available.
5. Grander scale of character development. Obviously, I cannot give away what happens in the rest of the current story. But as part of that, and other things, in a story that takes place over years rather than weeks, there will be much more scope in the next game to developing your characters. I do not mean becoming more powerful- that will be handled the same as normal- but in DEVELOPING. Players may wish to try and become Masters. Dark Siders have power of their own to achieve. Each of you will have opportunities to become more than you currently are.
-----
Other than that, there is one other serious change to make- which I would like to hear more opinions on- it got a cautious 'yay' before.
As some of you know, system-based RPs in the main RP area are becoming very popular- numbers and dice rolls and skills and powers are all the rage! We have Matrix to thank for this.
Now, technically, I can do this with Star Wars too. In fact, it is very easy. It uses the same system as the Matrix, and myself and my brother did the Star Wars conversion FIRST- four years before we did the Matrix. If people are so willing, I can convert this on-line game to the full rules, with templates and powers and skills all defined just as they are in the Matrix.
Opinions?
But never mind that! We can look to the future. If people are interested, there is always more to be done in what is, when it comes down to it, my favourite franchise.
The current game is five years old in conception. It was written just after The Phantom Menace as part of the new Star Wars wave sweeping the world at that time. It is very much a Phantom Menace mood game- over the course of it you have seen parts of the crumbling Republic, Jedi turned bad (a cliche, but c'mon, this is STAR WARS, that is part of the deal...), great sabre fights, background trickery and deception, and the continuous background presence of the supposedly extinct Sith.
My brother and try and make a great effort to try and make the mood and style of things suit the source. In that respect, we may have done rather TOO well. We have an elegant, traditional Dark Jedi from an equally traditional world, who is a nobleman of his family, and salutes his opponents before fighting in a classic, one-handed style, akin to fencing. Had my brother known of Count Dooku before inventing Kuylen, things may have been different. For a start, Kuylen would have one of those curved-hilt sabres...
We had an area of space called the Confederacy trying to declare independance from the Republic. This is almost plagiarism from GL! Oddly, though, that gives us opportunities. For the older players who remember Damagran, a return may be in order- once the Confederacy of Independant Systems comes together. Damagran would be a powerful ally for Dooku.
We had a tooled up bounty hunter... but frankly that was all based from Boba Fett anyway so Jango hardly copied that. BUT, my brother was VERY gratified that Balek's arm shield, specifically designed to be able to defend against Jedi and Dark Siders, was copied and used by Durge in the Clone Wars cartoon. He will be expecting royalties soon...
In any case. The season of the Phantom Menace is long gone... we need to look forwards. There is a HUGE campaign that is ready tom go- though right now the Dark Side part of it is very fuzzy. The Campaign tells the story of between now and the start of the Clone Wars (and yes, there is a Clone Wars campaign as well, for some distant future...). This is the ten year gap between TPM and AOTC. There are notable differences between the current game and this new one.
1. Less linked stories. In the current game, the episodes come together in one narrative, with very little time seperating them. In the new one, each episode will be its own mini-story, with months or even years between each one. But, there will be a slowly building continuous plotline in the background of it all.
2. More split. Many of the stories will explore multiple things at once- the groups, especially the Jedi, will most likely be split up.
3. No continuous vendetta! This one may disappoint people... but on the whole, Light Side and Dark Side will be SEPERATED. You won't meet. It is simply silly to have you guys continually meeting each other once every few months, shaking your fists at each other, and going home. You wil be following your own agendas in your own stories.
There are some compensations. For example, neither side will be slowed down by the other any more. And you never know... things you do might just affect each other, and you may just meet again one day...
4. More to do with the films. The Phantom Menace was a very particular story; unless I put you guys on Naboo or Tatooine then 'interacting' with it was hard. AOTC told of Galactic events, as Star Wars really rather should! Hence, opportunities to mix film and game are more available.
5. Grander scale of character development. Obviously, I cannot give away what happens in the rest of the current story. But as part of that, and other things, in a story that takes place over years rather than weeks, there will be much more scope in the next game to developing your characters. I do not mean becoming more powerful- that will be handled the same as normal- but in DEVELOPING. Players may wish to try and become Masters. Dark Siders have power of their own to achieve. Each of you will have opportunities to become more than you currently are.
-----
Other than that, there is one other serious change to make- which I would like to hear more opinions on- it got a cautious 'yay' before.
As some of you know, system-based RPs in the main RP area are becoming very popular- numbers and dice rolls and skills and powers are all the rage! We have Matrix to thank for this.
Now, technically, I can do this with Star Wars too. In fact, it is very easy. It uses the same system as the Matrix, and myself and my brother did the Star Wars conversion FIRST- four years before we did the Matrix. If people are so willing, I can convert this on-line game to the full rules, with templates and powers and skills all defined just as they are in the Matrix.
Opinions?
