USH'S STAR WARS GAME- Censure and Animosity (new rule). All players please read!

Welcome to some new rules! No. this one isn't to do with your characters so rest easy. Censure and Animosity are two new rules being introduced to help regulate player behaviour- or more to the point, to provide proper penalties when people stray.

These two mechanics basically set limits on your behaviour. Fail the rest set by these mechanics, and your costs to get anything decent with experience skyrocket.

Censure is for the Light Side. It is a representation of how well you are working within the system that the Jedi are a part of. Stray too far from the system and you lose the support of the Council, and the ability to train your abilities properly.

Animosity is for the Dark Side. It is a measure of how well you are performing as a group. No... it is a measure of how well you are NOT performing as a group. Too much animosity means the group dynamic is falling apart, and you spend too too much time watching your own back to be able to develop your skills.

Two different systems, same reuslt- mess up and your development crawls to a halt.

There now follows an explanation of the two systems.

CENSURE

Knights have a position of great authority within the Republic but they are not able to act without let or hindrance. The Republic has a vast legal system, and although the Jedi help enforce this system they are themselves subject to it. In addition when they are fulfilling their role as guardians of peace in the galaxy, they must also recognise that they are acting as servants of the Republic, not as its masters.

In broad terms a Knight can expect to receive the full co-operation from the civil authorities of any planet within the Republic. Knights can investigate any crime within the Republic and he can also arrange for immunity to crimes committed in return for testimony. He is empowered to bring in for questioning or arrest any suspect to a crime as long as they are within the Republic. Knights often act as arbitrators in disputes; however, while they are always listened to they are only in a position to force an agreement when given a mandate to arbitrate by either a motion in the Senate or by direct decree from the Chancellor.

What a Knight cannot do is act outside of the law of the Republic. If a Knight arrests a suspect, that suspect still has legal rights under the Republican system. So if their lawyer can successfully challenge the reason for the suspect being under arrest the Knights must let the suspect go. A Knight cannot take charge of a local police authority and make himself chief. A Knight cannot try a suspect and a Knight cannot arrest someone just because the Knight thinks they are not co-operating.

In addition, Knights are expected to respect the social order. As servants of the Republic they assume a sub-ordinate role to the institutions of government. This includes Senators, Judges and members of the Chancellor’s office. Failure to show the proper respect to any of these people is generally not tolerated.

Even Renegades are not exempt from these rules. As a Renegade he is less likely to receive the same enthusiastic co-operation from Republican authorities and is very unlikely to be asked to mediate on behalf of the Republic. Yet officially he is still a Jedi, and so he can still perform these roles. By the same token, he is expected to act like a Jedi should.

Of course, from time to time Jedi cross the line. When they do so, they are censured by the Jedi Council. Being censured is the equivalent of being reprimanded and the Jedi finds he loses much respect from his fellow Jedi until he has made amends.

Points about Censure

INDIVIDUAL: Censure is counted for the individual. Every player has a different Censure score, that I keep track of.

ACCUMULATES: Censure starts each Episode at zero and accumulates during the course of that Episode. If it hits the critical point during that Epsiode, (as noted below), you get the penalty. It resets at the end of each Episode, unless they are very close together in which case it many only reduce.

ALL BAD: All Censure is bad. Zero is the best it can get. You do not lose Censure for doing good things- you only ever gain it for doing bad.

REPRESENTS AN INTERNAL MECHANIC: Basically, this means that Censure represents something genuinely occuring within the game world- the attitude of the Council and other Republican authorities towards you. Obviously they don't hold it in a simplified points system like this one, but the points are a simple representation of these attitudes.

UNFAIR: Becaise Censure represents something that is genuinely recordable in the Galaxy, it is subject to the whims of humanity, Censure values the powerful and rich over the downtrodden and oppressed. Act dodgily with scum criminals in Hutt space and most people will ignroe you. Treat people like that on Neimodia and your Censure may sky rocket. It's not nice but is it the way things are. The Council isn't trying to be enforcing a class system, but they have to live within political realities just as you do.

FLEXIBLE: Censure is not enforced by robots. The rules given below are guidelines and they are flexible by circumstance- either specific (you have more leeway treating an Senator badly if you can later prove he is the master criminal who ordered the massacre of innocent civilians on the planet Korios) or general (once the Clone Wars start, some of the legal niceities get forgotten as the Jedi are expected to produce results above all else). By the same means, Censure can get considerably worse by circumstance; this will always be my call.

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Rules

Should a Jedi become censured he immediately loses the automatic right to investigate crimes and he will no longer be considered for missions from the Senate or the Chancellor’s office. More importantly, he will not be able to use the facilities on Coruscant to help hone his powers with the Force until he has atoned (which usually means performing menial tasks in the Jedi Temple). While censured the cost to increase a Force schtick, Blade schtick or Lightsabre skill is increased by 50% to reflect the extra effort it will take to increase these skills without the help of the rest of the Jedi.

Generally censure is applied when the GM thinks the Jedi has behaved in a way that contravenes the manner a Jedi is expected to behave.

However, as a guideline to act as a barometer of your behaviour, the following system will be keeping track of how close you are getting to that point. As I say, bear in mind this system is only a guideline and Censure may be applied aside from this system as I see fit.

A Jedi accumulates Censure points on the criteria given below. If he accumulates 6 in a single story he should be Censured. Note the system isn’t ideal, and a Jedi who runs up a couple of stories with 4 or 5 censure points back to back will probably be censured.

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Being disrespectful to a law officer: 1
Being disrespectful to a senior law officer: 2
Being disrespectful to a member of the Chancellor's Office: 2
Being disrespectful to a Judge, Senator, or senior Chancellory aide: 4
Being disrespectful to the Chancellor or Jedi Council Member: 6
Infringement of the Law: 1
Breaking the Law: 3
Exceeding your authority: 6
Abuse of Position: 6

Disrespect: Backchat is not worth censure unless you do it constantly- you should always strive to be polite. Disrespect is ignoring the authority inherent to a position- a law officer has the right to enforce the law and you should not get in the way of that. Jedi who go around saying "Shut up, I'm in charge now, go away and file some parking tickets" are not going far up the career ladder. With Senators and the like, one must be more circumspect. Small amounts of censure will be awarded for getitng even slightly shirty with someone that important.

If being respectful to such people sticks in yout throat, do remember that you are official members of an official system- this being the case, it cuts both ways, and you are due respect from them also. People who do not respect your authority- especially from a Master- will be in trouble themselves.

The Law: Infringing the law is when you look the other way when something dodgy is happening to your benefit. Some people- especially Renegades- often work this way. Well, you can pick up the odd point safely, but don't overdo it. BREAKING the law is simple- start becoming like the criminals you face and you are in severe trouble.

Exceeding your authority is ordering bystanders to act as human shields for you, or detaining people without trial or due process (i.e. without a warrant or immediate cause (e.g. he is shooting at you)). Jedi have great powers but it is easily within imagination to oversterp those bounds- a big no no!

Abusing your position is when you use your powers to do what you should not- arresting a suspect not because you have evidence but because he annoyed you, asking for money to do your work, using Persuade on impressionable young women...

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If you don't like the system but don't want to be crippled by Censure, your best role model is Qui-Gon. Like at the true meaning behind just about everything he says in TPM:

"No, I don't care you are the Queen, I'm in charge now, you ARE coming with me; no, don't listen to that cretinous Captain, I know best; no more orders from the Queen today; do as I say or we are all dead; look, you muppets, I've found the Chosen One here..."

Aside from 'no more orders from the Queen today' (delivered very smoothly and firmly, I may add), QGJ never actually SAID any of that. He spoke politely and with respect and he got his way. Learn from that. You can buck the system without inviting it to crush you.

Finally, I do wish to remind people again, Censure is flexible. Don't try and play it by riding the numbers because I might just Censure you anyway if I think you deserve it.

Any questions, please ask.

ANIMOSITY

Dark Side players have the total freedom in their actions. They are not constrained by any social codes. They do not get any authority from any organisation and nor do they seek it. If they want respect, then they will take it. Feeling superior to those light side Jedi? Well, this attitude brings its own problems. For Dark Side characters, the problem is to do with respect they get from each other.

Dark Side Jedi don’t work well in groups unless they have a leader. The trouble is, they all think that they should be that leader. In game terms this creates animosity. The more the group starts to fragment, the worse the animosity gets, until it reaches critical point. Low animosity does NOT mean you are all best friends- it simply means the group is working.

A subtext of the game for the Dark Siders it that it is basically Animosity that destroyed the Sith, and the Sith's Rule of Two was their final solution to deal with it. The further subtext is that whilst you guys might not be Sith, it is hoped that you will do better than they did in trying to run a group. Kuylen ran it like the military. You guys can choose any tack you like, so long as you appreciate that it runs the risk of failure. In the end, you guys are the 'Heroes' of your storyline and it is possible for you to better those that have come before you.

Points about Animosity

GROUPED: There is only one Animosity score, and it applies to the whole group. Either you are working as a team or you are not; either everyone passes or everyone fails. Teaches you something about shared responsibility, eh?

FLUCTUATES: Animosity starts at a certain level at the start of an Episode. It will then go up and down during that Episode based on circumstance. The important number is what it ENDS the Episode at- too high and you get the penalties.

CAN BE GOOD, CAN BE BAD: Animosity changes can be negative- so you can actually achieve reductions in it during gameplay, as well as making it worse.

REPRESENTS AN EXTERNAL MECHANIC: Unlike Censure, animosity does not literally exist in the game world outside a conglomeration of your own minds. No organisation is keeping track of it; it is an entirely artificial rating kept by me, the GM- just as experience points are a wholly artificial way of keeping track of your development over time.

FAIR: In as much as I can manage it, therefore, Animosity will be a fair and accurate guide of how well you are keeping together- circumstances of any kind will not distort the results beyond what they actually are (although circumstances, obviously, can directly affect the score- when under stress, groups often behave very differently- sometimes, oddly enough, much better than when they are relaxed, but often much worse.

INFLEXIBLE: Animosity follows very set rules. It is not TOTALLY inflexible, in that I may adjust it according to certain attitudes and mindsets evidenced by behaviour in posting, but on the whole, this system is far more rigid than the one for Censure, which is a vague guide rather than an absolute set of rules.

Rules

If the Animosity level is six or higher, the group is beginning to fall apart. It is not the lack of trust (trust isn’t something Dark Siders have very often have, or if they do it's not felt in the same way good guys do. You can, for example, trust Galder to make mincemeat out of nearby enemies, even on your behalf, but would you trust him with a secret that could destroy you? Unlikely), but the feeling is that someone might do something to grab power at any time. During this period the Dark Sider can never let his guard down, always watching his colleagues for someone about to make his move, always careful about what he says or does, always waiting for the chance to take power himself. This distracts him from more demanding and taxing tasks, and makes it more difficult to improve is skills as a Jedi. While Animosity in the group is five or higher the cost to increase a Force schtick, Blade schtick or Lightsabre skill is increased by 50% to reflect the distractions that such internal strife brings. The other penalties of a malfunctioning group are left to gameplay to portray- though I think the players have already learned the importance of acting a a coherent team.

Animosity is calculated on this scale:

There is an Alpha and he is Leader: -4
There is a Leader, but no Alpha: -2
There is a Leader and an Alpha; they are different people: -1
There is neither Leader nor Alpha: 1
For every 3 people in the group: 1
A Megalomaniac is not Leader: 2
There is more than one Megalomaniac: 2 per extra
Corruption is used on a friend or ally of another PC: 1 per use in a story
A friend or ally of a PC is killed by another group member: 3 per event
Domination fails to totally work: 1 per character not Cowed

The Leader is whoever the players want to be leader. A Leader must be unanimous for this to work- one dissenter removes the title.

An Alpha is someone with either the highest Force or the highest sabre rating (as in higher than anyone else, not joint); if two people (as in someone is highest in Force and someone else is highest in Sabre) have that then it is done by who has the highest margin. There can never be two Alphas; either one or none. The Alpha is considered to be the hard dude of the group- either a Sidious-style Force genius or Maul-style deadly killer. Obviously things work best if the Alpha is leader. If he is not, there will always be tensions, reducing the benefit of having a leader. But if there is no Alpha at all, the order of things is less comfortable, which is why there is one point of tension if there is no leader or Alpha.

The penalties for Corruption, killing allies, and using Domination reset each episode; they don't stay there forever.

The 'per three' thing works as: One point for a group between 1 and 3, two points between 4 and 6, three points between 7 and 9 etc.

Feel free to try and calculate your score and how much leeway you have!

Any questions, please ask...

OK I think I get it,
For LS, its basicly, Play your part, and no mucking about,
one quick thing,
If we were say chasing someone around, akin to the ATOC Assasin chase, on foot, would yelling at people and getting them to get the heck outta our way constitute Censure points?

Nope! When chasing a dangerous suspect, certain things are expected of you.

It is actually quite hard to get Censure if you aren't trying to be difficult. You may sometimes be hazy about exactly what your authority is but you can ask me about that at any time.

oh ok, So we have to blatently be out of line, got it.

So...the Dark Jedi are not going to be happy?

or functional....

Or alive.

-1

As well as whatever domination is... Unless Nume used corruption...

Domination is a Dark Side Force Power, in the new rules section.

Oooh, yay....

</sarcasm>

I like these rules.

Ush, what happens if a PC is killed by another PC?

Or if Kuylen or Doon or somoene kills a PC?

Animosity is a rating created purely by interpersonal relations between Dark Siders. If an outsider kills someone, it doesn't count; if a non-Force user in the group kills someone, it doesn't count- UNLESS it was by order from another PC.

Basically Doon cannot ever be really a part of your group in that sense, only a helpful ally. Should Kuylen re-enter the group, though, he starts counting for Animosity purposes. Incidentally, he has megalomania.

PCs killing PCs I might actively disallow unless there is Animosity 5 or higher! So bear in mind players may, in appropritate circumstances, deliberately push up animosity to pave the way for a leadership challenge.

ohh
Insider corruption for the darkies,
weehehe

sounds good ush

what about the renegades ? they have little or nothing to do with the senate or the jedi council...

You play by those rules or you get the same penalties. If you truly had nothing to do with the Council you would never be able to develop your skills.

Well, Kuylen would be the Alpha and Leader for -4, so that would negate the 4 from Rand and Kuylen being Megalomaniacs...

But not anymore...