Star Wars PBP musings

[Josh]

So, first thing is the interest check. Who would want in?

Secondly, era? I'm leaning toward either KotoR or post-RotS pre-ANH. KotoR allows for an openly Jedi party, pre-ANH would be more covert obviously.

I have zero idea beyond that, but I'm putting the feelers out to see if something springs from the soil of my brain.

[Cynical Cat]

Sure, I'm game.

[White Haven]

Hmmmmh. You have my attention, sir. Continue.

[rhoenix]

I'm down for the idea.

Given the scenarios posted thus far, I'd lean more toward the KOTOR era.

[General Havoc]

I mean, the inter-Movies period would place a serious limit on one's ability to innovate a character. There are pretty canonically next-to-no Jedi and absolutely no Sith other than the ones we know about. My suggestion would be the KOTOR period for the exact same reasons the game used it, freedom to explore the setting without being tied to the mandates of the films.

[Josh]

Well the EU went and had pretty much all the popular jedi characters who we didn't see get explicitly gunned down survive, so there's room there. But it does limit the ability for grand action. No marching into Palpatine's office and dethroning the Empire.

So if the general lean is KotoR then I can work with that.

[Lys]

Well I have a character concept that would be magnificently suited for any era that has a lot of Force users running around. In particular any of the two huge conflicts between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire would fit pretty well. By this I mean the Great Hyperspace War about 1300 years before the Knights of the Old Republic games or the Galactic War - Cold War - Galatic War II thing that occurs immediately after them. I might as well pitch the concept right now:

She is a Force user but neither a Jedi nor a Sith. Instead she hails from a world that has a much higher than normal proportion of Force users amongst its populace, and thus a home grown local tradition of how to use the Force that is distinct from the typical Jedi/Sith duality. The short version is that they see the Force less as an external mystical power that can be guided and controlled to influence the world, and more as an internal strength that they tap into to personally enhance themselves. By this I mean that they tend to use the Force to augment their natural aptitudes, giving them unmatched physical and mental prowess. Where a Jedi or Sith would use a lightsaber to bisect torsos and sever limbs, my character would use her Force-powered fists to pulp organs and shatter bones. Where they might use use the Force to trick and subvert weak minds, she would enhance her personal charisma to gain the adoration of all around her. Where they would push out with the Force to move objects far beyond their strength, she would draw the Force into her own muscles until her strength was up to the task.

Her people, a race of proud warriors, had been employed as a sort of mercenary army by a powerful Sith Lord (Lady?) called Darth Gelida. Eventually Gelida grew fearful of how their power grew by leaps and bounds in the fires of war, and decided to destroy them all lest they one day rise up to challenge the Sith. My character would be one of the few survivors, taken by Darth Gelida as her apprentice, after the she successfully blamed the Republic/Jedi for the destruction of my character's home planet, possibly because she manipulated them into actually doing it. Either way, my character knows it was actually Darth Gelida who was behind it, and bides her time until she feels she is strong enough to flee and find allies with whom to challenge the Sith and avenge her people.

Short version is I want to play a Dark Side Force-powered brawler who hates the Sith.

[rhoenix]

Fair. I'm going to go with a concept Havoc and I have already discussed a little, so I'm going to run with it.

---

Corvin Meviello was born on a relatively quiet world known as Verec, known mostly for yvek-hair cloth, which is known for retaining heat well in cooler climates, while allowing cooling in warmer ones. It is also known for its tea exports, though not for much else, other than high mountains and steep cliffs overlooking the vast seas.

Shortly after his twelfth birthday, Corvin was abducted while walking the plains between mountains, involuntarily becoming an apprentice to a Sith Lord known as Darth Malaise. For the next five years, he learned the ways of the Force through rage, through pain, through grief, through regret, and through fear, learning all of them from the cruel ways of his Sith Master. Darth Malaise was a Sith Marauder, and taught Corvin in those same ways.

It was shortly after his seventeenth birthday that his Master was badly injured while attempting to kidnap a member of a royal family on Alderaan, and Corvin, now thinking of himself as Darth Malicus, slew his Master shortly before they entered Darth Malaise's ship to escape Alderaan.

Darth Malicus, now feeling the adrenaline from the fight and what he just did fade away, was faced with doubts as to where to go, or what to do next. Unable to quite decide, he claimed the ship as his own and chose to return to Verec, to see how his family had fared in the past five years.

He returned to see his family's small house smoking.

Landing the ship quickly, he raced to the home, and found the corpses of his parents, neither of which were armed. Searching the rest of the house for his sister, he saw fingernail-marks on the floor leading out of her room, and signs of a desperate struggle - but she herself was absent.

Quickly looking for clues as to where he had gone, he found a datapad that had been dropped, showing an inventory taken, along with the location for their home base, once he triangulated the coordinates properly. Running back to what was now his ship, he lifted off and raced toward what appeared to be the pirate's base camp.

He confidently and coldly marched up to their encampment, feeling angrier than he ever had in his life - and considering his rather brutal training at the hands of Darth Malaise, this was a statement worth making.

When hailed by the pirates, he coldly gave him his terms - though at the time, he wasn't entirely sure why he approached it this way, instead of simply attacking. He told them to let her go, or all of them would die that night.

They mocked him for his terms, and he allowed the rage to settle over and through him - through he noticed his sister's startled look at the sight, and he noticed her fear. This... made him feel ashamed, through angry at the entire universe for frightening his sister - and he attacked the pirates.

It was over with in mere minutes, though the shocked and terrified look on his sister's face haunted him. "Your eyes," she said, trembling. "What happened to you?"

He said that it was a sign of his power that allowed him to rescue her, and she shook her head, now indignant as well as frightened. "I'm not going anywhere with you, looking like that. What happened to you?" she asked.

It was then, of course, that the Jedi showed up.

When they appeared, he attempted to introduce himself stolidly as Darth Malicus, but his sister looked at him incredulously, and informed them that his name was Corvin.

The fact that the bright yellow glint of the Dark Side began to fade from his eyes the moment she began to speak did not escape either of the Jedi, who stayed, and talked with the two of them more, surprising Corvin by their actions and their words. Eventually, he agreed to allow them to take his younger sister to be trained at the temple, and he would go along to keep an eye on her.

He realized at the time that the Jedi had readily agreed to keep an eye on him, but they weren't pushy about it.

It was several months later, after he began to enjoy the quiet beauty of the temple, peace began to steal into his soul, though he had to admit that he was growing bored most days. One of the Jedi who had brought them to the temple, a Master Kalindra Koros offered to spar with him, seeing that he was feeling a bit restless. They sparred with their lightsabers for hours, though within the first minute Corvin knew he was hopelessly outmatched.

He had thought of Darth Malaise as being a strong lightsaber duelist, but he learned very quickly that his old Master had absolutely nothing on Master Koros, who constantly pushed him to adapt and learn. He was very surprised to learn that as a Miraluka, she was blind - and he was even more surprised to learn that this was no detriment to her whatsoever. Indeed, she gently chided him for not paying enough attention when she caught him off-guard during their sparring matches, which happened far more than he wanted to admit.

By this point, his sister Calia had begun her Jedi training in earnest, though the two still found time to talk, and get to know one another again.

Corvin sparred with Master Koros several more times, each time having to rely on a cool head to spot her patterns, and have a chance of defending against them. If he drew on his anger during a fight, he wasn't aware enough to be able to match her rapid repositioning - and so, without fully realizing the implications at the time, he began to draw on the calm and peace around him to keep pace with her.

Shortly after that, she invited him to meditate with her, to help him to face the demons within himself that could obstruct the flow of the Force within him. Agreeing with that reasoning, he began to join her for daily meditation sessions as well as their sparring sessions.

It came as a surprise, though not an unwelcome one at this point, when she broached the subject of him becoming her student. He took a few days to think about it, realizing to his surprise that despite all the tales about the Jedi that he'd been taught by Darth Malaise, he felt at peace for the first time within the quiet walls of the temple, and moreover, wasn't worried about his sister any longer. She was growing by leaps and bounds, already leaning in the direction of becoming a Sage, with her intuitive understanding of the Force.

Two days later, he found himself kneeling in the Jedi Council chambers, patiently allowing Master Koros to braid his hair in a Padawan's braid, setting his path to become a Jedi Guardian, like his new Master. It wasn't until then that he found out that she was the Weaponsmaster of the temple, having mastered all seven forms of lightsaber combat. After he got over his surprise, he found that he wasn't as shocked as he might have been - she did rapidly switch styles during sparring matches after all.

It was then that his training began in earnest - and much of it still included Master Koros gently chiding him for being blind, which heartily encouraged his development in being able to use senses other than sight, most especially being able to see through the Force.

Corvin had fallen to the Light - reclaiming his birth name, and his sister in the process. And he found that this didn't disturb him in the least.

[Lys]

So... we have two former Sith apprentices. One remains violent, angry Dark Sider, while the other is a reformed, peaceful Jedi. Clearly they'll get along famously.

Also, on the note of time period. The New Sith Wars is yet another era featuring massive fighting between the Republic and a Sith Empire. It went on for centuries until eventually they both simply collapsed under the strain and were reduced to a myriad squabbling powers that continued to fight against each other until the final battle between the armies of Light and Dark at Ruusan. Anywhere in there could also work, I think.

[Josh]

Alright, give me some more time to muse on it. It'll be KotoR era, though I'm not going to nail down a specific portion as yet. Go ahead and start feeding me character concepts.

[rhoenix]

So... we have two former Sith apprentices. One remains violent, angry Dark Sider, while the other is a reformed, peaceful Jedi. Clearly they'll get along famously.

To be fair, Corvin's probably more aggressive than other Jedi, quite willing to get into a fistfight if needs be, preferring to not draw his lightsaber unless there's another option.

On the other hand, he knows what might tempt him to draw on the Dark Side, so he'd also be less likely to draw on it than other Jedi might be.

[Lys]

I think there's a difference between someone who uses his fists as a measure of restraint, a way to do violence without resorting to the lightsaber, and someone who uses her own fists as an expression of unbridled power, a way to crush bodies and rend armour.

[rhoenix]

I think there's a difference between someone who uses his fists as a measure of restraint, a way to do violence without resorting to the lightsaber, and someone who uses her own fists as an expression of unbridled power, a way to crush bodies and rend armour.

So what you're saying is that, much like the differing philosophies at work, the outcome is based on intent?

Sounds about right to me. ;)

[rhoenix]

Also, one small word of intrigue. Master Kalindra Koros was inspired by Kreia, of KOTOR2, as well as the zatoichi (blind swordsmaster) mythos of samurai culture. Though not Kreia's clone by any means, Master Koros nonetheless follows her own path of understanding.

[Lys]

You'll all figure out what my character was inspired by eventually~ ^_^

[LadyTevar]

Well, it looks like you might need someone that isn't going to care about that Sith/Jedi mumbo-jumbo. Plus, you might be needing a ship, and a good pilot. Talk to me, kids, see if you've got the credits to raise my interest.

Trysana, Mirialan pilot-for-hire. If you've got the creds, I've got the ship that can get you there, but slicing and gunslinging cost extra.

[General Havoc]

And while we may have a bunch of pansy-ass former Sith running about, what this party needs is an actual, honest-to-god, blood-red-lightsabre-wielding Sith.

Fortunately, Ryassek the White is more than ready to fill that particular niche. And believe me, he will find the opportunity to speak with redeemed Jedi and dark-side-wielding anti-Sith psychotics HIGHLY illuminating.

[Josh]

Geez, and Cyncat hasn't even posted his concept yet.

At the rate this is going the adventure will be "Put you all in the same room, go get a beer, come back and take the survivor(s) somewhere."

I have a basic concept churning in my brain now. Will start a new thread for character bios.

[Lys]

Fortunately, Ryassek the White is more than ready to fill that particular niche. And believe me, he will find the opportunity to speak with redeemed Jedi and dark-side-wielding anti-Sith psychotics HIGHLY illuminating.

Excellent, we shall continue our ongoing tradition of your character and my character being the best of friends.

[White Haven]

Corac Verron, Jedi, Sith Apprentice, and then Jedi again, reporting for duty. Specifics of narrative and history and such will somewhat have to wait until we have a better idea of the specifics of the setting and campaign to make it all mesh together better.

Havoc, it's go time.

[General Havoc]

Bring it, motherfucker. I can out-ramble you with one eye closed!

... wait.

[Josh]

I do think going forward with some rules and dice rolling and so on will be in order seeing as how we're going to run what is probably going to be a somewhat fractious party. So what rulesets are y'all familiar with that integrate SW systems? I'm rather behind the times on those, though I can get up to speed as necessary.

[Lys]

Maaaan, I don't want to use rulesets. My character concept is one that pretty much only works on freeform because being Force-powered She-Hulk isn't something that's usually supported by Star Wars RPGs. Unless we use something real generic like FATE or Mutants & Masterminds.

[Josh]

Vague and general would suit me just fine. The main reason I went freeform was watching too many games bog down in handfuls of dice being thrown around.

[Hotfoot]

Man, not a single pure light-sider?

Looks like I may have to step up.