It's time for another GM report.

What the Fox Said.

...was essentially 'We are not yours to command.'

Today is the Day of the Fox. It is one of the Brotherhood's Holidays, meant to honor the Grand Master who took a critical chance and led us into our own sovereignty. Many of the things that we take for granted in our modern Brotherhood were not available to our members back in those days: they were rights that had to be fought for and won. If you haven't already, you should go and read through some of the wiki articles regarding the 'Exodus'. It was a trying time for the Brotherhood. Many thought it was the beginning of our end.

Time has decreed otherwise. Ten years later, we have watched competing clubs shutter their sites, winnow down to obscurity, or fold into other places. We stand strong.

And we could not do any of it without our members. As our traditions dictate, on the Day of the Fox, we award those among us who have displayed great loyalty to our club, worked long and hard hours to make it a better place for all of us. We recognize them with our SEAL OF LOYALTY to thank them for outstanding service.

The following members are thus decorated:
Dark Council
Valhavoc
Kalen
Darth Pravus
Jam3z
Solari

Arcona
Cethgus Entar Arconae
Atyiru Entar
Marick (Wally) Arconae
Timeros Arconae

Taldryan
Howlader Taldrya
Nero
Tarax
Alaris Jinn
Jac Cotelin

Tarentum
Anshar Tarentae
Levathan

Plagueis
Montresor
Brimstone
Arturis

Scholae Palatinae
Xantros
Eetherbiail
Archangel
Rayne

Odan-Urr
Morotheri Mithfaron
Lyze Kiel

Naga Sadow
Rosh Nyine
Ar'rik

Thanks go out to all who have been awarded today, and to all of you who have toiled to make our Brotherhood a better place. Thank you.

Also, if you haven't seen Wally's video, you should scroll down and have a look. It's hilarious.

Filling in

In the time between Shikyo's resignation and the naming of Orv as GFXmonke....i mean Herald... I was filling in on a few requests, and a few things just for fun, like Malik being an viking-helmeted ent.

Also, if you haven't checked it out yet, have a look at Howlader's dossier for some sweet new pandariffic stuff, courtesy of Orv.

The Crusade.

In a few days, we will embark on the campaign to take Ziost and Dromund Kaas under the banner of our Brotherhood. Anyone familiar with the history of these planets will understand their importance to the Sith.

Ziost is a holy world for the Sith, an Icy landscape rich in the power of the Dark Side. Arcona and Plagueis have elected to face off there to determine who will take the title 'First of the Brotherhood', as Naga Sadow and Tarentum will aid them in seizing the planet.

Dromund Kaas was once the seat of power of the ancient Sith, the throneworld of the Sith Empire. While the jungles have reclaimed much of the structures that once served as the central hub of these forces, there is no way that the Dark Side could be completely muted. Taldryan, Scholae and Odan-Urr all will make landfall there to vie for control.

As an added bonus, any units who manage to attain a 1.0 or better on participation rate will be given clan or house-specific robes. We did this last time, and I will be talking to those summits who managed it in the last round shortly to execute on this. This means that every unit has a chance to earn special perks for their unit.

Possessions Stuff.

Yes, we are still working on it. We have a full slate of what we want to launch with, and even more things that will roll out with an expansion (we're calling it 1.1 right now). We're going to have an awful lot of stuff to go with at launch, but there's some functionality that is pretty complex that we'll roll out afterwards, so it doesn't slow us down any further.

We'll have ships, we'll have blasters, we'll have armor. We'll have ultra-customizable lightsabers. We'll have properties (real estate). We'll have the ability to upgrade and customize your ship. We'll have the ability to buy custom items (but they are expensive!).

One of the things that will be available later on will be the ability to get NPC crew people. You'll be able to get an NPC apprentice, an assassin droid, a twi'lek slave girl, and/or a mercenary bodyguard to gear up and have follow you around in official stuff. Obviously, there are a lot more options than that, but you can basically build your own NPC party and gear them up. I'm pretty excited about that.

Again, I'd like to stress the importance of making sure that your time in positions and rank is reflected properly in the system so youw ill be paid correctly upon launch of the system. To do that, log into the site, and navigate to the administration page, then look for the heading that says 'Secret Development Stuff' and click 'view credit history'. If you see any discrepancies, positions or terms where you do not have a 'yes' in the credits column, please email Howlader and Kalen as soon as possible, so he can sort it out.

Show and Tell.

Yubstep

The Code

Full Tank of Hate

Terrible Armor

Darth Cleavage

Probably ends in Porn

Finally, some questions from our members.

Halcyon asks "Once the Crusades are over, will there be any changes to general Org Structure of the club? ie. Clans, Houses, current roster totals and where everyone/everything stands."

We are ALWAYS looking at our organizational structure, trying to shore up weak spots and get best practices from those who are doing well. We are looking at how Rollmasters are defined and their duties as I type this, as we have had some units use them to great effect, while others seem to struggle. While we all know that what works in one unit may not work in another, we are trying to discern a set of behaviors that results int he best possible outcome for the unit.

That said, if some hard decisions need to be made, they will be, since I suspect that was the real question.

Howlader asks "The three final planets for the Crusade that will take the form of mini-competitions in (I assume 2014?) - they'll be part of the overall Crusade vendetta, but they won't take the form of what we've had for the past year or so (clans picking planets and have a bunch of events in a month) - am I right on this?"

There will be a few stand-alone competitions to resolve some of the minor planets taht we didn't do full on invasions on. They will be done in 2014, and they will be considered part of the Crusade. Fleet points will be up for grabs, as will Novae and seals/ribbons, but as of right now, they won't impact clan placement for bragging rights. This month, Dromund Kaas and Ziost is for that.

Tarax asks "What timeline are we tentatively looking at for the GJW, and aside from the unit standings/etc., how will the outcome of the crusades & GJW impact the DB on a day to day basis? (for example for the Vong GJW, Jac used it as a chance to give PRT+ training sabers)"

Well, it was Sarin who was GM during the Vong War. To answer the question, there will be some pretty major fictional changes as to how the DB does business as a result of this campaign into the Sith Empire. I'm not exactly sure as to when we will be rolling it out, but it is coming.

Right now, the tentative scheduling on the Next Great Jedi War will be sometime in the late summer of 2014.

Deimos asks "This is a more a me question than for the whole DJB, i know i'm a bit mad story development wise so will be there be chances to get involved more heavily in the story of a GJW? I mean sure the big guys get mentioned a lot but i'd love Deimos to run up against the One Sith, learn shit from them in the ways of the force as a 'traitor' then escape or some weird but fun stuff...Hate sitting on the sidelines"

I've probably answered the 'Why' we use the DC people a lot in the stories a lot, but that's not the question here. The question really is 'How do I get into the story as more than just a cameo?'

And there is a way.

Raken, Sarin and I are working on the next GJW story as we speak. We are going with a multifaceted approach to the storytelling, and we will be needing a number of different people to be the central characters for each thread there. That means that each and every one of you has a chance to serve a critical role in the story of the next GJW.

The catch? We only have a few of those spots, so the competition is bound to be tough to get into one of them. So how do you do it? You have to be really active as a member. We don't want to spend a hundred hours writing you into the story as a critical part only to have you vanish before the story comes out. Also, you have to have a very well-defined backstory and history on the wiki, where we can see it and do research on it. Being in the story doesn't mean that you get to know what the story or your role is ahead of time, so we have to be able to know your character well enough that the reactions in the story are accurately portrayed. This is not something for everyone, especially those people who don't trust anyone to write their characters, since what the three of us write becomes canon. But it is a way to get featured in the canon of the brotherhood, and even get into the comic.

Halcyon, Howlader, Tarax and Deimos all get DCs for their questions. If you want a shot at the easiest DC available, watch for me to change my nick on IRC to 'AskTheGM' next month and ask a good question.

That's about all for this time. If you need anything, shoot me an email, look me up on TOR (in the rare situation that i am ingame) or PM me on IRC.