Combat Master Update: New Venues, Competitions, Oh My!

   8

Combat Master Update: New Venues, Competitions, Oh My!

Hello. Yes, this is Wally.

This will be a quick update focused around new Venues for the ACC Database.

Venues

New Venues

If you head over to the Venues database you will see that there are a bunch of new additions! Some of my favorite are:

You might have to be a little Sith on the streets if you want to survive an enocunter in the Nar Shaddaa: Refugee Sector


Boba Fett? Where!? If you were ever curious to see how tough Boba really was, try a battle at the Tatooine: Great Pit of Carkoon.

(At least he didn’t go out like a punk. )


We have plenty of Cantina’s but here is a really cool take on them at Nar Shaddaa: Jekk'Jekk Tarr Cantina


I want to take a second and give a big big big thank you to A’lora. He was super patient and had this Venues 2.0 Document sitting on my desk (metaphorically) for over half a year. He also engineered the Universal Design template and went through and highlighted areas that needed to be updated.

I’d also like to remind Clan Leaders and members alike that we are happy to add Clan-based venues to the database. Here are two new venues compliments of Clan Naga Sadow.

Sepros: Temple of Sorrows


Sepros: Ballista Crash Site

Props to Atra for writing those up with guidance from Consul Locke.

E-mail the Voice Staff if you have any questions or content you’d like to put forward. I highly recommend working with your respective summit in doing so, however.

How To Write a Venue

So for example, here is a really cool concept art image I found while browsing.

exmaple1

From this image, and a Wookipedia entry, I can reverse engineer a venue that might be cool to have a duel on.

Ahch-To was a planet mostly covered in water, with numerous rocky islands blanketed with green trees.

Okay, that's a start!

From space, Ahch-To appeared to be a world of nothing but deep blue oceans. Dotting the oceans, however, were rocky island chains where birds would congregate[1] covered with green trees[3] and grass.[1] The first Jedi Temple was built on one such island.[2] By the time of the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, the island that supposedly held the location of the first Jedi Temple was dotted with ruins.[1]


Ahch-To: Ancient Islands

Venue1

The ocean world of Ahch-To looks to be nothing but blue seas from the distance of space. Dotting the oceans, however, are chains of rocky island that jut upwards to form shallow, sloping mountain ranges with small, flattened plateaus. Rich green trees and other small flora grow along the sedimentary stone, untouched by anything more than small avian creatures looking for a place to nest.Carved into the stones of the various Island’s are sets of winding, ascending and man made pathways.

The crisp, clean, air that wisps off the water planet help cool and maintain a fairly even tropical temperature during the day, with a healthy chill at sunset. Storms have been reported to flare up from time to time, leaving only the highest points of the islands safe from a rising tide.

venue2

The Islands themselves remain a mystery to this day. The oceans themselves are still uncharted and unexplored. No one knows how the stairs, statutes, and other sporadic architecture came to be on the Islands. It was rumored, however, that they were indeed the home of first Jedi Temple back when the ancient order was first formed.


From this description and imagery, I could very easily write an encounter or duel between two members. The details of how your character got there and why they are give you the power, as a writer, to start crafting your story. And as you know from paying attention to all my reports and updates, Story is (while rooted in action engagement) still the most important facet of ACC matches.

All Venues should be submitted in the following format:

[Planet Name] [:] [Area/Venue name]

  1. Describe what the venue would like in a travel catalogue. You want to touch on the climate, temperature and weather patterns, as well as other unique elements like landmarks or formations like caves or temples. What kind of things would you run into on said planet? Wild life (Rancors, Loth cats, R.O.U.S) and dangers (quicksand, poison ivy, dark energy)?
  2. Do not include language like “you notice that you are not alone as footsteps appear behind you.” We are working on Scenario Venues separately, and want to keep Venues as objectively descriptive as possible.
  3. Include images that help display what the Venue looks like. Credit your source. (A’lora and I will convert the images into our Unified Template and cite the source for proper image credit).

Ideas for Venues

So, I made a discovery today as I was doing this. If you go to http://www.starwars.com/databank, you can click on “Locations” and maybe get some more inspiration?

Here are some places I think would make cool venues. Feel free to pursue any of them!

  • Garel -- Heavily feartured on Star Wars: Rebels

garel

  • Lothal -- Heavily feartured on Star Wars: Rebels

lothal

  • Dagobah -- Only the most famous swamp in the Galaxy. This needs to be a venue!

Dagobah

Competitions!

So, I spent all this time talking about Venues. I might as well remind everyone that Vyr currently has a totally awesome Venue competition running right now!. You should go submit to it.

For anyone that missed it, May 4th was Star Wars days and a lot of cool stuff went on sale, was announced, and so on. Seals of Loyalty are now awarded on Star Wars day, and everyone has been hyped for the new fun.

There are also some other events running under the same parent competition! Custom Robes are even up for grabs! Check out Vyr's May the 4th Be With You competitions here.

A similar plug for the similarly themed counter-competition: Revenge of the Fifth! (Arcona).

There’s a GIF for that!

Atra and I are also running a fun little event I’d love to see some more entries in.

The idea is simple. Make or find an animated GIF that demonstrates an element of our Character Sheets. It can be Feats, Skills, or even Force Powers. We’ve gotten some really good entries so far, here are some examples.

Ghosting

In this episode of The Clone Wars, the Nightsisters use the closest variation of our Shadow discipline’s “Ghosting” Feat. Yes, this is more a result of a Dark Magik that Mother Talzin uses, but it is linked to the Force and does provide the best visual image (in a Star Wars context) for how our Force Cloaking works.

It was also pointed out to me that Imgur also has a GIF creator that can handle longer source videos than Giphy. Thanks to Mord for pointing that out to me!

These are fun to think about and do. The ones I like/that are good I’ll probably use in future reports when doing my ACC Tips section.

header

You can find an archive of my previous Combat Master reports HERE. These reports contain a lot of helpful information, so if you’re a new or returning member, I’d suggest leafing through them.

ACC Links

ACC Exams

Also, remember that the Journameny Tourney still rages on. The competition is proving stiff, but our Journeyman seem to be taking out all the stoppers. Excited to see how this round concludes! Make sure to encourage your Clannmates that are still fighting!

Thank you.

alt

Woo new venues! Great work A'lora and the other submitters!

First! A good report, well written with lots of information and images. Your report gave me an idea for your "There's a Gif for that". I will see if I can try my hand on making one. I have never done it before. Thanks for all your hard work!

Azor

Glad for the new venues and highlighted comps. Thanks for the tips too.

Really happy with the new venues. Excellent work!

I don't write fiction much, but your reports always excite me about it. Whoo for new venues! I need to try and create a venue before the comp ends. Dibs on Mortis

TO THE ACC FOR THE VENUES

Lots of combat and mastery! Winning!

Very nice, loving the new venues. :)

You need to be logged in to post comments