Minions! It is approaching the dreaded time of year where I must suffer a certain variant of music in silence whilst biting my tongue. I will be scarce during this period as I have life matters of grave importance to attend to! The gravest! Okay, not so grave.

Regardless, I'm using the aforementioned as an excuse to roll the 'Guests' of the Matron results in with the official Combat Master report of awesomeness for the month of December. So without further ado...

Table of Contents

• Event Results
• Force Power Changes
• Opening Closed Matches
• Realism Clarification
• Fictional Activity Podcast
• Important Links

Event Results

'Guests' of the Matron - Closing Fiction

The bridge of the Godless Matron was one of the few sections of the ship that could still be considered 'intact'. Naturally, the pirates had given it a bit of a facelift that brought it in line with the dark and foreboding atmosphere that befell the rest of the ship. Gone was the cold and sterile decor that had been a trademark of the Trade Federation, and in its wake was... well, personality would be one word for it.

Atra exhaled slowly through his nose before turning his gaze towards the monitors once more. The wide-brim hat he had donned for the excursion spun in a circle upon his right finger while he rolled his wrist absentmindedly. "Remind me never to accept an invitation to be one of your 'guests'," the Combat Master stated flatly.

Read the full fiction here!

Placements and Statistics

The matches have come and gone. I'd like to thank each and every one of you that participated and hope that — for the most part — fun was had! Here our the top three:

1. 1653 - Andrelious J. Mimosa-Inahj
2. 13593 - Kordath Bleu
3. 2632 - Selika Roh di Plagia

This was an incredibly tight race with a single match being the difference between first place and second place. The point spread for the top four participants was incredibly close! In the interest of transparency, you can take a look at the sign-up sheet and final scores for yourself.

Also, if you'd like to provide your feedback so we can make later events that much better, then come on down and make your voice heard!

Now we can get into the juicy statistics for the people who are into that stuff.

Force Power Changes

There have been some changes to clarify confusion on a few of our powers in the system of late. These changes have been made live already, but I want to draw attention to them and some of the reasoning there.

Sense

This one is pretty straight-forward, and the reasoning will make sense. We have augmented the wording for Sense to allow the user to detect both the alignment and strength of their foe. This ties into the fact that we had some Feats that changed the "alignment" of the user. What is the point in doing this if no one feels it? We also have canon examples where Ezra — of Rebels fame — describes Darth Vader's presence as "cold". Furthering this, we specifically mean strength in the Force when we reference the latter portion of this change. You don't need Sense to tell someone can lift a bench. They typically announce that stuff by, you know... doing it.

Illusion

Hey, what's going on here? I dunno, but it sure as heck looks like proof positive that the team pays attention to the members! Illusion needed some clarification, and frankly could still use some more touching up but that is part of a larger review. As it stands now, clarification of wording has been brought in for complex illusions. For example, we have pain, odors, and flavors. These are extremely complex illusions that are more demanding than more "basic" applications. As such, these are not only harder to apply as a wielder of the power, but the mind stands ready to reject inconsistencies.

This is exceedingly important when it comes to giving the illusion of pain. While you could convincingly make someone think the fire is hot, you won't be able to convince the mind that it has been mortally wounded, or a dagger is sticking through their chest. The mind will simply reject these. Needless to say, how would you know what that is supposed to feel like?

Telepathy

This is another instance of clarification over change. We had wording referencing a tiered approach in terms of when a user would be able to read the passive thoughts of a target, yet never specified what "eventually" means in terms of the point tiers. Well, we fixed that right up for you. If you glance at the wiki and move them beady little eyes on over to +3 Telepathy you will note the following phrase:

At this level, the user can begin to glimpse passive thoughts of a target while actively concentrating.

That's right! So long as you have at least +3 you, too, can inform Luke that — perhaps — his twin sister would be more agreeable to turning to the Dark Side. I mean, how do you turn down Vader? Put me in his place and the Emperor would be down for the count by the end of Empire Strikes Back. Vader'n'son for the win!

(Please tell me you got what I did there. Vader read Luke's passive thoughts and used them against... you know what, nevermind.)

Realism Clarification

Force Lightning and Powered Weapons

Okay, so this didn't usually come up all that often so we never saw a need for a fancy clarification. In fact, it has only happened once before this event. Perhaps in the future, once shall be enough to trigger this response. More or less, this comes down to shorting out powered weapons. Much like a lightsaber that can miraculously function completely underwater (thanks Clone Wars), powered weapons are shielded from outside sources of electrical interference. This is an implication due to the fact that if they weren't, well, the user would have a shocking experience every time they powered up their electro-whip.

Moral of the story here is: you can't use Force Lightning to short out your opponent's powered weapons. Same for fuel cells that are used for jetpacks and flamethrowers. You'll also note that we have officially added "on again, off again" telekinetic battles to the "no go" list here. While amusing to think about, if there were such a simple solution as "turning off your opponent's lightsaber" we would probably have seen it happen in some form of canon by now.

Opening Closed Matches

Alright, so this is probably the most important policy of note on this report. Like, super duper important. You've all grown accustomed to what I shall call the "everybody gets one" rule. What was happening was this: when a casual match closed on a member, if the participants wished it, the Combat Master would reopen the match so it could be completed. This would happen for each member once. In the past, this has only ruffled the fur of the panda over in the MAA office. So no big deal right?

Wrong.

With the release of Possessions I noticed something a bit different when opening a closed match. Not only did I have to make Howie do work, it also fell into the Regent's lap. Now, I like Evant. Don't know why, but it is probably something something Stockholm Syndrome. Once the Clusters of Ice have been reverted he has to go in and adjust not only the member's credit totals, but the credit totals of the member's Clan.

That sort of admin involvement is just not acceptable. So, going forward, if you want a closed match to be re-opened you better have a very, very good reason that ends with "emergency". Pretty simple stuff.

Fictional Activity Podcast

As those who frequent the Fiction Chat on Telegram already know, Qyreia and myself operate a series of podcasts featuring the members of the Brotherhood. In these podcasts we discuss various topics related to fiction and the characters of the guest speaker. So far, these have been getting good responses, so feel free to check them out. Episode 4 is out already!

Read on here.

Important Links

ACC Links

• Species Wiki
• Disciplines Wiki
• Aspects Wiki
• Skills Wiki
• Force Powers Wiki
• Feats Database -- CDawg

ACC Exams

• ACC Combat Studies
• ACC Qualification Exam

Remember, any questions on ACC mechanics, the CSs, or features, email [Log in to view e-mail addresses]. We do check this email, and often. Best way to get a proper response with all the staff on the same page.

Thanks for reading,