Combat Master Report #4: CS 2.0 - Ready, Set, Go.
Hello, yes this is Wally.
There was supposed to be a “Phase II," or something, but since our team is so awesome, we just kind of bulled through it. So, as it stands now, I’m pleased to say that all changes have been made to the both the Wiki documentation and the database end for Character Sheets Version 2.0.
Mission Status: Complete.
Booyakasha. We did it. There is still work to be done, of course. Small things, mostly, and some bigger ones. Things that we are aware of and are going to be working on in real-time to catch and update.
We’ve gotten some early feedback from members emailing in. I’d like to ask that when you find a bug, a typo, or something that looks off, that you gather it with other things you see as you’re looking through the site, and coalesce what you find into a single email. This makes it a lot easier for us to keep track of things, instead of a spam of 3-4 emails with individual issues (some of which might have been caught/fixed by the time you finished gathering all your notes!).
So, if you spot anything, let us know - just try and stack feedback up as best you can. We appreciate it. :)
That said, let’s get down to business (...to defeat, the HUNS).
Character Sheets 2.0
I’d like to introduce you to my best friend. This is Character Sheet Reference (Or just “C-Dawg” for short). C-Dawg will be your go-to for all things stored in the Character Sheet database on the website.
This will be how you can see all the cool changes to things like Aspects and Feats that you won’t find in a separate table on the Wiki. You will not, of course, find any tables here, as this is simply a collection of data. Please refer to the Wiki for Skills, Force Tables, and more detailed breakdowns on Species.
Species 2.0
Species in Star Wars are a big deal. Their existence is something that separates the Lore from other Sci-fi, where even if a culture is only mentioned once, people will flock to try and create characters from it. Each Species has something unique about them, from being able to regenerate limbs, to being able to breathe underwater! It’s fascinating, really, but also creates a struggle for us to incorporate into a balanced system. And on top of that, we don’t use dice rolls or algorithms for our system and game. So, “balancing” becomes subjective to the ones in charge of organizing and maintaining the system.
I want everyone to keep this in mind as you read through the updates to the Species. Every single feat has been reviewed by a team of diverse opinions. Ultimately, the choices have been made, and the Grand Master himself has signed off on each change.
That said, I can’t begin to tell you guys how pleased I am with how Species 2.0 came out. Seriously. Look at it. LOOK at it in all its majesty. Terran (Invictus) and Denath did a really awesome job creating the tables you see on the wiki. It’s beautiful beyond anything I ever dreamed of, and something I’ve wanted done for over 2 years. And now it is! :D.
I also want to (similar to ACC Venues) shout out again to A’lora who went through and created “headshots” for every species and applied a filter to make them all look like they come from the same “holo” database. Denath was huge in this effort as well and uploaded everything one-by-one to the Wiki, and then copy/pasted all the data in. They make the entire page come together, and my hope is that the details and information contained within the Brotherhood-Wiki Species page will help attract random Googlers who are doing research on a species they want to learn more about. We are not trying to compete with Wookieepedia, of course, but we purposely left out walls of text in favor of bullet-pointed data we felt would be most useful for members to know about.
So, what else, you say? As you will see, each Species is granted two unique Feats (yes, you read that right, two. As in one more than one....shutup it’s been a long weekend). These Feats do not count against the number of Feats your character can select. Every Species has one “Merit” Feat and one “Balance” Feat.
The best example I like to use is everyone's favorite walking carpets.
As you can see, Wookiees are extremely powerful. However, it never really made sense to say that ALL Wookiees got a “+1” to Might. +1 to Might becomes relative to...what exactly? Average Human strength? How do we even? (On a scale of 1-11, you can’t even). Instead, you see that the language focuses more on “feats” (oohh, that’s why they call them that??) of strength like holding open a blast door.
With that strength and size, of course, comes the sour fact that you can’t really fit a Wookiee in your secret compartment in the cargo hold. They are also kind of hard to get to blend in with even a crowd of mixed humanoids. This is made apparent with the second species feat, and provides a balance to the merit. (See, there is a method to madness. Heh.)
Arden was a legend and made sure all the Species Feats were updated to the website database. Props go entirely to him on this endeavor. I also want to shout out to Kordath, who jumped in to help handle the arduous task of taking all the information from our Google Doc and copy/pasting the data into the Wiki Templates. This is ungratifying, boring, tedious, and mind numbing work. Kord did it without complaint, and in a timely manner. He will ride eternal, shiny and chrome.
Our hope is for the Species to eventually be hard-coded into the website and Character Sheet creation process. This is something on the future checklist for coders, however. For now, REVEL in the beauty of the Wiki page (I said REVEL).
Disciplines 2.0
This is probably where you are going to see the biggest changes. Disciplines are something that started off as my first real contribution to the new CSs when they started to be developed. It’s crazy to see how they have come from the first arguments I had with Mav and Sarin in what has apparently been almost 3 years ago. As work began on CS 2.0, there was a lot I wanted to do with these based on feedback I’d gotten from members, as well as my own experience firsthand using the sheets. And then along came some lightie named Turel, who convinced me that we either needed to make another set of Lightie-specific Disciplines (yuck), or that we could perhaps neutralize the Disciplines so they worked for either Light, Dark (or now even Gray!) Jedi.
So, that’s what we did. Here is a changelog of what has changed:
Disciplines Renamed:
“Assassin” --> “Shadow”
“Inquisitor” --> “Seeker”
New Disciplines Added:
“Arcanist”
“Defender”
“Techweaver”
I will talk more about the nuances between the new and updated Disciplines in my follow up report. For now, all the information you need can be found on the beautifully presented Wikipedia Article (props to Terran on the design) or on C-Dawg.
Aspects 2.0
The team has added in a bunch of pre-written Aspects to help add to our already strong pool of options for new members to select from when making a character. You can scroll through them via C-Dawg.
Evant and I will talk more about Aspects and Custom Aspects in upcoming reports. For now, I want to highlight two things I think warrant special attention.
Aspect Templates
While still in the beginning stages, my idea for Aspect Templates has been finally put onto paper. You can view these on the Aspects Wiki Page
The goal here will be part of the Voice teams initiative to make it easier for members to create Custom Aspects for their characters and to get them approved!
Aspect Templates - “P2P” Aspects
I’ve been reviewing Character Sheets since they first came out. I know a lot of members form connections with other members and want their characters to share unique bonds. While all members that grow close have basic bonds through friendship and family, if you feel like it is a major part of how people see/write your character, you probably want to highlight it in an Aspect.
You now have the option for two templates for having a connection with another Character in the DB: Force Bond, and Master And Student Bond. Anyone wanting to incorporate these into their character sheets can use the prewritten templates below, or spin their own variation if they are comfortable doing so. These “Templates” are Voice-staff approved, and have been written to keep in line with what we believe is closest to how the Force works with bonds.
Force Bond
After spending a lot of time working together, {{member}} has formed a unique bond with ( >>Insert: Member Name ) through the Force. This allows {{gender,him,her}} the ability to know >>when ( Insert: Member Name ) is nearby, and even allows for an exchange of baseline >>emotions >like danger, excitement or encouragement. Even when separated across systems, >>{{member}} >can still always feel faint echos through the Force, with stronger emotions like >>death or turmoil >registering in vague intuition.
Master And Student Bond
Masters and students form unique bonds through the Force. {{member}}. This allows >>{{gender,him,her}} the ability to know when ( Insert: Member Name ) is nearby, and even >>allows for an exchange of baseline emotions like danger, excitement or encouragement. Even >>when separated across systems, {{member}} can still always feel faint echos through the >>Force, with stronger emotions like death or turmoil registering in vague intuition.
These all fall under Aspects. To this end, we’ve removed any “Feats” that cover this, as it should only be covered with a Custom Aspect.
Feats
Feats are something that are handled on the back-end coding side of the website. To highlight the work that has been done here, the team has gone through every existing Feat and updated them to the current standard. Part of this process was removing overly complicated Feats and correcting syntax and coding errors. More importantly, the entire philosophy behind them was overhauled as I’ve mentioned in my previous reports. We removed anything that gave +1/-1 to a Skill/Force Power. Feats now only modify a Skill or Force Power to either perform better or behave differently. Substitution Feats have been revamped and are now more common, as they serve as cool situational tricks your character can take advantage of that make them unique.
These will be present with the new feats that the team created as well.
Feats are what truly make your character stand out. Aside from your character's custom Aspects, Feats are the second most important thing to establishing character individuality. There are a lot of them, and you’re going to want to pick ALL the things. However, they are limited on purpose, and that’s not to try and tell you that you can’t make your character the most unique snowflake of all time ( hereafter abbreviated to: MUSOAT).
We have added over 60 new Feats into the system. The goal of this was to create more varied builds of Character Sheets without having to make any major changes to the core structure. There are only so many “Marauder with +4 Primary Lightsaber and +4 Athletics” you can have. Feats are what will differentiate their characters, and when combined with Aspects, we should avoid a lot of cookie-cutter clones of generic darkity-stab-stab characters.
Here a few of my favorites I'll single out:
Pulling. It. Off.
The character has a unique ability to pull off acrobatic stunts and feats of Athletics, without penalty, while wearing clothing that has been designed for style over function, such as tight dresses or robes, high-heeled shoes, corsets, and other apparel that would otherwise inhibit motion.
For the characters that like to wear heels, and to prevent any Jurassic World-esque backlash over running in them.
Poison Weapons
The character is skilled in coating his weapons with poison and has trained to use them effectively in combat without fear of accidentally poisoning himself.
It's come up before, so I'm glad this is now an actual thing. You can obviously dip your sword in a vat of poison, but knowing how to use it without accidentally poisoning yourself seems like it could be a useful thing. Maybe.
To highlight existing feats that have been changed, here is a popular one that's easy to see.
Run And Gun
The character is more accurate firing while mobile and on the run than they are setting their feet and stationary. When firing ranged weapons while in motion, The character's accuracy is increased.
The original version of this Feat gave you a +1 to Blasters while on the run and -1 stationary. That's not exactly how they were supposed to work. The system isn't really about +1/-1s. It's about highlighting your characters strong points and unique abilities. So, the language now clearly states that your character is better at firing on the run than they are planting their feet. It lets you focus more on writing the scene than having to run over and check what the difference between a +3 and a +2 in Blasters (while stationary) means.
So, this is a pretty good example of how we made changes like this to every Feat both existing and new.
HANDEDNESS
I don't know where to kind of throw this in, so I guess it belongs in this section. You will notice that there are now two feats relating to Ambidexterity. One is a entry-level feat, and the other is a bit more advanced.
Ambidexterity is very different from Dual Wielding. Dual Welding is your characters ability to use two weapons at the same time. Ambidexterity is to use one weapon equally as well in either the left or right hand. If you have +4 in Dual Wielding, that does not mean you can fight evenly with both hands. It means that you have trained to utilize both at the same time to be combat effective.
These are two separate skillets. When selecting Handedness, you will be either Right Handed, or Left Handed. This change will roll out soon, hopefully.
Ambidexterity
The character can wield a single weapon fairly in either his left or right hand. While combat applicable, The character still favors one hand over the other. If the primary hand is hindered, The character can still fight effectively, but not at peak performance.
Available to anyone Journeyman and up.
I, Am Not Left Handed
The character has trained equally with both of his hands and can fight equally with a weapon in one or the other. The character no longer has an off-hand, and can fight at full effectiveness even if one hand is disabled.
Skills and Force Powers
Skills and Force Powers have been covered in my previous report. You can view the database changes on C-Dawg.
The biggest thing to note with Force Powers is that there is no longer a “Refectory” table. Each power has its Duration and Downtime written into the Force Power table. This should, when combined with the breakdown for each tier, give you a better idea of how using a Force Power will effect your character, and subsequently how you write using the Force with your character.
Character Sheet Approval
With CS 2.0 Completed, feel free to submit updated sheets. If you had something that was removed (it wasn’t removed, just rendered “Inactive” so it should not break your sheet, but will force you to edit and re-evaluate when submitting a new sheet.)
The only thing to keep in mind is that James will be pushing out an update to the site that will invalidate the Krath and Obelisk Force Power/Skill point-offsets (+3/-3). This will require a lot of you to need to resubmit your sheets as well, but you will not lose any of your data/write ups.
This was a decision made to get us in line with the new Paths system coming out down the line. Any further questions, feel free to ask.
Wrap Up
CS 2.0 Links:
- Species Wiki
- Disciplines Wiki
- Aspects Wiki (Which now include the new Aspect Templates(TM)
- Skills Wiki
- Force Powers Wiki
- Feats Database
Closing Thoughts
The Character Sheet system we went with years ago was meant to be continually added to and expanded. It is by no means perfect. I know multiple people have talked about alternative systems, or how we could be doing things better. I am open minded to these talks, and am always looking forward and willing to entertain ideas that can make our system better.
That said. This the system we are going forward with for the near future. The team behind it has been more transparent than any Brotherhood project I’ve ever seen. The team encompasses members from every unit, leaders and regulars, veterans and newbies a like. This system is not the result of any one person--it was built by all of us. It will continue to grow in this way.
As I’ve mentioned before, try and remember the work that went into this. I basically sat at my computer this entire weekend pushing these updates. A lot of it was boring data entry, but it was important. Evant has been a huge help throughout the entire process, especially considering he came in towards the end.
I just want to shout out to the entire CS Development team. You guys are absolutely amazing. I will be working through awards for you guys in short order. Beyond that, my deepest thanks to everyone who has pitched in in some way to help. I appreciate it more than you know.
The next major project will be revamping the ACC Qualification and Fundamentals Exams to coincide with CS 2.0, as well as mapping out how the Character Sheets will work with non-Force users and the Loyalist path.
Make sure you have read my latest bulletin re: the temporary ACC Freeze. There is a contest in there as well for a new ACC Logo.
I've created a Q&A on Discourse. Feel free to ask questions here as well, and we'll do our best to answer them! CS 2.0 Q&A on Discourse
That’s all I have for now. You know where to find me if you have any questions.
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That'll do Wally, that'll do
All. This. Sexiness.
Dude. Massive congrats, and many thanks, to all who've worked on this. You guys are wonderful, and have done so much for our benefit.
Thank you all!
All that needs to be said is...
My lord, the feels. So many feels right now, thank you for this. You all are MUSOAT!!
Great work. Its all greatly appreciated guys. Thank you
Pardon my French, but: "I fracking love this..!" awesome job of the species! Awesome job overall! <3 <3 <3
We need a bouquet of puppies for everyone involved in this. An entire bouquet.
So glad this is finally out. I wish I could have contributed more but this coincided with my son's visit. All in all, I'm happy to have been part of the team and so glad to see such a warm response.
LEADERSHIP!!! TACTICS!!!
Yus! Techweaver is called Techweaver! <3
stands up and claps wildly
All of this is so amazing. Having worked even a few hours with these people, I can tell you the effort and dedication involved is enough to leave anybody speechless. Great freaking work, all. Thank you!
Now...
squees at Defender and all the things
Is the ACC closure still in effect/will it be shortened considering how fast this all went down?
Same closure. I need time still to fix some things and I need a day off from Spreadsheets.
You take all the time off you want, Mr. Teachweaver-delivering-santa-type-person. <3
Well, the Sorcery side of any jedi is nerfed into oblivion. Pick Resolve as high as possible, pick Suppression as high as possible, focus on combat stuff and you are settled.
Because: "Resolve" counters: Illusions, Mind Tricks, Terror. Making them absolutely pointless now. And there is NOTHING to counter resolve - as it is a skill.
But for all other powers there is nothing that counters them as hard as this combination. Other powers still have their uses and cant be completely negated (besides with Suppression for a certain amount of time).
All the other powers do have their uses still, but Illusion, Mind Trick, Terror fall completely apart against ONE single SKILL. And this skill needs NO activation, no concentration, has an uptime of 100% and does have 0 drawback.
Can you fix this please?
Resolve didn't change. We did rewrite it to be clearer, but the question the judges involved in the project asked was, does it still affect mind-affecting Force Powers and the answer was, yes it still does. Resolve does not represent immunity; it represents your ability to cope with mental stresses and attacks, and everyone wears out eventually.
This is not a numbers game, it is a writing game, and that is one of the things CS 2 will help address. Tier 3 Terror is not 'weaker' than Tier 5 Terror. Tier 3 is slower to use and needs more concentration, but Terror is Terror. Tier 5 is not 'stronger' or 'scarier'; numbers do not represent magnitude or power any more, they represent training, confidence and capability.
Yoda did not lift an X-Wing out of a swamp by being 'stronger' and 'able to lift heavier things'. Luke didn't, because he didn't find it easy - but he still could have, despite having trained for less than 800 years.
+5 Resolve is a well-trained mind able to handle a lot of stress when fully rested, but everyone gets tired, everyone has a breaking point and everyone has weak points. You may not reduce them to a quivering mass instantly, but statistics are not what the ACC is about, story is. Statistics do not dictate the battlefield any more.
I recommend opening a dialogue with the Voice staff, Wally and Evant mentioned a special gmail address in one of his recent posts. That would better connect you with the judges and staff, and they can personally address your concerns better than I can. I know that overpowered builds is something the judges and Wally discussed, but I wasn't involved with most of those discussions.
Resolve is a SKILL. There is no tiring / dimishing returns of skills mentioned ANYWHERE. If skills do have an diminishing effect .... What if I now take Endurance on top? And is "Dual Wielding" as a skill also dimishing if you use it too often? Because you .. get tired? (Pick Enduration on top. Done?)
Sorry, but your explanation is too vague and nowhere stated.
Next point:
As soon as there is a doubt, Illusions, Force Cloak, ... fall apart: "Hey.. those flames don't burn the sheet of paper. Those flames aren't real!".
A discipline Shadow jedi starts using Force Cloak to move stealthed an area. You just need higher Resolve and you see that person. Because you can see a flickering wavery area of the Force Cloak. This is just a slight flaw in your illusion or Force Cloak or Terror and it all falls apart.
All in all I find it very hard to come up of a good sorcery character sheet without being busted by just 1 skill + 1 use of 1 force power. It feels awkward. Just playing a plain juggerynaut, with high resolve, endurance is more favorable in this system than any sorcery kind.
"Krathy" characters have to build a lot around all those awkward restrictions whereas the simple warrior that has a severed arm can still use amplification and all kind of other things to stampede someone to death without many restrictions.
If I may-
The way Resolve reads is that it's relative. Ergo, if you use +4 Terror (for example) against someone who has +4 Resolve, it'd basically be like using +1 Terror against +1 Resolve. Or something to that effect; equal skills means it's just normal effect.
Smart people, would that be a fair assumption?
A rank 1 terror takes like 1 minute to kick in. And you need to maintain concentration. Do you believe you will survive for 1 minute against a Marauder Equite, full of weapons up to his teeth to be finally able to fear the crap out of him?
All the sorcery type things require you to maintain concentration. So you can't do multiple things at the same time unlike the Marauder. So the sorcery things have to work or you are doomed.
I mean power-wise. You're doing it instantly. That's how it works. But essentially the higher you put your points, the more you'll be overcoming Resolve. So whereas you might have a low Suppression, for instance, your +4 Terror will still kick the +4 Resolve guy's ass.
Suppression is suppression force powers. Resolve is a skill and not a force power.
My current tendency for treating a high resolve vs "sorcery" force powers in e.g. runons is like this:
I will treat as if the force powers DO hit. No matter how high the resolve is. But the effects will be quicker shaken off / take shorter time to realise their true nature. And further application of the same powers are suffering diminishing returns.
Sildrin: In the ACC and in fiction, it is still all about the writing, and not just about something "Fizzling." Note the language of resolve specifically says the less effective an attack is relative to higher Resolves, and does not make mention of negating it because there are too many scenarios or possibilities relating to a Force power or skill usage directed against an individual to cover them with any kind of simple check. You should write what you think feels realistic for the circumstances and the opponent. Is a character under tremendous mental strain? Have they just lost someone they cared about in battle? What events might boost a character's mental resolve? What might reduce it? Have they been under interrogation for weeks? All of these things play an important role in writing the outcome of any mental-based skill or Force power usage. Even when matching equal resolve to equal skill in a complete vacuum (which would never occur in actual writing, really), the skill/FP should have some effect. What effect depends on the Skill/Power level, what the power is supposed to do, and how it is written.
All that being said, nothing is ever perfect and it is possible that resolve will continue to need tweaking. :) The team is here listening to your feedback!
Oh yeah. It is still "about the writing".
Tell that to all those who go over and over the numbers in the CS and go quickly: "You can't do that." Or "I don't want others to think you are godmoding." You say it is about the writing, but it is not how things are treated in runons / stories. I even had statements like: "OMG YOU DON'T HAVE A CS! OUR RUNON WILL BE DOWNRANKED BECAUSE OF THAT." Despite the fact that my character used barely any force powers at all. (Even less than would fit on an Equite CS).
It is easy to say: It is about the writing.
Yet I have to see this lived in the DJB.
P.S.: Someone once said to an author of a short story here: It was hard to judge your fiction, because you have no character sheet.
The irony: The short story feature the author's character in one sentence where his character said nothing and just stared blankly. The rest was about NPCs.
So much to "it is about the writing".
Is it codeable to have alternative names for disciplines based on path? Seeker and the like are very lightie sounding.
Well, Ansem was Seeker of Darkness in Kingdom Hearts, and he made Palpatine look like a kitty cat :P
Xia: It is a good idea to have a CS as it helps other people write your character easier. But, as to people telling you that stuff... they may or may not be right depending on the circumstance. If people tell you that "you can't do that because of numbers," you could always explain the circumstances to them that makes you think it'd work, or suggest they consult someone on the Voice staff. There's no way to combat that stuff without it being pointed out, and people can always email me with questions about that since I've been grading a lot of fiction lately. haha.
Also, that individual you are referring to did not lose realism points, but submitted a story with some heavy implications as to his Force powers and abilities. Because he didn't really focus on his character, he didn't lost realism, but had he focused more heavily on his own character he might have (though given his rank and what was implied perhaps not, depending on what was done :p). Said individual was poked jokingly to make a CS; he seemed to get it was a joke since his response was also a joke. He'd been poked about a CS before, and he did make one, so it isn't a big deal now. Ultimately, his writing was good enough to place, and it did - after all, it is all about the writing. :)
Mark: I am not big on this. We tried to take discipline names and make them less Path sounding, but we kept some thematic appeal (e.g. Marauder). Anyone can seek something. :)
Don't worry about helping others writing my character. Usually I link them my short summary of my character (how she reacts, what she likes to do, what kind of force powers she would use to achieve her goals). And basically people get her quite right. :P Even without a CS. (only the blind / not blind is currently a problem. But I blame Xano ...errr.. Trev for that).
And the joke thing... sometimes things don't quite come over as jokes...
I just hope that more sorcery style stuff will not be automatically downranked, just because "sorcery". Even if its well explained, logic, well written. Time will tell.
@Mark: Seeker of Destruction! Seeker of Truth. Seeker of Light. Seeker sounds quite versatile now, don't you think?
Seeker sounds like a hereditary quidditch position...
/me catches the golden snitch in the next vendetta
/me deflects a bludgeon at Arvalis before he can grab the snitch.
/me sends dark energy coursing towards Arvalis before he can snitch on her.
Err... I can totally see that working both way.
How about Beseecher, Pathfinder, Searcher, Wanderer, Scout, Investigator, Questor, Magnum PI... erm...
Personally I think beater has a lot of uses as a discipline, not to mention Master Baker, as well as Cunning Linguist.
We need a Traceur/Freerunner disciple
because PARKOUR!
So... I did a new CS yesterday and got it approved. Now there is a big yellow note on it saying 'This Character Sheet is not valid!'
Did I do something wrong, or this just an across the board message?
Mine doesn't have that message and I updated it today. Maybe you just had it done before all of the changes had been fully implemented
Windos, they pushed out the 'patch' that negated the order bonus points for skills/Force powers. That's probably it.
Woo everyone is now a sith!
Is that why I feel so unclean?
You feel unclean because you're not yet sure how to deal with the awesome. It'll come, in time.
I sort of get Xia's concern, but it's worth keeping in mind when you have a shitload of powers AND a shitload of skills, there's approximately a (2*shitload)^2 amount of interactions between them. There's always going to be a couple that don't quite work out as planned. This looks like an awesome improvement to the CSs that doesn't force anyone to majorly overhaul their character (I was worried I was gonna have to change a load of stuff to fit the new CS). I do feel that powers like suppression should be implemented tentatively considering how much it can mess up other characters. We (mostly) like to play Force using characters, that's why we're here, so when there's a power that can be interpreted as 'I use this and you can't use the Force any more', it has the potential to cause problems.
I never had any intention of using terror anyway, but 1 minute of concentration to make the target scared does seem a bit pathetic, especially considering Force Lightning at the same rank is described as taking only 'several seconds'. I get that it's all about the writing, I can just envisage situations where player A complains 'that's unrealistic because this skill beats that skill' in response to player B taking artistic freedom to write a nice story.
So anyway, my 2 pence, great update, but could be made even better by a couple of tweaks here and there.
I don't know, but to me, if someone is going to try to strike 'terror' in the heart of someone who has already done a bunch of seriously dark stuff already, you're going to have to contend with some serious reality checks anyway. You're not dealing with a 4 year old who you just have to look cross-eyed with your dentures sticking out while making hissing noises. You're dealing with Sith bad-asses. You'll probably have to:
1) scrounge their mind and find something stir up some dark stuff they're still afraid of,
2) contend with a serious mind barrier in the first place
Considering the above, 1 minute is seriously pretty good.
Honestly, if you're resorting to this approach in the first place it's because you don't want to fight the opponent or end the battle. In the first instance, you'd probably be hiding or laying low, as you observed your target, in the hopes that they'd leave you alone (plenty of time). In the 2nd instance, if you're going to go through that much trouble and you intended to fight them anyway, you might as well have just cast lightning and rattled your lightsaber in order to awe your opponent instead in order to add to whatever psychological terror you're trying to trigger in your opponent.
Illusion and mind trick and the such are only aupposed to work on weak minded individuals in the first place. So if someone has trained their mind then it is useless.
Great changes wally and team you all are amazing
Krath Archpriest Mako Henymory says:
Illusion and mind trick and the such are only aupposed to work on weak minded individuals in the first place. So if someone has trained their mind then it is useless.
Even strong minded Sith are shaken to the ground when facing the terrors that lurk in the deepest of their minds. How about feeling your body decaying? You feel a tooth dropping onto your tongue, you feel your flesh rotting and sliding from your bones, you feel your cheeks sag and your bones dig through your skin. And your fingernails turn black and crumble away. Or is it worms crawling beneath your skin, tearing through while eating you alive?
I am pretty sure that this is terrifying enough even for the strong minded Sith here. And for those with family it is even easier to do so.
And you might as well just cast lightning instead of illusions? How about casting illusions of lightnings and after a while he thinks: Haha.. illusions... until it really hurts since you used the real lightning :D
omg... this damn formatting of text! :D It burns my eyes! Could someone re-edit that into normal text? :D
Yeah! Your formating sucks, but I love the evil illusion / lightning! ;)
Tbh, I was "also" wondering how we quote..? Even better, where's the help page for formating posts?!? :D
Where's the help page? It's called the Shadow Academy :P Comments, and almost everything text, on this site is Markdown... so go and do the two courses on it haha.
(Start the line with a right angled bracket, then a space, then the text you're quoting.)
Also, just like the wiki, there is a preview button there for a reason :P
It's not useless. Nothing is useless. Everything comes down to the situation. I play a character with +5 Resolve. All that means is that on a good day, rested and aware, you're going to have a very hard time of effecting him with mental powers. You can still throw Force Lightning at him and it will hurt.
But, if he's busy fighting two Jedi at once, and is distracted, it's a lot easier for someone to cast a "Terror" on him. He could get Illusion'd just the same.
Not everything is done in a vacuum one on one. There are no dice rolls. We are writers. This is something that a lot of people will have a hard time coping with, but it is simply the way of things.
Preview is for the cowards! :D
Thanks for this and the links to the courses (ends up, I skipped those)..!! And yes, I use preview all the time.
thanks for the hard work. I really like the ability to have a custom aspect for master and student.