Introduction

Greetings gamers and onlookers! I know it’s been a minute since my last update so I have a lot to talk about. Here we go!

Feuds, Vendettas and Major Events

So summer is upon us and that means the next Great Jedi War is around the corner and major events like the Pro Bowl are ramping up in the next few weeks. I love seeing all the clan events and DB-wide mini-events members are producing. I just want to remind people to look over the Rites of Combat when designing the gaming portion of their events but also that the Fist staff are here as a resource for you. Whether you are planning something for your clan or a massive multiclan event like the Pro Bowl we can help you get your gaming portion where you want it. If you want to try something new, different or bring back something old school just hit us up with your ideas and I will do my very best to help make it happen. So don’t feel like you have to do the same things you’ve always done.

On the subject of the GJW we are just over two months out and based upon the most played games of the past year here are the games you can expect to see in GJW competitions:

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic
2. Heroes of the Storm
3. Battlefront 2
4. Halo Infinite
5. Squadrons

The first four will definitely be used and Squadrons is a maybe based on how many individual competitions we end up going with. As with last year casual queue will make an appearance and the most played game during the war will be looked at for official support. So practice up and install the games you intend to participate in. Oh and thanks to all who gave the feedback last year that it would be nice to know which games to have installed before the war started. I read every submission to the war surveys.

Diablo 4

Diablo has a bit of history with DB gaming. Diablo 3 was one of the first major non-Star Wars games to really blow up in the DB gaming community and seasonal D3 races even featured in vendettas. So to say the DB gaming community has been anticipating Diablo 4 would be an understatement. The game has been out for roughly a week and members are starting to hit endgame. I’ve been playtesting D4 quite a bit…for my DB job….yeah…totally. The game shows promise for official support with nightmare dungeons in the endgame serving as a replacement for the rifts we supported in Diablo 3.

While Diablo has a strong history in the DB and I’m playing it, it still has to meet the same requirements as any other casual queue game, namely we need data on people playing it together.

So if you want to see Diablo 4 supported then team up with other members and submit those screenshots! As we get a good number of submissions I will start collecting data on difficulty and completion times of activities for cluster balance purposes. So once I start finalizing an official support proposal for the GM/DGM to approve I will put a call out for players to help me collect that data.

Here is an example screenshot I put together to show what we’re looking for:

Social Games

So there has been an uptick in members playing what I refer to as “social games” like Jackbox and Cards Against Humanity for Casual Gaming Queue. I think that’s great! Anything that gets members hanging out with each other, gaming, socializing and making connections is a win for the club in my book. Social games need to follow the same requirements for other casual gaming submissions, namely that the screenshot must show that 1) an activity was completed and 2) who participated. Just like other casual games, social games get 1 CE per screenshot.

Kamjin’s SW:CCG Corner

Kamjin has been working hard on creating a customized version of the Star Wars Customizable Card game for the DB. You may have seen examples of his customized cards in art chat or gaming chat. So I asked him to give a little update to feature what he’s been doing. If you’re interested in helping playtest or create cards please hit him up.

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Turel, thank you for giving me an opportunity to share a nearly lifetime pet project of mine that’s coming close to being achieved. When I was 12 I was introduced to the Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SW:CCG) by my new neighbor and was instantly hooked. With the help of a handheld digital scanning my father had purchased I set to work in MS Paint making my own custom cards. Below is one of the earliest known examples.

I would print these out and stick them into card sleeves and play them with friends. As with all good things, the publisher lost their license sometime after The Phantom Menace and ceased production of new cards. I have always dreamed of a way to ‘game’ with my character and everyone else's character.

Thus enters GEMP, an online program that individuals composed of the former Decipher team that produced SWCCG cards and fans created a digital landscape to play the original cards as well as newly produced cards.

With the assistance of Talon Jade another lifetime SW:CCG fan, we began to explore the game and in August of last year brought it into the Brotherhood as a supported game.

In parallel I renewed my limited graphical skills by creating templates to design SW:CCG cards again. This time with high resolution scans of the cards as base and a bit more skill (and AI assistance) at removing backgrounds from characters to make them pretty.

All that remained was bringing them to life digitally and, herein, was the biggest challenge. I am not a coder but I had a starting point. All of the SW:CCG GEMP files are available online to anyone who would like to explore the code and host their own version. Thanks to a happenstance connection made with their developer I was able to strike up a working relationship.

Thus I was able to progress building and testing on their virtual machine Brotherhood specific SW:CCG cards and I struck out on a Proof of Concept - Dark Jedi Brotherhood Core set of cards.

All of the above are currently functioning cards. Below are two of my favorites (in full-size glory).

Below is my high level project plan that I’m utilizing to track this dream, come reality, as I near the part that requires collaboration from various Councilors.

1. Access to GEMP test environment - Complete
   
2. Templates to create custom card graphics - Complete Public template link
   
3. Test ability to modify existing card .JAVA - Complete
   
4. Create new set/cards as unique files - Complete
   
5. Host Private GEMP instance - Assigned to James and his schedule
   
6. Develop rules for creating DJB member cards - Not Started
   

I’m really excited at the progress in the last few months and where this pet project is currently at. In regard to the rules there’s a few key decisions that need to be made.

Light vs Dark Sides - There are only two sides in the game, given it was based upon the original movies. In regard to the Brotherhood this presents a particular challenge in that we have characters with various shades of gray. My current thought is to align the Clans to a particular side (e.g., Scholae Palatinae and Plagueis to the Dark Side whereas Odan-Urr and Taldryan to the light side with exceptions based upon specific characters. Such as a Sith in Taldryan would be Dark Side and a Jedi in Scholae Palatinae would be Light Side).

Power, Ability, Costs, Skills, and Game Text - These are all the numbers and icons that appear on the card and determine the strength and benefits of the card. There’s some rules already established from the original game that I’ve carried forward.

1. Ability - If you’re Elder 2 and Force Sensitive your ability is 7 and you gain a Light/Dark side icon. The highest ability a non-Jedi/Sith (or specific Force user) can obtain is Ability 4 (for example, Han Solo top ability in the original game is 3 - Force Attuned). Usually this is offset by some other attribute, such as Mandalorians having Armor 5 which gives them a greater defense value.
   
2. Power - I’ve been utilizing individual’s character sheets and looking at the highest ability that references combat. This is why Howie is Power 1 because he didn’t slot any combat skills higher.
   

With just these two examples you can see the level of thought that will need to go into developing the rules for the club. I hope you all find this interesting and I look forward to continuing to develop this with James help now on the hosting to bring this to the club.

Closing

So the GJW is around the corner and we need people to submit Diablo 4 screens if it’s going to get supported. Kam is working hard to create something unique for the DB to play and there’s a lot of gaming content in the competition page to check out. Get out there and get that XP gamers!

Until next time,

Rajhin Cindertail aka Turel

Fist of the Brotherhood