Hello everyone and welcome to another Voice Report! There are quite a few changes to our character sheet system in this one and some are likely going to invoke some strong reactions. As such I want to remind everyone that changes to our Character Sheet system are always done after careful review and discussion, and are always in the spirit of doing what we think is best for bettering how the system functions. As always if you have immediate concerns, questions, or complaints, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Cybernetic Change

As outlined by our Regent, the Cybernetic slot on the loadout system will be going away. This means the proper place to define any cybernetics to your character rests solely on the Physical Description of that character.

As such the CS guide (and general policy for it) has been updated to reflect this.

Cybernetics were for a time included as a separate procession item, which you could then modify. That distinction has been removed and you are now encouraged to detail your character's cybernetics (if any) within the Physical Description box. Cybernetic enhancements can not be “functional” changes to your species, they are cosmetic only. That is to say, you cannot grant yourself superhuman strength, or the ability to fly, etc. Your abilities are still dictated by the skill values you place them at.

However, you may feel free to use cybernetics to justify what value you place a skill at. For example, your character has two cybernetic arms and has might at +5, those arms can be the “reason” for how that skill got there if you are still generally a scrawny little guy.

tl;dr: Still cosmetic but very much welcomed in the PD if your character has any hardware.

Suppression Changes

Suppression has been long considered a OP power. Coupled with the fact it can cut off an entire segment of why a lot of people are here (write about using the Force), we wanted to examine ways to better define it in the system to keep it usable while removing the notion of it being the key thing to win against Force-users.

As a reminder, this skill only ever had a handful of appearances in the EU, mainly from a couple early/mid 90s novels and comics, and then really took off with its appearance in the Knights of the Old Republic game, where the skill would affect the rolls the game made (because yes, old Bioware games did rock the old TTRPG method of making rolls behind the scenes for combat).

To address this power we are making three major changes.

First, the Time Out feat is being removed. While this really only affects EL2+ characters, we want to remove any notion that it is possible to permanently cut another PC off from the Force without that being a thing they are trying to explore.

Second, the power as a whole is now described as:

Suppression allows the user to hinder a target’s body's ability to draw upon the Force. This power makes it harder for a Force User to focus on their connection to the Force, and at high levels, even weakens the target’s impact of the powers the target is trying to use. Target's resolve can resist this ability making it harder for them to be suppressed.

Third, the tiers have been rewritten and scaled to the following:

Species Feats Removal

Species feats, while a fun way to help capture the unique traits of the many species we allow in system, have become a bit of an awkward issue, one that we periodically see questions about.

With only two feats per species, many have wondered if they can do things the species is known for but don’t have a feat specifically mentioning it. Some species have feats for specific abilities that are just baked into others (for example, Umbaran have a feat for UV vision but none of the other species that can do it have the same feat). Species are also constantly getting new information dropping out which means feats also become outdated, or far from being all-encompassing of what a species is capable of. Then there are feats that dictate personality traits that perhaps you would rather have a character specifically not fit with.

To combat this we are removing the two granted species feats from all species. We are also removing the requirement of suggesting two feats from proposals to add new species.

Going forward if it is a trait known for the species, you can use it. No worrying about if it is included in one of the species feats, just go and do. And if there are traits you specifically want to run counter to as a foil for your character, you can do that too.

I want to make it clear that this is not removing any ability from any character in our system. Just because the feat is no longer attached to your sheet does it mean you cannot do a thing that species is capable of. This also means that hybrid characters can now directly utilize traits of both parent species.

And while this is not removing capability from any character, we do recognize that the appearance of losing two listed feats on a sheet might be jarring, we are also giving characters One Additional Feat Slot which is free for you to pick from any of our wide array of selectable feats. The updated feat amounts can be seen below:

Some of you might also be wondering why we are keeping things to an approved list with the removal of species feats. Maintaining this list helps prevent the absolutely insane options out there, as well as things such as extinct species. This makes it one less field Voice Staff would have to manually check, discuss and approve as okay. This also, like many game systems, helps maintain a sense of immersion and consistency. The selectable Species list is baked into a lot of components, including onboarding new members in the ToL.

This invalidates your character sheets, so you will need to copy and re-activate them. You will need to actually open the sheet and hit save before hitting activate.

Species Hybrids Change

Regarding Hybrid Characters, this system has been under evaluation for a while. This change is what I expect will elicit the strongest reactions out of all the changes we are making. We’ve seen combinations that don’t make a ton of sense and the current classification system is a bit clunky and difficult to maintain and slot species that don’t have a ton of information. It should also be noted that Hybrid species are very very rare.

We want people to build fun characters, and we want people to have a chance to explore unique options, but at the same time, we also have to consider a few other things. We don’t want people to “create your own species”. We want things to still fit into our little game sandbox of “DJB Star Wars”. This notion of “Yes this is still Star Wars” realism is one we to foster, as it strengthens everyone's experience by giving a firm foundation to work off of.

After several “this has issues” discussions amongst the Voice Staff and Bubtra, we’ve found a way to continue to allow some of that creative expression of hybrids while still keeping true to our DJB Star Wars sandbox ambitions.

Species categorizations are changing. We are now going to specify if a species qualifies as “Near-Human” or not. The majority of these categorizations come directly from what is classified as near-human on Wookieepedia, but we did have discussion on a few that we felt fit that category despite not being “officially” designated there.

With the handful of hybrids seen in Star Wars media, other than a single short story, all hybrids have been the result of a Human and Near-Human species (the ones I am aware of and can find online at least). Near-Human is an official classification on Wookieepedia, and it also states, “Certain near-human species, such as Twi'leks, Theelin, and Mirialan, were able to reproduce with humans, producing hybrid offspring.”

This is the new official policy going forward. Any new characters will need to conform to mentioning traits from near-human parents. Existing hybrid characters do not need to change anything.

I would like to take this time to remind everyone, that while many of us are guilty (myself included) of putting an excessive amount of details and background in our Physical Descriptions, its core purpose is to convey the appearance of a character, not their detailed background or history. That information is best kept for the wiki. The species selection on the CS remains limited to only indicating a single species, as it has been this whole time.

If you have questions/complaints about this please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Humanoid Rule Change

The rule that approved species must be humanoid in appearance (2 arms, 2 legs, 1 head) is being removed. That is to say, species such as the Hutts (no legs) or the Besalisk (4 arms) are now acceptable to submit proposals for to be added to our system.

Loadouts will continue to work as they have. Having additional arms does not mean the sudden ability to carry more in our system. Items already had some level of conformance (such as the same armor set being equipable for a Wookiee, a Human, and an Ewok). I urge you all to continue to conform to the policies set forth by the Regent. I also urge you to use some common sense when it comes to items. Something such as the Mitrinomon Jetpack Thrusters which attach to the boots of a character, wouldn’t work on a Hutt as they don’t have feet.

Selectable Species

Speaking of Hutts, yes they are now active and selectable in the system.

We are making an additional change regarding the Shaevalians, a DB-created species. This species has been an awkward piece of our lists for a long time as the only DB- specific species. As we do continue to want to promote the DJB Star Wars sandbox these present a bit of an issue.

We are returning it to a “grandfathered” status. The access list has been updated to account for all 7 sheets that currently use it. No additional characters will be allowed going forward.

Fiction Archive

As I know not everyone reads the entirety of a news post when a fiction drops for the club, I want to remind everyone that in addition to the traditional upload format for our fiction in the fiction archive, we have a new folder which lays out the clubs fiction in timeline order, specifying the year and associated event if there was one.

This timeline format only goes back to around the time we started the transition to the Disney Canon timeline, including the active year the club was running under. I hope this makes it easier for people to follow our long and winding narrative, and makes these old stories more accessible for new members who wish to dig into where our story has been.

Important Links

• C-D4WG
• Fiction Archive
  
• Fiction Resources
  
• Fiction Center
  
• Fiction Rubric 3.0
  
• Character Notes Template
• Voice Feedback Form
  
• [Log in to view e-mail addresses]
  

Thank you for reading. As always if you have any Fiction related questions, concerns, comments, or snide remarks, feel free to message me on Discord or send me an email [Log in to view e-mail addresses].