I have created a new usergroup called 'Star Wars: Game Name Here' and appointed (not nominated or elected) Adam as the Group Moderator.
If you want to be a PC in the group you will need to apply to him through the "Usergroups" button along the top menu. Choose Star Wars from the lower list and press "View Information". Near the top of the info you'll see a button that says "Join"...click that. Adam will have to confirm you.
Once that is done you will be able to see "Private Game Discussion", PC Profiles, NPC Profiles, and such.
I am keeping the Star Wars game board locked pending a few things...
1) An outside player. At least one. So if you are all writing other things, there will be someone writing on the board. Try to find a good one.
2) A fixed starting date and a basic plan for either an alternating story cycle or a parallel cycle (like we tried in Mythic).
3) A game name...Star Wars: {something} is the traditional pattern. And Star Wars: The Role Playing Game is taken ;)
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The Game - steps in the right direction.
The name is important. Right now, my mind is seeing this as Star Wars: the Houses of Vorgrell. But that's pretty damn generic. The name should be specific to the setting but generic enough to encompass all the stories that will be told. I'm still unclear as to where all of this information will lead, to what the thrust of the series will be. I guess it's too soon to tell.
Can't wait to find out, though.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Apologies in advance for any problems caused by my doing approvals at 4am. Possibly including, but no limited to, deletions, alterations, amendments, and attacks by packs of wild Kath Hounds and Kryat Dragons.
I'm going to propose an alternating story cycle rather than a parellel one, to avoid the problems of retrofitting and prioity that can arise. That, and a sudden change causing a problem. I'm thinking we can use `Epic` to replace the series, and `Adventures` to serve as miniseries. But what is appropriate?
For an Epic's working scope, I recomend plots which would bring about a global or city-wide crisis, or even a bit of a wider scope to a sector-wide crisis. Most plots with Jedi as central characters would fall under this; so too would probably be something that attracts lots of attention from someone high up in the Empire, such as Lord Vader. (One comic relief scene idea: local villain upstaged by the dark lord). This is the time for us to have things happen like revolutions in the political system.
An Epic will almost always be an event-based story, where we're all driven by things outside of our control. Think of the the original Trilogy, the Heir to the Empire trilogy, or The Correllian Trilogy for something that I think was on a more local scale.
It might be easier to describe an Epic relative to an Adventure. Adventures are based in a single character or a group of characters, but don't have a uniting theme/villain/etc. Think of the anthologies: Tales from Jabba's Palace or Tales of the Bounty Hunters for this. These are stories which can be part of larger events, but the overall events of that story don't shape them at the end.
Making a dent in Imperial control is an Adventure; gaining our independence and waiting for the Star Destroyers to show up in order to smash us is an Epic.
When in doubt, I suggest we use the hide tags for the benefit of those who are spoiler-phobic. ;)
To end up... I'm going to propose that we start with an Epic. Now I'm not sure exactly what should happen, except that by the end of it, aside from establishing our characters, there's a couple of things we would want to establish:
What I can see happening in the first Epic is that we all get railroaded into local politics somehow: maybe it's because we happened to be in the right place, or maybe it's because of skills, but it still happens. So far, I can see....
Zara: Empire
Corin: Nobles
Ghhh'hath: Noble? Whoever is nice?
Lianna: Crime Lords
Daell: Nobles
Potentially, there's another smuggler comming around (yes, Kris, we see you ;) and I can see Sid being... well... Sid. Dragged along for the ride. :)
Where do we go from here? I haven't really thought that far ahead yet. Just that we want to put everything in place in the first Epic and start the ball rolling. Right now, however, I have to go to work. *grumble, grumble*
[/]The Game - steps in the right direction.
*gets bored and starts adding people he knew or heard were interested*
The Game - steps in the right direction.
I like the way you think.
I'd vote for the event-based Epic approach, as well, but I always do. You get that big sigh when the damn thing is finished.
I would add that an epic is not always event-based. Rather, there's another approach: the milieu story. Although you could argue that this IS an plot-driven story, I am inclined to see it as more holistic, culture-oriented. Milieu stories seem to explore everything about the setting, from ancient history to the lyrics of the local bar songs.
Specifically, I'm thinking of Lord of the Rings, but there are other examples. The mileu story is often aimless, because it attempts to give you everything, with everything being the damn point. It stops to smell every flower. It takes the form of both a "tales of" series and a universal fieldguide.
Bleah! That's what the "haracter Diary"is for. I only bring it up to vote against Star Wars from becoming that. I think there should be a strong inclination to keep side stories as side stories--relegated to the Caracter Dary. There shouldn't be a midseason, for instance (not that there would, in this setting). I would vote for the actual game posts to be exclusively plot oriented. Subplots would then have to follow the main story or be excuded.
Everything else: "Character Diary" or "Tales Of" stuff. There could be a paralel thread.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Well, technically, the mileu is part of a plot. Orson Scott Card has what he calls the MICE quotient.
MICE is an acronym: Mileu, Character, Idea, Event. All stories have components of the MICE quotient, but one usually stands above the rest, and that's what kind of story it is. It'd be fun to do a character- or idea-epic, but my idea is how. Have to admit, though, never thought of Lord of the Rings as a Mileu story, but I can see that.
I also like your idea of a parellel thread. But there are some potential problems that could arise with it, such as working other characters into the story. However, the idea of the break is to give us a break from the Epic Plot.
Parellel is an interesting twist, though the one problem could be matching up in-game time, unless we ultilise a fair number of time jumps.
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Sidenote - it's possible I found an "outside player" already. However, we noticed that the public game discussion isn't exactly, well, public. You would still have to be logged in to see it.
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Have them join the board and snoop around. That was the point of making the games Usergroups.
If they like what they read of the stuff so far then they can join the usergroup.
And may (just maybe) they might join another game.
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Alright, I'll tell him to do that. If I know him, though, he'll join under a username like RightWing.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
So, does anyone else have any other toughts as to this, or are we going to go with Sid's idea for structure?
For name - anyone got anything better than Star Wars: Houses of Vorgrell or Star Wars: Triad?
When do we get the appropriate permissions to start putting in our PC Character profiles?
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Personally, I like Star Wars: Triad. It leaves the title open for interpretation. Therefore, we gamers can inject themes into our stories that relate to the series.
For instance, Episodes I, II, and III of Lucas's epic have this "master and apprentice" thing going on. That's a duo, a double, two. But our epic could have triangles--threes--as a recurring theme:
Literal triangles (such as the shape of the Star Destroyers)
or
Father, son, grandson
or
Father, Son, Holy Ghost
or
Mother, father, child
or
Boy, girl, hermaphrodite
or
Husband, wife, adulterous homewrecker
or
Attack, parry, counter-riposte
or
Mathematics (The interior angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees).
Or whatever.
Whatever allows us, while writing, to keep the mileu in mind. A triad promises conflict, and I like that.
That's my vote. But I'm eager to here other ideas.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Triad is good. As for Sid's suggestion for structure....well, I'm not really fussed. I do think that part of a reason for midseason is to allow for a break, a time to catch one's breath. Ultimately we all have little side stories and subplots we want to tell. Those can detract from the point of a regular season.
(Maybe I should actually finish my character before I go butting in here, huh? Sorry... :oops: )
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No, I'm glad you spoke up, Kris.
This is the way I see it. If the players have a goal in mind, a storyline that will actually reach a denouement, then when the climax is reached, everyone can sit back and relax, call it a game well played. Take a break. Then, once everyone has rested, start the next story/movie where that one left off.
"Midseason" stuff is important. I just think it detracts from the bigger issues. It clouds the main plot. I feel that all sideline material can go in a different spot.
As nice as Midseason stuff is, it's extraneous. If we hope to attract new players, we should give them goal-oriented fiction to hook 'em. Personally, I loved reading and writing about Sam and Reah's luncheon, way back in the day. But did it have anything to do with the Big Bad of the Season? Nope. Might it have made getting into LABN a bit tougher? Yep. However, if it had been presented as a side story, a new player might have gone back and read it AFTER he came to see why Sam and Reah were important.
Point: Whenever I read a novel, I tend to skip the parts that don't relate to the plot.
Well, that's my two cents. I'm speaking about idealism, not necessary the best course of action. I'd like to hear more opinions on the matter. I'll go with the flow, of course, no matter what you guys come up with. I'll be there! :D
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On the flipside though, Sid, some of us like those. - and some subplots can ultimately end up contributing to the main story without looking like they will. The mutual interest of Heinrich and Ludmillia in the Worldwar series comes to mind. It eventually gets them in trouble with their respective secret police agencies, and makes their later decisions that much more real.
Which gives rise to another concern: some of the 'distracting' stuff may, in fact, come into play. I have one semi-subplot already in mind. Not sure how it will contribute to the main plot, but I'm sure that it probably will. While some things in that could be written parellel to the main story, do we really want to? It could easily become important, which results in either a confusing post, or one with lots of exposition of things that happened parellel.
That's one worry. The other is time. We'd have to coordinate rather well - even more so than we have in the past - in order to do enough jumps in appropriate places and of appropriate lengths to keep the main plot running, and allow the parellel plot(s) to run.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Wow, I find that a bit freaky. I'm one of those people who reads every single word - even the Elvish poetry in LOTR.
But what I want to know is: how do you know which bits don't relate to the plot? You might skip over a whole chunk and miss vital clues and details that shed light on later events.
A lot of our midseason writing is like that - setting things up for the upcoming Season. For instance, this whole Tash thing has brought Wolfram and Hart out of the woodwork and they're going to be integral to S5. Not to mention Cups & Pentacles, whose first appearance way back in Midseason 3 seemed to have nothing to do with any plot - at that stage.
Personally, I think keeping the LABN seasons and midseasons broken up into separate threads is enough to delineate between plot-driven story arc, and subplots which may or may not pave the way for future story arcs.
Gah! Look at the time - late for work again...
The Game - steps in the right direction.
To be in Keeping with the "flavor" of the SW uinverse, the life there is a lot like our life here...moments of sheer terror and panic which pop up in the midst of long stretches of boring life.
Plan it like Movies. We have a Movie (i.e. Big Bad threat). Then we have a series of comics, novels (our midseason) and such which detail the smaller panics between movies....The second movie could be set as long as 3 years after the first one.
We have a 10 year window between our Movie 1 and the SW movie IV, I say we plan to use it to its fullest.
Sid, shame on you for skipping parts in a novel. How do you know if something you skipped will be relevant later on?
Recently I read Robin Jarvis's Wyrd Museum trilogy and some of the seemingly irrelevant details he dropped in the first book didn't come into play until the third book. just for example.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
I, on the other hand, read all of Crazy in Alabama--okay, it was read to me, a book on tape. Two stories were running parallel to each other. At the end, the stories were vaguely related, if even that can be said. I felt betrayed by the author. Maybe I missed his point.
I was totally diggin' the story of Lucille, who was driving to Hollywood with the severed head of her husband and was scheduled to be on an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies. Whenever the book cut away from her to toil in the narrator's random life, I found myself wanting to be back in the car with Lucille--who was actually GOING someplace.
As a reader, I insist on every scene being important. But the narrator's scenes felt like filler.
Now, with LNG I'm a lot more forgiving, and even eager to get into the interstices of the PCs lives, because it's all of you guys writing it. And, quite frankly, it's impossible to see the totality of the game ahead of time, because of course this is a game, not a novel. It's a different cup of tea, to be sure. Still, it would be nice if the epic could be read as a solid story, separated from the side stuff. Dave, I think you even said how much you liked Season 3 of LABN for it's tight storytelling.
I'm only droning on further in response to your admoishing me for skipping parts of a novel. :) I feel the need to explain to you that too many books have fallen short of exoneration after I've given them three hundred pages of my precious time. :evil: I'm like a bitter housewife whose husband has cheated on her. I don't offer my trust easily.
Anyway, as I keep ending these posts: let me say that this is just my perspective. What you're proposing is still good, and it won't ruin my enjoyment of the game.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
I'm gonna add to Sid's answer here since i do the same thing myself. I also fly over or skip the bits that i dont think are related to the plot, do not interest me or i find just boring... what do i do if it comes to be of importance? Well, an experienced reader usually knows when some piece of the puzzle is missing, and i like to think of myself as one. So I just reread the book, chapter or whatever, browse over it till i find what i'm looking for. I know it may not be the very best approach to reading... but it works for me, have been doing it my whole life and dont think i'll ever change.
(Note, sometimes I DONT find the missing piece, but if it happens it's because it's not there. I dont know how many times i skimmed over 'Rebecca' till i realized that an important bit of information had NOT been given althogether, an excellent writing resource if you ask me. I wont say which bit, just in case somebody hasnt read the book yet :D .)
But then I'm the one who starts reading magazines from the last page backwards and ALWAYS read the ending of books first. :D (And i only read Elvish poetry if i feel like it :wink:)
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Sid you don't have to justify it to me. It would be like me admonishing my wfe for her lack of culture for not appreciating peanut butter and instead placing such significance on Vegemite.
Which, by the way, we left at Kris's house. :(
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Hmmm...just a thought I had.
I'm told that none of the SW board is open to non-members (can't check myself...can't seem to log out (why would I want to? lol) but that's a matter for another day). If we're wanting to recruit "at least one new player" to the game, it may be a tad difficult if, to see anything, these interested people have to sign up to the board. I don't know if this is the same for anybody else, but when I'm browsing boards and sites and whatnots if I find I need to register to even see anything (posting's not an issue) then straight away that's a turn off. And if a lot of people think the same, that's kind of a problem.
To help with recruiting it could be easier to open up a few boards to non-members for viewing at least. That way we could link directly to, say, 'Planet Setting Proposal'. So if I went and made a post on another board somewhere advertising our game and asking for players I could post links directly to the important topics, also meaning interested viewers wouldn't have to search everywhere looking for something and possibly missing it.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
I can do that if everyone agrees. I have a "non-member" login that I use called "Testingsomething" and I can let anyone who wants to log in as that ID do so (just MSN me and I'll set it up for you) so you can see what LABN looks like to newbies.
I am limiting the number of publiclally accessible forums after all of the virus and spamming and such. Got me a bit gunshy.
Right now I have this setup for each of the games:
V=View, R=Read, P=Post
Game Board: Public (VR-), Members (VR-), UserGroup (VRP)
Public Discussion: Public (---), Members (VRP), UserGroup (VRP)
Private Discussion: Public (---), Members (---), UserGroup (VRP)
Character Proposals: Public (VR-), Members (VRP), UserGroup (VRP)
I can change it to this:
Public Discussion: Public (VR-), Members (VRP), UserGroup (VRP)
And that won't compromise the board security at all.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
I wholeheartedly agree. I'm the same way. I sort of closed my eyes and joined LABN, the first time. I was monumentally rewarded by this community. But it was a leap of faith that could have lead me into a pit. Normally, I don't join communities, blindly.
I think Dave's request, however, was for one of us to personally recruit someone. If that is the case, one of us could ease the conscript into the game. We could lead him or her by the hand into endless hours of fun.
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I've made the public discussions of ALL of the games viewable (as well as the character proposals) by everyone. Even though they can't post to 'em.
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That was Me by the way posting from the wrong username
matte painting refs
Hey folks, just came off a SW fanfilm, still need the SW fix.
Im getting into matte painting and always need an excuse for
subject material.
I assume this is mostly text base, but would graphic refs help.
I did some D&D back in the day, and the artist renderings always
helped stir the imagination.
Greg
The Game - steps in the right direction.
We are always glad to have graphics, epecially ones better than my clumsy renderings.
We really like players too. BTW: Fell free to apply for this game to play (either in a minor or major capacity)
Cluick "Usergroups" above and choose the Star Wars: Triad game to get access to the background talks about this game before it gets up and running.
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probably cant play, I gotta be creating, rendering, what have you, thats my thing.
I wouldnt mind having a crack at some concepts of Vorgrell, the platue city, and ship city seem like they would be some cool visuals to matte out.
So is the description of Vorgrell a lock. Thats the main planet
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I did a mock-up of Plateau City in SimCity3000 and posted it in the album ( http://latenightgames.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=435 )
But that is about it. Other players might like to see composites of their actors in appropriate Star Wars clothing if thats part of your thing (like I did for Harkness and Akula only better)
Our own Taryn (played by Firefly/Kris) drives a Corellian Cougar as her ship so it might be cool to see some different shots of that
Anyone else have any requests? We have a bona-fide artist willing to help out!
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In all honesty, I wouldn't mind if someone took a crack at Lianna, the Black Spear, or more particularly, the Alcona battle armour - simply because I suck at description.
Sort of. What we've done now, we probably won't change, since we'll have established that. If anything, we'll just start adding to it at some point.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Oh, I'd love to have some images of Daell, Greg.
Daell is a distinctive Twi'lek since her blue skin is marked with orange-yellowish spots/stripes. She's Ayy Vida's daugther and her mother had the same skin characteristic (she's cannon, guys). I've tried to add stripes to the pic i posted in her profile, but i suck at it so i left it open to players imagination. Also, that costume is not what Daell would use, unless she's gone clubbing or something like that. I'd be really grateful if you could draw her :D
Do you use msn, Greg? Would like to meet you too :D
The Game - steps in the right direction.
hmm, I was going to start with some landscapes and enviroments, thats what I'd like to practice when I say matte paintings.
Character have never been a strong point unfortunatly, but hey why not try, the inital stuff might look more concept than photoreal.
But it all sounds like a fun test.
Sorry no MSN. I never realy got into the IM stuff, I think because when Im working Im deep into the project, rendering, modelling, painting, what have you. Sometime music is even a distraction. :lol:
ANyway the character angle sounds like something to stretch my skills so I will have a go at it.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
The city of Shipwreck could also be fun. Imagine a huge metropolis with this bloody huge space-hulk in the middle of it.
I imagined Shipwreck as being in a lowland valley surrounded by these impossibly high peaks. The Ship itself is lying parallell with the valley but the city sort of creeps organically up the sides of the mountain from the center.
The Game - steps in the right direction.
Cool, Greg. I'm eager to see your work on our cities. There are some descriptions in the Planet Proposal thread, it'd be great to actually 'see' them. Dont worry about chars if they are not your thing, but if you really want to give it a go, cheers!
It's really great that you find our ideas inspiring, of course Star Wars universe is inspiring in itself, and it's what brought you to us.
I understand your no msn rule, actually when i'm writing i usually turn it off or put the no available sign too. No way you can really concentrate with people chatting around you.
Is there any place where we can see your work?
And Dave, that image is really cool too. I hadnt imagined Shipwreck city like that, did you post anything in the Planet P. thread about it? I may have missed it.
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I imagine also that most of the ship has been cannibalised over the years for building materials - the hulk is by now probably not much more than a skeleton.
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well you could watch starwars revelations, I did some CG on that.
http://www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations_movie.html
I have a few galleries on my site:
http://www.fmotion.net/
and the last few promo thing i did for revelations:
http://www.fmotion.net/tarynpics/
http://www.fmotion.net/declan/
and I authored and did all the menus for the 2 dvds: (some pics)
http://www.fmotion.net/dvdinterface.jpg
http://www.fmotion.net/dvdinterface2.jpg
if you can download the dvds, they look better on motion.
:)
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OMG, you did some CG on Revelations? Dave and I (and Adam, who's Uhl) went to see that at Baltimore at its premiere in April. If that had been a big Hollywood blockbuster, the SFX would have been pretty friggin' impressive. Considering that it was all done on no budget and with volunteers working after hours - it's unbelievable.
You've said you like to do matte paintings - were you involved in doing some of those planet scenes? We've been watching the behind-the-scenes stuff on the DVD, and it's just incredible how much you guys did.
Sorry, I'm babbling. I've all overcome with awe. hehe :)
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Wow, i havent seen Revelations. It's the kind of movie that doesnt get to our cinemas, at least not soon. Much to my chagrin. But those pics look amazing, Greg!!!
Excellent
Fantastic work there, bro (read with the appropriate pidgeon-english trill). Haven't had a chance to see Revelations, but I've been keeping tabs on it since it was announced at Force Dot Net. Definitely count me in on the char drawings.
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Its a web download:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/revelations/revelations_film_large.wmv
250mbs
here is main links page:
each link has a torrent download, or the HTTP download.
Also torrent download for the two DVDs.
For torrent you'll need Azureus software (free), and a java plugin
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/revelations/
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I'd like to add my 2 cents of awe as well. Really, it's much the same as Heather-awe. Only from a male, philosophical, and necessarily meta-level which creatively expresses said awe indirectly by describing the awe-statements rather than making them. :)
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thanks folks, it was a fun project to work on, and from basically hobbiest to semi-pros, we all just chiped in, with basically no budget, poor shane did though manage to max his credit cards out. stormtroopers eat a lot.
I was just one of many good artists, quite a few much better. Example Zaf and Zap were the big hitters and did some astounding work, IMHO.
G