The Jedi Gambit – New Webcomic Set In The Old Republic

Have you been yearning for a fix of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ web comics since “Threat of Peace” and “Blood Of The Empire” wrapped up? Well, look no further – “The Jedi Gambit” has arrived!

Greg “Rackham” Moran is a passionate and talented artist residing in British Columbia, Canada. When he first dropped us a line, I knew right away that the work he was doing was something special, and something that the TOR faithful would appreciate.

Greg took a few minutes to answer some questions for us and our readers about himself, what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, and your role within “The Jedi Gambit” project?

Greg “Rackham” Moran: I’m a media artist living in British Columbia, Canada and I was a former blogger and web comic artist for the Warhammer Online Community. During my WAR days, I did a regular web comic series called “The Tome of Knowledge” which showcased a more humor driven comic and articles about the game in general. Having been out of the blogging scene for some time, I decided to jump back in and blog about my newest passion, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
 
“The Jedi Gambit” will be a series-based web comic that takes place in the Star Wars Universe during the Old Republic Era. I read on the SW:TOR website that Corellia was suddenly hit with some internal strife and that the normally loyal planet system has suddenly lost contact with the Republic Senate on Coruscant. To me that seemed like prime material for a story, so I decided to base my web comic series around 10 years after the Treaty of Coruscant and (hopefully) a bit before the actual timeline established once the real game is released.
 
My goal was to offer one perspective of the initial events of that conflict on Corellia through the eyes of my main character. Part of the challenge for me will be to stay true to the lore we’ll see in the game, knowing that we haven’t even seen the story lines yet. We can guess what might happen, but we won’t know until the game is released.

Q: How did the idea to do a Star Wars: The Old Republic inspired web-comic come about?

Greg “Rackham” Moran: First off, I’ve always been a fan of Star Wars. What kid didn’t get all glassy eyed when they saw Star Wars for the first time? The original trilogy hit me like a truck and I was hooked. Even at a young age, I spent a great deal of time drawing lightsaber-wielding Jedi squaring off against Boba Fett and Darth Vader. To say it was a minor influence in my artistic path is an understatement.
 
The next factor is BioWare. I’ve loved their games even since I first tried Baldur’s Gate and I’ve played almost every game they’ve published. I have no doubt that BioWare will provide us with great story, character, and gameplay.
 
Thirdly, I’ve always enjoyed coming up with concepts and back stories to any game character I play with. It was the same back during my pen and paper days with AD&D and it’s carried over to MMOs. Knowing that SW:TOR will have a significant RP community right from launch has got me excited. As soon as the Guild recruitment page was launched on the site, I was already tossing character ideas in the back of my head.
 
With a foundation like that, it was inevitable that I’d channel myself into a new web comic. I enjoyed it so much when I played WAR, it only made sense to me that I’d jump back into those shoes with SWTOR. It wasn’t until I came across the Corellian League that all the character aspects came together with some of the Corellian lore I read about. From that point on, I had my character, story, and concept. I knew the art style I wanted as well, and well, the rest is history.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the title (without giving away the story, of course ;)

Greg “Rackham” Moran: I won’t tell you much, but what I can tell you is that the Free Online Dictionary offers this definition of the word “gambit”:
 
1. An opening in chess in which a minor piece, or pieces, usually a pawn, is offered in exchange for a favorable position.

Q: Can you set up the readers with a little teaser to whet their appetites?

Greg “Rackham” Moran: Although I have chosen my main character to be a jedi, don’t immediately expect my antagonist to automatically be a Sith. Although I do plan on including Sith into the storyline, I am actually looking forward to playing with some of the more criminal types of characters.
 
For example in the television series, The Clone Wars, I actually enjoyed Cad Bane the most as a villain. He had a practical sense about him and not being force-sensitive didn’t seem to hinder him at all when faced against Jedi.
 
Having said that, I am hoping to toss a few surprises at my readers as I go.

Q: How long is the overall story, and how often do you anticipate releasing updates?

I do have a specific storyline in mind and that will most likely take me for quite awhile. Hopefully leading right up to SW:TOR’s release (whenever that is). The storyline isn’t carved completely in stone, but I do have key events I want to chronicle.
 
As far as how often I’ll be posting up pages, it will depend on real life obligations and how complex of an artistic task I set up for myself. Some pages will take longer than others depending on what’s going on in the story. Ultimately my goal will be to post a new page every two weeks or so.

Q: Any final thoughts or words for Ask A Jedi readers?

All I can say is to keep an eye on my blog. I’ll be posting more material up and telling my story the best way I can. As we still have some time to wait before SW:TOR comes out, you can be sure I’ll be channeling that frantic anticipation into this fun project.
 
I hope you all enjoy the story, my artwork, and by all means send me a comment. I’d love to hear from you all!

So, if you’re a fan of web comics and just can’t get enough TOR, ake sure you bookmark Greg’s site to stay abreast of “The Jedi Gambit” and it’s development. And of course, Ask A Jedi will feature each new installment as it’s released!