Posted by Sa Chi | 51 Comments

All The Galaxy’s A Stage: Jedi And Emotion – One Character’s Perspective

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

For sometime now I’ve been contemplating the line of the Jedi Code that reads, “There is no emotion; there is peace.”  The brilliance of the writing behind this line is that it is very much open to interpretation.

My experience is that the less you understand about the underlying mysticism of the Jedi philosophy the more likely you are to emphasize the literal wording of the Jedi Code over the potential of deeper meaning.  This line of the code, in partcular, is quite literally a mystery within a mystery within a grilled cheese sandwich.  And given the tendency for this line to be interpreted in so many ways I thought I’d take this opportunity to share one perspective.

Disclaimer:

This article contains my observations and opinion. I do not claim to have any official knowledge of this subject, and I am neither a writer or authority on Lore for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.  What follows will directly oppose some Expanded Universe canon.  In addition, your opinion may be different than mine.  You are encouraged to comment accordingly!

I’m going to ask you, dear reader, to indulge me and read the entire article before commenting.  What I am about to relate is the interpretation I’ve opted to take concerning the above line of the Code for a Jedi Master, called Sa Chi, that I currently role-play.

Denying Emotions?

Many posts I’ve read on this topic tend to get fixated on the idea that Jedi should have no emotion.  I’ve even seen RP that read runs along the lines of a Jedi Master telling their Padawan that they are supposed to spend a lifetime denying emotions, suppressing them.  And with this in mind I would like to present Sa’s first lesson:

No Jedi is going to reach enlightenment in the Force through suppression, aversion or denial.

From the first days of their training as a youngling or Padawan, Jedi work on learning how to release the false beliefs, attitudes, and values that cause emotions to surface in the first place. Emotions are a symptom, not a cause. With time, patience, training and persistence a Jedi can release much of the hidden baggage that leads to overwhelming emotions.

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Posted by Sa Chi | 17 Comments

All The Galaxy’s A Stage: Does SW:TOR Define Your RP?

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

An interesting and yet very relevant question was posed on the official forums.  “Does your class define your RP?”  This question and ensuing responses not only reminded me of a concept in RP that I consider sacrosanct but also got me to thinking that there may be RPers that allow the game to not only define their class but also their story.

Character Sovereignty

Character Sovereignty basically means that only you get to decide what choices your character makes.  Your character and their background are yours.  This, in my humble opinion, is an essential and sacrosanct concept in RP.  In essence, this means that someone can’t come in and tell you what your character does or what your character did.

This also means that even though BioWare have created these nifty classes and class stories you do not have to follow what has been presented to you.  It is completely your perogative whether or not to incorporate some or all of the class stories and class make-up as a part of your character.

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Posted by Sa Chi | 25 Comments

All The Galaxy’s A Stage: RP-PvP Servers and Rulesets

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

Recently, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid confirmed that RP-PvP servers will be in the game at launch.  In effect, we will have Roleplay servers with open world Player versus Player combat in effect.  However, he also said that RP will be a suggestion only for such servers, and that no ruleset or naming convention will be enforced.

As you can imagine I got to thinking about what this might mean for the RP community.  I can see two perspectives at play and I think that overall the RP community loses more than it gains with BW’s announced approach.

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Posted by Sa Chi | 7 Comments

All The Galaxy’s A Stage: RP Tracker – The Battle of Bogden

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

For this month’s RP Tracker I wanted to introduce a new element to this column.  I thought it would be a great idea to highlight some active role-play.  I’ll be returning to this theme so if you are involved in some RP that you think is worthy of highlighting don’t hesitate to post a comment with a link.

The story I’ve selected for the first such feature really is a great example for those of you who have never actually role-played.  A good RP event provides a great back-story, has some great writer-actors plying their craft, is well written, and provides story and character development.  In short, great role-play should (in my opinion) read like a Star Wars novel.

This month’s feature, The Battle of Bogden, manages to cover off the above requirements, also happens to be housed at the official forums and is an open RP event.  In other words, providing you submitted a workable character and premise to be involved in the corresponding out of character thread you were quite likely to be accepted.  The Hands of Darkness RP Guild deserve an honourable mention as the initiators of this creative effort.  However, what’s most notable is that not only did this RP catch the attention of many a RPer but it also drew some very reputable RP Guilds in as well.  And this is no small feat.

And so without further ado, I present:

STAR WARS

Heroes of the Old Republic

The Battle of Bogden

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Posted by Sa Chi | 3 Comments

All The Galaxy’s A Stage: Species and RP

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

Do you remember the first time you watched A New Hope, and the heroes walked into the Mos Eisley cantina?  I do.  And given how soon this scene had followed the giddy moment of Obi-Wan’s hand waving I knew I was watching a very, very special film.

Are you one of those who when you heard SW:TOR was being developed thought that you’d get to role-play [insert exotic alien here] species?  I recognize that there may be some of you that are lamenting the lack of playable Togruta, Bothans and Nautolans, to name but a few, in the game.  However, this article is not about rehashing the design choice or the subsequent justification that Daniel Erickson keeps offering.  As a Role-Player I’ve spent many nights over the past 30 years pretending I’m not human, and pride myself on my ability to relate to the character regardless of species.  However, role-players are not the majority.

Like many a role-player I spent some time thinking about what role-playing an alien species in SW:TOR would mean.  As I started my mental exploration a series of questions came to mind faster than a smuggler looking to talk up the price.  I started with asking myself if I’d portray a non-playable race?

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