Jediphile

And now the extremists have torched the danish embassy in Beirut. At this point I'm wondering if there is any point in talking to such people at all? It seems to me that they are just angry and want to be angry, and that nothing will change that.

When I first read this I thought it read "seduction" instead of "deduction." I was about to say, what kind of campaign are you running Jediphile?! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hehe - wouldn't you like to know?

Such a campaign should focus heavily on investigation, deduction, and interaction between characters. I guess that's one reason I like Call of Cthulhu - lots of that, few (but deadly) fights, and loads of tense atmosphere... Not that you need Cthulhu for that - you can do it with pretty much any RPG system, even D&D. The only trouble is that some RPGs are designed towards lots of combat and dice rolling, and it's therefore difficult to persuade the players not to resolve things violently - after all, why should they bother being diplomatic if they are undoubtedly tough enough to put the entire orc tribe to the sword without breaking a sweat? The only way to overcome that is to let the PCs be constantly surrounded by beings that are obviously far more powerful than they are (e.g., dragons), only that is not a very credible solution, since dragons and their like are rare. Surrounding the PCs with more powerful (demi)human NPCs had the same problem (experienced people are rare), but also has the problem of the PCs not being able to identify their power until it's too late. You can play the circumstances to your advantage at times, though. I once had the group hold their breath in fear and run away from... a little boy. They had infiltrated the hometown of the evil, evil baron, and the little boy recognized one of the group. They couldn't draw attention to themselves, and they couldn't make the boy shut up. They tried, though - the ranger (level 15) tried to hush up the boy, only to have him kick the ranger shouting, "stupid man!" And yes, this was in D&D. It was bloody hilarious to see the entire group of awesome all-13+ level heroes taken down by a five-year-old boy. Lucky for me the players saw the humor of the situation, too - the smiles did seem a bit strained for a few minutes, though... As a GM, I live for moments like these :D

Well, K1 had seven worlds - Taris, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Tatooine, Manaan, Korriban and the unknown world of the Rakatans, while Sleheyron was cut. K2 had eight "worlds" - Peragus, Telos, Dantooine, Nar Shaddaa, Korriban, Onderon, Dxun, and Malachor V, while M4-78 was cut. I don't think they should have less than in K1, which means at least seven if not more.

What, there is someone here not already mad at me?

Self-censorship due to poor ideas is fine... Self-censorship due to fear of retaliation by religious extremists is not. The real problem here is that both considerations apply, at least if you ask me, since I thought the caricatures were poor taste. But Jyllands-posten apparently decided that not giving in to fear was so important that they forgot to consider whether it was just a dumb idea. Again, as I see it. But even if we conclude that this was a dumb idea (which the newspaper pretty much has said itself), is this reasonable punishment for making a mistake?

and again, we are used to being quite sarcastic here.. and moslims here are used to the tone .. (even moslim standup comdians usually attack Christianity, which is fine, since it's on par with danish humor) 4 years ago there was a sketch about how annoying it was to find a dead moslim in your home, since we don't have any burrialgrounds for them .. and the sketch ended with the guy being charged several thousand kr in stamps as he send the dead moslim to his homecountry .. now this sketch had a point, but I would dare to agree that the point JP was trying to debate was just as valid! A press can't accept censur that is based on fear .. nor can a democratic country or any citizen therein! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Also remember the Jesus movie by Thorsen - major protests and problems for decades, but it was made in the end nonetheless. I do think people should remember things like that before they accuse Denmark of double standards.

No she isn't. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Or is she...

1. Nobody is forcing you to read this topic. 2. Yes, people should get over it and move on. Unfortunately the muslims don't want to - they just torched the danish embassy in Damascus... Make up your own mind.

One of the earlier threads had one I really liked. My apologies to the original author. [female Exile enters a new area in the Peragus mining facility] Female Exile: "A protocol droid? Who are you?" HK-50: "Query: Are you Sarah Connor?"

Well, as I've said before, the problem with the characters you mention is that they are all likely to be dead. Yuthura was most likely either killed by DS Revan or else redeemed by LS Revan only to then die when Malak bombed Dantooine. Yuthura is a good character, but she is denifitely dead in one ending of K1, which makes a new character more convenient. Vandar is killed in the DS ending of K1, and even if Revan is set to LS in K2, we learn that he was killed on Katarr when Nihilus attacked... Again, while I like Vandar, it's best to let the dead remain dead. And naturally the jedi masters of K2 were killed either by Kreia (LS) or the Exile (DS), except possible for Atris, but then she survives only in the extreme happy LS ending of K2...

I know, it doesn't make sense. He either goes to Dantooine to join the Jedi Academy or he is killed by Revan so he couldn't possibly be stuck on Korriban in a Sith Tomb. I hope this is one of those things that they decided to cut and not something that they were going to have in the final version but had to cut it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, not exactly. In the DS outcome of the meeting with Dustil, he is angry at Carth and Revan fuels these feelings so that Dustil attacks, and you have no choice but to kill him. So DS Revan = Dustil dead. However, in the LS outcome, Carth wants Dustil to come with him, but Dustil refuses and says that he must convince his friends to abandon the Sith ways and leave with him. So Dustil stays, which could explain why he is still there in K2 - upon the chaos Revan's confrontation the Sith master (can't remember his name - Uthar?), there was so much havoc, that Dustil was stuck on the planet. Could make sense, I think. Anyone know the entire story?

My sentinments exactly. Well put. Go Gizka! :D

US and UK voice criticism of the caricatures, whereas Kofi Annan urges the muslims to accept the apology and move on. EDIT: Hmm, another enlightening article here

Fine... This is the one I would pick. I'd give Revan and Exile major roles - greater than the main character plotwise, actually - and you wouldn't meet them until fairly late in the game, especially Revan, but you would get them in the group again.

I have no problem with this as an idea and has even voiced support for a non-jedi Star Wars RPG in KotOR style on these boards before, but I wouldn't want it as a chapter of the KotOR saga. The KotOR games are about the jedi - it's called KNIGHTS of the Old Republic for a reason.

An overview of the conflict at the BBC

And at the same time, sympathy for the Palestinian cause has been bombed back 10-15 years according to one of the leaders of a Palestinian-Danish community org. (a Palestinian himself) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, that's one thing that really bombs me out. I've long had sympathy for the palestian cause (not that I support them suicide-bombing the israeli, though), but now I catch myself thinking, "well, if you're going to act like that, you can go..." - you get the point. Which is just sad. I was finally beginning to see some hope for the peace process in the middle east again, but then Sharon (whom I don't particularly like, but who is important to the peace-process) was hospitalized... then Hamas came to power... and then this :'(

Yeah, we should have a game where the main character wields a double-lightsaber in each hand and has lightsaber-enhancements to his boots, so that he can all his limbs to fight the bad guys while he uses force powers at the same time. Throw in lightsabers in the form of thrown shruiken/boomerang-like blades and you have a real winner! Oh, and you should get to built your own death star around level 10...

No need - they already acknowledged that it wasn't good for them. They also apologized that the caricatures had offended so many people (though they didn't apologize for printing them in the first place). Besides, I dare say all the rioting and angry muslims have done a pretty good job of telling them that this was not something the muslims were happy with. The paper also admitted that had they known the consequences, they probably wouldn't have published the caricatures.

It's perfectly possible and reasonable to run games where all mechanics are done by the GM, it's just an awful lot of work for the GM. There have even been games, where the players had no stats at all - they didn't know their AC, hit points, to-hit values, saves, or anything else. They were just told, "you wear heavy armor" and "you have taken some damage but still feel healthy". In such a game the GM rolls all the dice and handles all mechanics and the players only say what they want to do.

And by that I think you have proven my point about the game terms. If I tell people "Call of Cthulhu has skills ranging from 1 to 100 that you roll 1d100 against", then people will understand the principle right off. The same is not true for AC in D&D. In 2e you can say it ranges from 10 to -10 and that low numbers are better than high ones, while in 3e you would say that it ranges from 10 and upwards, the higher the better. But that still doesn't tell people what an Armor Class is or what it's used for. It is a game term, and it is not intuitive because it is not logical - you shouldn't be more difficult to hit just because you wear heavier armor, because that not how armor works. On the contrary, heavy armor makes you easier to hit, so that's not why you wear it. No, you wear it because it protects your body from being pierced by sharp objects and weapons. D&D, however, simplifies all this (oversimplifies IMHO) into one mechanic, which is illogical by its very nature and does not serve well to suspend disbelief. That doesn't seem particularly intuitive to me.

How so?

That's what we get for sticking our finger in the US' eye at each chance we get. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Could be a good way for the US to improve its troubled image in the islamic world. Still, I'd have preferred if the US didn't do so at the expense of the right to free speech. That seems to be a rather high price to pay for better relations...