Jediphile

To what the law permits. And the legal process has deemed that there was no transgression here.

These things happen in newspapers all the time. It invariably draws fire from offended parties now and then, but mostly in the form of an expression that some do find it to be distasteful, not because they want censorship (which is not going to happen anyway). Royalty, other religions and even politicians have been mocked in the newspaper carticatures for decades already. What makes islam so special that it should receive special consideration? Nonsense. Their intent was to speak out against the self-censorship that many artists impose upon themselves purely out of fear of reprisals from islamic fundamentalists and extremists. Whatever any thinks, islam is an important and relevant topic to discuss in the public today, and that applies to carticatures in newspapers as well. I even think that the most offensive picture (the one with a bomb for a turban) has been published before, and probably many other similar drawings of Muhammed have been as well. No, the extremists merely demand that the artists be executed... The caricatures have already been reported to the police and the prosecutor threw out the case.

All but DS in the Korriban tomb, yes. That's the downside.

So what can you do to reach 50 without cheating? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, it's not hard reaching higher levels. It's just tedious and mostly pointless, since the enemies will level up to match your own skill, which actually makes the late game more difficult. A few hints for extra xp: If you have good demolitions skill, try planting a few mines in one place (you get xp for that), leaving the map, then returning. You'll find that the mines are still there, only now you'll be given xp for collecting them again. You can repeat that over as often as you like. Same thing with locks. Lock a box, leave the map, come back and unlock it. Easy xp. There are also two points in the game, where monsters are spawned infinitely. One is the first time the Sith assassins attack the Mandalorian base on Dxun - the assassins will keep respawning until someone takes on and kills the six "fixed" assassins in front of Mandalore's quarters. If you can avoid anyone engaging those six, you can kill the respawning sith for as long and for as many times as you like. This is best done by removing all partymembers so that the Exile is alone, since your companions tend to jump for the "fixed" assassins. This is a tedious way to gain xp, but your best bet for LS... The second (and most often used) respawning point is in the jedi grave in the tomb on Korriban. You'll remember that if you search the jedi's body, two Hssiss will spawn and attack. However, if you search the body again, it will now be empty, of course, but the Hssiss will again respawn. This is not so easy for LS, however, since force points regenerate extremely slowly for LS'ers in the tomb, which makes it far easier for DS'ers. If you're DS, this is definitely the best place - just buff up on force powers, quickly touch the body 10+ times, then spam the action bar Force Storm - lots of barbecued Hssiss and xp going "K-ching"

No, there is a line of the law. The cartoons were reported to the police, who decided that there was no legal basis for pursuing the case in the courts. That's it legally - case closed. They had their day in court, so to speak, since a ruling was made. Yes, but that's why we have laws that dictate what can and cannot be said, and those laws have already spoken in this case. No, and I'm one of several people who did not like the caricatures. I thought they were deliberately provocative and therefore very impolite. However, people do have the right to behave like jerks if they choose, and newspapers are not an exception there. So I will support their right to print the caricatures even if I didn't like them myself.

3) He was drained when he tried to suck the force out of the Exile... Still, he should have been a far more difficult opponent

Someone in the group is always using it throughout my games. As someone said, a +1 bonus is a +1 bonus. Besides, the armband is one of the few items in that item slot that gives a stat boost.

Agreed. I'm appalled that it was closed, and I've PM'ed Fionavar on it. To close a topic on the right to free speech has rather unpleasant connotations IMHO. Taste is subjective, which makes the point moot. What you might find to be poor taste may not meet with agreement from others, and even if it did, the focus of the distaste would still have to be published in some manner before a debate on whether it is poor taste can take place.

Yes. It was called Fallout. Star Wars is not a perfect setting. It is a setting for lame munchkin gamers who want uber mad force skillz. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh, come on - Fallout was also wide open for munchkinism, even without modding the files or similar. I should know, I managed to get a character with all 10s stats and 16 action points by exploiting a few bugs...

LOL My apologies It was reference to Stephen King's "The Shining" if you're wondering

You're not the first to consider it. Maybe you can find some inspiration here <{POST_SNAPBACK}> HAHAHA!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh dear... I've created a monster, it seems - "It's alive - it's alive!!" Just be nice to old Stefan. I rather like him. I wish I had the time, but chances of RPGs look pretty dire for me at the moment due to workloads and study and other menaces from real life... Even my own campaign is winding down and only living on what I can produce on the fly after having done all the planning ages ago. Yes, I realise that is just sad. What can I say... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy... All work and no play makes Jediphile a dull boy...

I think this discussion is getting a little too academic. It's also entirely theoretical. Ah, but newbies will ask what Armor Class is in the first place, and so they are unlikely to associate high or low values to mean anything. You seem to forget that "Armor Class" is game concept tied specifically to the terminology of D&D. It's even a pretty bad one, since Armor Classes are horribly oversimplified and illogical and always were. Look to GURPS (4th edition) for armor rules that actually *attempts* to emulate a realistic portrayal of what armors are in the simplest of ways and yet remain playable. On second thought, even the armor system in the Fallout games are infinitely more logical than they are in D&D, so the discussion of AC would also fall into the category of "what we have gotten used to".

So by that analogy, 5th edition Call of Cthulhu also has a "counter-intuitive" system when you have to roll 1d100 equal to or BELOW your percentile score in the relevant skill? Sorry, but I don't agree - whether a bonus should make the value go up or down is completely dependent on the game mechanics. I don't think you can generalize that broadly.

Well, it's Star Wars, isn't it? Look at the movies and then tell me the jedi are balanced with all the non-jedi... If, like me, you think they're not, then it's pointless to ask for game balance, because the jedi are more powerful in the movies, and games based on the movies should therefore reflect that. They could remove the power crystals from the lightsabers, though - there are no such buff-crystals in the PnP RPG, so that's pure munchkin in KotOR. Note: The power of the jedi is one reason why I'd like to Myrkr in K3

You're not the first to consider it. Maybe you can find some inspiration here

They are if you're going to play 3e as it was designed to be played. You can do whatever you want to at your own game table, of course - house rules will and should always be IMHO, I don't care whether Gygax agrees or not. But on the other hand, you can't just ignore that AoO were introduced as a measure to ensure game balance. Crime figures going down are good. Expenses going down are good. Lots of examples are possible...

Didn't mean to say so. But that doesn't preclude decent game design. Funny - so am I

"Better" is entirely subjective, so it's as pointless as a cleric's weapon to discuss... I have already said that I like 3e to-hit rules better than 2e, but that doesn't mean that I think the entire system is better. Of course 3e is better than 2e on some points. Being the conclusion to more than a decade of 2e, it bloody well better be, only it's not on a lot of points IMHO. But there are good points. I like the to-hit rules, for example, and I like the multi-class better, too - 2e had horrible dual- and multi-class rules. Skills would also be infinitely better in 3e if it were not because their restricted based on level, which is preposterous. You cannot declare 3e the winner without first addressing some of the concerns and flaws that Lancer and myself have pointed out in 3e, primarilly the peculiar Attack of Opportunity rules. And some of the 3e classes are just silly and steal from role-playing. I particularly dislike the sorcerer, who was nicknamed "fireball-dispenser" in about five minutes on the official D&D board for good reason... A completely munchkin class with no redeeming features - bleh! It spoke volumes that WOTC subsequently released books that "removed" the one price sorcerers had to pay for extra spells, namely a limited knowledge of spells " Another thing I really dislike is the plethora of classes and spells that spill out of every rulebook and magazine subsequently released under the principle of "well, to get a *really* powerful character, you just need to buy this book and use this new spell/class". The subsequent release of 3.5 after only a few years, truly turning Hasbro and Wizards into Ha$bro and Wizard$... Even one of the designers of 3e voiced criticism of 3.5! But the worst thing in 3e is really the terrible game design. It's similar to previous D&D, of course, but then all those editions are pretty old. 3e is only a few years old, and it's still based on rigid and inflexible game mechanics that are more than three decades old. This was acceptable in 1988 when 2e came out. It is inexcusable today. Besides, 2e at least had a "grandfather clause" that kept it close to 1e rules. 3e rules, however, are completely incompatible with earlier editions. I have friends who like and play 3e, but while the don't agree with me, they do admit that it is an entirely different game. For an entirely newly designed game, 3e is founded on horribly outdated concepts - there are far better designed games out there today, I think.

Some muslims from Denmark have been touring the arab nations looking for support in their rage over this. The fact that a norwegian magazine also chose to publish the drawings only a few weeks ago seems to have pushed the issue.

Maybe so, but getting a lightsaber early in the game is actually consistent with d20 Star Wars rules in the RPG, which states that upon reaching level 2, a padawan constructs his own lightsaber as part of his training...

Declaring 3e more intuitive simply on the basis of the to-hit rule seems incredibly oversimplified and short-sighted to me. There are quite a few other rules that should be considered before making that conclusion, you know...

First of all, the calculation is actually: To hit = THAC0 - die roll, because you generally don't know what the enemy AC is - you roll the dice, subtract it from your THAC0, then state what AC you hit, and then the GM or player tell you whether that's enough or not. Second, I know that the calculation is always the same. My point is that even after doing it hundreds if not thousands of times, I still had to stop for a second and rethink what was to be subtracted for what. If that happens, then adding numbers together naturally becomes more convenient and so easier.

Not sure if this was posted before, but in the interest of enlightenment, you can see the controversive cartoons on wikepedia - make your own judgment from that.

A few comments: While I have played 2e for long, long years as a GM, I will admit that 3e has some good points. The AC increasing instead of decreasing does seem simpler for me, and we adopted it in my campaign (not that it's a problem - just subtract the old value from 20...). However, it is not easier because values going up are easier by definition. No, it's easier due to the difference between addition and subtraction. If I add my THAC0/attack modifier to my die roll, then the order doesn't matter because the result will be the same. The same is not true for subtraction, where order makes a great difference - should I subtract my THAC0 from the die roll or vice versa? I frequently had think twice about that before. Now, before the 3e-fans jump up and down and say this is proof that 3e is more intuitive, I do think you're ignoring several points. Things like this may make 3e look simpler on the surface, but that doesn't mean that it is when you go to the depths of the rules, and if you are to conclude anything about whether the system is intuitive, you have to look at the ruleset in its entirety, not just a small fraction of the surface. I would go as far as to say that 2e AC/Thac0 seems "counter-intuitive" mostly because you use that rule all the time - you are constantly in combat in D&D and have to calculate this every two seconds. So it seems persistent, which is annoying if you don't like it... On the other hand, AoO don't seem "counter-intuitive" simply because the rule is not relevant in every combat round. However, when you have to use the rule, it'll be a major undertaking, and I think most people just ignore it on that basis alone. Which is fine, but still ignoring the designed game balance. And I would agree with Lancer that AoO are counter-productive to easy of gameplay. Of course you don't mind that in CRPGs, because the computer does it all for you, but in PnP the GM has to do it, which slows down gameplay. Also, AoO are not always very logical. People tend to argue in favor of them on the simple basis of "if you drop your guard, then the other guy exploits it". Fair enough, except in true combat timing is actually important, and 3e rules would have you believe that swinging a sword at someone is as easy as casting a spell or stabbing with a knife. It speaks volumes that 3e introduced this into the core rules and yet tossed out the speed factors and casting times of 2e at the same time. Yes, 2e actually did have durations for actions you took in the initiative rules. They were called Speed Factors for weapons and Casting Times for spells, but they were all the same and evaluated into combat units called segments. Magic Missile had a casting of 1. A dagger had a speed factor of 2. A longsword had a speed factor of 5. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that a mage has to drop his guard to cast Magic Missile, but that doesn't automatically mean that orc can swing his longsword before the mage finishes the spell, and 3e completely ignores that possibility. Sure a long sword has longer reach than a dagger, but in the time it takes you to swing it, it'll already have put my dagger in your throat or heart, so your attack is void. By throwing rules like these out, 3e became flawed at its very core, which is a major reason why I dislike it and will not play it. To indicate that swinging a two-handed sword is just as fast as firing my gun is preposterous, yet 3e claims it is so. Or as the 2e PHB says, "Compare how quickly someone can throw a punch to the amount of time required to swing a chair to get a good idea of what weapon speed factors are about". This 3e completely ignores and is therefore a flawed system. Finally, on the point of experience vs. familarity. Yes, of course "old-timers" like Lancer and myself are "used" to 2e and not 3e. However, I fail to see how that in some way makes us incompetent or unfit to evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of 3e. In most other walks of life, the principle is that those who are able to best pass judgment on the success or failure of a revision are the people who best know the previous version or edition. This is untrue for RPGs?

Actually Carth might have lived even in the DS Revan version of K2 - he just never makes an appearance. Bastila, however, does appear no matter what you play in K2. If you pick LS male Revan or DS Revan (either gender), then she is the one who appears in T3's holorecording, whereas it's Carth in the LS female Revan version. But Bastila appears again later in the game. If you play with LS Revan, then she meets with Carth after the Exile had talked to him upon saving Telos. If Revan is DS, Bastila appears as another holorecording found in the ruins of the Sith academy on Korriban. Personally I do want most of the previous characters to make some sort of appearance again, though I do think the LS/DS choices of K1 and K2 should be taken into consideration. This is not a problem, however. As we see in K2, it's entirely possible to put a "known" character in the plot only to replace him or her with an new character, if the chosen plot has killed the former. This was true of Carth, but actually the game also contains multiple recordings of the Darth Traya dialogue depending on whether Kreia or Atris ended up in that role. So it doesn't strike me as a particular problem to include Jolee and then allow for a 'replacement' in case he was killed. IIRC, there was even to have been a possibility of having Atris as a playable character in the party at one point in K2, so it really is just a question of implementing some ideas that Obsidian have already considered.