So, part of me was realizing that I have all this back story that won't matter to anyone else but me, and my old writing partners. I want to get it down on paper. Or y'know, ~Cyber Paper~
Wow that was corny.
Anyway.
I started writing Coren Starchaser, which is why the blog is here instead of on my writer account of Marek, back in... Oh jeez, before high schooll so thats... 1999? It was for a group called 'The Imperial Order,' a multi-platform gaming guild that had a Roleplay (D20 using mIRC and a dice script) and story-board aspect. As well as X-Wing Alliance (my favorite), X-Wing v. TIE and Jedi Knight.
The Order had a pretty solid real-time RP going on, where even in mIRC chat things were in-character, and the Order was divided into groupings, 3 Wings and 1 Regiment. One Wing was for XvT, one for TF and X-Wing and the third had XWA and the D20 group, the Regiment had Jedi Knight and Dark Forces players. Additionally, there was a Dark Jedi Order, which had subsects for Sith, Krath, Nightsister and Dark Jedi players.
When I signed up, I created Coren, he was the epitome of Mary-Sue, a cocky fighter pilot with a desire for speed, adventure and proving himself. So, really, not much has changed. Once I was active enough to be 'invited' into the DJO, which was just something to make sure people were dedicated before bringing them into the inner workings of the guild, it came to the choice of figuring out where he fit. Was he a Sith, was he a follower of Krath, was he whatever the male Nightsisters were called back in 2001 (See, Canon changes all the time). I was tasked to do some story writing, something I hadn't done yet. And it helped me extend the character from a mental image of something of 'Maverick' from Top Gun, meets Han Solo.
And it settled into the my head that the character wasn't as ruthless as the Sith, nor devout as the Krath followers (an order of monks and wanderer-priests in that guild), and spell casting wasn't really how I saw Star Wars. On the suggestion of one of my XWA partners, I pushed Coren to the Dark Jedi sect and also signed up to work on the D20 team, which was in the same 'wing' as the XWA pilots. Warbird Wing, but we'll get to that later.
This gave me the unique idea to play with the Force, how a Dark Jedi would use it, without a religious connotation, and more like a tool. Dark Jedi to me, became just the everyman who used the Force. We're open beings who go through ebbs and flows of compassion, anger, hate, love, fear, and each emotion is powerful. A tool.
When I got paired up with my Master, very similar to how one would expect, they were the Commander of the Warbird Wing group and actually a Sith writer. We started writing collab stories together and doing a lot of mIRC based D20 adventures, as a pair and with the rest of the D20 group.
Well, soon, the leader of the Imperial Order started to feel friction from our little group, and honestly, 14/15/16 year old me didn't know what was going on. And we started writing a new layer to the story that started to influence my character.
Warbird Wing was starting to be outed from the group. And that meant the way we wrote was handled differently.
Instead of working on learning all the powers possible, I started to specialize Coren, and started writing Jared at the same time. The concept of Corran Horn (I, Jedi being my favorite novel from the SW universe) really grabbed my attention, giving a Forcer a handicap, as well as relying on D20 points for skills, gave me the idea to focus the characters. I took away the TK side from both Coren and Jared, and boosted their Sense powers.
And with writing taking a front seat to my XWA games, the group started to work an almost 'ship on the run' Roleplay, running from the Warlord that was in charge of the Imperial Order, and being hunted, while doing hunting.
That was where the first play out of Coren and Jared came, Coren with his ability to drain a Force user, to slow them down, to talk, to interrogate and then to kill, and Jared, with barrier, to protect the others that were in the group. But mainly, the goal was to slow down, as I played a Scoundrel build, until a stronger character came to my rescue.
When I came here, to Chaos, I figured I could expand on it, being an adult and not thinking so much on the 'I can do everything' aspect, and more on the 'what would make an interesting, to me, character to write.'
I signed up with Marek, who was originally a gunslinging Jedi, and not a business leader, and kept the whole handicap going. Starchasers as a family are all naturally gifted in the Sense side of the Force, but only really in one or two aspects. Enough to get them to go by, and perceive the world a little better. It is from a need to know whats going on for the writer, and to play that side of the Force, which always fascinated me. And then, for the characters, each gets a larger power, more based on their personality. Sort of like Inhumans meet Mutants meet Force Users. Typically the power comes from a combination of Sense and either Alter or Control, but not always.
Coren is the patriarch of the Starchaser line for me, and was serving as a Wing XO and Quartermaster aboard the Dawn Treader, the ship that plays a central role in my personal Star Wars stories. He was always good at finding items in the field, be it ships, weapons or bounties. As such, his Sense powers are psychometry/Far Sight, and being a Starchaer, a family of Corellian pilots, he is, or will be, decently effective with Instinctive Astrogation. A history of smuggling and bounty hunting is the reason for this. To round it out, and give a bit of PvP power, he will be decent with Force Drain, or as decent as he can get in a PvP environment. To counter this, his skills with a lightsaber are minimal, and its more a decoration, while he is good with a sniper rifle, and fairly okay with a Blaster pistol. To me, that feels rounded out and almost overpowered, but I'm running with it. In D20, Coren was a Scout/Force Adept.
Next on the list is Marek, my most active character. He came into being with a bit of tracking, his father, Coren's brother, having not been raised in Imperial Service, and living as a vagabond. Sometimes smuggling, but mostly being a humanitarian. And a defender of the weak. Marek learned to use a Blaster early on and was ready for all situations, clearly his Sense power was Force Reflex/Danger Sense. It doesn't get played all that much in PvP because he's not a strong Force User. He began learning TK in order to alter bullet trajectory, again not a Lightsaber user. To round that out, I've started nerfing his TK ability, to the point where it'll be a 25/75 chance of a trajectory change (not that I throw him into PvP, but still). And because the character is a Master, I'm playing with Alter Environment with him, though its more causing him to move clouds and pass out. Not all that strong, though, sometimes, through the 'Wild Talent' Feat from DND, he can hurl some pretty impressive lightning (10/90 chance, or when surprised and super threatened). In D20, Marek would be Fringer, Force Adept, Scoundrel.
Lately, I've also visited back with Jared Starchaser my pilot extraordinaire. Hoping to bring this character to PVP settings near you, in a starfighter. Based on the Imperial Knights of Legacy comic, and the Starchaser family mission of 'stop the crazy Forcers when they get crazy.' Spending time in my past writings, Jared rose up to be a Wing Commander, and more like Apollo than Starbuck, friendly with his team. His Sense power became Meld. Link with his flight and go at it like the Solo Kids. And flying in TIE/Ints most of the time, the next obvious choice was Barrier, partly influenced by Jedi Starfighter. And that is his loadout. No sniper skill, no pistol skill, he may own a lightsaber. Maybe. In D20, he'd be Force Adept/Tech Specialist (Starfighters) moving into a Prestige class of a modified (Because dark) Jedi Ace.
Finally there is the newest Starchaser for me, Kaia. She is young and going through a part of Dawn Treader life I'll get written down later. Living away from the family, and like her cousin Token Waters (because I like to keep things compartmentalized in my part of the galaxy, thank you), she has a thirst for knowledge and to get to know people. As she's new, she still doesn't have much (read: Any) back story. Her Sense power is Empathy. Perhaps with some Valor to kick it up. She might learn to use a Lightsaber as she is the first Starchaser to chase down the Jedi and join them. From where i see her right now, she'd have a bit of Force Adept and Fringer in her D20 built.
So, thats the long-winded version of where the Starchaser line was built from, me falling into Roleplaying, and showing that I clearly don't know how to be concise.
TL
R for anyone who made it this far: Starchasers are built around an Imperial Knight concept, are light-weight characters made to mesmerize or delay other characters until help can arrive.
Wow that was corny.
Anyway.
I started writing Coren Starchaser, which is why the blog is here instead of on my writer account of Marek, back in... Oh jeez, before high schooll so thats... 1999? It was for a group called 'The Imperial Order,' a multi-platform gaming guild that had a Roleplay (D20 using mIRC and a dice script) and story-board aspect. As well as X-Wing Alliance (my favorite), X-Wing v. TIE and Jedi Knight.
The Order had a pretty solid real-time RP going on, where even in mIRC chat things were in-character, and the Order was divided into groupings, 3 Wings and 1 Regiment. One Wing was for XvT, one for TF and X-Wing and the third had XWA and the D20 group, the Regiment had Jedi Knight and Dark Forces players. Additionally, there was a Dark Jedi Order, which had subsects for Sith, Krath, Nightsister and Dark Jedi players.
When I signed up, I created Coren, he was the epitome of Mary-Sue, a cocky fighter pilot with a desire for speed, adventure and proving himself. So, really, not much has changed. Once I was active enough to be 'invited' into the DJO, which was just something to make sure people were dedicated before bringing them into the inner workings of the guild, it came to the choice of figuring out where he fit. Was he a Sith, was he a follower of Krath, was he whatever the male Nightsisters were called back in 2001 (See, Canon changes all the time). I was tasked to do some story writing, something I hadn't done yet. And it helped me extend the character from a mental image of something of 'Maverick' from Top Gun, meets Han Solo.
And it settled into the my head that the character wasn't as ruthless as the Sith, nor devout as the Krath followers (an order of monks and wanderer-priests in that guild), and spell casting wasn't really how I saw Star Wars. On the suggestion of one of my XWA partners, I pushed Coren to the Dark Jedi sect and also signed up to work on the D20 team, which was in the same 'wing' as the XWA pilots. Warbird Wing, but we'll get to that later.
This gave me the unique idea to play with the Force, how a Dark Jedi would use it, without a religious connotation, and more like a tool. Dark Jedi to me, became just the everyman who used the Force. We're open beings who go through ebbs and flows of compassion, anger, hate, love, fear, and each emotion is powerful. A tool.
When I got paired up with my Master, very similar to how one would expect, they were the Commander of the Warbird Wing group and actually a Sith writer. We started writing collab stories together and doing a lot of mIRC based D20 adventures, as a pair and with the rest of the D20 group.
Well, soon, the leader of the Imperial Order started to feel friction from our little group, and honestly, 14/15/16 year old me didn't know what was going on. And we started writing a new layer to the story that started to influence my character.
Warbird Wing was starting to be outed from the group. And that meant the way we wrote was handled differently.
Instead of working on learning all the powers possible, I started to specialize Coren, and started writing Jared at the same time. The concept of Corran Horn (I, Jedi being my favorite novel from the SW universe) really grabbed my attention, giving a Forcer a handicap, as well as relying on D20 points for skills, gave me the idea to focus the characters. I took away the TK side from both Coren and Jared, and boosted their Sense powers.
And with writing taking a front seat to my XWA games, the group started to work an almost 'ship on the run' Roleplay, running from the Warlord that was in charge of the Imperial Order, and being hunted, while doing hunting.
That was where the first play out of Coren and Jared came, Coren with his ability to drain a Force user, to slow them down, to talk, to interrogate and then to kill, and Jared, with barrier, to protect the others that were in the group. But mainly, the goal was to slow down, as I played a Scoundrel build, until a stronger character came to my rescue.
When I came here, to Chaos, I figured I could expand on it, being an adult and not thinking so much on the 'I can do everything' aspect, and more on the 'what would make an interesting, to me, character to write.'
I signed up with Marek, who was originally a gunslinging Jedi, and not a business leader, and kept the whole handicap going. Starchasers as a family are all naturally gifted in the Sense side of the Force, but only really in one or two aspects. Enough to get them to go by, and perceive the world a little better. It is from a need to know whats going on for the writer, and to play that side of the Force, which always fascinated me. And then, for the characters, each gets a larger power, more based on their personality. Sort of like Inhumans meet Mutants meet Force Users. Typically the power comes from a combination of Sense and either Alter or Control, but not always.
Coren is the patriarch of the Starchaser line for me, and was serving as a Wing XO and Quartermaster aboard the Dawn Treader, the ship that plays a central role in my personal Star Wars stories. He was always good at finding items in the field, be it ships, weapons or bounties. As such, his Sense powers are psychometry/Far Sight, and being a Starchaer, a family of Corellian pilots, he is, or will be, decently effective with Instinctive Astrogation. A history of smuggling and bounty hunting is the reason for this. To round it out, and give a bit of PvP power, he will be decent with Force Drain, or as decent as he can get in a PvP environment. To counter this, his skills with a lightsaber are minimal, and its more a decoration, while he is good with a sniper rifle, and fairly okay with a Blaster pistol. To me, that feels rounded out and almost overpowered, but I'm running with it. In D20, Coren was a Scout/Force Adept.
Next on the list is Marek, my most active character. He came into being with a bit of tracking, his father, Coren's brother, having not been raised in Imperial Service, and living as a vagabond. Sometimes smuggling, but mostly being a humanitarian. And a defender of the weak. Marek learned to use a Blaster early on and was ready for all situations, clearly his Sense power was Force Reflex/Danger Sense. It doesn't get played all that much in PvP because he's not a strong Force User. He began learning TK in order to alter bullet trajectory, again not a Lightsaber user. To round that out, I've started nerfing his TK ability, to the point where it'll be a 25/75 chance of a trajectory change (not that I throw him into PvP, but still). And because the character is a Master, I'm playing with Alter Environment with him, though its more causing him to move clouds and pass out. Not all that strong, though, sometimes, through the 'Wild Talent' Feat from DND, he can hurl some pretty impressive lightning (10/90 chance, or when surprised and super threatened). In D20, Marek would be Fringer, Force Adept, Scoundrel.
Lately, I've also visited back with Jared Starchaser my pilot extraordinaire. Hoping to bring this character to PVP settings near you, in a starfighter. Based on the Imperial Knights of Legacy comic, and the Starchaser family mission of 'stop the crazy Forcers when they get crazy.' Spending time in my past writings, Jared rose up to be a Wing Commander, and more like Apollo than Starbuck, friendly with his team. His Sense power became Meld. Link with his flight and go at it like the Solo Kids. And flying in TIE/Ints most of the time, the next obvious choice was Barrier, partly influenced by Jedi Starfighter. And that is his loadout. No sniper skill, no pistol skill, he may own a lightsaber. Maybe. In D20, he'd be Force Adept/Tech Specialist (Starfighters) moving into a Prestige class of a modified (Because dark) Jedi Ace.
Finally there is the newest Starchaser for me, Kaia. She is young and going through a part of Dawn Treader life I'll get written down later. Living away from the family, and like her cousin Token Waters (because I like to keep things compartmentalized in my part of the galaxy, thank you), she has a thirst for knowledge and to get to know people. As she's new, she still doesn't have much (read: Any) back story. Her Sense power is Empathy. Perhaps with some Valor to kick it up. She might learn to use a Lightsaber as she is the first Starchaser to chase down the Jedi and join them. From where i see her right now, she'd have a bit of Force Adept and Fringer in her D20 built.
So, thats the long-winded version of where the Starchaser line was built from, me falling into Roleplaying, and showing that I clearly don't know how to be concise.
TL
R for anyone who made it this far: Starchasers are built around an Imperial Knight concept, are light-weight characters made to mesmerize or delay other characters until help can arrive.
