The NFU Rant

[Tanith Alde]

This is a rant disguised as a discussion, you are warned. I love all of you dearly, this isn't meant against you.

I've experienced a few problems as an NFU character. People seem a lot less interested in someone that cant atleast learn to eventually crush continents with their mind.

Working with Sean here has thus been a tad difficult, not at all assisted by my leaving for about two months.

Still, it just seems that it's easier for a Jedi or other force gifted character to find a home in a faction. You've done your best to make me feel at home here, and I appreciate that. I've gotten plenty of help from some of you Devving Sean and his people, and it's been great.

But I feel with Mantic, and by extension, Weiss, gone it's gotten a lot harder for NFU characters to fit in.

There's plenty of examples of those that have but...looking through the lists.

Most pilots are force gifted savants. Half of the military is Jedi, and a good chunk that aren't Jedi see little to no use or character development.

So I have a proposition, let's up the program a little for those that are purposefully holding their characters back!

Thoughts? Please post them below

Angered Opinions? Please que up at the PM button

 

[Dresden Verbrennung]

Getting a good NFU off the ground is always going to be more work. There's always a strong "anything you can do I can do better" thing when Force users are around, and it can be frustrating. I don't fault people for sticking with Force users, since even a mild sensitivity is a huge advantage when it comes to getting and sustaining RP. Outside of a few niches like trooper or smuggler, NFUs just aren't in high demand.

I've tried to make the Senate Guard NFU oriented, but there hasn't been a whole lot of activity. Most of that is my fault, really, seeing as how I just haven't had the willpower to grind it out and make it work. However, once I get it up and running properly, the hope is to have a place within the Republic for NFUs to work and thrive.

 

[Ellie Mors]

This is a rant disguised as a discussion, you are warned. I love all of you dearly, this isn't meant against you.

I've experienced a few problems as an NFU character. People seem a lot less interested in someone that cant atleast learn to eventually crush continents with their mind.

Working with Sean here has thus been a tad difficult, not at all assisted by my leaving for about two months.

Still, it just seems that it's easier for a Jedi or other force gifted character to find a home in a faction. You've done your best to make me feel at home here, and I appreciate that. I've gotten plenty of help from some of you Devving Sean and his people, and it's been great.

But I feel with Mantic, and by extension, Weiss, gone it's gotten a lot harder for NFU characters to fit in.

There's plenty of examples of those that have but...looking through the lists.

Most pilots are force gifted savants. Half of the military is Jedi, and a good chunk that aren't Jedi see little to no use or character development.
So I have a proposition, let's up the program a little for those that are purposefully holding their characters back!

Thoughts? Please post them below

Angered Opinions? Please que up at the PM button

1. As a writer of a stick-in-the-mud NFU, writing an NFU is "easy" but getting people to write with consistently, unless you're doing solo or private one-on-one threads, is not at all remotely difficult. Getting a faction that has a focus on NFUs or soldiers is even harder if they aren't a very military-centered faction or group.
2. Jedi have an easier time in the GR specifically because Mantic tried to recreate the Jedi Order in the GR after the real Jedi Order left the GR and became its own minor faction. The NFU groups, which had immensely grown in the GR when the Jedi Order had left prior to Mantic trying to make his own order, suffered because the effort and focus was put on Force Users. The NFUs were doing better in the Galactic Republic primarily because the Force Users (for the most part) had left at the beginning of Mantic's tenure as Faction Owner. What you're experiencing now is an effect of his time as being in charge, not an effect of recent changes (which are actually moving towards focusing on NFUs rather than Force Users).
3. The force is kind of the primary draw for fans of Star Wars, and RPers in particular. I, for example, came to this site because I liked star wars and wanted to try RP and wanted to RP as a Sith. I had never done a Star Wars RP on a forum before, so I picked this place as my first stop and stayed when I wrote my Sith character. You'll probably notice that almost every faction suffers the same issue except for, maybe, the Mandalorians (and they still have a ton of Force User mandalorians).

That all aside, I think trying to push for making a better platform for NFUs is a great idea. I'm, however, not someone who actively writes an NFU (he's a sociopathic murderer anyways, so he wouldn't be ideal for this setting and my other NFU is a judge/lawyer.. so.. yeah.) so I'm not going to be much help there.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

My two NFUs are in more commercial roles... both of which have been contacted by the Republic in an attempt to renew tech contracts.

 

[Naphome Rorareh]

[member="Sean Ailín"]

Hit me up in PM or on skype my contact is Drail5108

I have one now unused FU among all my characters and I made a recruitment pull as Dallen Thayne a while back. IRL has kept me busy the last 2 weeks from doing stuff, but Naphome here was basically my idea to bring NFUs up to the level of FUs in specific regards.

Feel free to hit me up though as this week I get to be active while certain IRL matters, like moving, have died down briefly. I'm fully for getting NFUs started and getting them able to stick it to those shiny stick waving jerks!

Really though I love all my Jedi friends, you all belong in the GR too. You know what I mean.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

[member="Sean Ailín"]

I have been busy the last month and a half with moving and such but I am planning on getting Forlon active in the next week or so. I will add you in once I get going with what ever he is going to do.

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Sean Ailín"]


Hmmmmmm,

As someone who roleplays almost strictly NFU characters (I have one FU of the like seven or characters) I'm glad you brought this up.

Although I have not experienced this myself I would like to know how we can ensure that Non Force User characters continue to play a significant role in things?

In it so far NFU's characters hold the most sway in terms of In Character political and military power in the Republic apparatus. Hell the Supreme Chancellor is a NFU.

We have a few Senators who are force sensitive.

However I so far see Force Users fairly confined to the roles such as Jedi or simply ciitzens who seek to understand how to use the force.

I do have one FU character who is a Republic General, but she does not wield godawan level super saiyan powers that I've read of a decent chunk of FU characters roaming the site have.

So far NFU's have been some of the most compelling in my opinion on this site. Not just because OOC a lot of people tend to drift writing FUs but primarily because that NFU characters impact has been a major component of the original star wars.

While I don't want to say Star Wars Non force sensitive people play a supportive role to the saber wielding force senstives I would say that yes a lot of the lore and such revolves around those characters making significant galactic changing events happen.

Yet NFus dominate the EU/Legends/Canon. Nearly all Empire characters were NFUs up until the new Rebels series started up with Inquisitors running around and such.

A lot hinges on Non Force Users because force sensitivity isn't huge. If wanna take a demographic look at all the characters on this site currently active the number of PC Force Users seemingly are high, but in comparision to the actual number of people in the galaxy its a drop in the bucket of people who can't read mind and raise x wings out of the swamp.

Honestly I feel that a Non Force User character is actually fairly unrestrained from any direction you want to go with them
Face moral dilemmas and growth that does not have the influence of "Light" Or "Dark".
Yes facing or having to roleplay with a a high number of FUs might seem annoying or feel out of place.

FUs in my opinion seem to have to struggle with the constant push of which "Force Alignment" they are part of or whether or not they are going to fall to the dark side and that somewhat cliche struggle of having to go from padawan to knight to master level.

 

[Faith Organa]

[member="Sean Ailín"] I have lots of fun as a nfu. There are things that can be developed.

 

[Tanith Alde]

I'd just like to thank everyone that's participated so far for your involvement, your fair and balanced opinions, and your lack of flame.

Moving on from that, many of you do raise valid points. I'm not saying that you can't play an NFU, i'm just saying it feels a little bit more difficult to get started with them, as there is less you can offer a faction than an FU

 

[Kenrath]

[member="Sean Ailín"]


I can tell you from experience that it was a heck of a lot harder to play a NFU almost two years ago when I first joined Chaos that it is now. Especially in GR and OS.

People like [member="Gir Quee"] have made leaps and bounds towards creating more opportunities but no system is perfect.

Two things that make it difficult is one nobody seems to want to play the lowly private for more than a week or two if at all and two everyone wants to make there own squad, platoon, Company instead of banding together the PCs into a single unit and building off of each other.


Just my observations though and not really to be taken seriously.

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Viktor Alexander"]

No I think I get exactly what you were saying. This character here is actually the antithesis of that though, I intend to keep him as low ranked as possible for as long as possible, while still adhering to military maximal rank time

 

[Dune Rhur]

It would be a neat thing to have the GR be a place that prioritizes NFUs over us Jedi. Seriously, it would set us apart, help attract many writers. I'd love to write with NFUs because Dune had never been a God-figure. Is the whole point of being a Jedi not to help those without the Force.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

*slowly opens up arms to pull him into his faction*

 

[Caius Flavian]

It would be a neat thing to have the GR be a place that prioritizes NFUs over us Jedi. Seriously, it would set us apart, help attract many writers. I'd love to write with NFUs because Dune had never been a God-figure. Is the whole point of being a Jedi not to help those without the Force.

As [member="Braith Achlys"] made a certain point on [member="Mantic Dorn"]'s policy may have been the promotion and furtherance of Force User Characters.

What shall we the Faction Staff do to help shift the perception of Force User favoritism?

In it so far every dominion from what I have seen both under [member="Mantic Dorn"] and thus far under our new leadership with [member="Suravi Teigra"] has allowed enough of a sandbox for just about everyone whether Force User or Non Force User to participate.

While the Military tends to attract NFU's far more than the Government I guess cause it seems like the place for people who don't wield the force, arguably just being a citizen of the republic and just doing stuff is probably the easier and less restrictive thing someone could do. Literally can write many tales that doesn't have to be about pan galactic shaking events. Just living a life that has its ups and downs as a "stick in the mud" person.

The focus though i feel is there shouldn't be a FU versus NFU mentality.
Simply what it is the narrative that you wish to write for the character that you've chosen.
Along with finding those writers who are willing to share in those adventures and vice versa.

*slowly opens up arms to pull him into his faction*

Not sure how this contributes to the conversation but shameless plug noted and filed under "the Same issues are experienced in the mandalorians as well"

Half the time and maybe its just because I see those characters more often active than anyone else, but a decent number of mandalorian characters are also Force Users.

You are likely to find the same issues in any of these factions.

Unless I'm mistaken and Gil here is actually looking fish hook you into his PMC, which again, I see your shameless plug and raise you one of these

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

My NFU alt (Dunames Lopez) is drawn to the First Order specifically because the main difference between the FO and other dark-sided major factions is that Force-user favoritism isn't as great.

 

[Eugen Aker]

[member="Sean Ailín"] I know I'm late to this thread, but firstly, I wanted to welcome you back from your hiatus. So, right before Mantic ended his time here, the GR has began the process of becoming more accommodating to both FUs and NFUs, a process which I intend to continue as my time as FO. We don't have a policy of discriminating against either group like we did in the past. In fairness to Mantic though, I think what he was trying to do, while my time overlapped with his at least, was try to rebuild the Jedi Order for our FUs after TJO left us hanging.

There's some factors that make FUs more attractive to play. To many people, playing a space wizard is just cooler versus playing someone like a grunt or a stuffy politician who isn't too far removed from real life. From a gaming standpoint, being an FU on Chaos is a low risk, high reward role. The barrier of entry to becoming an FU is practically non-existent, and the ceiling on power levels also appears to be non-existent. All the while, you can still do whatever you want as a character with no sacrifice. You can even switch alignments and come back from the dead whenever you feel like it. I think FUs in general on this site are too powerful, perhaps providing motivation for people making FU characters themselves. Ideally, I'd like it if power levels were closer to what was observed in movie/show canon instead of Force Unleashed. I try to do that with my FU characters, but it can be challenging.

With that said, I personally don't have problems starting up roleplays as an NFU, or with other NFUs. There's enough people around to do that. However, my roleplays as NFUs usually revolve around politics and business, just because that's what interests me most. I could try to make something work with you, though, if you need some help getting going. I think there are some other NFU centric writers who would be more than happy to work with you too if you haven't connected with them already.

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Caius Flavian"]

I'm saying that I don't mind placing an emphasis on NFUs here, to be as welcoming as possible. I think Jedi type characters should integrate more and not be the sole emphasis. As you point out, our new dear leader is trying to make that sandbox happen. I'm just saying I believe it's good and, as a Force user, I want to play ball.

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Suravi Teigra"]

I'd like to thank you for weighing in on this, specially as our FO.

I certainly see what you're saying and I do appreciate it, a lot of my posts in this thread have simply been misinformed whining, but you took the time to word a quite thorough and very warm hearted reply, which I definitely am impressed by it.

Though I don't think I can do much with Sean now, he did just die in his last thread. Lance Corporal vs Sith Assassin...Lance Corporal detonates grenade while grappling with Sith. Sith Survive, Lance Corporal = Ded.

 

[Dallen Thayne]

[member="Sean Ailín"]

O_O

That situation seems a tad volatile. . .

If you have a new char we can rp and do things again. Get you kicking FU ass with the right gear, backup, and know how.

*scout's promise*

 

[Tanith Alde]

Ah man, the offer is appreciated and all but, unnecessary.

I'm going to let Sean stew for a few days finish up his threads, then create a new character ontop of him

[member="Dallen Thayne"]