El Capitán
I imagine this has been discussed before, but I did not see anything recent. What are your thoughts on preference in writing a Force user versus writing a non-Force user? Why choose one over the other, which do you tend to lean toward when creating new characters, which has been your favorite to write, what difficulties have you had in writing one over the other, etc.?
I started RPing at 12 years old shortly after TPM came out. The place I started was almost 100% Force users at that time. It was very much Jedi vs Sith. The non-Force using factions — Empire and Bounty Hunters, there was no active Rebellion or Republic group — were smaller and mostly comprised of Force using characters. For example, the head of the Empire was a Sith Master and the active characters all had Sith training, and several of the bounty hunters were current or former Jedi/Sith characters that still carried lightsabers with their seemingly obligatory Mando armor. Everything was very combat oriented with little focus on story or character development, everyone had a lightsaber, and Force users were overpowered in combat. So of course I defaulted to Force user. My first character was a Jedi bounty hunter, and my second character was a Sith Imperial.
As the writers matured and I explored other boards, I found that more and more people were writing non-Force users, but Force users still dominated. One place I did a short stint at had a strict rule on Force characters. Basically they took the approach that in universe, the population of Force characters was very small. I think the rule was that there were no Sith characters except the NPC head of the Empire, and the number of Jedi were heavily limited and only with permission of the admins after having an established non-Force character and established OOC reputation. That made for a very interesting writing atmosphere, but it deterred some who just wanted to do hack and slash RPs.
AOTC’s portrayal of Jango Fett as a badass plus going back to the OT where Han Solo was always my childhood hero led me back toward being comfortable with non-Force users. Over the years, I have found that I actually much prefer writing neutral, non-Force user characters. Pal Vader was my favorite to write — independent smuggler type that often worked with the Rebellion, occasionally crossed into bounty hunter territory for fun stories with other bounty hunters. I would also have him team up with Jedi characters for mixed adventures, which was fun. I am not afraid to admit he was a Han Solo/Dash Rendar ripoff at times. But I always tended to come back to my Jedi characters like Hwo because of the combination of a sense of nostalgia from my early days and the prestige that came with a master ranked Force user, even when that was less fun/interesting to write. And even with this OOC account, I have tagged it as a Jedi Master and use an ambiguous hooded avatar because I can’t seem to shake that old feeling from 2000 when all the established RPers that I looked up to/learned from played high ranking Force users. I did learn that I did not enjoy writing Sith characters at all, resulting in my redemption and killing off of the Ice Fox character and abandoning of the Jehovah character. A lot of this stems from one of my main weaknesses as a writer, having difficulty to fully separate myself from my character, so I struggled with inherently evil characters like the Sith assassin Jehovah. That also led to inconsistent writing with Hwo with a wildly inconsistent character arc, where at times I tried to write him as a real Jedi and at other times I had him as more of a neutral character. For Hwo’s story to make any sense, 75% of the writing I have done for him would have to be non-canon. Versus Pal Vader, where everything always seemed to make sense and be coherenT because a neutral, non-Force using character has freedom to move around that gray area. I could assist the Rebellion in an attack on an Imperial cruiser one day, smuggle weapons to the underground in violation of Republic/Rebel and Imperial laws the next day, then help a bounty hunter capture a target the next day, all without breaking the character.
Anyway, that’s enough of me talking. Interested in what others have to say on this topic.
I started RPing at 12 years old shortly after TPM came out. The place I started was almost 100% Force users at that time. It was very much Jedi vs Sith. The non-Force using factions — Empire and Bounty Hunters, there was no active Rebellion or Republic group — were smaller and mostly comprised of Force using characters. For example, the head of the Empire was a Sith Master and the active characters all had Sith training, and several of the bounty hunters were current or former Jedi/Sith characters that still carried lightsabers with their seemingly obligatory Mando armor. Everything was very combat oriented with little focus on story or character development, everyone had a lightsaber, and Force users were overpowered in combat. So of course I defaulted to Force user. My first character was a Jedi bounty hunter, and my second character was a Sith Imperial.
As the writers matured and I explored other boards, I found that more and more people were writing non-Force users, but Force users still dominated. One place I did a short stint at had a strict rule on Force characters. Basically they took the approach that in universe, the population of Force characters was very small. I think the rule was that there were no Sith characters except the NPC head of the Empire, and the number of Jedi were heavily limited and only with permission of the admins after having an established non-Force character and established OOC reputation. That made for a very interesting writing atmosphere, but it deterred some who just wanted to do hack and slash RPs.
AOTC’s portrayal of Jango Fett as a badass plus going back to the OT where Han Solo was always my childhood hero led me back toward being comfortable with non-Force users. Over the years, I have found that I actually much prefer writing neutral, non-Force user characters. Pal Vader was my favorite to write — independent smuggler type that often worked with the Rebellion, occasionally crossed into bounty hunter territory for fun stories with other bounty hunters. I would also have him team up with Jedi characters for mixed adventures, which was fun. I am not afraid to admit he was a Han Solo/Dash Rendar ripoff at times. But I always tended to come back to my Jedi characters like Hwo because of the combination of a sense of nostalgia from my early days and the prestige that came with a master ranked Force user, even when that was less fun/interesting to write. And even with this OOC account, I have tagged it as a Jedi Master and use an ambiguous hooded avatar because I can’t seem to shake that old feeling from 2000 when all the established RPers that I looked up to/learned from played high ranking Force users. I did learn that I did not enjoy writing Sith characters at all, resulting in my redemption and killing off of the Ice Fox character and abandoning of the Jehovah character. A lot of this stems from one of my main weaknesses as a writer, having difficulty to fully separate myself from my character, so I struggled with inherently evil characters like the Sith assassin Jehovah. That also led to inconsistent writing with Hwo with a wildly inconsistent character arc, where at times I tried to write him as a real Jedi and at other times I had him as more of a neutral character. For Hwo’s story to make any sense, 75% of the writing I have done for him would have to be non-canon. Versus Pal Vader, where everything always seemed to make sense and be coherenT because a neutral, non-Force using character has freedom to move around that gray area. I could assist the Rebellion in an attack on an Imperial cruiser one day, smuggle weapons to the underground in violation of Republic/Rebel and Imperial laws the next day, then help a bounty hunter capture a target the next day, all without breaking the character.
Anyway, that’s enough of me talking. Interested in what others have to say on this topic.
