Tenebras posted Mar 13, 12
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A Long Time Ago, Archetypes, Author: Tenebras, BioWare, Character Creation, EA, Electronic Arts, Folklore, Heroes, Imperial Agent, Jedi Shadow, LucasArts, Mythology, role-play, roleplay, RP, Sith Assassin, Smuggler, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Old Republic, TOR, Tricksters
Welcome back to another installment of A Long Time Ago, the column dedicated to providing you with Star Wars: The Old Republic roleplaying insights and inspirations from the vast heritage of world mythology. For the past three weeks, we've been following two sample SWTOR protagonists, Heran Sol and Torr Kleshic, through the first part of the epic and archetypal narrative form that Joseph Campbell called the Hero's Journey. These two characters' RP adventures thus far have been dramatic, to say the least: Heran has fallen to the Dark Side, and Torr has murdered a fellow Sith and pinned the killing on his best friend. Frankly, I think they—and we—could use a bit of a break. So, as we transition from stage one of the Hero's Journey, appropriately known as Departure, to stage two, which Campbell intriguingly calls Initiation, let's pause and actually consider the man (or woman, or parthenogenetic alien organism) who's actually on said Journey. In other words, let's talk about heroes. From time to time we'll dip into the deep ocean of world myth and folklore to profile a particular type of hero in order to see how that archetype might inspire your own original characters. This week, we'll be taking a look at one of the coolest, slyest, and most appealing hero archetypes there is: the Trickster. Smugglers, Imperial Agents, Shadows, and Assassins, this one is for you!
Tenebras posted Mar 6, 12
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A Long Time Ago, Author: Tenebras, BioWare, EA, Electronic Arts, Hero's Journey, Jedi Consular, Lucasarts, Monomyth, role-play, roleplay, RP, Sith Warrior, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Old Republic, TOR
Okay, so the title of this column is neither a Star Wars reference nor an allusion to anything remotely recent in pop culture more generally, but this is a column about old stuff, right? Welcome back to A Long Time Ago, the column in which we explore ways that the incredible bounty of world folklore can enrich your very own Star Wars: The Old Republic roleplaying. As you may remember, for the past few weeks we've been exploring one of the classic story structures from world mythology: the Hero's Journey. (For those of you who missed the previous installments, you can find them here and here.) This week we'll explore the last two elements of the first, and possibly most crucial, stage of the Journey: Departure. Read on and follow lovestruck Jedi Consular Heran Sol and rapacious Sith Warrior Torr Kleshic across the threshold and into...the belly of the whale!
Ganden posted Mar 2, 12
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A Long Time Ago, Author: Ganden, Beltane, BioWare, Coruscant, Datapad Notes, Dromund Kaas, EA, Electronic Arts, Escaping the Cantina, GigasFist, Lord Adraas, LucasArts, Month In Review, Nar Shaddaa, role-play, Roleplay, RP, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Darker Side of Life, The Old Republic, TOR, TOROZ
Leap month in now behind us. We may have leapt past a few days of the month, but one thing we didn't surpass was some great reading content from the front page of SWTOR-RP. With brand new columns from the new additions to the Reporting team, to Flashpoint and story progression in-character articles, the readers definitely had more than their fair share of TOR-based reading material. The Darker Side of Life column by Sebaya Keto continued to cover the controversial topics of roleplay, whilst Centerfire's Escaping the Cantina made its debut alongside Kovani's Datapad Notes and Tenebras' A Long Time Ago.
In the earliest days of February, I took the time to make some new acquaintances in the SWTOR Fansite industry by going on board with the TOROZ podcast, Flashpoint: McGherkinsquirters and Roleplaying. We talked about Patch 1.1, Kate Beckinsale's ability to wear tight clothing, and shared some random Aussie banter. David Holloway and his team at TOROZ are definitely a great bunch of guys, so be sure to head on over and check them out—especially if you're Australia.
Tenebras posted Feb 28, 12
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A Long Time Ago, ALTA, Author: Tenebras, BioWare, EA, Electronic Arts, folklore, Hero's Journey, Jedi Consular, LucasArts, Monomyth, mythology, role-play, roleplay, RP, Sith Warrior, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Old Republic, TOR
Hello, and welcome back to A Long Time Ago, the ongoing column that explores ways for you to use the rich trove of world mythology to make your roleplaying characters, stories, and events come more powerfully to life. Last week, you may recall, we began exploring the Hero's Journey, a.k.a. the Monomyth, in order to show some ways that this potent, universal story framework can inspire vibrant roleplaying in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Remember, Lucas leaned hard on the Hero's Journey in scripting the original Star Wars trilogy, so there's a lot to be gained by putting it to work in your own personal Old Republic saga.
Last week we had just barely dipped our toe into the Hero's Journey by looking at the Call to Adventure, the first sub-stage of Departure. (Departure itself is the first of the three main chapters that together make up the Monomyth. The other two, you may remember, are Initiation and Return, both of which will get their own columns in the coming weeks.) In order to demonstrate some concrete applications of the Hero's Journey, we focused on two example Old Republic characters: the young Jedi Consular Heran Sol, whose player wants to roleplay an ongoing subplot in which Heran falls in love with exactly the wrong person; and Torr Kleshic, a murderous Sith Warrior whose player is exploring a dangerous rivalry between Torr and another player's Sith. Let's follow these two through the next few stages of their Departures and see how their players might use the Monomyth for storytelling and roleplaying inspiration.
Tenebras posted Feb 21, 12
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A Long Time Ago, Author: Tenebras, BioWare, EA, Electronic Arts, folklore, George Lucas, Hero's Journey, Jedi Consular, Joseph Campbell, LucasArts, Monomyth, myth, mythology, role-play, roleplay, RP, Sith Warrior, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Old Republic, TOR
Twentieth Century-Fox fanfare.
A black backdrop, bejeweled with distant stars. And ten words:
"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..... "
I saw Episode IV: A New Hope when I was all of six years old, and my stomach still tightens with eager anticipation at the sight of that simple proem. It always promises that what we are about to see isn’t just an ordinary shoot-’em-up between plastic models chroma keyed against a matte painting. Instead, the words betoken something vaster, something more potent: we are witnessing a capital-S Story set in a mythic world where the stakes go as high as they possibly can, and where Good and Evil clash on a grand, primal scale.
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