Hello again everyone. It's time for another Guild Spotlight! This month I sat down with Lord Adraas' Hydian Expedition Outfit (HEO) and their leader Ringo Orlan. The HEO is a semi-independent Republic organization that does the Republic's dirty work while allowing it to officially have deniability. It almost sounds like Mission: Impossible's IMF to me. 

"Dear Elza,

My first boyfriend got bit by a rakghoul and died. I loved him dearly and was devastated when he passed away. His death was very traumatic; a trooper had to shoot him before he turned and I was holding his hand, looking into his eyes as it happened. A mutual friend of ours, who has never hidden his feelings for me, helped me get through the difficult time after my boyfriend's death. He has always been there for me, even in the times I didn't want him to be. We even got involved together, but I had to break it off as it was too soon after my first's death. I wasn't sure then that I loved him, but I am now and for now we are together and happy. So why am I writing to you, you ask?

The person I am now involved with is a force-user. I do love him, though differently than my first boyfriend. I won't call him a Jedi, though he was trained to be one. He has promised me not to become Sith, though more and more he seems to want to go down that path, thinks he can destroy the Sith from the inside. He was even taken by a Darth at one point after he killed his apprentice, becoming an apprentice in place of the one he killed. I and a fellow managed to rescue him, but I get the feeling he wants to go back and finish his training. He's said as much. It feels as if I will lose him unless I let him go, but if I let him go, I'm sure I will lose him to the Sith. He tells me he loves me and that I'm the most important thing to him in the galaxy and he will come back to me. But he really wants to be this Sith’s apprentice, learn to use the Dark side of the force so he can destroy the sith from the inside.

What should I do?

Rakgirl"

III. Getting Deeper

This next section is for those who have the basics down and are looking to move forward with their RP experience. There are many ways to begin a new RP story, and I'll go through them here.

1. Walk-up RP/Random RP

This one is pretty simple. You see several people chatting over drinks in the cantina, their conversation seems interesting enough, yet you do not know them and they do not know you. How do you go about this? Easy! The same way you would in real life!

/say *Boomer glances over his shoulder at the three men to his left speaking of a new posted bounty at the Imperial Fleet.* "Fella's," *He grumbles in their direction.* "I already took that job, so you can stop running your mouths about it. Though, I could use an extra hand taking in the target. Any of you interested?"

As the three men's attention turn to Boomer, he steps nearer to them and engages in the conversation. Hank, Bow, and Jack all target him (Yes, I mean actually click on Boomer and target him directly. I'll explain this more in a later section.). Jack tells Boomer that he is interested in helping him out with taking the target, but he wants a fifty percent cut of the reward. Boomer in turn targets Jack and tells him that isn't going to happen if he is the one taking on most of the risk, using his ship and his equipment. Hank then asks Boomer his name, and Boomer targets Hank and responds sharply.

II. Basics

There is a lot of material that can be put into this section, so I will try to limit it to the more important things!

1. Spelling and Grammar

All role-players will tell you that these two are the most annoying basics that people make mistakes with in RP. They speak for themselves as far as chat conversations go. Do your best to keep your spelling and grammar as close to proper for easier and smoother reading by the other characters you are in contact with. If your character only speaks Mandalorian, then don't speak Basic or Huttese, unless you can specify that you have learned them in-character. I will now give an example of Spelling and Grammar:

/say *Boomer wakls into teh Canteena his eyes lit up in anger. he struted to the bar and slamed his fist on the top and looked over the crowd before his eyes settle on a twi'lek dancer dressed in only tiny scraps of fabric.* She's a looker, aint she?" He says to no one in particuler before scrubbing his dirty hands over his rugged face.*

It's pretty easy to see what is wrong with the above statement. Though, some of the grammar in the above example leads to our second lesson.

"Dear Elza,

So.

I've been married for uh… a long time, right? And then I get this speeder shop business going after I retire from the Republic Army. Yeah, yeah, yeah, real patriotic of me to get out while there is a possible war going on. Whatever. I do my job. I'm just 'too old to play' I guess.

Anyhow, this chick comes in and is all over me like the stink of a Bantha. She's hot as hell though, and I feel ten years younger than her. We make with the relations. A lot. It’s purely physical, no icky feelings to make things complicated though. It’s easy because I conduct business off-planet so the wife doesn't think twice.

But I feel that, you know, guilt thing, because I am married. But the wife, she's not really, you know, wife like. I haven't touched her since my daughter was born (we're talking about the type of touch in those holo-vids your parent's don't let you watch, kiddos). We hug. Sometimes. But there ain't no romance, no intimacy in our relationship. For Maker's sake, we have separate beds. It’s like she married me because I knocked her up in secondary school.