Hello and welcome to Star Wars: Devastation! This is an essential stop on the site for anyone wanting to join in the fun and get started on their character creation process. This topic will have a collection of important links relevant to the board and role-play here, most of them on this site itself.

The purpose of this topic is to highlight all the important must-read's and show the optimum reading order for a new role-player to dive in as fast as possible along with setting a theme for the rest of your experience on the site.

We are a different kind of role-play from your average Star Wars site and as such reading this information carefully is essential so your application process can be as streamlined as possible.

Introduction:

Star Wars Devastation is set 754 years ABY and is an AU board. We omit all references to canons such as Yoda, or Luke Skywalker though the general history of the Galaxy (Rebel Alliance, Empire, New Republic etc.) is relatively unchanged.

Simply put, the Star Wars timeline continues naturally up until the point of 24 ABY, when everything spirals off into our "AU" reality, so the events of the Vong crisis and everything post-25 ABY essentially did not take place.

What has taken place within the Devastation galaxy within this timeframe is that the Jedi and Sith as we know them faded into obscurity over the many years, the two forces becoming almost a background noise to a much larger, neutral middle-ground in which people had the force but did not specifically set out to develop their skills beyond natural abilities and little thought was given to the philosophical side of the force.

Having the force on Devastation is not something that instantly identifies you as different on a large scale, you're just a member of one of the majorities. What would identify you as different would be if you happened to be a member of Devastation's "Jedi Order".

The Jekorian, as they're known on Devastation, are just about the only collected group of force users in the galaxy who focus on any kind of teachings or learning's mildly comparable to the Jedi of old. A more detailed explanation of this order can be found later in this document.

As a rule, there are no mention of Jedi/Sith in this format on Devastation. No characters have a memory of them, including NPC's.

The state of the Galaxy itself on Devastation is quite interesting, as opposed to the generic Empire vs Rebellion storyline we feature a re-build effort by a group known as the Core Remnant Republic after a large-scale disaster occurred on Coruscant, effecting the rest of the Galaxy through the spread of a mysterious super virus.

So, with this brief introduction out of the way I will go on to explain how to join the board and get started in the role-play!


Joining 101:

Firstly, Devastation is an APC(account per character) board. We employ the use of an OOC account, this should be used to post up characters and do OOC posting with, along with PMing members/admins. Your OOC account is basically just so everyone can keep track of who you play on the site, should they need to contact you about a specific character.

When registering your character you should register with your characters first and last name. E.G. Bob Smith.

The application itself is fairly straightforward. Type within the images, and follow the guidelines outlined in the application rules and everything should fall into place perfectly. Play-by's are optional and freedom is the goal of Devastation.

While I allow for a lot of freedom in your character creation, I caution people against excessive drama. I value realistic and unique characters but I don't want an overflow of tortured and haunted souls. For example, if you were a dark force user of some kind it is not necessary for your character to have suffered large numbers of traumatic events in their childhood, or even great losses. Count Dooku became quite a prominent figure on the dark side spectrum yet never had his entire family murdered/raped/shot/stabbed/fed to a Hutt. Use common sense when creating your character's history. Small amounts of trauma and drama are fine, but be realistic.

This rule also applies to technology, abilities and skills. If it's unbelievable or far-fetched, do not include it. If however, you can explain these things well enough and they serve your character in a legitimate way I more than encourage this kind of development.

If you are unsure about something in this area, PM a member of staff, or ask in the c-box.


Force Powers, Lightsabers and Races/Species

This section will detail what I expect from you in the realm of force powers, lightsabers and races/species.

Force Powers:

I am allowing a degree of freedom in the realm of force powers, providing people can justify having them, and do not exceed the limits of reasonable power.

The limits of reasonable power would be over-destructive powers such as Thought Bombs. If it's something that is likely to maim or slaughter large numbers of people, or is virtually undependable it is unlikely to be approved without very good reason. I could list all the force powers I will/won't accept but it would be counter-productive as I believe there are shades of grey to the limits of powers and not every "uber" power need be something world-ending.

I trust players to exercise a degree of control in this area, and force powers will be dealt with on a case by case basis, depending on the strength of the overall application and the reasoning behind the character coming into the knowledge of whichever particular power they possess.

The idea behind force powers on Devastation is that the more extreme, specialized powers outside of the initial core spectrum will be something that requires intense training or large amounts of knowledge to achieve. Some factions in the game will have access to this knowledge, but an Independent force user will not.

When you are listing your force powers, I will accept a number of formats but prefer something that includes the following information:

[Name of Power] [Knowledge: Weak | Medium | Strong]
[Short description of how they use the power, how the particular power manifests in them]

I consider it a given (unless your character is a trainee or new to their powers) that 99% of force users on Devastation will have a basic grasp of core techniques. By core techniques I mean;

Force Speed
Force Jump
Telekinesis
Force Pull
Force Push

The degrees to which your character knows these certain powers is entirely up to you, though I expect a mention of it in the biography following the previous format.

If in doubt, ask.

Lightsabers:

Due to the separation from Jedi knowledge and departure from the Star Wars canon, lightsabers have become even more of a rarity in the galaxy. In fact, the majority of force users (who prefer energy based weapons) are more likely to use battered old training lightsabers that refuse upgrades, slightly upgraded protosabers or for the more refined user, lightfoils. Those who don't see the appeal to such risky weapons prefer to use vibroblades, or regular blades.

As mentioned before, you should take this into account when you are creating your character and ensure you have a legitimate reason for them being in possession of a rare item.

What you don't need to do when dealing with lightsabers/melee weapons is list whatever forms your character uses. This is completely optional and I don't expect everyone to know the difference between Shii-Cho and Vaapad.

Races/Species:

I will not be including a list of allowed/banned races or species on Devastation, this is primarily because there are so many races out there that replicating a list from Wookieepedia would be a redundant task and partly because, again, if you can explain it logically I may be inclined to accept it.

The general rule of thumb when it comes to races/species is that if it has gone extinct before the point of 25ABY, or wasn't mentioned before then it's probably a safe bet that I will not allow it. You can inquire about particular races/species in the c-box, or PM me.


Recommended Readings/Next Step

So where do you go now? Well! The answer to that is pretty simple, when you're all finished here just have a quick look at the following links and if any problems arise simply PM an admin(Eveykins or J) or ask in the c-box! We're friendly, promise! =D

APC Account System Explained
Rules
Backstory & Plot
Jekore Path of Light
The Core Remnant Republic
The Viezan Confederacy
Canons
Application Template
Force User Information
Wookieepedia
Thread Planning
Thread Roulette
List of Open Threads (updated)