Old School history lesson

You know, there have been a lot of great Star Wars D6& D20 sites that have faded into oblivion. I remember Jedi Sanctuary, a very cool site from when I first started browsing the web looking for good rpg sites. The Tales of the Freespirit was a great one run by IJ Thompson. Legacy of Strife was solid and had some great material, of course who can forget Dark Lords of the Sith or Servais Sector? Classics the lot of em.

I think it’s a shame those sites aren’t around any longer. That being said, I would like to construct a “shrine” to those old great sites over at Raptorsquad.net.

Preferably something with a few screen caps of what the site looked like, maybe even some stats that stood out, and I think a word from the former webmaster about the site, what drove them to create it and what they have been up to recently and even perhaps why they aren’t (or weren’t) able to keep it up and running would be nice as well.

Anyway, this is of course entirely dependent on how many of the “old timers” and webmasters of those sites are still out there and interested in such a project. It shouldn’t take too much time to participate and I think the community would like to hear from you. I also think it’s important to see some of our history preserved.

So! If you ran an old SWRPG website (D6 OR D20, it’s all good) or you are still in touch with some of the old webmasters and can let them know about this, Drop me a line @ vic@raptorsquad.net or just reply here.

Genwho?

Apparently Gencon was this past weekend.

Yeah, I’ve never been.

Yep, you heard right you monkeys, I live just two hours (less if I use my sweet Knight Rider driving skillz) down the road from Indy and I’ve never been.

And I call myself a gamer?

Sure.

Just going to some convention to hang around people I don’t know to look at games I don’t have an interest in to play games with people I’ll never see again…oh, and I get to pay a few hundred bucks (at least) for the experience?

Damn, sign me up now.

Don’t get me wrong, I know folks who love it, get into it and do it every year. And that’s cool and all, but the appeal has just never really been there for me. I’ve been to different cons before and they are generally a mixed bag, but Gencon just never really jumped out at me as something I would want to spend the money, or, more importantly, the time on.

So, while you get tons of gaming blogs this week littered with Gencon reports and how cool it was and all of that fantastic stuff, I’ll give you handful of readers something a bit different:




Cause' hot Twi'lek chicks rule apparently.

Labor Day!

The day on which I will labor to get the new update posted!

Yep, come hell or high water the new fiction & update will go up on Sept. 1st.

What will be included you ask?

New fiction, new good guys, new bad guys, new starships, new locations, new artwork (of course)...

You know, the usual batch of coolness.

So, mark your calanders!

Try not to drip any blood on the floor on your way to the afterlife

Yeah, so I turned my players into vampires.

They needed to infiltrate the vampiric underworld to get close to a clan elder who was the target of their nemesis, and the only way to do that was to, well, become vampires.

They never saw it coming.

I like throwing crazy stuff at them occasionally…I mean, going in, fighting vampires for the good of the kingdom and all that…sure, that’s real heroic.

But what kind of sacrifice will you make? That is what defines heroism. Real heroism. Not the Saturday morning cartoon variety.

So, will you sacrifice your humannity and possibly your soul?

That was the question.

Going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

Shout out to my man Big Al!

Big shout out to my man Big Al!

He left a comment about what I thought of Hellboy: The Golden Army, and I responded but for the life of me I have no idea where his post or my comments went.

Sucked into the great beyond thanks to crappy "technology" is my guess.

Anyway, just wanted to give him a big shout out, tell him it was great to see him at the movies and to drop by here and comment more often! It’s gamers and friends like he and the rest of you that keep me going and creating and writing the adventures of Raptor Squad (and yeah, that even applies to folks who don’t comment or come around too often. But I know you’re still out there reading-and hopefully –enjoying!)

(Sorry I missed you Mike, Big Al said you were on the way and I kept an eye out but didn’t see you before we went in to see the flick.)

Oh, and for the record? Update coming…hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks.

I pinky swear.

So you know I'm serious!

Flame Wars...nothing but Flame wars....

I think it goes without saying at this point that I dig me some Star Wars. So, I totally understand the love the some folks have for it. Really, I do. Hell, after all of the time and effort I’ve spent chronicling the adventures of Raptor Squad, trust me, I understand having an unbridled passion for something.
What I don’t get is why some folks feel the need to argue, demean and in some cases be downright nasty to those fans who have different ideas or theories about that galaxy “far, far away.”

Really, you’re not impressing anyone. Seriously.

I mean, I’ve seen people get in heated flame wars over the size of a Star Destroyer. I’ve seen fans get red it the face and damn near pop because someone suggests a different viewpoint about how Jedi should or shouldn’t act. And I won’t even go into the whole Star Wars vs Star trek battles or, God forbid, the D6 vs D20 debate.

I mean, why?

It’s especially troublesome to see, especially since there are (more often than not) numerous “official” sources that occasionally contradict one another. So you theoretically could have two people arguing the same point and both be “right” because old George, in between puffs on a big fat blunt, decided to sign off on two different things without having his flunkies go back and check to see what he’d already approved.

Yeah, that helps.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older- too damn old to care or too damn old to see the point- but when I see these kind of threads, posts, blogs etc I just shake my head now and laugh. At the argument, the posters and the poor moderators who not only have to read through this retarded sh*t, but try to make sense of it and keep the peace as well.

To fight, argue and get enraged (and yeah, you know some of you out there do, don’t deny it Fanboy) over a work of fiction, that, as has been proven, can be and usually IS revised and retooled to Lucas’ wishes depending on what mood he’s in from minute to minute? What the hell?

Hey! Remember when the Force was a “mysterious energy the bound all of us together"? Yeah, that was before it became little critters fritzing about in our DNA. Why? Cause George woke up one morning and thought it was a good idea. Lord, why don't you argue about what cereal he decides to eat in the morning? It would mean about as much.

See, the thing is, I know the answer. I know exactly why these little wars and arguments crop up and continue to flourish. It’s actually a two-fold answer, and if I may, bear with me while I put my shrink hat on.

It’s simple, the human desire to be better or smarter than someone else (dominance) , coupled with the anonymity of the internet (cowardice).

That’s it.

That’s why you have these flame wars over such ridiculous and miniscule minutiae. Because truth is, if those involved in these flame wars and pointless battles were to have to sit across from each other and hold forth with the same opinions you would see a VAST difference in etiquette and mannerisms.

VAST.

But they don’t have to, so the idiots and children who’ve been failed by their parents or society or whatever are allowed to run free on the web, spewing their venom and immaturity in whatever form (or forums) they wish.

And unfortunately, people bite, and just feed into it.

Yeah, I grew tired of it a long time ago, and I don’t bother now. When I'm perusing the forums (which is rare) and see someone spouting off, I ignore them. I don’t even bother getting involved because, again, what’s the point? It doesn’t make me feel better, it does my blood pressure little good and I certainly can be doing more productive things that DO make me feel good and are quite relaxing.

I seem to be doing that a lot lately, trimming the excess and uselessness from my life, so that only the important things remain. And ya know, it’s working out pretty well, thanks for asking.

So, before you launch into a tirade next time you see some kid (or single, middle-aged man living in Mom's basement) incorrectly citing the length or cargo capacity of the Millennium Falcon, ask yourself first: Is it going to change anything in the grand scheme of things? Is it going to make you or the other person a better individual? Improve the quality or your life? Or is it just so you can try to look superior, flexing that big “Star Wars” brain and impressing a group of faceless dornes you'll likely never meet or could care less about in the flesh and blood world?

Sadly, I have a feeling you’ll know the answer to that, but choose to jump into the flames anyway. Good on ya. When you look back on a life filled wasting that kind of time make sure you’ve got the Kleenex handy, cause damn, will that be a sad moment.

Oh, and for the record, I DO know the length and cargo capacity of the Millennium Falcon: It’s roughly this side of “I don’t give a crap.” Any other answer means you've just not gotten the point of this blog and wasted like, five minutes of your life. And no, I ain't giving it back to you. It's mine now. See? here it goes in my pocket, right next to the marbles you lost a long time ago.

Now go out and do something productive like plant a tree or give to charity, and remember: I blog because I love.

It's coming you monkeys!

Writing is hard work.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you’ve never done any serious writing before, sit down and try it…man, does it drain you.

On the other hand, it’s one of the most satisfying and rewarding personal experiences you can have. To sit back and read something you wrote months or even years back and to find yourself caught up in the story and excitement, reading words that you can’t even believe came form your own hand…well, that’s a kind of enjoyment that I really can’t describe here. You just have to experience it.

Hopefully though, you guys who do read the Raptor Squad fiction and dig it get some measure of enjoyment out of it. I know I have a ball writing it.

But again, hard work. And it takes time. Numerous re-writes, spell checks and refinements, and even then, when you finish there are still those little odds and ends that slip through the cracks that irritate you like late-summer mosquito bites on the back of your legs.

Anyway, the point to all of this is that I’ve begun writing the third book of Episode 10. A trilogy of books I started wrting back in 2005…yep, three years ago sports fans.

Books one and two are in the can…Book one is just waiting for the artwork and other little bits to be done before it gets published. It sees the introduction of Koort Ter’chon- Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire, along with some new baddies that are sure to irritate Raptor Squad to no end.

Book two (which sees the introduction of Xander Paddox-Tapani Nobleman and Jonus Kable-New Republic liaison) is done, but it needs polish, refinement and spell checking…oh and of course artwork and stuff…so it’s a few months out…maybe right before I go on vacation in November I’ll roll it out. Or try to anyway.

I just started on book three and I’m about twenty pages into it and it’s rolling along well. I’m pretty darn happy with it. And yeah, it also sees the introduction of a new Raptor Squad team member.,..but I’m keeping that a surprise and no, for those of you out there who THINK you know who it is. It’s not.

So BIG surprises, BIG excitement! And it’s coming your way, free of charge kids.

In the end I imagine Ep 10 will weigh in between four and five hundred pages.

Yeah, it’s going to be a big old sucker, but well worth the wait and a pivotal piece of fiction in the Raptor quad mythos.

Trust me, it’s gonna be shiny.