Will the TV series suck just as bad?

Let me tell you something — The Clone Wars is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I dumbed down my expectations, read all the bad reviews, walked in thinking, "This is a movie for little kids, it's not for me, I shouldn't have high hopes for it," and still emerged thinking, "What the fuck did I just watch."

I did enjoy that the battle scenes were appropriately Wars-y and gritty and that element wasn't dumbed down for the movie.  And I did unironically laugh at one moment — where Asajj Ventress hurls a droid down a cliff in anger, and as it falls it sounds like it's yelling "Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."

Man, I haven't felt this let down about a Star Wars experience since I learned Knights of the Old Republic 2 didn't end.

Where are the Ewoks?

Beryl Fisto tells Logger that the Ewok slaves were captured by a Corellian pirate named Sair Arcturus, who is currently on Taris, an ecumenopolis planet in the Outer Rim that was heavily damaged in the Mandalorian Wars.

I'm still working on where Marina is.

Nerd round-up

• The Force Unleashed soundtrack (some of which is available streaming at http://www.tracksounds.com/reviews/the_force_unleashed_mark_griskey.htm, an interview with the composer) is really awesome, and about sounds on par with anything we heard in the movies. I'm seriously impressed.
• The Clone Wars soundtrack (available at music stores and torrents everywhere), however, suffers by comparison, as it pretty much sounds like a "meh" techno remix.
• Though I haven't picked it up yet (sorry Jim!), the new Knights of the Old Republic #32, part 1 of the 4-part "Vindication" storyline, kicks the series into hyperdrive, as Zayne Carrick finally confronts the Jedi Masters who framed him for murder. Lots and lots happens just in #32 — revelations aplenty — and there's much more to come yet.
• In an effort to get more game content up here, the next article will be a long look at current campaign archvillain Riga the Hutt and what makes him get up in the morning.
  

No Roleplaying for Old Men

Apparently McCain doesn't like D&D?

http://tinyurl.com/5lpzzv

KotOR and Equipment

I picked up my copy of the KotOR book today (and Milky did too) and am seriously impressed.  I'm already hard at work thinking how I can incorporate a lot of this stuff into the game.

With equipment, however, I'm taking a bit more of a heavy hand.  I feel I've been pretty generous with the credits lately, and the Raraza is currently the envy of the spacelanes.  So for the moment, weapons and armor with templates are available only as quest rewards; they're not available on the open market, or if they are, they're extremely difficult to get ahold of.  (The book actually suggests this, to prevent players from getting every piece of equipment they have completely pimped out.)  As these represent the best of the best of equipment by the particular manufacturers, they're suitably more rare and are in some ways collector's items.  Same also goes for lightsaber crystals — not for sale — though they're nowhere near as powerful as they were in the video game.

Ditto for faction-based gear; it's not available on the open market.  Mandalorian Neo-Crusader Heavy Armor is pretty pimp — but if you want it, you'll need to find a Neo-Crusader who still has his armor and take it off his cold, dead body.  The ships I'm willing to be more loose about (except Sith ships), because those have prices listed and because they require such an investment of credits anyway, so if you want a Basilisk war droid or a Republic shuttle, go right ahead.  But faction-specific weapons and armor are harder to come by.

It's open season on the rest of the gear — the new weapons and armor without manufacturer templates (and there is a lot of it), personal shield technology, cybernetic implants, weapon and armor accessories (and Rek is good for those latter two with his Cybernetic Surgery and Tech Specialist feats, respectively), and droids (though I also put the kibosh on your own personal HK assassin droid).

Preliminary KotOR Report

Well, Walden has the new KotOR book, and I gave it a good long look today — I'm picking it up Sunday and canceling my pre-order.  (I didn't have my receipt with me, or I would've canceled it right then and there.)

Preliminary thoughts: The book is awesome.  There are loads of new talents, feats, and abilities, and there's so much fluff even somebody who's never played any of the games would get a pretty good idea of the era.  The book is just packed with good stuff.

Here's the preliminary ideas for each player:

• Logger gets the cream of the crop here, as a significant amount of the new abilities are focused on the Force.  There are no less than 5 Jedi talents that key off of the Farseeing power.  A new Force power, Kinetic Combat, lets a player fight with his lightsaber from a distance, using his Charisma instead of his Strength bonus for attacks, which is key for the low-Strength Ewok.  Several of the Force techniques (for later Force Adept levels) boost powers he already has, like Force Slam (turns it into a burst effect) or Vital Transfer (can use it at a distance).
  
• Kazbich benefits greatly from the new Scoundrel talent tree, Gun and Run, which is keyed off of gunslinging and mobility.  (It may be time to trade in Trace for one of those.)  Further augmenting his cybernetic arm, cybernetic implants now appear in the game, granting some really nice bonuses.
  
• Rek Luk may choose to benefit from the noble's Fencing talent tree, which lets him substitute his Charisma for his Strength when wielding a light weapon, among other things.  There's also a host of new noble talents, and the Corporate Agent prestige class was practically made with him in mind thematically — plus the requirements are pretty easy to make (trained in Gather Information and Knowledge (Bureaucracy), Skill Focus in Knowledge (Bureaucracy)).
  
• There's a host of new combat feats for Dhiel and Gobmush, and while I didn't get a long look at the Gladiator class, it seems like a good class for someone looking to be able to take a few hits.  There's also tons of new armor and weapons, and both can also easily benefit from the cybernetic implants.  For the enterprising Soldier, there's also a new talent tree focused on getting the most out of a jet pack, and the Elite Trooper features a Mandalorian talent tree which gives some really nice bonuses to armor.
  

Unresolved plot hooks

I have not forgotten about revealing the whereabouts of Marina or the enslaved Ewoks; I have sketched out some ideas about where they are, but I want to read the KotOR book (which I still don't have yet) before I reveal anything concrete, so I can incorporate some stuff from that book. When I decide for sure what I want to do with them, I will post it here, as well as discuss it at the start of the next game.