Knuckles – For Star Wars A Completely Imaginary Board-Game for Roleplayers Foreword Once upon a time, I met one of the best roleplayers in the world. A being who had sought to topple Kings, been killed in the process, sought to bring freedom to outlands, and liberate a land of angry puppies & zombies led by a Banshee *****. He failed at every turn. The only thing, aside from drunken surgery, he has done successfully was playing (and inventing) the Completely Imaginary Board-Game Knuckles (Technically Mage's Knuckles) But, where did this eternally obscure Knuckles come from? In its creator's own words: "One summer, when my character left Azeroth to explore Outland, he invited a group of his friends and colleagues to Booty Bay for the last party. At this gathering, we needed something to play, and quickly conceived a simple game called Knuckles. It was a ludicrous creature, full of excitement and warfare, crazy rules and hilarious consequences, and I have since played it in many locations and contexts; now I want to share it. This document outlines its rules and quirks. The name 'knuckles' comes from a quest text in Booty Bay. Perhaps it was meant to refer to some fantasy card game similar to poker, or even euphemistically to the art of fighting, but I imagined something different. In any case, I have never been able to find the original reference to "knuckles", and I can only conclude either that it has been edited out of the game, or that it actually never existed and I made the whole thing up." A.J.Barlowe The following outlines the rules (or lack of) and quirks for the SW adaptation. This first part will explain how Knuckles works in bare terms. Both in character and out of character. If you want to play knuckles in an 'unpolluted' way, building a take on it that's entirely your own, read only the first part; 'So, what is Knuckles'. The second and third parts named respectively; 'Elements of Knuckles' and 'Some recurring Motifs' will talk about the idea of Knuckles that has been built up in roleplay so far. * So, what is Knuckles? 'Galactic Knuckles' or just 'Knuckles' as the game is commonly known across the galaxy, is a game of strategy, imagination, decision, diplomacy, opportunity, creativity, chance, and destiny; a game of controlled savagery, polite betrayal, and consummate use of weapons. The origins of Knuckles are shrouded in the nebulae of time, and its origin varies from species to species, planet to planet, though it seems to have wormed its way into every conceivable place and time, yet despite variations, it remains the one and same game across the entire Galaxy. Various cultural elements of Knuckles and origins(maybe?) Over time the racial rules have been added to the Galactic Knuckles, yet many directly contradict one another, adding to the sheer complexity of the game. A new generation of players has risen in the last century which does not adhere as firmly to the racial traditions, making it a very interesting time to play the game. A short overview of the framework that makes the game is as follows: Two or more players are gathered around an imaginary board (four seems a good number). One player is chosen by vote or by dice roll, or other means as the starter and the game proceeds around the circle in a direction of the starter's choice. Each player takes it in turn to announce her move and other players must respond to her in a way that seems to make sense. When moves are announced, they should be properly detailed, and moves can be disputed by other players on 'legal' grounds. To prevent this, players often support their moves by citing precedents from famous historical games. There are more rules to mention here, but they can be found in the massive compendium NF Stovold’s Galactic Knuckles: Rules and Origins". The original data was sadly lost when the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was attacked. A conspiracy theory suggests that Darth Malgus, a renowned Knuckles player, intentionally had the data deleted, and have actively tried to hunt down and destroy any full copies of NF Stovold's compendium across the known galaxy. Traditionally, one player must be eliminated or drop out for every round that passes after the first one or two. In consequence, the game is won where there is only a single player remaining. This rule ensures a swift and decisive match but players can agree to suspend it or the game itself can distort that rule. Today, the game is played as a holographic game, similar to Dejarik. OOC, however, Knuckles is really anything you want it to be. It is, in fact, a game of pure freewheeling improvisation: there are no rules, and all new players are told they'll "pick it up as they go along". As a 'rule', new players are encouraged to pretend their characters have some IC knowledge of the game and its concepts, despite player shortcomings in that department – you will pick up eventually. Who drops out, and when, is a matter for the players to settle amongst themselves, either by rolling, common agreement, or some other mechanism. In my experience, people often volunteer to drop out because they feel it's the right thing to happen or because they have to go. So far, so good: but how does the rest of the game actually -work?- What are the rules? The trick is that it doesn't, and there aren't any. Rather like Mornington Crescent, a pretend game of humorous rule-negotiation, Knuckles is made up as you go along. It is highly recommended for players to check up on what Mornington Crescent is or perhaps rather isn't, to get the overall idea of what Knuckles is all about. The main goal of playing Knuckles is to play entertainingly off each other without actually knowing quite what's happening and create the illusion of a functioning if absurdly complicated board game of ancient pedigree on par with chess and Sid Meier's Civilisation. It is a lesson in roleplay collaboration and practice for emote-fights: can four people respond to each other in a way that's mutually fruitful? The answer is that Knuckles is as fun as the roleplayers who play it are willing to make it. But it does offer a consequence-free practice zone to hone your improvisational skills and practice the process of bouncing off other players that is central to roleplay. You can probably stop reading here if you like. The rest is detail and flavour. Elements of Knuckles That said, Knuckles is not completely formless and has a certain character. Its principle elements are: Some recurring motifs: Of course Knuckles is whatever the players on hand wish it to be. I list below some recurring things which have repeatedly cropped up in my own games, as a kind of 'knuckles lore' slowly builds up around the whole thing. This lore, of course, should never be allowed to ossify and limit potential: as ancient Knuckles champion Katil Ala'far Gramasci the Wise once said, "in every game there lurks a big enough surprise to stop one's heart."

I'm reviving this thread. Please give us the option to pick Warzones similarly to Flashpoint Group Finder. I'm not a hardcore PvPer. But I like particular aspects of PvP a great deal and others I dislike with gusto. For one, due to not being hardcore enough, I suck at getting the dmg output I need for the 4vs4 deathmatches. Rotations isn't my thing. So, I always pity my group whenever I get one of those. But, get me in a Huttball match, and I'm all game. I love the ideas behind the game, the lore, the mechanics, the myriad of ways you can win and lose. And, as a roleplayer it's always been my dream to actually RP a team of Pro-Huttball players. Sadly, Huttball is just one among many, and having to play five Warzones I'm not really into, hoping to get lucky along the way, really isn't making for an enjoyable time. Please give me the option to RP an all Zabrak Huttball team!

Just a little bump, so that I can get to wear my gear again.

I understand and appreciate your concerns and critique of the Credit guide. It is true that the lack of inflation in the Star Wars galaxy seems odd, but after giving it some thought, I may have come up with a theory as to why it seems so very stable. Again, I am not an economist, a far cry from it, but could it not be that, over the course of the many many millennia the Galaxy, and the Republic, have existed, the galaxy wide currency have had quite adequate time to settle itself. Galactic crisis have become part of the norm, and instead of fluctuating up and down for every crisis, on every planet or sector, the credit value have simply settled itself somewhere between "all is well" and "all is lost". After all, the currencies we depend on is extremely young, none even close to a thousand years old, to the best of my knowledge. Not to mention that the galaxy wide credit is backed by a banking -planet- and not the Republic itself, which may mean it is less inclined to be influenced by the ups and downs of the republic. No currency in our world have become truly detatched from its original state, but what would happen if we did get such a currency? If the organisation minting it would be able to stay neutral and out of trouble, would it not be able to maintain a fairly stable value, without much inflation? Yet, your argument is good, and valid. We do not really have anything canonical to base assumptions on inflation on, any more than we know the true canonical value of 1 credit. It is also a far stretch to assume that prices on burgers can be compared in two different galaxies, where we can almost certainly assume there are very different trade barriers, and the supply and demand must be quite different. On Earth, food is shipped over seas, in SW its shipped through empty space. It is an important factor to consider, regarding the validity of the guide: Is it fair and "realistic" to compare, and thus base the intricate calculations about currency values, on something as simplistic as burgers, without any alternative sources of cross reference? It is something I found to be the primary flaw of the guide, and a massive flaw indeed. But, that being said, as roleplayers in the star wars universe, in a MMO, we do not strickly have to adhere to any kind of canon (whereof there is non on this subject), but rather focus on what we can agree on. Roleplay is as much about reaching common ground, establishing consensus, as anything else. What breaks roleplay, more often than not, is situations where two roleplayers does not share the same view of the world. An example regarding credits could be; a bounty hunter ask for 50.000 credits in reward for a bounty, which he consider fair pay for a weeks work. The man who's to pay for the bounty, consider 50.000 to be more than he can make in a year. A discussion erupts, despite the bounty hunters good attempt to be fair and forthcoming. But, if we roleplayers can establish a consensus, immersion breaking problems would not be as likely to occur. This is not to say that my guide should form the frame for a consensus on Credit value. In fact, if we had any kind of canon to base things on, I would not have to take desperate measures like these. But the fact is, George Lucas never shed much light on the value of 1 credit. My guide is, as I see it, currently the closest thing we have come to find the value, without basing it completely on assumptions. While I find it quite fair that roleplayers disregard the math, or the methods, the interesting fact remains, that all it takes for this guide to "work", as basis for a consensus - and thus better roleplay, is for roleplayers to start using it in practise. That way, we would all at least use the same standards, when we talked about credits - canoncial or not.

Thanks a lot for posting this. While I certainly see the merit of "Speed of Plot"-travel times, I quite enjoy realistic RP whenever I can find it. I have yet to read the finer details of your guide, but what I had time to go through now is very interesting indeed.

Just a little heads up. Our dear Sith Pureblood brethren have now recieved some of their rebreathers, and they seem to not fall off their tentacly faces whenever donned. Good news, as it seems to indicate that invisible headgear probably isnt working quite as intended. I hereby send my thanks to the developers for taking the time to do something about this issue/suggestion and hope that they will soon see to fixing the remainder of the rebreathers, as well as the issues that still exists with twi'leks and mirakula. THANKS! As a sidenote, I would really appreciate it if a developer or protocol droid took time to actually communicate with us players. Often enough, reasonable and honest communication can halt dissent and anger before it even begins - atleast, that is what I have come to believe.

Just a little hats up to the Dev team. This suggestion is still on the table.

Yes. Dear Devs, we still want this. I understand that techical issues maybe preventing this (Legacy may possibly hardcoded into the programming (I have no idea if what I said make sense)) but if you can find it in your heart to change it, I'd be a happy twi'lek.

Technically, they have already denied the issue, by claiming it works as intended. That said, we might hope this suggestion to make the models visible again will be considered by the devs...

I whole heartedly support the struggle for head slot items. <-- like this and this --> Also, I posted a similar suggestion, which include all species. I know you Sith are all about Sith-Supremacy but i'd still reach out and ask you to unite with twi'leks and mirakula's everywhere for greater visual justice. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=452502

This post is a plea for the developers to give us twi'lek, pureblood and mirakulas back our visible headslot gear which have been made invisible since patch 1.2. Either give it back; as it were before 1.2 with clipping issues or as it were before 1.2 - while you work on fixing the clipping issues or improved with not clipping issues While we can all agree that clipping issues is never great to look at, I do think most players would agree that the current solution with no headslot items visible is actually worse. Too long, don't read unless you wish to know more Its been a few weeks since 1.2 was launched, and Bioware have had the time to fix the worst problems that arrived with it. Overall, a very good patch, and relative few problems in my opinion. Alas, seems one of the problems that I identified after 1.2 have now become a feature. Visual representation of various head slot items on several species have changed from being visual (sometimes resulting in clipping issues) to being invisible and thus fully removed the visual clipping issues. This include just about all hats for twi'leks, rebreathers for purebloods and stuff for mirakulas. The purpose of turning the items invisible was done to prevent that they "interfere with overall appearance of characters" as Protocol Droid W6-E5 told me in a live chat. And according to him, it is now "Working as Intended." I have a cut and edited version of my chat with W6-E5 here: http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k584/TroelsNysted/Workingasintended.png It turns out, other Protocol droids have said the same. The following is said in a thread about Sith Pureblood Rebreathers: You are welcome, Protocol Droid. Just to be sure, as I understand it, BW programmers have fixed clipping, by making the items causing clipping issues invisible. Now, according to W6-E5 noone is actually woking on it, because invisibility is working as intended. So, I wonder, is there any chance we could undo that feature again? Because as a roleplayer, since 1.2 my Twi'lek have sorely been missing something to cover his head with. Five examples: He have been forced to run around bare-headed on planets such as Hoth and Ilum, and it causes terrible brain freezes. He's was scared of using his speeder, because in the case of a crash, his head is totally unprotected. Frankly, he's a little sad the fancy Hailstorm Brotherhood Helmet (in other cultures they'd call it a headband, but hey!) suddenly is too tight for him. Not to mention the weeks of the Rakghoul Plague outbreak, where he had to hide in his ship, as the only rebreather which was light enough to wear for him, being a very weak inquisitor, was the Death's Claw Helm. Luckally, these problems no longer matter much to him, as when he equipped a full-face mask, he lost the larger part of his brain, as the Lekku was cut off. Disclaimer: Example 3 and 4 actually never caused clipping problems on twi'lek to my knowledge, Items that would suit 1 and 2, gear that shows as visually protecting the lekku have never existed. Example 5 is actually a bigger clipping issue, as the lekku are completely clipped off. Ouch. So, to sum up: Please Developers, hear the plea of your paying customers, customers who largely like what you have done, and give us back our hats! ALSO, support our Sith Pureblood brothers in their struggle by following this link: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=443007

A very very good video. Great footage and clipping, a very stylish site, and as for the company itself, the cool factor is certainly high, up to and including the slightly menacing tone in your training manual. I found myself giddy about the font you are using, the latin letters that look aurebesh - while I have aurebesh, I have been unable to find a similar font but with latin letters (or high galactic alphabet if you will) on the holonet. Something very cool about uniforms in these kind of games. I shall now have my Chiss Quartermaster try and fit everyone in his para-military organisation into a trooper uniform.

The Value of 1 credit A guide to InterGalactic Economy By Quartermaster Vazon/Trols Table of Contents: Introduction What is a Credit? Stability of the credit How do we do this? The Value of a Credit Converting your currency into Credits Converting Credits into your currency Conclusion Reference Disclaimer Introduction How many credits do your character have available to him at this time? How many credits does he earn at that job in the fast-food family-restaurent? Would your character be able to buy the new top of the line speeder for that kind of credits? These are questions that some may choose to gloss over in roleplay, either because they hate/fail keeping track of money in fabled real life and don't need to bring those troubles with them into the game (I know that feeling) or because their characters happen to be filthy rich (The easy solution, used it myself a few times) OR, more commonly used; ”Well, I can't be troubled with calculating just how many credits my characters work is worth every single time I roleplay.” Trouble yourself no more, ”The Value of 1 credit”-guide is here. ”Why would you even want to know these things?” some of you ask. Answer is simple: Semi-Realistic Roleplay is super fun! A less simple answer: By portraying your character and the world around him as close to realism as possible, you will often find that the character seem to become more vivid and believable. The TL DR answer: Now, lets first make one thing clear. In the game SWTOR, farming credits is a rather simple task, dailies and space missions are a great source of income, but, as a basis for in character wealth, it's a terrible measure. The dedicated roleplayer pretending to be an Alderaanian nobleman may not have time to farm credits because he dedicate most of his ingame time to roleplay, and spend all his credits on new clothing to play the part. The bum in starter gear whom you see outside the Nar Shaddaa cantina once every week however spends the rest of the week doing Warzones, Dailies, Space Missions, and Heroic Mode-Flashpoints. In both cases, their avatars credit counter would not display the amount of credits they would have available in character. What I am trying to say is this – this guide is purely based on the value of the roleplayed credit, not the ingame version. To heck with that! What is a Credit? The Galactic Credit Standard, and later known as the Imperial Credit, also simply called Credit, have been the main currency in use in the galaxy, ever since the time of the Galactic Republic was founded. From its inception, the Credit was backed by the wealth of the neutral planet Muunilinst and the InterGalactic Banking Clan (IGBC). While there have at times existed both a Republic and an ”Imperial” Credit, it seems that the IGBC backed both credits during several confrontations from the day of the Clone Wars and ahead. (1) At the time of the Cold War, there is no mention (that I am aware of, correct me if I am wrong) if the IGBC backed the Sith Empire's monetary system, or if the two factions's monetary systems uses the same Galactic Credit Standard. There are also (or because of) no mention that the value of the Galactic Republic and Sith Empires Credits have differentiated the slightest. Lacking any such information, using the principle of Occam's razor, which states that “other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one” (2) we can hypothesise that at the very least the exchange rate between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic version of the Credit is a simple 1 to 1. Bonus info: One tenth of a credit was called a decicred. Bonus info: The credit chip was an electronic alternative to “harder” forms of currency such as coins or bills, but by far the most popular. Currency could be transferred directly from the Bank into the chip, and a single chip could contain billions of credits. So better make sure you give that bum the right one. (3) Stability of the credit The Credit itself seem to have been a very very stable currency, possibly due to its backing by the InterGalactic Banking Clan. (4) In other words, according to this research, it seems we can expect a credit chip to be able to buy the same junk during the Cold War, as it can 3600 years later. Assuming the above research is correct, this is information that is very good to know when we move on to the next issue. What is the value of 1 Galactic Standard Credit The purpose of this guide is to give us an idea what 1 Credit realistically is worth. What kind of buying power we can get out of 1 credit. And how much our character can demand when negotiating his contract in the local MacDiner. If we could somehow calculate roughly how many Euro, Pound or Dollar there goes to one Credit, each and all of us would be able to easily compare our own living expenses, and our own salaries, and calculate them into Credits, and viola! We have the means to roleplay realistically around the credit. How do we do this? Well, we know that for 2.000 credits you can buy Luke Skywalkers worn-out landspeeder. But, while this information give us an idea about what we should pay for a new model, assuming it lose value like a used car, knowing that price does not help us figure out what 1 credit is worth compared to anything else. We don't actually know what a landspeeder is worth in the first place. They could be a lot harder to build than a car, or a lot simpler which would influence the price a lot. What we need is a reference, something we all know fairly well, and can relate to, which exist in both galaxies, and which have a price tag. With that something in hand, we can compare “present galaxy”-prices with “galaxy far far away”-prices, and find the exchange rate. “But... what do we have in both galaxies,” you ask? Enter Dex's Diner!(5) From Dex's diner, we can pick a food type that resemble one we know. It could be a Hamburger, alas the city of Hamburg was never built, so they don't exist. Fear not! What does exist is a food item of a very similar type, known affectionately as “Sliders”. The Hamburgers of the Galaxy Far Far Away. Wait, you may think, what does all this talk about hamburgers have to do with The Value of 1 Credit? Let me explain, but first, if the food talk have made you hungry, go grab a snack now, because it's about to get hairy/ier. As said, we wanted a reference to compare with, so we could find the exchange rate. If we compare the price of a Slider with that of a Burger, we get the difference, and that difference is the purchasing power parity or PPP. The PPP asks how much money would be needed to purchase the same goods and services in two countries, and uses that to calculate an implicit foreign exchange rate. Madness you say? Well I sure as heck didn't make it up on the spot, it's actually an old idea. (6) “But Burgers? Really?” Yes! And I am not even being original here. The “finding the implicit exchange rate via burgers”-method have also been used by The Economist under the name “The Big Mac Index” (7). Here we see that in action: The Value of a Credit Before we venture on to do our own calculations, it should be stated, that; A. I am not an educated economist, so who knows if I understood any of this right, and B. A lot of other factors than the value of a Burger/Slider play into an actual exchange rate, so it is ultimately an oversimplification (see Occam's razor), but as I understand it (See A.) the PPP take into effect the “raw” value of a currency, as it; Now, we have picked the Sliders which generally sell for 6.7 Galactic Credit Standard (GCS), as they generally seem to use the same type of food stock as the MacD bread and butter Burger. In the US the Big-Mac on average sell for 4.2 dollars in 2012. (8) the price of a Big Mac was 6.7 GCS in the Galaxy (At Dex's Diner) the price of a Big Mac was 4.2 USD in the United States (Varies by Store) the implied purchasing power parity was 1.6 GCS to 1 USD , that is 6.7/4.2 = 1.59 In the Euro-zone the Big-Mac price varies, but on average sell for 4.43 USD. the price of a Big Mac was 6.7 GCS in the Galaxy (At Dex's Diner) the price of a Big Mac was 3.49 EURO in the Zone (Varies per country) the implied purchasing power parity was 1.9 GCS to 1 EURO, that is 6.7/3.49 = 1.91 And for the Danes – Big-Mac sells for 31.5 DKR the price of a Big Mac was 6.7 GCS in the Galaxy (At Dex's Diner) the price of a Big Mac was 31.5 DKR in Denmark (pretty much the same everywhere) the implied purchasing power parity was 0.2 GCS to 1 DRK, that is 6.7/31.5 = 0.21 And lastly the GBP version for my overseas buddies (you know who you are) the price of a Big Mac was 6.7 GCS in the Galaxy (At Dex's Diner) the price of a Big Mac was 2.49 GBP in Britain the implied purchasing power parity was 2.7 GCS to 1 GBP, that is 6.7/2.49 = 2.69 Using all those numbers to get a value out of it So, there you go. Now, if your as mathematically daft as I am (you have no idea how long I spent doing this math and getting it right) here is a little demonstration of the figures in practise. Converting your currency into Credits My Twi'lek Doctor have been asked to check on a patient, but both him and I know it is atleast an hour of work, and he sure as heck want to be properly paid. Now, I imagine a doctor of his reknown should earn what amounts to atleast 400 Danish Kroner (DKR) per hour, so I best calculate the price. I take the 400 and multiply it with the 0.2 which is the PPP between Credits and DKR and get the result that he should charge 80 Credits for his work. So, RL CURRENCY * PPP = CREDIT VALUE or 400 * 0.2=80 Converting Credits into your currency Now, this time, A Hutt have offered My Twi'lek doctor to make a House Call on Nar Shaddaa, and he offered to pay 240 Credits to take the job. Before I say yes, I'm just gonna have to check if that is really a job worth taking. In this case, I take the 240, and instead divide it with the 0.2 which is the PPP between Credits and DKR and I get the result that my twi'lek is being offered 1200 DKR. So, CREDIT VALUE / PPP = RL CURRENCY or 240 / 0.2 = 1200 Conclusion The Value of 1 credit: 1 Credit = 0,62 USD 1 Credit = 0.53 EURO 1 Credit = 0.37 GBP 1 Credit = 5 DKR There we have it. The value of 1 credit, easily decipherable into Real Life currencies for us to better RP around and with the Galactic Credit Standard. You can do the math on your own currency youself, and then all you need to do is to plot in your own numbers and answer those questions: How many credits do your character have available to him at this time? How many credits does he earn at that job in the fast-food family-restaurent? Would your character be able to buy the new top of the line speeder for that kind of credits? Reference: 1: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Credit_Standard 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor 3: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Credit_chip 4: http://theforce.net/swtc/units.html#time 5: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Food_at_Dex%27s_Diner 6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity 7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index 8: http://bigmacindex.org/2012-big-mac-index.html Disclaimer Since Lucas Art have never really published the Exchange rate of Galactic Credit Standard, even assuming we could use something as “simplistic” as burgers as a guide, this guide is, and will always be conjecture. Keep in mind what I wrote earlier, I am not an educated economist, so I welcome critisism regarding the theory and method behind this, and equally welcome a discussion about the validity of the claims that I have made. One thing I feel compelled to say however is, that correct or not, effective roleplay is often more about building concensus with the roleplayers you interact with - than being "right" and factual. Even assuming this guide is totally off, it will work if roleplayers take to it and use it, OR any other functional method to finding the value of 1 credit can become consensus. If the above work can help build this agreement between roleplayers, which is currently missing, I cannot say, but I atleast hope someone will find it moderately useful, and in doing so help make the use of the Galactic Credit Standard a lot more realistic. Also... yes. I did base it all on burgers! *nom nom nom*

I think the white one is a lvl 50 corellia drop.

A good guide to new roleplayers. Very interesting read and it deserve to be linked into a Roleplay source thread. One thing though. You stated that /em shows for both factions. To my knowledge, only /say is cross faction for reasons I cannot explain. So all "/em is gallant as Jedi are and hold the door for the Sith Lady" won't show for the opposite side. The solution is to include emotes in /say instead. Its not pretty but it works lacking other alternatives. /s Let me hold that for you, Miss Sith *the Jedi says as he hold the door open for the Sith Lady.*