Report #10 - January25, 2011 <-

This report is extremely delayed, and I apologize for that. I had meant to get something out at the beginning of the month, but didn't.
I am sure many of you have been waiting for this report though! Right? :P I'll have the results for the December competitions below, as well as a reminder about those January competitions and other random bits of news over the past month and a half or so.

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I had set it up probably a month ago or so, but just haven't announced it as of yet. The newly updated Reviews section can be found on the DB Messageboard. You can find it in the "Legacy of Fiction" Sub-forum, connected to the main Fiction/Run-On Forum. Or, you can hit the link HERE. This is where you can find a list of Star Wars Novels and Comics, as well as any reviews that have been made. Any reviews that have shown effort will garner the reviewer a Dark Side Scroll. Great reviews will also garner them a Dark Cross. Feel free to get your reviews posted!

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Better late than never! Below is a listing of all the winners and participants in the December Fiction competitions. We managed to get some decent participation in the Haiku competition, but not quite enough to garner First-Level Crescents. Also, although these are being announced late all of the actual awards were handed out shortly after the competitions ended, so no one should be waiting on a Crescent.

As always, if anyone has any ideas for competitions, feel free to submit them. I'm only one person and would prefer to have a variety of competitions. I try to be as original as possible to see what people enjoy, but the more ideas the better. And if there are specific things you would like to see, feel free to poke me about those as well.

Load the Can(n)ons #4

1.Guinevere Deschain (Odan-Urr)

1. Rian Aslar (Taldryan)

2. Krandon Rowella (Odan-Urr)

Dirk Valentine (Naga Sadow)

DB Starfighters

1. Andrelious J. Inahj (Arcona)

2. Angelo Dante (Scholae Palatinae)

3. Rian Aslar (Taldryan)

Zero Raven (Tarentum)

Dirk Valentine (Naga Sadow)

Flow-Walking

1. Xantros (Scholae Palatinae)

2. Andrelious J. Inahj (Arcona)

Year in Haiku

1. Duga Taldrya Arkarso

2. Maaks (Arcona)

3. Teia Coran (Tarentum)

Alexander Anderson (Taldryan)

Ronovi Tavisaen Tarentae (Tarentum)

Masika (Naga Sadow)

Archer Merchant (Arcona)

Wuntila Zratian Entar (Arcona)

Ashia Kagan Keibatsu (Revan)

Kaira Rohana (Plagueis)

Diclonius (Taldryan)

Macron Goura Sadow (Naga Sadow)

Guinevere Deschain (Odan-Urr)

Daniel Stephens (Revan)

Krandon Rowella (Odan-Urr)

Eiko (Revan)

Tratorus (Revan)

Angelo Palpatine Dante (Scholae Palatinae)

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Below are the January Competitions...yay! There's only a handful of days left to submit, so get to those word processors and start typing :P Thanks to Xantros who submitted a couple of competition ideas this month and will be helping grade them as well.

Load the Can(n)ons #5 - Each month we will give you the opportunity of throwing it down with a character from the "real" Star Wars universe. Your job is to write the story of a battle between yourself and that character. The story would be considered "out of continuity" as the timelines just would not match. The idea if for your character as they currently are to face off against a canon character from a specific timeline. How that happens is completely up to you. This month we have a match-up that should not be easy for anyone in this club; the original Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader (circa pre-ANH).

Prestigious Prestige - This month's mini-theme revolves around the Prestige System. For this competition you will show how the new Prestige system affects your character in the DB and how they personally perceive this new system

In the Quest for Glory - We're all here to grow our power in some way, and the Prestige system is one of those ways. How will your character try and achieve more Prestige? What will they do to get there?

Dream Job - This is an in-character look at what job you want in the Dark Brotherhood, if you had the chance to achieve it tomorrow. What is that job and what would you do with it? It's the ultimate grab for power, so anything is possible

For further details on all of these competitions please visit the links. There are high-level Crescents being given out, and the due date for each one is January 31st. Good luck!

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Now for a little ACC news. First up, I would just like to public ally acknowledge the work that both Vivackus and Timeros have been doing in the ACC. Viv has been a sponge in terms of learning the ropes of the ACC and has consistently been our most active ACC staffers. For his efforts as CM, as well as his time in Plagueis, he was promoted to Battlelord. Timeros was awarded a Steel Cross for being everywhere in the ACC over the last few months. He's been opening and judging battles in record time, as well as keeping the rest of us on our toes in pointing out any discrepancies he may find. Both members have been a great asset to the ACC and I hope that they can continue with their efforts

Second, with the addition of some of the new weapons in the selectors we had to devise a bit of a "house-rule" as to the forms these weapons would take. Basically, a 5 in any "Advanced" lightsaber form or higher is enough to wield any of the new lightsaber designs. The only exception to this would be the nunchuka's, which would require a double-bladed lightsaber form to be able to wield it.

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Some Wiki based news. First up, Ji will be stepping down as my Magistrate. He's done a tremendous job going through so many character pages, but he no longer has the time for wiki-based work since he has both his own House to focus on as well as schooling. As such, be on the lookout for a news post asking for applications to be my Magistrate

Second, as Muz mentioned in his report there are some changes with how NPCs work. Basically, no Apprentices for members of the DB, unless that Apprentice is an actual member of the Dark Brotherhood. Also, just to be clear, but NPCs should not be a force-using member of any House (ie. NPC Doe cannot be a DJK in House Taldryan). Force users who are a part of the DB must be on our official roster. If they're not on the roster than they don't exist.

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In my last report I had asked for people to e-mail me if they were interested in doing more RP-related activities. Generally, it would involve In-character based IRC sessions and adventures, as well as Forum-based competitions. I have received about 3 e-mails from people interested in that sort of thing, which is not nearly enough to try and start anything. However, if there are any others interested, please contact me so I can get a better idea of how many people would actively participate.

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A little bit of a rant this week, and probably one I've done many times in the past. I have access to all of the House mailing lists, and as such get to see all of the reports that pass through them. Many of them are seriously lacking in terms of actual content and information conveyed. A lot of people seem to enjoy writing some fiction at the beginning of their report, but then forget the actual reason they're writing the report...to convey information to their readers. Now, what information should that be? Well, it depends on who you are. QUA/AED/RM should not all be doing reports that have the same information. QUA/AED reports should focus on news, projects and activities that their members can do while RMs should focus on whatever their specific job is within the House. Battleteam leaders should focus on similar information as the QUA/AED, but specific to their teams as well as detailing the activity their members have been doing. I have seen some very poor reports that is just a wall of text with no new information being given. Some reports have nothing about competitions or activities in the DB, or just focus on competitions that are House-only. What about DB-wide competitions? What about other news in the DB? There is a world outside of your House or Battleteam, and that should be communicated through reports. Reports should also be laid out in a manner that makes it easy to understand. You don't need fancy graphic headers, but at least have a "heading" separating information so that it isn't all clumped together. If people want to see better reports just ask me and I'll point out some old-school reports

It's been a little slow on the Star Wars news front. There was news on a new planet for The Old Republic called Quesh, but still no announcement on a release date. There's a new SW comic series coming out called Darth Vader and the Lost Command, taking place before A New Hope. Otherwise, nothing much to report on. Until next time!

Report Lyrics:_ "Murphy's fighting Occam, you're in the stands"_

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In Darkness,

Dark Jedi Master Halcyon Taldrya

Voice of the Brotherhood

Sith Lord