To kick off my first report as Grand Master, I would like to thank the Electorate and the Star Chamber for trusting me with this opportunity. I also need to thank Evant for nominating me and selecting me as his Deputy in the first place--as well as for being a good friend for the past twenty-something years. Evant, I hope you enjoy not being bombarded by emails and Discord messages all day!

On to the announcements!

Deputy Grand Master

This should come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention for the past few months: I have selected our current Justicar, Darth Renatus (better known as Atra), to serve as DGM effective immediately. He will continue to serve as Justicar until a replacement is nominated and confirmed. I intend to begin that process early next week.

Atra's first job as DGM is to take the lead on scoring GJW XVI, which we also hope to have done next week, so the wait for results is almost over. I'll let him introduce himself and his plans in his own report.

The Eldest Panda

Howie. He's been in this club since before the dawn of time and somehow still, infuriatingly, insists on being the most diligent and consistent Master at Arms we've ever had. There is very little he hasn't already been awarded, and until last year he had been sitting at our highest non-GM rank for more than half a decade. But now, thanks to the only Councilor more reliable than Howie, we have the shiny new rank of Elder 4. Not many people have or ever will earn EL4. Howie is one of them. Congratulate him, he'll hate it!

Force Sensitivity and Lightsabers

Minor spoilers in the next paragraph.

The Last Jedi, Rebels, and especially Ahsoka have shown us that there’s at least a chance for anyone to learn to tap into the Force and use it to some limited extent. Potential differs by person and their access to training, but it’s now clear that the line between Force Users and Non-Force Users has blurred a bit. We've seen the journey from effectively NFU status to Jedi Master several times: many Star Wars Force Users (Luke, Leia, Rey, Ezra) lived years or decades without realizing their potential but learned to unlock their substantial connection to the Force later in life. Sabine represents a new kind of archetypical Star Wars character that nonetheless follows these deep roots in canon: she has some latent ability with the Force that years of training (and a few near-death encounters) have honed into useable abilities, but indications from Ahsoka are that she just doesn't have the same potential power as the major Force Users.

We will soon introduce a new system designed to give our NFU characters the ability to unlock limited access to the Force. The intent is to open up new avenues of character development without totally redesigning or unbalancing the current system.

Soon, all members will be able to earn "Force Sensitivity Points” (FSPs) that are akin to the Force Points available to FU characters. Unlike normal Force Points, FSPs will be earned primarily by advancement through our four main societies: the Grand Master's Royal Guard, Inquisitorius, Aurora Collegium of Sciences, and Shroud Syndicate. Each main society will award 1 FSP as a new perk at rank X. Additionally, all members will unlock 1 FSP each at JM1 and EQ1. In all, 6 FSPs are available for each member to earn.

How do FSPs work? Exactly like Force points! At the full 6 points, an NFU will be able to have as many as 2 Force powers at the +2 tier and 2 at the +1 tier, or 6 powers at the +1 tier. To put that in context, an FU Apprentice (NV2) has 12 Force Points to work with, so even an NFU with all 6 FSPs unlocked will still trail even our weakest FUs in total Force power. For those of you #TrueNFUs, these points are entirely optional. You do not have to select them on your CS if you don't want your character to have them.

FSPs are unlocked based on a character's rank and a dossier's society ranks. In other words, the 4 society-locked FSPs will be available to all of your characters but the points awarded at JM1 and EQ1 will only be available to characters at or above those ranks. In the future, James plans to set selectable society ranks for each alternative character, so the society FSPs would then be based on whatever society ranks you set for your alts.

And our Force Users aren't missing out on this. All characters will receive FSPs, meaning FU characters are effectively receiving up to 6 additional Force Points.

This system will roll out soon, along with another related change: the Lightsaber skill will be made available to NFUs. However, its description will make clear that NFUs are not able to deflect (much less redirect) blaster bolts.

Other Upcoming Changes

In my Statement to the Electorate I previewed a few of the projects we have in the works, including the completion of the new ACC Society, Masterwork Possessions, and (farther down the road) custom disciplines. In addition to that, Turel has just submitted a plan to revamp the GMRG. I'll leave it to him to explain the idea once it's been fully reviewed and approved, but I think the changes are going to make a lot of people happy.

Conclusion

That's it for now! I'll have more announcements to make soon, along with GJW results and the flood of medals and promotions that will follow. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the club or just want to chat, my door is always open. You can find me on Discord or shoot me an email.

Bubba