Welcome to my third report of 2019. Today, we will talk about a few quick updates and additions to the Character Sheet system, review last months fictional activity, and highlight this months prime activity: the 2019 ACC Championship. Not a lot else going on from me, so I'm going to throw some spotlight onto our new Combat Master, who wasted literally no time getting his first major competition up and running.

This is probably the shortest report I’ve ever written. Heh.

Updates

ACC Championship

The Ides of Arch (Arch Madness, if you would) is upon us. This means that the 2019 ACC Championship is live!

• For competition details, click here
• Check out the matches and the bracket on the Competition hall here
• See the Combat Master’s latest report for more.

CS System Updates

1. I updated the wording on the Slugthrowers ability to make it read more clearly, and to better detail how slugs interact with lightsabers. This change has been implemented and will view in both the database and wiki article.

1. Togarians are now a selectable PC (player character) species for the Dark Brotherhood. While some still hold out hope for Cathar to make a return to Canon, I think that this will likely end up being our best hope for Space Cats going forward.

1. I’ve toggled Miraluka as non grandfathered species, meaning that new characters created can utilize the Species. This was done due to active interset (based on data) that supports continued and balanced use of two of the top 15 popular species in the system (including Sephi, Zabrak, Umbaran, Twi’lek)

Voice’s Fiction Selects

As I mentioned in my last report, each month I will highlight a fiction entry I’ve read that, while it may/may not have placed, I think was a great example of things we look for in a quality submission. This should eventually serve as an “Archive” of examples of things I look for when grading or reading fiction entries.

From last month's Multi-Objective Fiction, Andrelious’ entry stood out the most. It took the prompt and tailored it to his character’s strength: piloting. He also did a good job of working in a (created) antagonist to drive the narrative. The space combat was pretty tight, and while it wasn’t a groundbreaking drama that pulled at me emotionally, it’s a good example of how to technically execute a fiction from beginning to end. Good work, Mark.

You can read the entry here.

Going forward, I will continue to highlight and keep all Voice’s Fiction Selects here in this folder. You will be able to find this under the Fiction Resources article on the wiki as well.

Competitions

• [Voice Workshop] Fiction: Catalyst

Since everyone is busy with Clan events, or the ACC, I figured I’d run a more standard fiction prompt that should be easier for everyone to find something to write about. This competition is about “catalysts” — basically an event, person, or condition that caused/causes a change in your character’s life. This can literally be anything as simple as being handed your first blaster before wanting to become marksman, as inspirational as being told that you too can become a hero (even if you’re quirkless an NFU), or as impactful as discovering the dream of wanting to be the very best, like no one ever was.

If something is off or not what you were hoping for, feel free to reach out and we’ll see what we can do different for next month. Constructive feedback is always welcome.

Projects

• Continue to support the Brotherhood Storygroup with macro-level plot developments, while also writing micro-level updates to help with the worldbuilding aspect of Brotherhood space. This includes the fictional roles of the society, and the importance of Arx as the Brotherhood’s home planet and base of operations.

• I will continue to run Monthly Fiction Competitions to help set the example/bar for what I believe non-Vendetta, DB-wide competitions should be. I will continue to monitor the data of closed fiction competitions and use this information to make informed decisions for the remainder of my time as Voice.

• Fiction Society Leaderboard is currently under Version 2 revisions. I have the support of the Grand Master to pilot this system, and my target launch date will be for Q2 2019. We still have some logistics work to plan out, but I will be sharing my next revisions with the Dark Summit for feedback.

• Transparency and collaboration are important in anything I do for this organization. I try my best to explain every decision I make, share my reasoning, and make things as fair as possible for all members. I hope that in doing so will open a better understanding for the types of things Dark Councilors do for their respective areas in the club. I believe very strongly in my Fiction Leaderboard idea, and think that while I know a few people have concerns, it’s going to be a positive addition to our club. I hope you can join my optimism and keep an open mind to it! :)

Next month, I will be traveling to Chicago for Star Wars Celebration 2019! We had a lot of fun in Orlando a few years ago, so I'm looking forward to another great experience! Keep an eye out for Celebration-themed competitions and some other live-blogish updates from the Convention!

That is all for now. My inbox is still the best way to reach me: [Log in to view e-mail addresses] but feel free to hit me up on Telegram as well.

Thank you,