Judgment Day takes place within an alternate timeline, intended more as a spiritual successor to the True Sith Trials, but in no way tries to be an official sequel.
- Keep all OOC chatter to a minimum. Only use OOC notes if accompanied by an IC post, and only if it is on-topic to the game. For OOC discussion, use the Prelude OOC chat on Messenger, or the frequent voice & video calls on the Discord server.
- No godmoding. Godmoding encompasses a wide range of unacceptable role-playing behaviors, including creating an invincible or overpowered character, taking control of and writing the overall plot or environment oneself (which is the GM's job), taking control of another player's character without their permission (referred to as godmodding), or otherwise playing the RPG as if one has activated "Cheat mode" or "Godmode" in a video game, exerting excessive power or influence beyond one's own character. While most forms of godmoding are explicit, there can be more implicit but no less offensive forms, such as describing another player character as weak and cringing when they are actually standing tall and proud, or hurrying through the game at an excessive pace, such as navigating an entire tomb to successfully retrieve an objective in a single post, entirely bypassing the GM's ability to gradually unveil the environment you will be exploring, and its associated puzzles, traps, and enemies.
- No autohitting. Autohitting is a form of godmoding wherein a player hits an enemy, whether it be a GM-controlled NPC or another player character, without permission from either the GM or the player. Instead, all attacks against an enemy must be described as attempted attacks, rather than successful attacks. The stats system, associated dice system, GM verdicts, and the interplay of writing combat (such as attempting to trap an enemy into being unable to plausibly escape an attack without godmoding) will determine success, not you.
- No metagaming. Metagaming comprises a player character possessing knowledge he or she realistically should not. This includes 'meta' knowledge (out-of-universe knowledge) that the player would know but the character would not, such as knowledge of the role-playing mechanics and its implications for combat, knowledge of obscure Expanded Universe lore or game-related secrets that the character would not plausibly know (for example, the fact that there is a different timeline where Leto Hesphora rules the Final Sith Order), or knowledge of what another character is thinking, feeling or planning simply because another role-player described it in their post. While most examples are explicit, there can be more implicit forms; a player character who seems to conveniently know things, guess things, deduce things or escape things using what is clearly out-of-universe knowledge will not be long tolerated.
- No powergaming. Also known as munchkinry, powergaming is a form of metagaming wherein one uses one's out-of-universe knowledge of the role-playing system to play with the sole intent to acquire power or artifacts for purposes other than storytelling, exploit or attempt to break the rules of the game or the metaphysics of the Star Wars universe to acquire greater power than is realistic or immersive, or create a character that is solely designed to be the most powerful build possible using one's analysis of the stats system and dice system (called min-maxing). This can also include killing new, less powerful players in ways that do not seem plausible within the story, for the sole purpose of trolling or griefing them, stealing their loot or equipment, increasing one's power, etc. More subtle but frequent forms of powergaming include the creation of unrealistically excessive equipment inventories designed to give one's character an unfair advantage; such Character Sheets will be rejected during Character Sheet submission. While some degree of in-universe munchkinry, in the form of a genre-savvy or postmodern character liable to deconstruct fictional tropes or cliches, or simply an exceptionally intelligent one liable to pursue the most realistic or rational option, may be tolerated, this type of character must emerge from plausible in-universe origins, and a character who seems to have such traits tacked on purely to powergame may be rejected at Character creation.
- The GM is the ultimate and sole authority in this RPG. The GM is yours truly, the game creator; there may, or may not, be sub-GMs created at a later point. The GM has the final say in everything. That means there is absolutely no arguing with the GM, whether it be over a verdict in combat or other GM call, creative control of the overall story and environment, an element of the game mechanics not to your preference, the level assigned to you at game start, or friendly reminders to post in a timely manner. It also means you enter this game, and potentially depart this game, at the sole discretion of the GM. If I, and I alone, deem you to be a negative influence on the game, it will be my decision to remove you regardless of your standing in the wider Order, and there will be no arguing with or appealing that decision. If I deem you to have been a negative influence in the Order in the past, or otherwise likely to cause problems in the game, it will be solely my decision as to whether or not you join this game, regardless of your standing in the wider Order, and I will brook no arguments or complaints over my decisions in these areas.
- All Character Sheets must have been sent to me via PM (on the forums or Facebook Messenger) for approval and then must have been sent to the Judgment Day Character Sheet Repository Thread. Do not post a Character Sheet in this thread or that thread without GM approval.
Judgment Day is set late in the year 168 ABY, beyond even the far-future of the galaxy known as the Legacy era. This era is part of the Expanded Universe continuity, also known as Legends; this means the events of the sequel trilogy are not part of the history of this continuity.
The reason the Legends continuity is used, rather than the new canon, is primarily due to the Legends continuity being more extensively developed than the new canon at present, the fact that the future of the Legends continuity is no longer being written and thus will not contradict the fanon of the Sith Trials games, and the precedent that official Star Wars role-playing adventure hooks and scenarios from Fantasy Flight Games still predominantly focus on the Legends continuity; thanks to this material, as well as the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and other works, the Legends continuity continues to be developed, in a diminished capacity, under the Lucasfilm license in the Disney era. Nonetheless, following the example of both The Old Republic and Fantasy Flight Games, lore from the new canon, such as crossguard lightsabers in the style of Kylo Ren, may be freely utilized.
In past games in our fanon continuity, the fleeing Sith encountered an ancient evil beyond the Rim, the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Ku'ar Danar, who had awakened from temporal stasis in 5 ABY and remained hidden in the Unknown Regions ever since. Proclaiming himself the new Sith Emperor, Darth Dreadwar, the ancient wraith swiftly subjugated the New Sith Order, with the remaining leaders of the Sith, from Darth Talon to Darth Maladi, bending the knee before him.
Under Dreadwar's iron-fisted Rule of One, the Sith succeeded in reestablishing the Sith Empire across the Outer Rim, with Nihl's plan to infiltrate and subvert individual planetary governments succeeding in creating a loose, feudal regime. Signing an armistice with the still-fragile Federation, the Sith reinstituted the Sith Trials at their Temple on Korriban, to replenish their diminished ranks and prepare for the inevitable war. In 155 ABY, the time came to strike, and the Sith launched their invasion of Federation space. Yet despite recapturing Coruscant, slaughtering the Federation Senate, and butchering the Jedi, disaster struck the Sith when Emperor Dreadwar vanished at the Battle of Empress Teta. The succeeding reign of Dreadwar's Night Herald, Darth Insipid, lasted only three weeks before he, too, vanished on a mission to find the lost monolith of Mortis.
The New Sith Order, and its fledgling Empire, swiftly split into factions in a cataclysmic civil war that lasted over a year; House turned against House, while splinter factions, from Darth Annihiless' Brotherhood of the Sith to Perkunas Loki's Academy of Thule, tore at the fractured Empire's frayed edges. No sooner had Dreadwar's Hand, Darth Apollyon, secured the loyalty of a plurality as Regent than Kára Volshe emerged from the shadows, using her clout as the newly revealed Empress of Dreadwar to carve out a swathe of territory to restore the New Galactic Empire, ultimately joining forces with Apollyon with the goal of unifying the Sith beneath her as Empress of the Sith.
But the civil war came to an abrupt end. At a feast held by the Regent Apollyon - an effort to unify the fractured Sith and execute the infamous leaders of the Federation - an unforeseen enemy arrived to Korriban. A fleet of more than a thousand appeared in the skies of the Sith homeworld, blackened pyramids causing the Force itself to shriek in terror. Helming this fleet and the armies unleashed by it were the True Sith of the Unknown Regions, led by the likes of the vilified Darth Venomis, the monstrous Darth Cruor, and the betrayer Darth Dreadwar. It was a slaughter. Ceaseless undead hordes overwhelmed them with numbers, and the Dark Lords of the True Sith obliterated them with unbridled power. There was no hope of escape, of survival. The New Sith Order retreated into the bowels of the Sith temple, splintered and unfocused in their plans.
Until Darth Kain made his stand.
Giving the Sith a rousing speech as the new Beloved King of the Stars, the spawn of Abeloth left his allies to appear in the sands of Korriban, under the malefic multitude of eyes possessed by Mnggal-Mnggal. Knowing it would be his end, the Dark Messiah unleashed his power upon the True Sith in the form of an unstoppable storm of hellfire. And though Venomis snatched the life from Kain at that moment, consuming his soul, the vile creature could not hope to snuff out Kain’s flame. The firestorm raged through the overran Sith temple, disintegrating its walls and all that sieged it. Then the storm rose, cutting through the sky like a fiery blade and destroying nearly all of the True Sith’s fleet. Darth Venomis was slain, as were his millions of hosts that he brought with him to Korriban. Darths Dreadwar and Cruor were defeated, for the moment, though both returned inevitably. Through his sacrifice, Kain had given the New Sith Order their chance.
And they took it. Despite being chased by the last remnants of the True Sith’s forces, including the fearsome lords of Malleus, Andeddu, and Tulak Hord, it was Darth Hesper that led the New Sith out of Korriban’s tunnels, and with the aid of Kára Volshe’s fleet, off of Korriban entirely. Now dubbed the Final Sith Order, they were presented with the choice: to fight or to die. None chose the latter.
Though the two butted heads, Hesper and Volshe were able to lead separate paths to the same conclusion: the destruction of Typhojem and his followers. With the Blade of Nemesis destroyed, and with Volshe unleashing the full power of Tilotny, the Left-Handed God was defeated. The celestial Volshe disappeared upon Typhojem’s destruction, as did Darth Dreadwar, leaving only Darth Hesper to rise and claim the mantle as Empress of the Final Sith Order. And though Korriban was desiccated, Typhojem’s death strangely formed a multitude of dark side-potent worlds across the galaxy, theorized as physically manifested parts of his corpse. And with Coruscant wiped of all life at the beginning of the war, the Federation was left without its core. The surviving leaders of the Federation - Empress Marasiah Fel, Supreme Commander Gar Stazi, and the newly ascended Grandmaster Kei Durron - struggled just as much as the Sith in returning to the status quo, and the temporary alliance between the opposing governments would bring a short time of peace, so that both sides could recover.
This peace ended in 168 ABY, for war was declared. The Jedi sought to return to their former glory, and the Sith refused to allow their old enemies any modicum of control over the galaxy. It has only been a few months since the first shots were fired, and yet something strange happened. On the distant planet of Nysis, an ecumenopolis renowned for its status as a world of gambling and hedonism, was discovered to house the remnants of an ancient temple dedicated to ancient Force entities known as the Ones. The Jedi and Sith both demanded ownership of the world, and a battle between their forces ensued. On the eighteenth day of conflict, all communication from Nysis ceased. No word from the Jedi or Sith forces, nor even word from its unaffiliated denizens. Dead silence.
It was there that the Sith discovered a terrible truth: at the cost of millions of lives, a fallen hero of the war against the True Sith had returned. News returned to the new throneworld of the Sith, but it seemed that the Empress of the Final Sith Order had already learned of the Beloved King’s return personally. Their meeting… did not go well.
It had only been a matter of weeks since Kain’s return to the galaxy, and yet reports spread across the universe like wildfire. He claimed a throneworld of his own, one of the distant planets spawned from the dismembered flesh of the Left-Handed God. Perhaps strangest of all was that this world was dated to already be billions of years old, with its own species of people that now seem to worship the Dark Messiah as their God-King. His influence had only spread further from there, infecting nearby systems with his claim to all the galaxy.
The Sith were not the only ones with a vested interest in Kain’s play for power. The New Jedi Order, who matched evenly with the Final Sith Order in this war of theirs, worried about another source of darkness that would plague the galaxy. But they received a message from the most peculiar of sources. A woman, one of the heroes of the war a decade ago, sent for aid in running from the Beloved King of the Stars: his own adopted daughter, Eva. She had taken custody of Kain’s son and was trying to evade their father’s grasp.
But the Jedi were not alone in their pursuit. The Final Sith Order intercepted the message sent by Eva, and with the threat of what Kain can do once his family is whole again, a team received word from the Empress of the Sith. They were to find the young woman and the child in her possession. But they had not been instructed to move her to somewhere safe, oh no. Darth Hesper called for the execution of both her and the son of Kain, to forever keep them out of their father’s grasp.
The Jedi were successful in their mission, thanks to their steadfast dedication to their goal. The Sith were left split and disarrayed, not knowing whether to save or harm the children they’d been sent to murder. And now they were left with nothing.
Meanwhile, the former allies of Kain were summoned by their fallen friend, invited to his castle on the world of Hastur in secret. There he earned the allegiance of a few and the mistrust of the rest, though all agreed to aid him in stopping the true threat to the galaxy. A new wave of attacks from the forces of the Old Ones, led by the brood of Ooradryl.
Now there are many plans in motion. There shall be a peace summit between the major players of the galaxy, organized by Kain in an attempt to unify against the eldritch threat of Illathurion. But Kain’s attention is split, for he also wishes to negotiate with the Jedi for the release of his children back to his custody. And he must convene with the remaining Architects, Horliss-Horliss and Splendid Ap, to seek their aid and learn their secrets. And of course, he has sent a team of his closest allies to capture the hidden Daritha Nephthys, a True Sith agent hidden on the world of Verdanth. Thus begins Judgment Day, a day that will live in infamy for all the galaxy.
Orientation for New Players
Much like role-playing within the FSO, gameplay takes the form of text-based role-playing, specifically called T1 role-playing, with each player advancing the story by posting updates within this thread, describing the thoughts, actions, and feelings of their characters as if writing a chapter of a collaborative novel from their character's perspective. Other players contribute their own characters' actions and perspectives with their own posts, and the Gamemaster, or GM, provides the overall environment, direction, and moderation of the game, including non-player characters, like the level design and artificial intelligence of a video game. This game can be best described as being akin to role-playing in the FSO, a role-playing video game such as Knights of the Old Republic, tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, or the various Star Wars role-playing games.
However, this is considerably more formal than most role-playing games within the FSO. Updates are expected to be at least two paragraphs in length, with a preference for detail and quality; many players write posts of considerable length, totaling thousands of words. Role-playing, accordingly, tends to be at a slower pace; an update is required every week, responding to both your fellow players and the GM's weekly updates, which are typically posted within the next couple of days after.
This is also of considerably greater size and length than role-playing games in the FSO, even including What Remains and The Lost Jedi. Joining the game is thus a considerable commitment, to write what may often be over a thousand words a week for a period of a year or longer, though I hope it will not drag on so long.
This game is also separated into multiple strands of storyline called “tagsets.” Each tagset is a group of different players, tagged separately from another grouping by the GM (although GM updates tend to include posts, and according tags, for multiple tagsets, each separated by a clear divider), usually correlating with a specific, separate location, adventure or quest. Each tagset is rather like a campaign in Dungeons & Dragons, or a chapter with a radically different point-of-view, location and characters within the same novel or film (such as The Lord of the Rings). However, tagsets are understood to be part of the same overall game, to be largely happening at the same time, and are flexible and fluid; most tagsets evolve and diverge from an initial, larger tagset, and many tagsets meet, combine, exchange players or collapse upon the completion of a quest or plotline.
For example, in The Old Sith Trials, one tagset consisted of a mission to the tomb of Naga Sadow, while another consisted of two assassins journeying to Korriban to assassinate one of the players within the former tagset, another consisted of a Sith acolyte beginning her first day of training at the Sith Academy, and another consisted of a Dark Jedi and his companions traveling to Korriban from Onderon. All four of these tagsets encountered and merged with each other at different times over the period of several months of role-playing, correlating to the passage of approximately one day in-game.
Separating in-character (IC) gameplay from out-of-character (OOC) interaction is absolutely necessary to play this game. From a logistical standpoint, we do so by using different notations. At the top of every post, before the main body of your writing, you should write the following:
IC: Your character's name
Your character's location
All of your writing beneath this header should be entirely in-character; no OOC commentary or explanations, even in parentheses, should be embedded within the text.
You should finish your post by tagging the other players in your tagset (not all players within the entire game; look to the tags within the GM's own update to see which players are in your tagset), as well as the GM, beneath the main body of your post. You do this by typing the @ sign, and the username of the player you wish to tag; their username will appear in a drop-down menu, allowing you to click on the player. This will mean they will receive a notification when you tag them (and vice versa). Use the following format when writing your tags:
TAG: @Another Player, @Another Player, etc
You may write OOC commentary outside the main body of your post, either after the TAGs, or before the IC header. OOC commentary may include a list of abilities used during combat, a note of clarification, or simply a relevant comment. If you do write OOC commentary, use the format of the following example:
Powers Used: Force Speed - 2
Inertia - 1
OOC: I'm not diving behind Catalyst here, by the way, just hiding behind the rubble!
More importantly, however, in-character and out-of-character interactions must be wholly separated in terms of mindset. Aside from the aforementioned rule barring metagaming, it is important to remember this is just a game, and that all in-character interactions are purely and strictly for storytelling purposes. In the Order, role-playing is often casual, or merely an in-character overlay for primarily out-of-character dynamics for purposes of fun and immersion, particularly in social threads or chats. In these games, however, in-character immersion is absolute; players should play their characters entirely realistically and true-to-character, no matter where that takes them; given that most characters are Sith characters, this tends to mean that players should play their characters as the competitive, antagonistic, treacherous and murderous villains that they are.
In the FSO, executions accompany breaking the rules of the Order, and have out-of-character significance; in Sith Trials, on the other hand, in-game death has no out-of-character meaning. A character might die because they got unlucky with a trap in a tomb, took the risk of fighting a player character of higher or approximately equal level, treated a higher-level player character with disrespect (which is not against the rules, merely suicidal) and that player chose to respond realistically and initiate combat, or simply because they encountered a particularly lethal non-player character or situation and did not flee.
Permanent death is one of the many real consequences within this game; the stakes are real, and if your character dies, you will have to reroll with a new character. That said, death is uncommon overall; particularly foolish or risky gameplay tends to be required to incur a lethal outcome, although any kind of combat, whether it be with a player character or a non-player character, does carry the risk of injury and death.
The rating of the game is equivalent to a film rating of R (Restricted), or a video game rating of M (Mature). Mature, dark, and/or heavy themes and content, including but not limited to graphic violence, narcotic usage, profanity, sex, and disturbing encounters and backstories, are permitted within the writing, without the use of content warnings or the like. That said, the use of mature themes should be tasteful and literary in nature; X-rated smut is not the goal, nor is pointlessly offensive writing with the sole goal of being edgy.
Combat Mechanics & Dice
Judgment Day uses a core mechanic to resolve actions that cannot be intuitively or fairly decided by the GM or decided by the player without godmoding or autohitting: the GM rolling a virtual d20 die (an online, entirely random number generator, set between 1 and 20) on behalf of the player. In most cases, the use of dice applies to combat mechanics. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons or Knights of the Old Republic, your (the player’s) ability to persuade an enemy, or a fellow player, will come down to how well you can actually write persuasive dialogue or construct a powerful argument. Similarly, your ability to figure out, say, a puzzle in a tomb will depend on how good you are at actually solving puzzles, and how hard you try to solve it out-of-character, not your character’s arbitrary Intelligence score.
But in combat and other select situations (at the discretion of the GM), where the stakes are high against GM-controlled NPCs and fellow players alike and maximum fairness is appropriate, a roll of a d20 die, performed by the GM in response to a player’s attempted (remember, no godmoding, no autohitting) action, provides a useful pointer—a guideline for the GM, not a dogmatic mechanical rule—to resolve whether your character succeeded or failed at a task (e.g. an attack, the use of a skill or ability, or an attempt to save your character from harm).
The core mechanic works as follows:
- You write your post, as usual, describing your attempted action.
- When the GM writes an update in response (this may take the form of a necessary miniature update, in the case of rapid-fire player versus player combat, but will ordinarily be the usual weekly GM update), the GM rolls a virtual d20.
- The GM adds relevant modifiers.
- The GM compares the result to a target number.
- If the result equals or exceeds the target number (set by the GM or given in the rules), your character succeeds at the task at hand; if the result is lower than the target number, you fail.
- The GM will notify you of your roll, and success/failure, in an OOC note attached to his update, as well as write accordingly, of course, in the in-character text of his update.
- Overall, you do not need to worry about finicky statistics, modifiers, and dice; like the turn-based combat in the Knights of the Old Republic video game, dice rolls are designed to be essentially “invisible” so as to not interrupt the flow or immersion of the game. The GM knows how it works, the GM will be doing all the work for you when it comes to dice, and you can concentrate on writing and enjoying the game as if it were merely a work of collaborative fanfiction; the only thing you need to pay attention to, once you’ve created your Character Sheet, is the in-character content of the GM’s updates, his out-of-character instructions/notifiers, and your fellow players’ updates.
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