We have been working on an RP fanfic for Sabine Wren since 2014 that should be inline with the official Star Wars current canon. We are not usurping or purporting our AU canon overrides Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars. As the Star Wars Actors Guild 77 (SWAG77), we like to play along with the current canon and add a few tidbits as to why they made confident plot choices. We do not get exclusive secret spy information about Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars plot choices. Instead, we gather evidence through literature reviews and production and actors’ comments and then formulate speculative hypotheses to predict courses of action that we think Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars might take.
For SABINE WREN – our central hypothesis is in THE MANDALORIAN, she will obtain the Darksaber through ritual combat and survive again. We have several pieces of data that support this hypothesis, and we discuss this in the SABINE WREN BLOG and FACEBOOK PAGEthat we will not discuss in this post.
The question is, why does she need the Darksaber when she gave it away? We actually have ideas that we discuss on our Discord Server.
Our conflict for this story arc is Rara-avis (Rare bird — get it, she’s a WREN) vs. Duty.
The plot is still being worked out and is discussed on Sabine Wren’s Blog, Facebook Page, and Discord Server.
Ideas for different plot points are manifested with the RP account on SABINE WREN’s TWITTER.
We suspect the canon exposition of Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars story for SABINE WREN will be in the TV Show: AHSOKA.
The canon aspects mixed with our story arc will be discussed in Discord and our Ahsoka TV Show Facebook Group by SWAG77. Should anyone read this blog post, please consider joining for a whole discussion. If the debate is good, we will upgrade it to a blog post and implement it in our story if it aligns with our goals. Please tell us you read the information from this blog post when you sign up. Do not invite; we will not approve. You must LIKE the AHSOKA TANO FACEBOOK PAGE, SABINE WREN FACEBOOK PAGE, or the EZRA BRIDGER FACEBOOK PAGE to get an automatic invitation.
RELATIONSHIPS, SHIPS AND SHIPPING
We keep this part of the fanfic separate from our shipping preference of THRAWN X SABINE WREN (THRAWN X SABINE WREN). This story’s plot will be revisited over time. We do not ship Ezra with Sabine (ezrabine or sabezra). We do not ship Thrawn except with Sabine. We will not entertain any other ships with those characters until Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars has ruled on this case. We think that only Thrawn can put Sabine on the Mandalorian Throne as the Queen, just like a “King” who gave up his duty as King and decided to become a “Knight” like Sir Lancelot; or like a Knight protects his Queen on a Chiss — err — Chessboard.
Even if roleplay is cursory, to start off on the best of your ability, consider creating a social media strategy that works for you optimally. Hypefury has a few suggestions.
There is a key to create SMART goals that can be measured. One idea to consider in the SMART system is if you WANT to do it. If you do not want to do it, then don’t.
What is your target audience. It cannot be broad. It must be honed in and the only way to understand your audience is deciding your research.
While reach and engagement is very important in social media, for roleplay there is a watching factor that inherently occurs with each performance and the more in character you maintain. Out of character discussion, while simpler in concept have to be maintained. Roleplay if staged must be organized for effectiveness. Nevertheless, metrics are important for business related posts, no so much for hobbies. And yes, vanity metrics, such as likes and followers mean nothing overall.
Have engaging content. Posting several different concepts in life is confusing to your followers. Posting consistent content sets your expertise for the social media you want. Then content should be a balance between content text and images. A picture is worth 1000 words. Some pictures are utterly controversial, not because of nudity, but because someone, somewhere, disagrees about the content and they want to make their point known. Links that post images are the most useful. Without that image, the text goes unread. Videos and gifs work better.
Social media calendars are essential for specific campaigns for roleplayers. Discussing overall your expertise is a good thing, but directing dates and times of your posts to optimize the interaction with the audience is what you use your social media metrics for.
The issue with strict RP accounts is there is a time where there lots of interaction, then there is a long lull period. Lost of interaction period is when the new content is released. Use your calendar for estimating the concept of that. Use holidays. Prepare featured product releases. All podcasts and video releases. Think about how you are going to lead your audience and persuade them to your ideas of your expertise. Be prepared for hecklers because there is always a schism. Have a plan for that. The lull periods should be used for all your ideas being written somewhere on a blog, or site, etc. Your audience can be referred to your sites that go in depth. Then you can charge for more exclusive information.
Roleplay to the Star Wars Actors Guild 77 (SWAG77) means an outline and script written to perform on social media. Portrayal of a character is NOT roleplay to SWAG77. Portrayal is fun to do, but it does lead to wasted social media time. If all someone wants to do is distraction, shoot the breeze, piddle about, meaningless conversation, and/or trying to make friends you have never met, okay. Define what you want. But if you ever seen our roleplays, they are incredible. Lots of people wake up and watch. But it takes a lot of planning and practice.
Our blog is about what is going on in RL regular profile, non-RP accounts. Imagine what happens in RP accounts when there is a MUSE vs MUN problem?
If 70% of 18+ are using social media and it affects their real interactions with people, and 60% are unhappy with their interactions on social media, think how it affects our RPs in performances? IF SOMEONE SEES RP LIKE A PERFORMANCE!
Most RPers are trying to develop relationships with one another. Some serious relationship that lead to dating, marriage or otherwise. To some people who is very strange, to others it’s the norm. In reality, from a socio-psychological standpoint, it’s unrealistic of how a relationship truly develop no matter the words of the intimacy. Historically it could be true, but humans need physical interaction and not through a keyboard.
Treating RP like creating a movie, television show or play production, makes it easier to digest the psychological connections people erroneously conceive as real relationships, even if on-screen there was a sexual filming. This is why not anyone is an actor without classes.
Please. Stop necroposting on Character pages on Facebook. It’s really not smart. The administrators cannot respond because you MISSED OUT! There won’t be a rerun. Facebook doesn’t append pages past a certain date. So expecting any page response from an administrator on a post older than 3 months means you are ignorant on how to use Facebook pages. You need to learn how to do that.
The first way is to STOP NECROPOSTING!
What is necroposting:
Any post made 2-3 months ago, often associated with an image and specifically associated with a “fictional character” page – and you the post runs as fast as you can trying to put your 2 cents worth of an opinion that is IRRELEVANT to the post or discussion.
Not all pages are FAN PAGES!
FAN PAGES generally do not PERFORM or ROLEPLAY! They do not ACT IN CHARACTER! They are NOT PORTRAYING the character. Fan pages are because Fans made the page and the company, Lucasfilm, does not know about them.
SWAG 77 pages are PERFORMANCE PAGES which means page ACTS like and responds IN CHARACTER to your questions. Pointing out fan or lore related information is NOT PERFORMANCE. It’s not ROLEPLAY! It is stupid. If we behaved in character to your requests, we’d kill you. You would not know what hit you and you would not know how to respond.
Perhaps a FAN page or LORE page is more suited to your faire and questions. Consider joining those communities first before joining a full performance page.
Say you are a newbie, and this is the first time you’ve been on any social media platform, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc. It takes ~2 months for an outsider to NAVIGATE small pockets Star Wars social media, unless you are published.
This manual is geared toward Facebook and the users of Facebook pages. But it can translate easily to other social media platforms with these steps:
YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT STAR WARS EVER! Unless you have access to the top secret George Lucas Jedi Archives with his hologram speaking to you on Facebook, and why he would chat on Facebook is beyond us — then no, you’re not an expert. You are not an expert if you DO NOT work for Lucasfilm Star Wars Story Group. Why would any of the story group members chat with you about top secret information? Who are you? If your posts are loquacious and you have been here for only a minute, it indicates to fans what you do not know and that you will never know EVERYTHING ABOUT STAR WARS EVER!
Just because you HAVE a Star Wars Facebook fan page, doesn’t mean you’re expert. But it does probably mean you did not do a search and evaluate your competition in the Star Wars fandom. Most people who know what they’re talking about, have been established in the online community for awhile. Establishing oneself takes ~4 months with advertising. Unless you have strong outside backing and support (spelled DIS on the NYSE), and in some cases, groups do have that, then okay, it is less in establishment on Facebook. Mocking other fan pages similar to yours, makes you look dumb, and your page will die in 2 months without posts for a year…
ABOUT FACEBOOK PAGES: Honestly, “share for share” requests are SPAM. But people get a ton of likes that way. However, it says very little about the relevancy and purpose of what you PUT on your page. If you want to have a page: general or performance (roleplaying), then put content that will make what you do exciting. Otherwise, you would be shutting down a 1000+ liked page.
FACEBOOK PAGES are slated by FACEBOOK for BUSINESS! Random community-based pages are “permitted” at the time being. They MAY do away with them. You are at the leisure of Facebook, which means you better be working with Facebook to understand how to USE A PAGE. Propping one up for vengeance is a BAD MOVE! Never do business to get back at anyone – it means your competition has already won…
3. How to get involved on PAGES just as a profile user:
Post under questions the pages ask. Your posts should be respectful and honorable. Be supportive to the content creators, not confrontational.
TYPING IN ALL CAPS FOR A SIMPLE POST IS CONFRONTATIONAL!
No one is here to disturb the balance of the Force, even if they’re clueless. Gauge where the conversation is going. If 10 people are saying “Yes, I agree” and you disagree, be respectful about it and state that you disagree and why. Don’t just be disagreeable for no reason. That is called trolling.
DO NOT OUT the page administrators. That’s DUMB and IMMATURE. Outing people is for “diaper babies”. Just because you cannot post what you want does not mean you have rights here. You can post what you want on your own page.
Stay RELEVANT to the topic – also called “stay in your lane”. Everyone is counting the ways how they love Jar Jar Binks and you say, “I like blue milk” is TROLLING. Just don’t post. No one cares how you feel about blue milk, it has nothing to do with extolling the love of Jar Jar.
PAGE HOPPING FOR GOSSIP. Just because we are all Star Wars fans does not mean we are a monolithic group. Everyone has “spots” that we share as a part of our fandom. Some people are into Mandalorians. Some people are into Sith. Some people are into Jedi. Some people are into the Original Trilogy and some people are into the Expanded Universe. But whatever we are into, we are all Star Wars fans. It is okay if we stick with a group that makes us feel most comfortable. Hopping from one page to gossip about another page is BAD KARMA. It will get back to the original page and they might ban you for being stupid.
If you need assistance in understanding PAGE management, we can help you in our group: First Step In A Larger SWAG 77 World. Members manage well over 500 pages on Facebook, some pages are from professional and celebrity clients. If you want to optimize your page features geared toward Star Wars fandom, then join the group.
NEVER BAD MOUTH A PAGE PUBLICLY. You privately state that in a message. That is the quickest way toward exclusion. You do not know the FULL GRAVITY of the situation, or how a page deals with misbehavior which is at its discretion. A free-for-all bashing to defame someone is silly. If you “don’t start none, there won’t be none” is the mentality that needs to be taken here on social media. Some people come from a really hard life. Some people may be gang members or might be in prison. You never know who you are dealing with when you act crazy on someone’s page that you chose to LIKE! Be cool and no one will be one the wiser. Public personal attacks means you are insecure and unprofessional. If you rant on your own page or profile, it can backfire because it is still public. You don’t have a safe space to vent unless you shut your space from all people. But then, no one will see your thoughts. That is the MATURE choice one makes in life. But you should be able to defend your point of view with facts, not because your feelings were hurt.
HAVING A PAGE IS NOT YOUR REAL LIFE! We see this ALL THE TIME! And especially on fictional character pages – people fantasizing they ACTUALLY ARE pretty princesses high up in towers waiting to be rescued. Sorry, Facebook’s minimum age requirement is 13. NOT 13 year old behavior. Roleplay is not meant for you to pretend to live your real life. Roleplay to the Star Wars Actors Guild 77 is meant to be a performance, like a play, with a script and character roles to be performed. We have studied how roleplay works on Facebook. We have optimized how we perform on Facebook. Our system shows that everyone feels better when we have our proprietary plan.
FOR REAL LIFE FACEBOOK PROFILE ACCOUNTS AND TWITTER ACCOUNTS: For Star Wars Actors Guild 77 Fictional Character Facebook pages, if you post on your real life profile account, you are NOT roleplaying with us. On Twitter, we roleplay with SWAG 77 member that are on Facebook or Tumblr. If you post on SWAG 77 page with your real life Facebook profile account, it means we might respond to your question. We are not obligated to respond to anything you post. What that means, is you can’t activate your lightsaber, even if you know how to roleplay with Facebook profile.
If you post with a page, we will delete your post. SWAG 77 has member pages that are modified and tweaked daily. A page that is not in our group, cannot interact with our pages as a part of our roleplays. We have written a story arc and campaign on how we want our pages to perform. If the character you portray is a copy of one of our pages, we cannot allow you to perform with us.
You can’t start a roleplay on ANY Star Wars Actors Guild 77 PAGE, PERIOD! This is NOT negotiable. Why? We are honor the continuity of Star Wars through Lucasfilm and Disney as directed.
ALL OUR CHARACTER PAGES POST IN CHARACTER. We like the practice. WE do it with our standards as outlined. Only members of Star Wars Actors Guild 77 can start stories. You want fan fiction, you have to join the group, and there are several rules that are involved with what we do. It is NOT for everyone. Our members are serious and our longevity speaks for itself.
4. Character Pages are not permitted to post on Star Wars Lore pages. They can technically post on Fictional Character pages. But they must be approved by SWAG 77 before engaging in any significant story. A significant story has a plot. You cannot tell our characters what to do when you are not a part of the group. Even if you are a part of the group, we train you to not supersede the exposition: A Jawa does not tell Darth Vader what to do… You will not be a Darth Ewok Sith Lord. You post on our character pages, we ban you or worse. Don’t be stupid with us.
We are a CLOSED story roleplay performance group. Unorganized, spontaneous and random roleplay breeds contempt. It kills Star Wars fandom. Most RPers do not participate in Star Wars fandom in any official capacity, such as Star Wars Celebration, The 501st Legion, The Rebel Legion, The Mandalorian Mercs, or The Dark Empire. They don’t go to cons. If they go, they aren’t doing anything beyond a casual attendee. They don’t talk about panels, they don’t write blogs, they don’t get celebrities on their blogs or podcasts.
The Star Wars Actor Guild 77 goes to Star Wars Celebration. Many of our members are members of the cosplay organizations. They plan the conventions. They SIT on panel. Some of our “friends” are authors of Star Wars books and they have joined us on the SWAG 77 podcast. That is why we are strict in what we do. If there is a group much more loose on restrictions, then by all means, join that group and have fun.
5. Don’t argue with the admins about the literature and you don’t know it. If you are unsure how to get involved with the literature, then, like Pablo Hildago said, pick an era you want to know more on, and read the information. First you go to StarWars.com, and then you go from there.
For example: Star Wars Rebels is coming out. It is between ROTS Episode III and ANH Episode IV. How do you start.
EASIEST – Pick which side you like: The good guys or the bad guys. Who are the good guys to you? Who are the bad guys to you? Search for a good book like this one: Star Wars: A New Dawn and READ IT! Then listen to our SWAG 77 Podcast.
MODERATE – Choose a character class and read up on that character first, then a specific book. Follow the same.
HARD – Jump right in to whatever book interests you from a Google search
6. FRIENDSHIPS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media is about being “social”. Being friendly goes with the territory. But Facebook Pages are for businesses. Corporate pages do not engage socially like “bffs”. Small business pages do but not like “bffs”. However, in the roleplay performance business, you are not the customer, you are enjoying the fruits of labor on social media. Stomping your feet and yelling at admins about a “product” is unwise. It disengages the business from assisting you, and optimizing their activities.
What’s the point is trying to appease just ONE unsatisfied poster who is being quite unreasonable when the rest of the posts are ameneable?
How will it stop our business from telling all their trade group members risk management of this ONE poster?
Why should a page become your friend? Should you not have real friends that you can speak to in real life?
What about the friends on your personal Facebook profile?
Is your family or friends watching your misbehavior on your Facebook profile? If they are that should tell you are and they are saying something about it, then you are out of control on social media and you may be a danger to someone or yourself.
Star Wars Actors Guild 77 has study posting activities for awhile and people have great revelations they can learn. But the first steps are to get everyone on the same PAGE, so that we can address a topic fully, appropriately and respectfully.
Should you want to join what we do, we have systems in place and you can message the Facebook page.
But newbies want to and no one is really educating them on the basics. Sadly, we are re-posting this blog because we are tired of individuals appearing on our pages violating our rules. So here are the basics of RP originally from the ForceNet’s Jedi Council Forums, as modified.
Basic Rules of Roleplaying – modified from ForceNet’s Jedi Council Forums
This is a suggested resource for Basic Rules of Roleplaying (RP) and is a modification of the Force.Net Jedi Council Forum boards. MOST legitimate roleplaying sites follow similarly. There is a difference between “forum based roleplaying” and “roleplaying on very public social media sites”, such as FB due to more social interactions.
SWAG 77 no longer roleplays (RP) as of May, 2012.
Each RP has its own rules according to the group’s desires. But there are four fundamental rules that you will come across in virtually every RP. Understanding what these rules mean will help you become a better RPer and into RP faster.
It is important to know the rules of RP, because if you do not abide by them, RPers do have the right to block or ban you from their pages.
1. Obey the TOS of the Social Media:
The TOS stands for the “Terms Of Service”, and it sets out what you can and cannot do on the Social Media site. Since you do not own it, then you need to read it, comprehend it, and post accordingly, and you will prosper. Swear, flame, bait, or spam a feed or wall – especially when the person does not know you will cause you to be blocked and banned.
Facebook’s Terms of Service clearly states no FAKE OR IMPOSTER PROFILE ACCOUNTS. They will delete an account that has been deemed as fake. How they do it is up for speculation, usually reporting my comments made by others. It is unfair, but if you do not have a legal government document of your name on the account, then it will be deleted or purged. If you make another one, it will be deleted and purged.
2. No Godmodding:
Godmodding is named for the “godmod”. It is often find in a computer game where you are in a cheat mode and you are invulnerable, have unlimited ammunition, can walk through walls, and etc.
In a RP there are two types of godmodding:
Creating and using a character with no weaknesses, or a character with limitless or unbelievable resources or abilities at his disposal
Writing your character doing things in the game that your character really has no plausible chance of achieving:
For example, a ten-year-old padawan character taking on Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel and whipping the Sith Lord’s butt.
Or saying you survived the explosion of the Death Star 1 because you created a Force Field.
Godmodding, in short, is CHEATING! It is looked down upon severely by all RPers.
DO NOT DO IT!
This is important because it alerts FB to question and investigate your account.
3. No RIDICULOUS Auto-Hitting also known as being a puppet master:
Normal autohitting is allowable so as long as it is not a mortal wound where death is achieved. Loosing hands and feet is par for the course for Star Wars. Other RPers will not like it done to them, but the technology is advanced enough to have replacement parts.
ACCEPTABLE:
“Luke swung at Darth Vader, and hits him cutting off his cybernetic hand”
UNACCEPTABLE:
“Luke Force Severs Darth Vader, and then allows the Force Cancelling Ysalamir allow his Kaiburr Crystal Double-Bladed Sith Blade to chop him up so that he can serve to the Rancor on his Lambda Shuttle like Darth Malgus told him to do.”
The above is RIDICULOUS AUTO-HITTING because you are not giving the person RPing “Darth Vader” a chance to come up with a defense.
That goes without saying you do not kill another person’s character without his or her permission. This is called a “no kill” order. While it is fun to have “rage” and kill everything in site, your RP ought to reflect some semblance of a plot or reason for your presence on a RPer’s wall or in a RP group.
RP etiquette and protocol that deals with how to speak to people and engage them in RP is part of an advanced techniques course at SWPU.
In a more general sense, do not manage other people’s characters in any way, shape, or form. This means that you cannot control them, “character jack” them = doing wild things to them while they are absent, etc. unless they give you EXPLICIT permission.
Conversing with ANY RPers is by the privilege of the RPer. It is called SOCIAL MEDIA for a reason! You become sociable through decent casual conversation, pleasantries and allow the RPer to warm up to you on HIS or HER time!
DO NOT spam their wall with stupid apps, or demand them to play app games, post irrelevant lame one-liners that comes on to them or hits on them. DO NOT perpetuate vicious rumors that you think you may have heard about them. You also do not blowing up his or her chat unless they approach you directly or you are pleasant with them. Messaging them could get you blocked unless they are civil.
Watch and learn is a good rule of thumb.
Since you want to speak to veteran RPers, then YES, you DO have to impress them. The best way is to LEARN about their characters, is to discuss STAR WARS and their character in it!!! The WHOLE RP is about this one fact!!! Speak to RPers in a PUBLIC location, preferably in groups with civility, diplomacy, etiquette and protocol.
Basically, don’t be an asshole on someone’s own page, especially when you want the “job” of RPing with them.
Don’t cut off your nose despite your face…
4. The ADMINISTRATOR(S) word is final:
This is plain old common sense, but it is important to say it anyway. The RPers or administrators who started the page – or ADMINS – have the final say on any issue in the RP. It does not matter how harsh the decision is; it is their RP – their house, they are your hosts, and you are their guest. A guest does not make a mess in their host’s house.
If a decision is bothering you so much that you do not want to continue RPing, you are always welcomed to take the liberty to leave – or why not consider starting up your own RP group?
CAUTION! These modified rules are a part of the SWAG 77 and the ISCA. It is plagiarism to use them without acknowledgement.
5. POST YOUR CHARACTER SHEET ON YOUR PROFILE:
You enter most RPs by posting a “character sheet” (character description – search for templates or wait for the course). Everyone should be able to READ A CLEAR, CONCISE CHARACTER SHEET!
If you are new to RP, it is BEST for someone to “vouch” for your RP abilities that can be seen: in groups and other Social Media sites as Fan Fictions. Or be “mentored” by someone until you get your sheet completed.
Recommended: The RP should be seen and proven. Doing this avoids superfluous interactions, repeating your backstory or getting cyberbullied.
Some RPers will not friend you unless they can see your character sheet. Trying to figure out your character, cannot be done at the time of RP. It frustrates the others and they will tease you mercilessly if you flip flop between characters. Get at least some basics of your character down and work from there. Moreover, it improves your writing.
SWAG 77 follows the canon, continuity and timeline of Star Wars as outlined by the Holocron Keeper, Leland Chee and his team. Lucasfilm hired him to specifically conform all the stories to align to what is said in “G-canon” – “George-Canon” which are the movies. According to Star Wars Infinities, the Star Wars canon follows as outlined:
What is Star Wars Canon
Canon is what is licensed, approved and paid for by Lucasfilm and supports the vision of George Lucas, or the leaders of Lucasfilm. which is Disney and Kathleen Kennedy.
In a story, canonicity shifts to tell a great story. Just like politics, medicine, morals and ideas shift, so do stories. Old theories change with new data. To evolve, we have to change. It is about survival. If the story of Star Wars is to survive, the canon will change. Getting too wrapped up in story absolutes limits everyone’s potential.
Ironically, all the content creators at Lucasfilm understand this fact. However, fans are a different breed. Fans that have been involved with Star Wars Fandom and know few of the Star Wars celebrities, are okay with new content creation.
It is the casual or the new fans, that don’t cosplay, have not read a novel or seen the latest TV show – they just have not had the full Star Wars fan experience that lacks the open-mindedness to change. And with every organization that has a hierarchy, a sociological design, there will always be fans that if you mess with their equilibrium, there will become some explosive diatribes on social media. From “George Lucas raped my childhood” to “Disney is going to destroy Star Wars”.
Those of us who perform on social media (or roleplay) and like to write fan-fiction in Star Wars get the brunt end of those vocal few that are closed-minded. We suffer the litanies of the big-bad-corporation dominating over “THEIR” Star Wars! And it is weird to us because what we do is take all the information we can get from Lucasfilm and incorporate it into a presentable story for Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
At SWAG 77, EVERYDAY, we read a lot of material from EVERY source to understand the characters we portray. We talk to cosplayers, actors and if we can, the writers and directors, who can guide our understanding of the thoughts and ideas behind a story so we can effectively bring characters to life on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. There are several ways we do this process.
Sadly, our work gets diminished by rabid fans in their “warped world being unmedicated”. Sometimes it gets downright ugly. We get called real-life names, such as racial and gender-preference epithets on our canon character pages. We are trolled. We are attacked sexually – called e-raping by some fans. Our real-life gets outed and mocked, and we are not protected by the content creators of Lucasfilm or Disney.
All for portraying a movie/TV character on Facebook and Twitter.
No story is worth that much by telling it social media, and we do it out sheer love, no remuneration or perks all for Star Wars.
If your house is anything like my house, then your books look like the above shelves. How do you stay on top of reading your Star Wars Books?
It helps me to get electronic books because I read them faster than I read printed books.
What does reading Star Wars books have to do with “roleplaying” – okay, okay – performing with SWAG 77.
When you fail to read anything, you cannot perform your character/entity/planet page with accuracy or honor to the content creators of the story. How can you say you can perform Sun Guards when you know nothing about them? And while Wookieepedia is a start, even they endorse going to the literature, reading and study it.
On obscure or underdeveloped characters, sometimes new to Star Wars, pure aggressive content information grabs are what drives one to want to portray a character accurately. Such was the case of the character, Bo-Katan.
It took consistent outreach to Lucasfilm to get details on the character that one one else had. It took listening to all podcasts, reading every Star Wars Insider, speaking to some cosplayers, following outlying concepts about Mandalorians, even going over to the other side – Death Watch’s enemies: True Mandalorians (Yes, the ones we love) and reading as much relevant material.
In there real world, it is called research and what you are doing is a “review of the literature” and from there, a hypothesis can be built and specific aims can be developed. Then the rest of the “performance” is like a “science experiment” – tests on what works and what does not work, the results and what conclusions can be drawn. Then, a project can continue, or be phased out.
But the drive of a project is inherently built by one’s passion about it, and a lot – I mean A LOT – of reading and constantly thinking of ideas, hypothesis and theories to test that are demonstrable, e.g. through writing in blogs; and by performing.
These ideas are what set the standards for SWAG 77‘s entertainment and performance on social in perpetuity.
It got us thinking about how people set up their “Facebook Character Pages” and their backstories. Most people are eager to just be performing or “roleplaying”. It is because of this eagerness, it opens them up to cyberbullying and negative experiences. Most of these people perform with a lot “overpowering” and “godmodding” .
If you do not know what those terms mean, they are not performing and roleplaying. They are messing around and hurting innocent people.
The fact is to DEVELOP ONE’S CHARACTER!
First you need to have a character sheet. This character sheet is a modified form from the Star Wars: The Old Republic game forum.
At minimum you need fill out the top 5 items:
Species/Race: Is your character human? Or Zabrak? Or some combination that makes sense in the canon? It is a good idea to be as close to the canon, or the Star Wars story arcs, as you possibly can be. Your character will appear as reasonable in the Star Wars Universe. Too many species combinations makes your character appear overpowered and it looks like you cannot perform or roleplay. Moreover, it says something about your roleplaying when you cannot decide your character’s species.
Name: Choose a name based on something that will make you proud and you would be honored to show others. If you name it after yourself, your character appears to be lazy, and that you are pretending you are some hotshot overpowering godmodder in roleplay.
Additionally, stalking pedophiles who appear to be nice online initially will wait to do something crazy like show up on your doorstep, if you reveal your real information… IT IS NOT SMART USING YOUR REAL NAME IN RP!
There are name generators can help you create a name. Creating a good name also assists you in starting your character’s backstory. Why did you name your character that name?
If you do not have a good cause for your character’s name, then it tells you something about your story — you need to work on it. Why? Because RP is ultimately about acting out a story for fun. Storytelling takes a talent and writing. Inherently on social media, particularly Facebook, writing a story is about key elements in creative writing: plot and exposition. You should have learned this in the 8th grade. You can claim whatever floats your fantasy boat online, but you still would look like an overpowered godmodder in roleplay when you name your character after yourself or lack a good story behind your character’s name.
Gender: Be clear about your chosen gender even if fluid. If you don’t, and you have no justification as to why you do not, then you could be bullied. We think being bullied is WRONG, but there are a lot of simple-minded people on social media. Make sure your RP partners are open to diverse genders and are willing to go with it.
Year of Birth (BBY or ABY): Birthdate is needed due to timeline in Star Wars. If all the RPers are roleplaying in The Old Republic, like Darth Malgus, and you are a part of the Legacy One Sith, Darth Nihl, then you to reconsider your character’s birthdate. Why? It is a “soul-searching” get over it kind of thing – your character being 100,000 years old is lame in RP. If you chose the “Yoda’s species” or a “Hutt species” or another justifiable long-lived species, you had better have images and pics reflecting your character. Do not appear a “Draco in Leather Pants” kind of character or a Mary Sue. Seriously, no one will RP with you when it is like that.
Age: Same issue as above. It is easier to play a character at an age you have passed because of your life experience. But there are some people who can perform really well as characters older than themselves. It is what you are comfortable with as the age you are. But choose wisely.
Home Planet: CHOOSE A STAR WARS CANON PLANET NOT EARTH! It is called a “Long ago in a galaxy far, far away” that means before the dinosaurs, before there was air on Earth, which means there is no way you can time travel and go back to other planets. You are doing alternate universe that is NOT STAR WARS! Besides being from Earth is not an interesting story. What you are doing is living your real life through your roleplaying character page. People do not want to see YOU as your real named from Earth in a fictional Star Wars universe!
Final Insights: Be about storytelling. Be about roleplay in the verse. Be about acting and performing. Learn how to do these things and you will come out on top where people enjoy your character as well as your performance.
What we found is, both of the SWTOR forms lacked a good backstory necessary for character development and performing the character on social media without attack.
Having a good backstory takes time, and the audience does not want to see your personal history as a backstory for your character. It appears as if you are living your life through your fictional character, rather than trying to really tell a story and having your character’s voice. It lacks plot and depth and your character is trivialized in the story.
A good backstory generally gives the motivation for the plot and the story arc. Some backstories are too long and no one wants to read them. Other backstories are too short and leaves too much to be desired. But a backstory in social media entertainment should be nearly a “tagline” to a plot or the “blurb” on the back cover of a book. Long enough to be intriguing, but short enough to read it quickly.
Character identification: SWAG 77 is Star Wars Actors Guild 77. STAR WARS! Not the latest popular fiction out there, but STAR WARS! Characters must be identified MORE than the movies and television. You must delve into the literature to fully understand the nature of your character’s identity.
A Sith Hutt would have poor exposition in performing a Star Wars story on Facebook. Your character would be unbelievable in Star Wars and would be traumatic for you when explain your character to Star Wars fans. Most of the time people who do that overpower their characters making them “Mary Sues” to fit into the performance, rather than studying the canon and seeing what is possible.
When you create your character, you had better know something about his or her homeworld, what the latest Star Wars Expanded Universe literature is on it, and you should know everything about your character.
Senator Yemaja is half-Human, half-Yuuzhan Vong. 1) How can that happen? It is justified on the power of the Force to go absence as desired if one believes in the Unifying Force Theory. The basis of this was Force Sever. Does one become absent in the Force when severing herself from it? What causes that severance? What I found is Force Sever is a choice. The Force user can choose to sever herself from the Force and it is painful. The research was obtained by reading all the novels about the Yuuzhan Vong, what Force Severing was in the book, “Jedi vs Sith” and constantly looking for updates on Wookieepedia. 2) Senator Yemaja is part Korunnai from Haruun Kal, making her a power in the Force due to her past Jedi heritage. I used the molecular cellular biological concept of “variegation” to justify that not all of Yemaja’s cells had “midichlorians” in them. That in fact Yemaja’s mother was a Chimera – the eggs in her mother did not match the cells in her body. This is a real occurred in human biology. By implementing this process, I enriched the plot into what does the Force do with variegation and chimeras? These are the stories that are performed under SWAG 77.
SWAG77 is not affiliated with Lucasfilm except in Star Wars Celebration 6. The reason for that is the information submitted on the application. We read and write a lot for our stories and characters. Our reading list is long. Our sample writings spread over several blogs and stories. We follow a scripting format. Our process is intense. Our purpose is to not only get as close to canon as possible, but also to predict it. We have followed information on our favorite characters so closely that we have been accurate on what is shown on television and/or written in the novels. We ask the content creators of Star Wars, keep aspects on the characters and situations. We stay on top of the Lucasfilm Star Wars franchise. That is what it takes to perform on social media.
Many people barely do that and want to chase “roleplayers” for sexual conquest. But our performances are like a production for television – the audience wants more. Screen Actors Guild actors ask us what we are doing. Bestselling authors are watching our progress. Now we need Lucasfilm to see us at our best. So when we say “audition”, these people are the ones that we have to impress, not some alleged little girl (maybe) attempting to sleep her way to the top with all the “Star Wars Jedi”.
On SWAG77 we follow the rules of Facebook and Google+ and use pages for all our characters. If you cannot use a page because you use a phone, then SWAG77 is not for you at this time. Our work demands us to create and manage a lot of pages. The demand to switch from one character to another on the numerous different pages. There will be NO fake impostor accounts in our system. Other groups may use different systems and that is them, but that is not SWAG77. We have a standard and we would like to keep it. Using fake accounts is risky and you can lose them. We are running an ethical business and we want people to be honest for their best performances.
You do not need a performing page, we have several members who do not perform but assist us in writing, evaluating and developing our stories. That is a great service to us and we appreciate their input.
Assume all information you present to us is an “audition” for your admittance to SWAG77. So would it not be in your best interest to put your best foot forward? If you think you are up to the challenge, complete our simple character sheet!
Star Wars Performance University 