Transmissions: May 2002
Change, Change, Change Will Do You Good . . .

By Jae Walker
Living Force Campaign Director

There's nothing constant in the world,
All ebb and flow, and every shape that's born
Bears in its womb the seeds of change.
-- Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)

With the universe of Star Wars fans holding its collective breath waiting for the new movie, the Living Force campaign is moving forward, expanding its horizons. More people start playing Living Force every day (we have over 2,300 players now), and there are a number of exciting developments, and one sad bit of news.

New Faces
First, we're very excited to have added a number of volunteers to the metacampaign staff. I'm sure this will be good news to those of you waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for your metagaming requests to be filled. Please welcome our new Metagaming staffers, all reporting to Colleen:

Droids: Adam Bagby
FAA: Thomas McCambley
Government: Atis Kleinberg
Jedi Masters: Rob Little
Militia: Derrel Weaver
Ships: Vic Polites
Smugglers Consortium: Russell Foubert, Sean Yo
Trade Alliance: Gus Chan

Watch for the next Transmissions update - the newest members of the staff don't know it yet, but each of them will write a paragraph to introduce themselves and let you know what they're going to be doing. In the meantime, we're training them as fast as we can, and you should start seeing a significant improvement in our services.

In addition, we welcome Andy McPhee, our new U.K. Liaison. Andy is one of a number of international volunteers we're adding to the staff (reporting directly to me) to help develop and maintain a worldwide presence. (If you are an active player or judge in our international community, and you'd like to apply to become one of our international liaisons, please contact me. We have people for the U.K. and Canada, but the rest of the world needs representation as well.) Andy has the daunting task of stepping into the shoes left by Mexal (Megan Robertson) when she departed the LF staff to pursue other endeavors. The perspective she brought is one that was absolutely necessary to LF - as is evidenced by the fact that we are now recruiting multiple people, worldwide, to do what she did by herself. Best of luck, Mexal!

The End of Law and Order
Mexal's departure unfortunately coincides with the termination of the Law and Order storyline. Business reality set in, and the second story arc for Living Force, which we worked so hard to put in place, fell by the wayside. We're sorry to see it go, but we hope that the authors who were working on scenarios for it will choose to finish them, so that they can be published as one-off events in the "Among the Stars" story arc.

If you have a character you created for L&O, you can bring that character over and continue to play him (or her) in the primary arc. It's unlikely that L&O will return as its own story arc (never say "never," but it's really unlikely), so you can make your own decisions as to whether the character sticks around or rides off into a glorious dual sunset.

Revised Rulebook
As many of you are certainly aware, there is a new edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game core rules due out shortly. We've already gotten a lot of questions about what we're planning on doing, and here's the scoop (such as it is, right now). We are bound by non-disclosure agreements, and there's a strict limit on how much we can say. More information will be revealed as soon as possible.

Yes, we will covert to the new rules.

Yes, we will try to make it as painless as possible. Living Force is about character and story, and we want you to be able to play your hero as you envision her or him.

No, we will not convert certificates. All of our certificates are fine as they are. We are still evaluating the meta-campaign certificates to see if they'll need to be updated; if so, we'll post information here with contact information and procedures.

No, it won't happen as soon as the new rules hit the streets. Expect conversion at the end of Gen Con. We need time to evaluate the impact that various skills, feats, and classes will have on the campaign, to convert modules (to volunteer to help in this area, contact Morrie Mullins), and to get your input. We don't have all the details yet - so please, don't ask - and we can't reveal anything about the new rules without getting ourselves canned. We're quite certain that the 'net will be abuzz with ideas as soon as the book hits the streets, and we'll be listening.

May the Force Be With You!