Yet each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard...the coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword. - Oscar Wilde

<font color="#800517">ShadowHand Secrets</font color=#800517></font> Don't forget that in nearly every report I do, I hide things for you to figure out. Some examples are codes, riddles, clues, or just something random. Sometimes the items are related to our fiction plot and allude to things we have in store for the Brotherhood. Sometimes it's just for fun. Either way, figuring out what it is (if there is something) is a good way to pick up a Second Level Crescent.

The previous two winners were Shadow and Mayda respectively. Bear in mind though, I'll give out awards for the Top Three to get me the correct answers in the shortest time. So far I've only had a couple people solve them and a lot of wrong answers. Have fun with it and keep trying.

<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Guest Fiction</font color=#800517></font> When I can, I'm going to feature some of our more prominent writers to give us their character and/or unit's fictional take on Brotherhood goings-on. I'll leave the script pretty wide open so they can tell a brief story and give us a snippet of how things are progressing in their own fictional corner of the DB.

I figure this might be a bit more interesting than reading about my boring DC character, etc., and give the club a chance to see the writings of our very talented guys and gals out there. It'll also give me the chance to throw around some of the awesome sable-dark, darkity, black, stygian power I wield and push some awards through for the contributors.I

<font color="#575757">(Don't tell the Master-at-Arms!)</font color=#575757></font>

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Dark Crusade Vendetta Schedule</font color=#800517></font> At this point in time, and subject to change as always, we're looking at the following schedule:

1 May 2013 - Units make planetary selections for Phase One, Chapter Three

17 May - 31 May 2013 - Phase One, Chapter Three

June 2013 - Recovery from Independence Games & Phase One All Month

Early July 2013 - Phase Two Begins

This should give everyone some good downtime after the busy initial push, IG's, etc. Continue to let us know how everything is working out for you.s

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Dark Crusade Phase Two Scoring Model</font color=#800517></font> I sent out the scoring scheme for Phase Two to my Dark Lords the Consuls and Quaestors a couple weeks ago. This is part of our effort to get things out there to the guys on the ground so they know what's coming and can offer feedback, criticism, questions, etc., so we can try to deliver a better, more tailored product. This way we also avoid the usual crap of jumping out of the bushes on you guys the day before the Vendetta starts and yelling, "Surprise!" and you have no time to prepare for what will determine victory or defeat.

By now it should have been disseminated to you guys and everyone is tracking on their role in each team's effort. It's different for sure. Offers strategic and tactical depth we've not had before and will give more members than ever a shot at Novae.n I'll leave it there. Your leaders already have the rest of the information for you and anyone with questions or concerns can talk to their leaders or come talk to me and I'd be happy to walk them through it. But I already made my sales pitch on it to your leaders and won't try to convince you of anything here. The following is the basic premise.

<font size="4">Phase 2 Scoring</font>

Phase Two of the Dark Crusade is split into two major divisions:

Special Forces

General Troops

<font size="3">Special Forces</font>

These are elite 8 person teams constructed by each unit's Summit. These are your heavy-hitters that will be responsible for all the placement points earned by their unit. Points are earned by placement in the Top Three spots of each competition. First, Second, and Third. Placement points are what we'll use to determine which units will win the planet on which they're fighting. Top Five rankings will be announced and Novae will be awarded as usual.

Teams may be changed by the Summit from month to month for the Chapters of Phase Two. But teams are locked during the month. In case of extreme emergency during the month, we can work out replacements if needed. But be extremely careful in whom you choose. The whole idea is that these are your elite operatives. Skilled, motivated, reliable.

Special Forces members' participation will be factored into the overall participation score. So don't worry, they will count for you and not against.

<font size="3">General Troops</font>

These will comprise everyone else in the unit. Their participation will dictate how much of a reward (in fleet points) is available at the end of the month plus a special benefit explained below. For fleet points, this continues to work as it has before. Greater participation percentage grants more fleet points to work with.

Now here is where we get into the synergy between a unit's Special Forces team and their regular troops. If a unit's General Troops can manage an overall participation percentage of 1.5 or better, then that unit's Special Forces team will earn an "Attachment" for the following month only. Again, the SF team's participation is part of the overall participation percentage.

What's an Attachment? An Attachment in the military is an element (person, unit, etc.) that will work with another unit under certain circumstances. When I was in the Army we had attachments all the time in the form of Air Force guys, etc., who would help us coordinate close air support, etc.

An Attachment for our purposes here will simply be an extra member added to your Special Forces team. This means that in the following month only, you will have 9 members earning you placement points rather than 8. You can see the obvious advantages and the need to keep your general troops motivated and pushing forward as before.

General Troops will also be able to earn Novae. Just like Special Forces division, the General Troops division will be scored First, Second, Third, etc. Novae for the Top Three. First through Fifth will be announced as usual.

Again, Special Forces members' participation will be factored into the overall participation score. So don't worry, they will count for you and not against.

<font size="3">Judging & Events</font>

Both divisions, Special Forces and General Troops, will operate under the same events.m But for judging on each planet, a unit's Special Forces team will only be scored against the other units' Special Forces elements they are facing.

The same goes for General Troops. The two separate divisions will only be judged against each other on each planet.

Example:

Planet XYZ

Clan ABC vs. House DEF

Results:

Special Forces

Fiction (Same event details for General Troops)

1. DJM Awesome Sauce (Clan ABC)
2. DA Wicked Cool (House DEF)
3. etc.
4. etc.
5. etc.

General Troops

Fiction (Same event details for Special Forces)

1. DJK Badass (House DEF)
2. JH Darkity Dark (House DEF)
3. etc.
4. etc.
5. etc.

Obviously this goes for whatever events we run.r You get the idea, but I know this stuff can be confusing so figured I'd spell it out.

We'll remind you again later, but mark your entries with Special Forces or General Troops for easier sorting and quicker scoring.

<font size="3">Special Forces Placement Points</font>

Remember, your Special Forces teams are going to determine who wins the battle for each planet. General Troops are going to determine how many fleet points will be won and if your unit's SF team will get an Attachment in the following Chapter.

First Place in the Special Forces division is worth 15 points

Second Place in the Special Forces division is worth 10 points

Third Place in the Special Forces division is worth 5 points

Ties in placement points will be broken by whichever unit had the higher overall participation percentage.

Planetary theaters will be offered as before.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Winning the Dark Crusade</font color=#800517></font> Surprised more people haven't asked me this, but here it is.U We are going to determine overall winners for the Crusade by using the two primary metrics we have: highest average participation percentage + most planets won = First, Second, Third Place, etc.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">New Combat Master</font color=#800517></font> The depth of talent in this club is pretty impressive. I did not want to lose Shadow as Combat Master. I understand his reasons perfectly and he's promised not to go too far from the much-anticipated Character Sheets project he started with Mav.y I appreciate greatly Shadow's contributions thus far and look forward to more.

Thank you, partner.

But as we lose Shadow, we gain Mav. Telaris "Mav" Taldrya Cantor to be exact. Mav was working right along side Shadow on the new Character Sheets and Muz and I reasoned he'd be perfect to step in and continue not only that work, but the refocusing of the Antei Combat Center on good writing rather than good numbers.s I apologize for the lack of an application process, but we felt strongly we needed to move as quickly as possible in order to keep this project going and get the ACC back online as soon as possible.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Antei Combat Center Renovation</font color=#800517></font> I want my ACC... [Insert Guitar Riff Here]

This project is very much alive and surging forward.r Thanks be to: Shadow, Mav, Wally, Halc, Gryffon, and of course, James.

As promised, here's a sneak-peek at the new Character Sheets and some design thoughts on where things are headed from our new Combat Master, Mav.

Mav writes:

First and foremost, keep in mind this character sheet is still in development. As such, any and all features and sections of the character sheet could change dramatically between now and release.

So what's changing about the character sheet?

This character sheet is meant to describe your character to the whole of the Brotherhood, not just who you might fight in the ACC. This sheet will be your one stop shop to learn critical information in order to write other Brotherhood members - both friends and foes - effectively. It's also there to help you, as a Brotherhood member, start to think about what might make your character stand out from other characters. The goal of this character sheet is to assist in making Brotherhood writing more about characters and their personalities, and less about interpreting stats.

So what's that mean?W

The first step is implementing Aspects. Aspects are character traits, attributes, and even a bit of background that help to flush out the behavior and personality of the character in question. They are short phrases, followed by a paragraph, which explain a great deal of meaning behind the character - sometimes motivation; other times common actions or responses. You'll have quite a few Aspects to choose from when the Character Sheets launch, and there will likely be an opportunity for approval of custom Aspects.

<img src="http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/raken/images/aspect_example.gif"

As previously mentioned, these character sheets will be used for more than just combat. In order to emphasize this, Brotherhood members will be able to pick a variety of non-combat skills. Ranks in skills will be built upon as if moving up a ladder - you will need a skills at all ranks below the rank you wish to invest a skill in (see image below).

To make character creation easier on members, James has been working on an excellent automation tool which will make character creation simple!l In addition, we'll be providing members with extensive guides and explanations.

What are all those other options you see listed on this screenshot, you ask? Well...you'll find out in the future as we roll out more information on the new sheets!

As some of you may have guessed, the new Character Sheet system will borrow heavily from the Fate RPG system, so if you're a bit more curious about what some of this stuff might mean...feel free to look up the Fate system, but don't assume everything you read is going to appear in our Character Sheets.

<img src="http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/raken/images/skills.gif"

So you can see here that some really great work is being done.

More to come in the months ahead.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Undernet Woes, Alternate Comm. Plans, and How to Find Your DGM</font color=#800517></font> "Raken never gets on IRC...what a dick!"

I know, right? Some of you know of my Undernet woes. For whatever reason, I cannot connect to the thing to save my life. I've talked to a couple local IRC experts and no one seems to know what the deal is.i I travel a lot for work, so it could have something to do with where I'm working and their network set-up. Dunno. When I go on vacation again here shortly I'll try again from home.

In the meantime, as many of you who speak with me on a regular basis know, I'm almost always on gmail. Email me, or if you have gmail, use the chat thing. I'm pretty quick to respond to either. So please don't feel like I abandoned you. If I could get on IRC I would, but it's not in the cards at the moment.

Further, we've talked a lot about looking at alternatives to Undernet. We have some people doing some testing on DALnet to gauge the viability of a potential move there. My issues are extreme with Undernet and while they could be due to work, we have other members with issues as well, so we're looking at options just in case. We also have James' private server as a back-up. Right now I have some people working up a proposal for what a move to DALnet would entail. When I get more information from them on this option, we will likely implement a testing phase where we'll ask you guys to spend more time on the DALnet servers to help us test for stability, etc.

So watch for that.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Internal Reviews Done</font color=#800517></font> Last report I mentioned I had half these done. Now the rest are complete so this is just a quick note here to let everyone know that as promised, all the Internal Reviews (IR's) were read, considered, and responded to in detail.r I did my best to give everyone tailored feedback and a window into how we're approaching things in this stage of the club's development. I'd like to thank the Consuls, Quaestors, and all their staffs for getting those in, responding with some really good and honest details, and for answering my survey questions at the end.

Sorry it took so long to get back to everyone.

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">New Polls</font color=#800517></font> Strangely, this has nothing to do with Tarax. Rather, I placed a couple new polls on the site to get some information.

The first is to get a consensus of whether or not we should pause our timeline to account for the impact the impending Star Wars films could have on us.

The second is to screw with Muz.

Both are found here: Polling Center

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<font size="4"><font color="#800517">Next Time on the New <strike>Hit</strike> Series, ShadowHand...</font color=#800517></font> Phase One, Chapter Three results (I hope!)

Updated Vendetta timeline.

Guest fiction.

A new and unparalleled scandal!

Stay tuned.

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See you out there,

• R</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>