Sared's Ten Commandments of Skinning

[Amoné Fayden]

I don't understand why Jedi members need armor when they already have armor.

Then one should just rambo their way through the next mission knowing they have total immunity? Of course not, because that would be bad RP.

Obviously death isn't forced on our characters. And thankfully too!
However, neither is fatigue yet we are still expected to show it.
Neither is hunger ever forced on our characters, yet we are expected to eat.

Just because OOCly our characters cannot die (without prior consent) does not mean the risks should be any less role played.

Like Nastajja mentioned, there is absolutely no shame on relying on Non-Force means to better your chances in danger. It doesn't make a person any less a Jedi and the use of equipment is in no way immoral. That includes Armor, or a Stealth outfit or a cloaking device or a motion tracker or night vision or even our beloved commlinks for that matter.




Attire, as mentioned is purely situational. A Jedi like Kenta who is, for all intents and purposes, a shadow could hide from view even if he were in a bright pink bunny suit. That's because his character is good at it and he is well versed in Mind Tricks and "Vanish".
However, somebody less proficient in stealth (Or Mindtrick/Vanish) might find the aid of a dark stealth suit to be invaluable.

Attire is situational and entirely a preference of the owner.
Dressing wrongly for the situation should be handled in RP maturely and with good reason beyond "just because..."
Outright ridiculous outfits (Like said pink bunny outfit) should merit immediate removal from HC.

There is also the underlaying issue of "model limitations".
We have a good Modeling and Skinning team within JEDI but it's not their charge to go around placing everyone's head on HS Anakin.

[Azrael]

A Jedi believing it is necessary for him/her to wear armour in every battle/engagement detracts from his belief in the Force as his ally to protect him, not to mention his own skills.
A Jedi without faith in himself, let alone a Jedi without faith in the Force is not a very good Jedi.

[Amoné Fayden]

A Jedi believing it is necessary for him/her to wear armour in every battle/engagement detracts from his belief in the Force as his ally to protect him, not to mention his own skills.
A Jedi without faith in himself, let alone a Jedi without faith in the Force is not a very good Jedi.

But that sort of ideology breeds overconfidence.

Charging into a warzone saying "I can use the Force to make my skin like Steel because I believe in the Force" or chanting "I can waltz right into that crowd of killers if I cover my eyes and pretend I'm invisible" when, really, your character cannot, is both an arrogant and flippant thing for that character to do.

Perhaps when a Jedi is at the title of Master or Grandmaster, reliance on terrestrial means might raise a few brows. But for Jedi in Training and even Jedi Knights, it's really not that much of a crazy idea to rely on aid from items or attire for protection.

[Johauna Darkrider]

Have to agree with Amone. Faith in the Force is all fine. Blind faith in the Force's gonna get you killed.

[Azrael]

A Jedi believing it is necessary for him/her to wear armour in every battle/engagement detracts from his belief in the Force as his ally to protect him, not to mention his own skills.
A Jedi without faith in himself, let alone a Jedi without faith in the Force is not a very good Jedi.

But that sort of ideology breeds overconfidence.

Charging into a warzone saying "I can use the Force to make my skin like Steel because I believe in the Force" or chanting "I can waltz right into that crowd of killers if I cover my eyes and pretend I'm invisible" when, really, your character cannot, is both an arrogant and flippant thing for that character to do.

Perhaps when a Jedi is at the title of Master or Grandmaster, reliance on terrestrial means might raise a few brows. But for Jedi in Training and even Jedi Knights, it's really not that much of a crazy idea.

An extreme way of taking it and not exactly what i was getting at. My point is that a Jedi needs the utmost confidence in himself and to be without doubt in order to do all that they do, be it in lightsaber use or Force use. The ability to do all this without straying into overconfidence and arrogance is what seperates the vast majority of Jedi from Dark Jedi after all. A deeper connection and focus means a touch-up to your ability, be it deflection, speed or whatever you rely on to survive a 'gunfight.' The kind of doubt that leads you to wear armour, believing the Force wont protect you sufficiently only causes your connection to suffer. THAT is what causes a Jedi to go down.
But now i'm off topic.

[Zeak Dystiny]

Then it depends on how much you apparently 'doubt' the Force and your own abilities, in addition to how large your reliance is on the armour itself. Armour is armour, either you choose to wear it for certain reasons or you don't, it only becomes something more when you start looking into it too much.

[Oberon]

If you doubt your own abilities you don't belong on a battlefield as a Jedi.

If you doubt your own abilities you're not really acting like the Jedi you should be.

What I believe Will is saying is that for a Jedi to enter the battlefield willingly they're sure they're up to the task.

"Jedi also learned that defeatism was just as dangerous as overconfidence. Although it might have seemed contradictory to the goals of conquering overconfidence, a Jedi would first plan for success, then for failure. Jedi who always plan for failure expected to lose, and usually only used minimal effort—enough to say that they had tried." [Source]

[Sared Kilvan]

The whole armor argument, while a good one, fits into my purview like this: it's not that a Jedi shouldn't be well protected going into a fight, but that he shouldn't be charging into the fight to begin with.

To quote Sammy L. for just one delicious moment...

We're keepers of the peace, not soldiers.

Imagine if (to exaggerate) Tony Stark had dinner, or went shopping, or attended business meetings in his armor? (Actually, I think he's done at least one of those...) Kinda silly, isn't it?

Speaking of silly, here's a demonstrateable example of #1 that I've observed in our community. A good way to do it, and a bad way to do it.

Good: Coren used to have a tunic variation with 'BMF' written in aurebesh on the front.

Bad: Oberon, before his last skin update (I can't thank you enough) had a creeper (Minecraft) face displayed on his datapad.


To try and re-direct this discussion, what are everyone's thoughts on the 7th point? Race inconsistencies? E.G. Since the only examples of Nautolans that we've observed are blue, green, and brown, should that keep someone from wanting to be orange, purple, or red? Does an RP excuse such as a half Zeltron/Nautolan hybrid work to cover that or should it be disallowed?

[Coren Ran]

Good: Coren used to have a tunic variation with 'BMF' written in aurebesh on the front.

Directly stolen from Xa'os skin, by the way.

[Amoné Fayden]

To answer your question about your seventh point, Sared:

I think it's fine so long as it makes sense. There are some special cases in our clan just as there are some special cases in real life.

A good example is Delmi wishing to be Albino. (Although technically I would argue that his eyebrows and head-hair could not be black, in that case! )

From what I believe, Sared himself has only recently had his species changed from "Unknown" (or was it "Presumed Human"?) to "Human" and his unusual gold skin is not typical of a regular "human". (Not talking about other sub-human species as they are not "Humans".) This is however fully backed up by his Bio.

So really, as long as somebody is able to research and make a logical explination that is both believable and realistic (...within Star Wars of course...) then I don't see anything wrong with having our characters skins differ slightly from what Cannon has shown us so far.

There are also restrictions such as models. As Nastajja mentioned, she was unable to find a model with a suitable tail to play her Ryn character so to enable her to do so, she created an RP reason for not having one.

Amoné, furthermore, is only half Zabrak which is why her biology (and skin) allows for Eyebrows and she only has two small horns instead of a crest.

Does an RP excuse such as a half Zeltron/Nautolan hybrid work to cover that or should it be disallowed?

This is a good example of something that I would see declined in a Bio.

A person needs to make a logical judgment on whether or not a Nautolan and Zelton hybrid would actually be biologically possible. I personally don't think so.
The mix of Sub-human species is far more likely and there are cannon references to back it up. A Human-Zeltron for example is quite possible, as would be a Human-Umbaran.
I'm using human in both examples as they are considered the "stock" of which many sub-species have evolved.


In the end Skins that show a character having non-cannon hues or features requires common sense and reasoning initially from the owner.
If it proves to be quite rediculous (which i've actually yet to see!) then that's when the HC musscle in!

[Sared Kilvan]

From what I believe, Sared himself has only recently had his species changed from "Unknown" to "Human" and his unusual gold skin is not typical of a regular "human". (Not talking about other sub-human species as they are not "Humans".) This is however backed up by his Bio.

Just for the record, that bio has remained the same since I submitted it. If someone's been tinkering around with Sared's race (or any other part of that bio for that matter) without me knowing about it, then believe me, I'd like to know about it.

There are also restrictions such as models. As Nastajja mentioned, she was unable to find a model with a suitable tail to play her Ryn character so to enable her to do so, she created an RP reason for not having one.

Amoné, furthermore, is only half Zabrak which is why her biology (and skin) allows for Eyebrows and she only has two small horns instead of a crest.

I've got mixed feelings on this to be honest, and am still on the fence about it. Part of me is in full agreement with 'making do with whatchya got'. Both of your skins are good examples of this, A) because there are no canon or quasi-canon pictures of female Ryn, so there's room for artistic freedom, and B) Vantus shacked up with a Zabrak. Sort of. I don't know where I was going with that. It was funny in my head.
(Spikey horns and spikey hair, pillows must been torn apart.)
The other half of me simply says "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." If a model doesn't exist for what you are trying to do, and you are fully committed to realizing that conceptualization, then take the time to learn how to do some basic frankensteining, or go with something more feasible. Don't make a salad and call it an omelette.

[Aayla Vigil]

I never used any armor, even in battle, but there's a reason beyond OOC reasoning

We have a Personal energy shield, equipped since the day we have started our training.
That's something we actually do actively RP (reference:"Say solah when you're out of shields) and we should consider as more efficient than armors for several reasons:

1- Shield may grant higher protection against energy bolts, even if temporary
2- Armor reduces your dexterity and the overall performance when using a lightsaber (not an in-game malus of course, but still something that should be RPed)

Whenever I find myself close to a battle, I meditate and recharge my shield (IC) rather than reduce my dexterity wearing an armor.
Then again, I think this matter could really be approached ICly with the same reasoning I brought to you here, even though I am not the one who stands on top when it comes to remove armors from our RP.

[Sared Kilvan]

You know, I'll be quite honest; I more than somewhat overlooked/forgot about that. Seems obvious really.

Thank you for pointing that out! Really!

[Amoné Fayden]

I understand fully all the points made in regards to armor and Personal Energy Shields as Aayla mentioned but the latter is finite and will eventually deplete and should not be relied on any more than body armor.
Yet we still carry Personal Energy Shields! Why? Because it's a precaution! If we were to take the approach of "You must be a crap Jedi if you need help other than the Force" Then i'd say all those that feel that way should leave their Energy Shields at home along with the armor.

Personally, i'm looking at it pragmatically where a lot of people are looking at it as a principle.
A sort of "One shouldn't need to in an ideal world" direction.

It's almost like the mentality is to challenge themselves by taking risks in order to prove something rather than taking the "extra precaution" angle on it.

"I survived a war without armor because i'm an amazing Jedi!"
Well good for you!

In the real world, i'm a decent driver and have complete faith in my driving abilities but I still fasten my seat belt. Does that then mean I am infact, not a good driver because I did so?

See where i'm going?


Anyway! It's hard to keep on topic with this because a lot of the time it's infact not just about "looking cool" that people skin they way they do. There are almost always reasons behind it as we are seeing here and everyone's opinion on those reasons are different.

[Johauna Darkrider]

I'm still finding myself agreeing with Amone's statements. I believe people are looking too much into this, trying to find something which is not here, for the sake of following some 'rules', which aren't exactly there, especially we are so far away from canon SW era. Every society, organization and such evolves (well, there are few exceptions in our world, but let's not mix this into this debate) and as such, I'd expect Jedi to be reasonably confident but as well as reasonably cautious...throwing yourself out to the front lines in mere tunics is as if you sat down next to a lion and hoped he'd not harm you.