There isn't already a ton of focus on the players, as opposed to the characters?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Oh I'm thinking the pregnancy thing could actually be pretty well handled. In fact, making Padme pregnant could be Jim's way of dealing with it. Or what about this: Annie was pregnant...and now she isn't. And Jim's pretty mad about it. what would be even more interesting is if none of the other character IRL new about the problem. How's that for drama??
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. So, we may be finding out about Jim's situation fairly soon here. I keep forgetting that Annie's the one playing Anakin, so if she were pregnant, the other players might have noticed. It does let some air out of the theory, at least.
Also, the Alt Text made me grin. In my D&D games, we used to ironically refer to that problem as the "Bag of PC Holding". Pop 'em in when they can't be present, pop 'em out when they are. Absurd, but it never failed to break us up with laughter.
edited 22nd Jul '10 6:41:58 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"^ Not really. Heavily dependent on how far along she is and what she's wearing. If, as can be deduced from her wanting to talk to Jim she just found out she might be only a few weeks along. I know someone who noone guessed she was pregnant until her water broke, although to be fair she was actively concealing it.
Trump delenda estWell, of course. It would still fit if the other players hadn't noticed yet and the big relationship conflict is the "I'm pregnant and you're the daddy" bomb.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I really think Jim and Annie will patch things up; I have been wondering if Ep IV will be a continuation of this campaign, with everybody getting "new" characters or legacy characters.
Ben - Luke Jim - Leia/Han Annie - Han/leia Pete - R 2 D 2 Sally will keep getting background characters or she might decide to stick with 3PO for reals, or maybe she'll get to play Chewbacca
Cos really; unless they change Han a lot, I can't picture anybody else except Jim playing him (Han after all, is the one coming up with crazy plans in the original trilogy) or Leia, who is more combat ready than Padme; and Jim has no qualms about playing a female character.
RL pregnancy I would feel as cheap; there is so much material to stress a relationship; like Jim graduating and pouring himself into work instead of Annie; maybe a thing that just didn't work; or Annie being a girl after all and blowing something completely out of proportion (like Anakin does, even acussing Padme of cheating on him with Obi Wan) and holding a grudge on a poor, oblivious Jim.
Well, to be perfectly consistent with their current roles, Annie would play Luke, Jim would play Leia (or they could switch), Ben would play (duh) Ben, Pete would get R2, and Sally would get either Chewbacca or C3PO. My bet's on the latter, as that allows for Han and Chewie to start as NPCs and then be played by Ben (after Obi-Wan dies) and possibly Sally, respectively. Or Chewie stays an NPC.
Now, for some really hilarious gender flipping, Han could be a starting character played by Jim, and Ben could take Leia after Obi-Wan dies. Thus making their eventual relationship that much more squicky to the players.
There's a third possibility, which was suggested previously: the second trilogy starts with an entirely different set of players (save possibly Pete). This provides a great excuse for the players to be unfamiliar with the story from the previous game.
As for the pregnancy thing, the reason I suggested it is that it provides a perfect opportunity for Real Life Writes the Plot. Annie's pregnant; this translates via Gender Bender into Padmé being pregnant, which the GM may not have intended originally, setting up the Sequel Hook.
edited 22nd Jul '10 1:34:57 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Aaaand; new strip is up.
Looks more like a Real Life falling out and misunderstandings. Annie seems to resent Jim not noticing things like that, and would like to keep this a secret for as long as possible, or maybe she thinks she's not up to Jim's standards or approval?
Like I said, a pregnancy would feel very cheap in an environment like this. There is plenty of drama to be drawn from everyday life without resorting to clichés.
Now, how to handle Padme's pregnancy in-comic? Easy, Jim fumbles a roll somewhere, or maybe Annie decides it's a good thing to roleplay and Jim goes along with it to make up to not paying enough attention to her.
Petrol? Isn't that that word what them there British people use instead of saying gas? I always thought D&D was set in America for some reason. :hmm
There's probably a trope for that. "Stupid American thinks series is set in America. GASPSHOCKSWOON!"
edited 25th Jul '10 6:36:24 PM by Anaheyla
This is still a signature.@Fighteer: I'd been thinking the same thing, that for IV they might get new players. I do think Pete would probably stay as Artoo, since he's a funny character and he wouldn't give away any of the plot details since he doesn't care about the plot in the first place.
Wonder who'd be Threepio though. Hope it's another one of those roleplayers who's concerned with character, since I can't imagine any version of Threepio NOT acting like a British butler.
edited 26th Jul '10 10:47:21 PM by Sporkaganza
Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.I think the most obvious route for a new generation of gamers would be for Ben to take over the GM role and use his old Obi-Wan character as the NPC to set stuff up and get things rolling.
Sally, as his sister, could show up from time to time and help out by playing 3PO. Perhaps Ben recruits Sally and Pete to launch the campaign with the "deliver a message" for the Damsel in Distress route. Originally they are supposed to leave after that, but they end up enjoying themselves so they stick around for the rest of the game. (Leia of course will start as a NPC and be made into a player character later.)
Maybe not an epic burn, but definitely very funny, that line caught me unprepared and made me burst out laughing, and it's not very often that webcomics do that.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |

What Jethro said. That would be Cerebus Syndrome in a bad way. (First and Ten, as they say.) Something that big would take way too much focus away from the game, IMO.
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