A balancing act (Zimrzala Q&A)

[Zimrzala Skalirz]

Been way less present than I hoped to this last week and for a while before that, but this was a very fun ride - and a fantastic first SW RPG experience!

I'd like to bring Zim back, but shoot them questions at me!

[Manny Donos]

Zim seemed neat! And nice!

Could you give us a bit about her philosophy, and how it all fits together?

[Raven Cadera]

Echoing Manny's questions.

Zim seemed very interesting and I was really intrigued by the philosophy and phrases she was using. Was it something you came up with on your own?

[The SCaT Droid]

And another question, I noticed you feared machinery at first, but you were willing to befriend SCaT pretty quickly. How does this change her perspective?

[Zimrzala Skalirz]

Zim seemed neat! And nice!

Could you give us a bit about her philosophy, and how it all fits together?

Echoing Manny's questions.

Zim seemed very interesting and I was really intrigued by the philosophy and phrases she was using. Was it something you came up with on your own?

Thanks, Manny! Needless to say, Manny was really fun to read too - wish I had got in a scene with him

As for her philosophy - it's a bit of a jumbled thing, I guess. I wanted to do a "religious" sort of character and started reading through stuff. When thinking of her background I found the ideas of Cosmic Balance interesting, but weird. Seeing that Bakurans were generally wary of outsiders and non-humans, and exploring the weird bits of rich and powerful families in the planet sending one of their kids to a monastery while ensuring their money and influence were passed on through another kid, I figured she would have been influenced by the importance of "balance", but feel that the 'mainstream' Cosmic Balance take on it was just something that left things exactly as they were, and would thus maintain suffering, poverty, enormous inequality, and even accept things like the xenophobia of many Bakurans.

The idea is she left that behind and went to explore other parts of Bakura, eventually living among the Kurtzen (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Kurtzen), and learning with them another way to interpret 'balance'. The H'kig part came from her training with a wandering Galandan... so in the end her philosophy is a mix of a) "balance" being important, but not exactly in the same way most Bakurans see it, mixed with b) great value placed in peace, the natural world and a sort of animism she learnt among the Kurtzen and c) "simple living, high morality, goodness, and acceptance" (and vegetarianism, probably, although that didn't show up much), and the "J't'p'tan" thing learnt from her Galandan (and H'kig) teacher. The fact that H'kig things seemed to align quite well (at least in my mind) with the Kurtzen's ideas also helped me!

I've also been figuring out tids and bits along the game, but that gave me something to start with XD Does that answer it?

And another question, I noticed you feared machinery at first, but you were willing to befriend SCaT pretty quickly. How does this change her perspective?

Yeah, I ended up not going that much into the idea that she was uneasy with machines - although she probably still is, to a degree. It mostly came from her time growing up in Bakura, since Bakura has almost no droids and locals still mistrust them greatly due to a revolt that happened in the planet's history. I figured that mistrust would still be there, but she would feel letting it guide her actions would go against the "acceptance", of situations and of others, her Galandan master would have taught her. So she decided to stand against her instincts and let her open up to befriending SCaT.

The idea is that over time she would have got more comfortable with his presence, despite still finding him odd. I'm not how that will extend to other droids, though... I think she'll have this example that will make it easier for her to avoid that mistrust prevent her from interacting with other droids properly and respectfully - but the unease will probably still be there and she'll have to deal with it from time to time.

J-Richo being a droid was also something that possibly made her think about the whole thing, but I wasn't able to interact that much there due to my RL schedule, so I haven't gone in too deep about that, sadly.

[J-Richo Toboga]

How weird was it to see a droid adopt a former jedi in the mandalorians?

[Claymore Wren]

I'm sad I didn't get to meet Zim in game, but hopefully my knowledge about the grey side helped you crafting Zim along the way. And I hope you enjoyed the game, and hope to see you in Kamda 3. Glad you made it through the game, the system is... a thing... lol. Reputation helps, I played one game, then 3 years later played another, then 2 years after that was Kamda. And there was ton of stuff to got used to, like FA, php gaming, and not typing pretty well.... lol.

[Tenzing]

Having really enjoyed played a Mikkian before it was really fun to see someone else's take on them. I thought Zim was great, and couldn't believe how much hate orokos gave you in our thread together

Ascetic seems like an interesting Spec, how was it to play? What are your thoughts on the system (I think this was your first time using the FFG dice)?

[Zimrzala Skalirz]

How weird was it to see a droid adopt a former jedi in the mandalorians?

Rather weird! But then tbh, maybe less weird IC. I figured Zim wouldn't know a lot about Mandalorians, since she's only been away from Bakura for about a year or so. She's probably heard about them and she's seen folks she could associate the name 'Mandalorian' with, but I figured her experience here in Bellionas was the first time she actually dealt with them. So for her, seeing that J-Richo was a droid was unexpected (especially since from her first conversation with Oshazich she had him as "the Mandalorian" that had attacked the Gonks alongisde "two droids", so she had him firmly in the "not droid" category then!), but him being a Mandalorian *and* a droid was not... that strange.

There's also what I said to SCaT above. She is still a bit wary of droids - but then she was a bit wary of Mandos too (which is why she was a bit uneasy about Sol joining a group of Mandalorians, although she wouldn't advise him against it because she firmly believes each should find their own path). And she was a bit wary of J-Richo himself due to the attacks on the Gonks, which she was still trying to understand. So... yeah, weird, but not especially weird given her lack of the necessary background knowledge to find it so weird I guess!

I'm sad I didn't get to meet Zim in game, but hopefully my knowledge about the grey side helped you crafting Zim along the way. And I hope you enjoyed the game, and hope to see you in Kamda 3. Glad you made it through the game, the system is... a thing... lol. Reputation helps, I played one game, then 3 years later played another, then 2 years after that was Kamda. And there was ton of stuff to got used to, like FA, php gaming, and not typing pretty well.... lol.

Yeah! There's quite a few people I didn't get Zim to meet, in fact. In hindsight, I should probably have got into more open threads! But then I was less active in the last parts of the game too, so there's that.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the game, although I'm still often lost with what to do with Advantage, Triumph, Threat and Despair. Luckily for me, Meiyo and Fless usually dealt with that in such a way that I didn't have to worry too much! Zim only being in a single combat probably helped too! But yeah, with more experience things should get easier. That's why we need more SW/ Kamda games, yeah, Meiyo?

Oh, and also - the things you said about Grey Jedi were actually really interesting and helped me figure some things out. I had already stated from a stance of "focusing on balance, not only light", so there were some things that fit very well with the Jeda'i philosophy. But since she's coming from an entirely different philosophy (or rather jumbled mix of philosophies! XD), I figured these similarities would show up more as a "convergence" than as "this is what I'm striving to do". Was still very helpful though! Thanks!

Having really enjoyed played a Mikkian before it was really fun to see someone else's take on them. I thought Zim was great, and couldn't believe how much hate orokos gave you in our thread together

Ascetic seems like an interesting Spec, how was it to play? What are your thoughts on the system (I think this was your first time using the FFG dice)?

Hey Tenz! That thread was fast-moving (ok, would be more if Zim had failed less rolls XD) but fun. totally imagine Zim and Tenz trying to locate the signs others were giving from all over and they actually getting too involved in their conversation to actually notice anything else XD Wish we had found the time for other, calmer ones. Maybe next game!

I really enjoyed playing a Mikkian as my first SW experience - didn't have much to go with at first, the description in Wookiepedia is a bit general, but I think I managed to do something that made sense. Well, it made sense to me at least And it's fun describing the tendrils moving about and trying to notice things. Just... I had a hard time finding out how to make her wear an earring without ears, as silly as that may sound

So, Ascetic - I'd say the "feeling" of the Spec is exactly what I had in mind for her coming into the game, so I'm pretty happy with that. Crunch-wise, I'm not sure I'm quite playing to its advantages - first game and all. But being able to get 1 proficiency die for most rolls with Intense Focus then recover all strain after a scene/ an encounter with Iron Soul was very good, and the free pips in all Force Checks with Empty Soul are also very powerful! A flip side to that is that you actually want Power Checks instead of Commit powers, at least while you've got FR 1, so that means taking Enhance early is probably a bad idea (even though Enhance feels so much like Kiho! XD )

One thing that frustrated me a bit during character creation is the complete lack of Combat Skills in the spec - I had hoped for Brawl or maybe Melee as Spec skills. I think it's actually meant as a more "mystical" spec than a combat one, although it's a bit more physical than other Consulars, and it seems to be *crazy* for move builds... but as I wanted to actually go for a 'social' monk, the lack of battle skills actually helped me focus a bit more on that side, so that ended up being a good thing!

As she's probably splitting into Niman Disciple, I think I'll get her at least a bit more combat-ready for next game (focusing on defence more than attack...) We'll see how that goes!

As for the system... well, as I said above, I'm still learning, and I have a hard time figuring out what "yes and", "no and", "yes but", "no but" work like, but it's been really fun! To be honest, I was rather meh about FFG dice and their systems before this game. I can honestly say I'm convinced that it works and is really fun now. Although I still don't like the idea of buying special dice to play!

[Dhelih Dotaivi]

Sorry we only barely got to interact, as Zim seemed like a fascinating character. Dhel really wanted to play with her head tendrils!

Hopefully she's back in the next game, when I think Dhel will have more insight into the Force/philosophical bits. Particularly since I kind of foresee Dhel not walking a particularly fighty path, and that might open some interesting conversations with Zim.

I do wish more of what's going on with the Gonks had come clear, because that seems like an interesting plot line (should go poke Fless about that)

I feel like everyone asked all the questions! Which is fine.

[Meiyokashi]

Thank you for bringing Zim to the game I really enjoyed her! Having her chats with Cartess were great and helped bring a little more life to her and her story!

Thank you for those scenes, thank you for the lovely character that is Zim, and just in general for being wonderful!