History of Star Wars Roleplay in Second Life
by Alphaville Herald on 12/10/10 at 11:48 am
Mandalorian sects unite to war against the Galactic Dominion
by Cayce Urriah
The first major Star Wars Roleplay was Korriban, created by the Dark Lords of The Sith, the first Sith group in Second Life. Shortly after, The Jedi Alliance formed the sim New Holstice. In this era, late 2005, combat was fairly primitive. Using lightsabers with push scripts, combat was resolved with whoever pushed their opponent the farthest.
gathering of Mandalorians in the shadows of the Jedi Temple on Ruusan
The first neutral sim where players of all types (not just force users) could play was Dantooine, which came to be in early 2006. Created by Cellmaster Alexander, Revan Muromachi and Veronna Prevost of the Ac’Trayth Jedi order, it was also the birth place and main hub for the SWC (Star Wars community) as it later came to be known as the SWRP.
Ossus and Naboo came soon after in 2006. Ossus was a Jedi place of learning, where numerous notecards written by Jedi players were stored. Naboo was a roleplaying sim that was also a shopping mall. The first SWRP combat system, RCS, was born on Naboo, and allowed players to fight with definitive outcomes. Then Little Mos Eisley was born, at this time a mainland parcel owned by Helga Eusobeo. The New Order of Jedi (NOJ) were born and moved through several small parcels before creating a large sim, Yavin IV.
Mid 2006 brought Telos IV, a snowy world under Imperial control. When Telos was destroyed, it became Manaan, which was later destroyed as well. The first major Mandalorian clans came to be in this period: Clan Ordo, Skiratta, Mereel and several others. The first major Hutt cartel under the command of Smookah the Hutt came to prominance in this period.
a pair of Sith engage a pair of Jedi agents attempting to infiltrate Byss
The first Byss came in late 2006, the new home of the Dark Lords of The Sith, and home of 99% of the Sith in this era. Eventuallly the DLoTS moved to a new sim and made Ziost in early 2007, after Byss was sold to a Gor sim.
Korriban had been abandoned in the distant past, and was remade by Desirae Carter in mid 2007.
A community named United Galaxies was founded by some old players from the various SWRP communities, and created a Coruscant / Kashyyk dual sim in early 2008. NOJ lost Yavin in a split that created the Kalway Order of Jedi, and moved to the Kashyyk portion of the main UG sim.
In mid 2008, a new combat system named DCS2 was created and spread through numerous sims. Shortly after, the DLoTS recreated their old sim of Byss, with much nicer graphics, and it still stands today.
rogue’s gallery of scum and villainy lurking around Mos Espa
In late 2008 Malachor V was made and the Trayus Academy was formed, being renown for it’s numerous riddles and traps that one had to pass through to explore it. Korriban was sold off due to disinterest by the owner.
In early 2009 UG fell apart and their sim was sold off. The NOJ moved to a sim called Ruusan that still stands. In this era, the prominent sims were: Ruusan, Byss, Little Mos Eisley, Naboo and Malachor V. Byss and Ruusan had an extended period of war, with the Sith turning Jedi padawans, and Jedi battling Sith on many fronts. Galactic Unity was created, a community with strict, and somewhat questionable standards of roleplay and avatar limitations. Their sims popped up rapidly and became the standard of roleplay for many people. They had Coruscant, Onderon, Nar Shaddaa, and Talus. A website simply refered to as United Mandalorians was created at www.mandoade.com, serving as a forum and community for Mandalorian roleplayers.
In mid 2009 Little Mos Eisley became the most populous of sims, as many talented roleplayers flocked there to run their smaller groups. The Mandalorians had a war with two factions going for each other’s
jugulars: The United Mandalorians who followed the Traviss cultural beliefs and the Galactic Unity Mandalorians, who were the older Clans from before SWRP became populous, who were atavist fallbacks to the Mandalorian Wars era. The sim Blood Moon was created, and the owner, Gistya made a deal with the owner of United Mandalorians to change the site into www.SWRP.net, which became a community and resource site for the entire Star Wars Roleplay community.
Late 2009 brought a mass exodus of good roleplayers from Little Mos Eisley, as administrators made their positions clear, that they cared more about making the money that the rent of their parcels brought, than they cared about the storyline.
Sisters of the Imperial Knights fend off the dark on Dromund Kaas
In early 2010 Galactic Unity shed most of it’s sims, and rebuilt Coruscant. Nar Shaddaa became solo, and left the GU storyline. A Kamino sim was created by the Galactic Dominion, who then began to expand to several others. The owner of Byss created a second sim named Dromund Kaas, full of riddles and tests to serve as a fun quest sim for anyone to explore.
Spring 2010 brought the death of Galactic Unity, as the sims were sold off and left the Star Wars community. Blood Moon was scrapped as Dangergirl and Gistya created a new Korriban sim, using the genius of their lead builder to create a masterpiece of design. Ruusan was also rebuilt to a new design by an amazing builder.
Summer 2010 brought something unseen before in SWRP – the Mandalorians came together and the two sects disolved into one behind the new Mandalore the Bloody. The Mandalorians proceeded to go to war against the Galactic Dominion on the planet Nal Hutta, for control of the mines.The GD was sent packing and the Mandalorian forces strip mined the planet and moved on to Mos Espa on the world of Tatooine, where they now reside.
Cayce Urriah
Oct 12th, 2010
I put this together, with pictures of people in SWRP sims, hoping to drum up some fresh blood to the sims.
If anyone is interested in giving Star Wars roleplay a try, shoot me an IM.
DaveDorm Gaffer
Oct 12th, 2010
And I thought the Trekkies had drama! Good information, though. I am an avid role player, but never really embraced Star Wars. Maybe I could wrap my head around it someday and play a trader/smuggler.
Salene Lusch
Oct 12th, 2010
Some inaccuracies
The oldest Combat System was Dantooine Combat System (DCS) in use in the now gone Cellmaster Alexander’s Dantooine.
Kashyyyk has 3 “y”
Desiderae’s Korriban is from mid 2008 (not 2007)
DCS2 was first introduced in SWRP Little Mos Eisley in 2007
Malachor 5 was first open in end 2007
The larger group in SWRP, not mentioned in the article, is the Grand Army of the Republic, nicknamed as GAR, it’s also one of the oldest and still active on one of the oldest open sim (Bakura, opened in 2007)
Other old sims not mentioned but still open are Taris, Zonama Sekot (both end 2007), The Forest Moon of Endor (beginning 2008). Plus the mini sim “New Holstice”, remnant of the first Jedi sim of 2005.
One of the most famous building, for its architecture and its content, is the Grand Library, on Ossus since 2007.
The last part about the mandalorians united chasing the Galactic Dominion and strip mining a planet is imaginary and wasn’t roleplayed as is.
Other sites of interest:
* The SWRP wiki (since 2008): http://swrp.wikia.com
* Galactic News Network http://galacticnewssl.wordpress.com/
Glenn Beck
Oct 12th, 2010
You know who gave a shit about this article?
…Hitler.
Scooby Doo
Oct 13th, 2010
Rell Rabba rhe Rutt rhat Ri’ve rot ris roney
Skye D.
Oct 13th, 2010
I love sneaking into the Star Wars RP sims for pictures. They have some pretty awesome stuff out there. Korriban is amazing. Don’t get much into the RP though.
Little Lost Linden
Oct 13th, 2010
I see your schwartz is as big as mine. Now let’s see how you handle it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S25Zf8svHZQ
James Freud
Oct 13th, 2010
I would only play if I could be Luke Skywalker and I could go to town on Princess Leia’s face. Like seriously, find some rough sex poseballs, grab those hair buns and totally rail that sweet young mouth.
Kati
Oct 13th, 2010
I would love to get into Star Wars roleplay…but every time I’ve been to a sim, it’s been empty. I’ve looked into most all that are still online. Is there a better time to spot people?
Salene Lusch
Oct 13th, 2010
Things become active from 11am-noon SLT when the European community starts logging, and at 2-3pm they’re relayed by the American community which is larger, then about midnight the activity progressively lowers. Unfortunately, it’s near empty on Asian/Australian friendly hours, even if you can still find people here and there.
The time for the peak of activity depends on each sim. You can have an almost complete list of sims typing “SWRP” (for Star Wars Roleplay) in the Search.
Cayce Urriah
Oct 13th, 2010
The best sims are:
Mos Espa, a spaceport and racing town owned by the Hutts. (Sim name: SWRP)
Nar Shaddaa, another Hutt world full of crime and avarice. (Ytoub System)
Ruusan, a Jedi enclave full of beauty. (Ruusan)
Byss, a Sith fortress owned by the oldest Sith group in SL (Byss)
Zonama Sekot, a living world protected by the Potentium Order (Pleased)
Yavin IV, a Jedi enclave. Not the BEST sim, and a lot of people are pretty bad there, but it can be amusing for an hour or two. However, Yavin is attacked almost hourly, because they’ll put up with it (Yavin IV)
—Sims to avoid:—
Any LME (Little Mos Eisley) sim. Noob heaven and the admins happily ban anyone who actually has talent and wants more than random bursts of combat.
Mygeeto, the sim owner’s scared of virtual combat and will ban anyone who he thinks poses a threat to him.
Dantooine, nobody there speaks coherent language. And I don’t just mean english. They’ll ban you for making in-character threats to female characters (even if you’re female)
Cayce Urriah
Oct 13th, 2010
Kati> What is your avatar name? I’d happily introduce you to SWRP if you’re on when I am.
Arc
Oct 14th, 2010
Looks really cool, I’ve been to a SWRP sim before but like was stated before, it was basically empty. The article makes it look like loads of fun, though.
General Drama
Oct 14th, 2010
Little Mos Eisley seems to be pretty popular these days, there was about 30 people in the four sims of LME (two full and two homestead it seems like) last time I was there. Some pretty good RP going on, and the people were friendly.
IntLibber Brautigan
Oct 14th, 2010
I recall meeting Smookah, he and his entourage had wandered into Badnarik once while I was building a fighter plane for the Mercz that rented the region from me. One of his flunkies gave me sass for laughing when Smookah gave me a 5L tip in respect of my building skills. Smookah was a funny fellow, a Rastafarian Hutt with a thick constant cloud of pot smoke in his wake. I wonder what he’s up to these days.
Danny Banjo
Oct 14th, 2010
I was actually here for this and participating
in this back in late 2004.
Did you guys forget about the sandbox groups that were even larger
than any of this? Private Regions weren’t nearly as popular then as they
were today, and we never had one. All the ‘big groups’ today mostly have their roots in Goguen or Cordova, even Newcomb.
Don’t forget your roots, Second Life.
Priest Varun
Oct 28th, 2010
This article is so full of lies!! Incredible how you rewrote the history of the roleplay!! The GD beat the mandalorians in battle! The GD have never lost to the the mandos in battle, heck, two days ago we beat them at mustafar along with their jedi friends.
Sith The Sith
Nov 11th, 2010
A very nice article indeed. Though it seems the Mando need some work still. It’s practically push and take. No politics involved which makes for a less entertaining role play when they are around. As for the actual combat, RCS was the way to go. The moment Telos was created, and DCS2 came aboard is when things started becoming imbalanced, and it was practically a “protect my cubical” kind of game from the opposing Cubical Enemies. A bad design indeed. Though now things seem to be shaping up. I’m starting to feel comfortable again seeing some old friends come back. The TRUE SWRPer’s.
Ellisa01 Turbo
Apr 20th, 2011
Really nice, like most say here most this stuff i didn’t even know, but again im not that active in SWRP anymore i really should be.
Ayeka Kel
Dec 9th, 2012
Well, SWRP is in a decline. We need Responsible leaders and mature RP. My dream of a respectible and active hapes Cosnortium is dwindling, which is an endless source of frustration for me… children run rampant in SWRP, turning it into a cheap Online video game rather than a Mature storytelling medium as it should be…. and frankly, all the Lawful good alignment people are morons, save a handful. We need serious help and running away form SWRP isn’t fixing it….. running away isn’t gonna bring the better days back.
Perhaps I’m too passionate about this, but god dammit, I’m not gonna stand by and watch SWRP collapse. If you were around during or before the GU days, then please return and show these kiddies how good storytelling really works.