Tag: not an ask

A Question:

writebetterstarwars:

Because it is now summer and I have more free time, I was thinking of possibly making some posts/masterposts addressing common mistakes people make or just talking about useful things to know when writing Star Wars. Would anyone be interested in that? If so, what kinds of things would you like to see?

Thank you guys for the feedback! It looks like the first post will be about medicine and I’ll have it out as soon as possible!

A Question:

Because it is now summer and I have more free time, I was thinking of possibly making some posts/masterposts addressing common mistakes people make or just talking about useful things to know when writing Star Wars. Would anyone be interested in that? If so, what kinds of things would you like to see?

ladytharen:

operaticspacetrash:

Does anyone know how to do dates in the Star Wars calendar outside of years? Are there names for standard months? I’ve only managed to find some info on the days of the week so far.

@writebetterstarwars any answers?

I don’t normally answer questions on other people’s posts, so I hope you don’t mind @operaticspacetrash, but this one is relatively straightforward. Within the Galactic Standard Calendar there are no names for months, and they are known by their number (e.g., Month 5). You probably know that there were many different variants of the calendar, all with different numbers of months in a year, weeks in a month, and days in a week. The GSC consists of 24 hours in a day, 5 days in a week, 7 weeks in a month, and 10 months in a year. These 10 months, plus 3 festival weeks and 3 holidays make up a year with a total of 368 days. In the Old Republic, the Treaty of Coruscant was used as year 0; in the New Republic, it was the Battle of Yavin.

I’m guessing that what you’re wondering about is how to write this out and refer to specific dates, like how we would say [day]/[month]/[year]? This is covered by the Great ReSynchronization. It was a notation system established in 35 BBY which used the format [year]:[month]:[day] to write dates. 35 BBY was the reference point, so, for example, the Jedi Purge occurred in the year 16 and the Battle of Yavin in the year 35. Years before 35 BBY are written with “BrS” (before resynchronization) after the number, so Qui-Gon would have been born in 57 BrS. Adding in the months and days, you get something like the date 13:5:21 (13 years after 35 BBY, on the 21st day of Month 5), on which occurred the First Battle of Geonosis. Much like how we might say “June of 2015” you can omit the day and just write [year]:[month].

This system was used through the Imperial period (though some preferred to use the Empire’s creation as year 0) and was reorganized in 25 ABY into the BBY/ABY system that we often use. Before the Great ReSynchronization and after it was disbanded, there is no canonical system for writing dates. It is possible that the [year]:[month]:[day] format was still used, but this is not confirmable.

You may also want to take a look through my tag on calendars.

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

What Species To Choose For Your Star Wars OC: Volume 2 (text only)

pomrania:

Text-only version of the Star Wars OC species selector (volume two) by @thefoodwiththedood

Answer the first question, then follow the number at the end of your selection to your next question; keep doing that, until you get a species.
For more information on a given species, check the original post for links, or just search Wookieepedia.

0. Alright, first question: How Human do you want your OC to be?

  • Almost entirely human, save for some minor differences with their biology or appearance; I don’t want to get too crazy with this, after all! (1)
  • Mostly human, but with some other features being prevalent; something with a human face, but distinctly alien (2)
  • Somewhat human, but with an alien face, features, and anatomy – like an alien with human proportions (3)
  • Only human as far as their humanoid body shape (head, arms, and legs on a central torso) ; something almost entirely alien (4)
  • I want something weird and crazy, with hardly any human features – humans are overrated, anyways (5)

Keep reading

thefoodwiththedood:

After how popular the first iteration of this flowchart got (thank you all so much for that, by the way, it’s really awesome that it helped so many people out), I was inspired to create a second volume, with even more species and resources than the first. Well, after a month or so of work, it’s finally here! Just in time for the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope, here’s “What Species To Choose For Your Star Wars OC: Volume 2″!

For this new version, I upped the ante with everything. I went from including 75 species to a whopping 150 (which is still only scratching the surface of the full list, I’m afraid), and I tried my best to include more species from “The Clone Wars”, “The Force Awakens”, and “Rogue One” as well. Not only that, but down below I’ve included more resources as well: in addition to each species’ Wookieepedia articles, I’ve provided (where available) videos of the species in action, informational videos, and name generators, all to give you as much info as possible for your OC. Furthermore, among some other minor formatting tweaks, I’ve also added the option to choose answers via dice rolls (thanks to  @empress-only-in-name for that idea), for anyone who would prefer a more random choice in species. Finally, I think it’s also worth mentioning that the wonderful @pomrania re-created the flowchart in a text-based format here, if you’d like to check that out.

Let me know what you all think of the new version! I tried my best to take into account everyone’s requests and suggestions, so hopefully it all worked out to your liking! Do let me know if there’s anything I can add or change, though; it will be a while before I make a Volume 3, if ever, but I’d be happy to tweak this version if it helps. Also, if you end up using this to make a character, please consider either tagging me or using #StarWarsOCFlowchart so I can see it; I don’t care about getting credit or anything, I just want to see what you guys come up with!

But yeah, I think that’s all I have to mention! I hope this helps some people out!

Links to resources are below the cut:

Keep reading

The sequel is here!

xcassianxandorx:

writebetterstarwars:

xcassianxandorx:

BLASTERS DO NOT SHOOT BULLETS OR OTHER PROJECTILES. THEY ARE LASER GUNS. They burn and cauterise. They don’t make giant bullet holes and they don’t run out of bullets. There ARE NO bullets.

@writebetterstarwars, please reblog. I just read my third fic of the day that mentioned Rebels shooting Imperials with bullets and one mentioned a through-and-through.

No problem! I’ve seen that a few times myself. Blasters indeed do not fire any solid projectile; they fire small amounts of energized gas called particle bolts or, more commonly, blaster bolts. A blaster contains a gas cartridge (which usually has enough gas for 500 shots) and a power pack (enough power for 100 shots). However, those amounts change according to the type of blaster and its power setting, as well as any modifications made.

I should also point out that they don’t actually fire lasers (lasers are coherent beams of light and are considered archaic) but are based on the same principles. They most often cause burn wounds but the bolts can also hit with physical force (like a bullet), explosive force, or both. This can cause bleeding and damage around the actual wound and, because there is mass involved, can supposedly go right through a person’s body and cause burn wounds upon entry and exit (we already know they can go through armour, so a body should work the same, assuming the bolt has enough power to do it).

Calling it a laser gun was a vast over simplification but kinda gets the point across. They can act like projectiles, sort of, but there’s no ammo magazine, and they don’t do the thing bullets do with a small entry and large exit, is what I meant. I should have been more clear on that but I’ve had a long day and after two hours in rush hour traffic (even on a Saturday), I was extra irritable.

Also, blasters can overheat and/or explode from overuse or tampering, but simply being in a firefight won’t automatically cause that to happen. I’ve seen that described multiple times, but blasters are *designed* for this kind of thing. Unless the blaster is absolute crap and cobbled together, twenty shots isn’t going to make the handle get hot enough to burn the protagonist’s hand.

Very true. Using a blaster as intended will almost never cause it to overheat to the point of destruction

xcassianxandorx:

BLASTERS DO NOT SHOOT BULLETS OR OTHER PROJECTILES. THEY ARE LASER GUNS. They burn and cauterise. They don’t make giant bullet holes and they don’t run out of bullets. There ARE NO bullets.

@writebetterstarwars, please reblog. I just read my third fic of the day that mentioned Rebels shooting Imperials with bullets and one mentioned a through-and-through.

No problem! I’ve seen that a few times myself. Blasters indeed do not fire any solid projectile; they fire small amounts of energized gas called particle bolts or, more commonly, blaster bolts. A blaster contains a gas cartridge (which usually has enough gas for 500 shots) and a power pack (enough power for 100 shots). However, those amounts change according to the type of blaster and its power setting, as well as any modifications made.

I should also point out that they don’t actually fire lasers (lasers are coherent beams of light and are considered archaic) but are based on the same principles. They most often cause burn wounds but the bolts can also hit with physical force (like a bullet), explosive force, or both. This can cause bleeding and damage around the actual wound and, because there is mass involved, can supposedly go right through a person’s body and cause burn wounds upon entry and exit (we already know they can go through armour, so a body should work the same, assuming the bolt has enough power to do it).

perrydowning:

smuggler-captain:

SOURCE. – I’m just posting it here as an aid and taking no credit.

Galactic Standard Time Measurement

  • 60 Seconds = 1 minute
  • 60 minutes = 1 hour
  • 24 hours = 1 day

Galactic Standard Calendar

  • 5 days = 1 week
  • 7 weeks = 1 month
  • 35 days = 1 month
  • 368 days = 1 year
  • 10 months + 3 Fete (Festival) weeks + 3 holidays = 1 year

Fete/Festival Weeks

  • New Year Fete Week = first five days of the new year (takes place before the first month)
  • Festival of Life =  five days between the sixth and seventh months. It was marked by parties, get-togethers, and gift-giving.
  • Festival of Stars =five days between the ninth and tenth months of the year that celebrates interstellar space travel. It was marked by vacations to other worlds most often.

Days of the Week

  • Primeday (first day of the week)
  • Centaxday (second day)
  • Taungsday (third day)
  • Zhellday (fourth day)
  • Benduday (fifth/last day of the week)

The Galactic Standard Calendar is based on the

luno-solar calendar of Coruscant (from before the official founding of the Empire). It is the ‘standard’ in both the Republic and the Empire for basic measurements. However, there are many, many variations for various species, planets, etc. This is just the ‘standard’ used; similar to measurements of weight, etc. 

Basically, this is not the ‘only calendar’ but the one used most often by governments, the military, etc. to be the ‘standard’. I thought it might be useful for people writing or roleplaying in the Star Wars galaxies to have a rough idea.

NOTE: There is mention in some sources of a 12 month/368 day calendar, but it doesn’t mention length of weeks, months, etc. other than ‘30-31 days’ so basically seems to be a ‘real life calendar’. I’m not 100% sure which is considered ‘canon’ so I choose to list the one that was a bit more ‘different’ for fun.

SOURCES
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Standard_Calendar
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fete_Week
http://swtor.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Standard_Calendar
http://starwarsrp.net/topic/63474-resourse-galactic-standard-calendar/

There’s a calendar?! Whelp my fics are all wrong in terms of time now. Thank you for the extremely useful reference!

I have a notification that @bleububbletea tagged me in this, but it won’t let me actually view it for some reason. Thank you, this looks very useful!

Source: smuggler-captain