[Yep, this one.]
The argument is that its impossible and that the blade hand guard wouldn't work unless the hilt was made from a lightsaber resistant material. However another argument is this: its intimidating. The Sith draw their power from the dark side of the Force. And what will a person do when they see this thing? Their going to freak out a bit - fear.
Also the blade hand guard allows the user to punch with the hilt and do damage that way rather than relying on broad swings. So I see this argument against it as invalid as people clearly haven't thought through all of the uses of the cross guard. Also the blade's beam looks unusually long too. Yes the grants better reach in a fight, but once inside one's guard that long main beam blade becomes a liability, so that can also be why the shorter beams are present in the cross guard.
But enough on those aesthetic problems.
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Being a Game Master
Ok, so this is mainly for anyone new to being a GM, as well as for some more seasoned GM's who may have problems that they need a new perspective on solving. So lets start with the basics in what I call the Rules on GMing.
Rule 1
Its just a game, you want everyone to have a good time.
Now I've been in a few different gaming groups over the years and every GM has a different way of running their games. And one key thing that I've seen that is often forgotten is that it is just a game. Yes you could have been playing a campaign for years, and a character or two die through no one's fault but unfortunate die rolls. As a GM you have to understand that yes people can become emotionally involved with a character, and when you take that character away or make drastic changes to them its best to take the player aside and chat with them a bit before you play out the event for everyone to see.
Now in some cases you can't do this because what you have planed is supposed to be a secret. But you have to take time with the player affected and chat with them. I've seen where a GM killed a character off and just said - go make a new one and I'll work you back in some how. Not a good way of doing things at all.
When you take something away you have to give something back. For example if a character dies you allow a new character to be brought in at the same level as the character that died, but minus the XP that the rest of the group has; unless they are all really close to leveling, in which case you could offer the new character to start 1 level above everyone else when they come in, but when XP is gotten for the adventure that would level everyone up they don't get to add any in XP to their character until everyone is at their level, so extra XP that flows over could be applied still. This also could allow the new character to start with better gear than what their previous character may have had as higher level characters tend to have more money to spend for buying starting gear.
In Hero System we do the same thing. We set land marks in point totals, so when a new character comes in they come in at that land mark. We started our adventures with 350pt characters. We're now at close to 450pt characters. Now if my character died, I could bring in a new one either at a point value equal to my lost character or at our land mark of 425pts (this would put me behind everyone else, but because of the nature of the Hero System its not a big deal).
In the end remember that as a GM your purpose is to make sure that the players - your friends - have fun, and yes you should have fun too.
Rule 2
If it takes away from the fun then is it really needed?
So one thing that can slow a game down are some of the rules. And lets face it there are sometimes rules that just leave you scratching your head. This is where House Rules come into play. House Rules are something that not just your, but the entire group decides on. They are rule changes and additions that are meant to improve on your gaming experience. If you don't like a rule - cut it out and use something else in its place.
Now there are some players that are "Rule Lawyers". They know all the rules, often by heart, and dislike changes. The first thing you want to do is identify these people and talk with them about changes and why you are changing them, and get them on board with accepting the changes. Make sure that you write down any changes you make though.
Rule 3
Problematic players can be handled.
One big thing that you have to remember as a GM is to communicate. The problem you may face is the communication from the other way. Some players can be problematic in this regard. They tend to do what ever they want and not work with the group. They create chaos and they tend to think its fun to get on the nerves of everyone.
This is why you talk to everyone in the group about their characters, get everyone on the same page. If several players are going to be playing characters of dubious morals, then it is a good idea to have the other players and their characters on the same page - or close enough to it. Just letting everyone play what ever they want with no communication is not a good idea.
Also its not necessarily a good idea to make everyone's character's for them...though an exception for this is if your trying out a new game system for the first time.
And even with all aspects of communication being used with the troubled player, they can still choose to be a complete and utter a-hole about things. Its when you've tried every nice way to get them to be apart of the group and not have it work that you have to take a harder edge. Here they have to know that they need to get on the same page as everyone or they need to move on. And I understand that sometimes this means that you can loose two players because the problem player is the friend of someone else. And if this other friend cannot get them to play along then you need to suck it up and accept that they need to go.
Letting a player go should be the last act for dealing with a problem, and your other players need to know what your thinking of doing. You can get new players, they can be found. Its never easy but think about how easy it was putting together the group for the first time to begin with.
Rule 4
Shooting the Breeze shouldn't dominate your time, but should be allowed.
So out of game talk happens a lot and it does detract from the game. Something comes up in the game and it makes you think of a joke or maybe an odd occurrence for the game and you or someone else makes their thoughts known which derails the game a bit.
Here's the thing. Its going to happen, make peace with it, have others make peace with it. Its part of the whole "getting together with friends to play a game" experience. Of course you don't want the entire game session to be just this. That's why as a GM you will want to let it go, but get people back on track in polite ways.
On the other hand make sure that if the player is saying something to get clarification on if its the player or the character talking, or thinking for that matter. The player may decide that a funny comment made about another NPC may need to be said out loud as its just apart of who the character is - regardless of the consequences - which can lead for good role playing opportunities. On the other hand an internal monologue may be better.
An example of this is a story my groups Champions campaign GM likes to tell.
He had a group of heroes facing off against the Dr. Destroyer. Now Dr. Destroyer is over 1,000pts in his build. He is a master villain like Dr. Doom. Now Dr. Destroyer warned the heroes that if they interfere with his plans he would "smite them".
Then in a brilliant moment, and in character, a player decides to say: "Smite, who the hell say's smite?"
Now his character was a very tough brick, and yes he did learn what the word smite means when used by a master villain. But it was one of those moments where he chose to say it rather than keeping it as internal monologue. It resulted in a great scene.
Another moments like this was when a guy in my group was facing off against a Minotaur. The GM warned us that saying "moo" to the Minotaur would be a bad idea. But my friend threw caution to the wind and told the GM his character deliberately says it to the Minotaur to piss him off.
So be mindful of what the players are saying and if it gets out of hand institute the "in character/out of character rule". This rule means that anything you say is in character unless you deliberately tell everyone you say it out of character. Some GM's have use this rule to reign in on excess talking that seems to dominate a game session and slow things down. But remember to talk to your players about why your doing it and ask them to be better about it next time.
Anyway it is now 12:00pm here in Oregon and I need to get going to my group. Will we survive Monster Island? Will Jack-be-Nimble get a kiss from the lady VIPER agent he has been courting (and by courting I mean harassing), will our lives ever be the same after Monster Island? Can we live without Godzilla being no more than 20 miles away?
Who knows, but its time for the great escape from the Nazi lair of doom on Monster Island.
I'll be back later to talk more about building a campaign.
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