An update on Republic Trooper and a massive thank you to all of our readers!

Written By: Andy Muchmore

This past week, July 2nd to be exact, Republic Trooper turned 1 – happy birthday RT! Although it is our birthday week, I felt it was appropriate to update all of you with the status of RT as a whole. Obviously over the past several months things have slowed to a crawl and I would like to personally address the situation.

Three years ago a very good friend of mine, Dave, approached me with the idea of RepublicTrooper.com. At the time I was neck deep in other projects and I was unavailable to help out, even though I was eagerly following the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over the years I would get phone calls, emails, texts, and the like asking if and when I would be available to “make it happen.” Around May of last year I was finally in a place where I could offer my services to Dave and help build Republic Trooper from the ground up. After several months of planning and development RT saw its first public reader and we were off to the races!

Since that time RT has seen tremendous growth and acceptance within the overall Star Wars: The Old Republic community – and I have to say, all of us cannot thank you enough for being readers, listeners, fans, and for not only playing the Trooper class in game, but being believers in BioWare and SWTOR to begin with. When RT went live we were woefully late to the game, in terms of established fan sites, but we did this for the love of the game, the love of the class, and to be honest – the love of the company that made it all happen. As long time gamers we had faith that a company like BioWare would, without a doubt, blow our minds with their new MMO.

Tags: Andy Muchmore, Ask A Jedi, beta, Bioware, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, community, David Bass, David Souza, EA, Early Game Access, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, LucasArts, Mike Kern, MMOs, Patch 1.1, Project Titan, R2-DB, Republic Trooper, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Stephen Reid, SWTOR, Titan Everything, TOR, TOR Syndicate, TORWars, Trooper

Republic Trooper hosts Fan Fiction Mondays every week and recently we had the opportunity to sit down with a few other prominent Fan Fiction writers in the SWTOR community. We asked them to share their thoughts on writing and what brought them to a Time Long Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

This week we were priveleged to talk to Dimbo from Dimbo the Trooper. If you don’t already read about his exploits, you can do so here.

Republic Trooper: How did you get into writing? What was the earliest thing you can remember writing?

Dimbo the Trooper: I entered a writing contest from Mos Eisley Radio that involved writing a back story for your main character in SWTOR. After I posted mine I got several emails and comments asking when the next episode was. My initial response was ‘um never?’ It really kind of took off from there. I started to think about Dimbo adventuring through the Star Wars galaxy and it came so easily [that] I had to write it down.

Tags: Bioware, Bootleg media, community, Corellian Run Radio, Dimbo the Trooper, EA, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, Galactic Republic, Keyboard Heroes, LucasArts, Mandalorian Girl, Mike Kern, Mos Eisley Radio, Nothing Gaming, Republic Trooper, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWATH radio, SWTOR, The Cantina Cast, TOR, TOR Syndicate, Trooper, Wookiepedia, Zotta

Republic Trooper hosts Fan Fiction Mondays every week and recently we had the opportunity to sit down with a few other prominent Fan Fiction writers in the SWTOR community. We asked them to share their thoughts on writing and what brought them to a Time Long Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

This week we were priveleged to talk to Na’sha from Mandalorian Girl. If you don’t already read about her exploits, you can check out her amazing story here.

Tags: Aaron Allston, Bioware, Bobba Fett, Canderous Ordo, community, EA, Eletronic Arts, fan fiction, Karen Traviss, Lord Hammer, LucasArts, Mandalorian Girl, Mike Kern, Na'sha, Paul S. Kemp, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Timothy Zahn, TOR, TOR Syndicate

When I was a child, I often stood in a field of poppies behind my house. My mother would pretend to not see me there and call out to me, over and over. Standing there, I felt invisible, with the grass to my knees and the Balmorran sun reflecting off the lakes. In that field of red and green nothing could hurt me. Nothing could take me away. Even my mother was not immune to it.

I stare now at the dull red petals of a poppy plant. Even in the darkness I make out the color when star shells explode. They are the color of blood and cover this wasteland from which there is no return. I lay in the land of the dead where the living should not go. No Man’s Land they call it. We were not men when we crossed into it. We were beasts, driven mad by fear and blood rage. Now humanity returns and we are no longer welcome here.

The gas creeps along the ground toward us like an ocean’s wave, cresting shell holes and billowing over bodies and debris. In the darkness it is a gray mist. In the light of the star shells it is a pale yellow, like the color of dying flesh. It reaches for us with foul smelling tendrils, curling under and around our limbs, seeking purchase on exposed skin. It leaps for our noses and throats, wanting to be let in. Once inside it will destroy us, bloat our faces and bring blood from our lungs to our lips.

Tags: Bioware, Blaster, EA, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR, Trooper, Vanmere

The man next to Shiod dies. He is hit by a shell that explodes not a meter from us. In an instant we are covered in dirt. It comes over us like an ocean’s wave. My ears and mouth are especially vulnerable and are filled. Kat digs me out and I, gasping and spitting, help Shiod. Vanmere is spared from the whole of it by a stroke of luck.

The dead man lay where he’d previously stood, but only his lower torso and legs remain. The rest is gone, blown away in a blast that leaves the rest of us shaken but otherwise unhurt. I stare until Kat shakes me back to myself.

“Sith!”

Tags: Bioware, Blaster, EA, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, TOR, Trooper, Vanmere