I can already see it before my eyes, a NPC guard waiting at the spawning spot from the death realm to kill the murderer again and again and ... Talk about teaching players to handle their roles in a more subtle way )

Where magic linked to fantasy is concerned I could argue that to me magic is mostly linked to sleight of hands and other such tricks as well as the well known card game magic the gathering TM and thus following the real life logic of some I should be unable to make different association than those when in game.

Oh and a storm trooper is a trooper that was formed for fast attacks or in other words to storm his target and yet again I do not connect those words with Lucas world most of the time (the exception being when I am watching Star Wars) but with the german military of second world war who had those kind of troops.

What I do connect with the world of Lucas are words like Jedi, Obi Wan, ... that have no common usage in other domains, for the rest hearing lightsabre doesn\'t make me think of Sci-fi at all times, it depends on what I am doing at that moment,  hearing laser sabre does but then again it might be valid only for me.

Wonder why I never receive challenges, maybe it is because I don\'t spend so much time on the plaza or it could be because Manden tends to be the one who gets challenged in the Blitzers:))

While reading all of this one question came to my mind, what is the definition of honour you use ?  

To me behaving with honour means not harassing people weaker than myself, help them if possible and respect the rules of engagement I\'ve set myself (which for me are no sneak attacks).

When in a duel, honour dictates I respect the rules of engagement set commonly before the challenge is even stated, when an opponent challenges me without even introducing himself first he automaticaly forfeits the right to any rules applying to the engagement, and as such can not call any style of fighting dishonourable anymore wheather it be magic or physical.

As for mages versus fighters, a mage\'s passion is with magic, and he certainly does not need a fighter to pursue it except maybe as an opponent if the calling he pursues is one of battlefields.  

I wasn\'t aware that there existed a rule somewhere that stated that warriors knew so much magic formulaes that they could bring something to the mage in terms of knowledge, it would amount to saying that a warrior would have to find a mage to train him in the use of the sword.  

And if you meant that a mage would need a warrior to fight for him while he casted his spells then obviously you did not take into account the fact that a mage like a ranger or a thief could prepare the ground between him and his target prior to even launching an attack from a safe range, in fact once the mage gets powerful enough it would rather be the warrior that would need his help to protect himself against opposite spells.

The reason why groups are balanced is not because one character needs another to protect him but because they are more efficient that way, training in all areas makes for a slow overall progress and combining them thereafter doesn\'t improve the situation while specialising then combining several specialisations makes for a high quality combination with no weaknesses since each component is good in one domain.

Why are you all describing role playing and levelling as fundamental opposites, they are not, I admit to like the levelling bit because it allows me to talk about my killing of two ulbernauts instead of just pretending, it allows me to show the wonderful sword I just made instead of just acting as if I was a smith, it allows me to build the house I imagined, instead of just stating I am a builder, but none of this actually forbids me from acting my part or rather the part of the character I decided to play.

Of course if I don\'t know you I\'ll probably walk past you without saluting you but ask yourself this question, would it be in character to stop and salute someone in the middle of the street if you did not know him ?

In other words, I believe the current separation in PS is

10/60/30  

10 % of the players are what I would deam actors, they don\'t use the game, they just act out the character they imagined
60 % of the players are part actors, part levellers

30 % of the players are pure levellers and not interested by anything else

And that is not such a bad thing, you just have to take the time to address people, you\'ll mostly be surprised to see how much they will do to play their part if you do play yours, of course don\'t expect the same level of acting with all of them as with expert roleplayers, most of the player you meet online have never done much of the paper role playing and have grown used to what game magazines pass out as role playing games )

Then again I might be an optimist but up until now all people I\'ve stopped to talk with took the time to act normal or in character as the case may be.

Amidextry means you have no main hand and as such in its absence when fighting using two weapons you should only be penalised if the weapon present in your off hand required the skill of a main hand.

For example for a right hander a long sword in the left hand would be penalising but a dagger would not unless it was the main weapon as less is required from the secondary weapon.

Now for the comment about shield fighting being less efficient in dealing damage : I definitely do not agree with this, shield fighting is for strong characters and uses ramming as well as other tactics to gain an advantage (like pikes on the shield and so on).  It is a different way of fighting but certainly not a less efficient one.

@Draklar  : the word Dictionary is not mentioned as such but making a statement saying it is not a word refers to a dictionary as no other reference could be used to confirm the validity, or not, of a word.

shan\'t and alas give me a renaissance feel not a medieval one ) if you want to go medieval look up middle english or old english, here\'s an extract of middle :

1: The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,
2: That was the kyng Priamus sone of Troye,
3: In louynge how his auentures fellen
4: ffro wo to wele, and after out of ioie,
5: My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye.
6: Thesiphone, thow help me for tendite
7: Thise woful vers that wepen as I write.

8: To the clepe I, thow goddesse of torment,
9: Thow cruwel furie, sorwynge euere in peyne,
10: Help me that am the sorwful instrument
11: That helpeth loueres, as I kan, to pleyne;
12: ffor wel sit it, the sothe for to seyne,
13: A woful wight to han a drery feere,
14: And to a sorwful tale a sory chere.

15: ffor I, that god of loues seruantz serue,
16: Ne dar to loue, for myn vnliklynesse,
17: Preyen for speed, al sholde I ther-fore sterue,
18: So fer am I from his help in derknesse;
19: But natheles, if this may don gladnesse
20: To any louere and his cause auaille,
21: Haue he my thonk, and myn be this trauaille.
 
I\'ll spare you old english as I do not believe anyone would understand it but if you feel like looking here is a nice reference :

http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/

That said I understand what you mean about the modern feel and will not add to the polemic anymore since there is certainly no need for that )

Hum, there are no graveyards in Planeshift, if I remember my story right we live in a giant stalagtite where dead people are thrown in conduits leading out of it which means a gigantic charnel somewhere at the bottom of the cave wherever that might be since nobody is really sure there is a bottom )