Of Seeing A Ranger

[kefkah]

Back when I first started SWG, a friend of mine told me that the profession that best fit my playing style was Ranger. He said that the profession allowed for high amount of solo playing time but when teamed with a group , they could would help the team greatly. As I spent most of my time exploring from one corner of the map to the other in other mmos (mostly running for my life or hiding with one hit left on me). this appealed to me and I thought I would give it a shot.

No, this isn't about my shot. Rather it was about the mystery and mythos that surrounded us rangers especially as perceived by other players. First thing I noticed when I started is that I didn't actually SEE any rangers. Anywhere. They weren't in the cantinas nor were they duelling and if you thought you might see one at the bazaars - think again. I spent the majority of my scout life having not once seen one.

This caused me some concern. I got to thinking that I had picked a borked profession. A joke everyone knew but me. So one day I set out and visited planets just in an effort to locate rangers. Please note that this was before the whole glowy meets old man craze. What I found on my search that that there were rangers on the planets. About one or two with their tags on but they were nowhere that anyone in their right mind would travel to by themselves. Anyone, that is, except for a ranger.

This simple truth was backup up by the fact that when I actually was training in being a ranger - locating one was hard but expecting to hook up with one to train with within a short amount of time was impossible. Near a major city? Right. A few minutes from town? Hardly. Near a shuttleport? HAHAHAHAAH! They simply where in the deepest and darkest parts of the worlds. Generally surrounded on all sides by things that would track and kill any other professions if only by mass attacks.

It really hit home one day when I walked into town and had a small group approach me. You would think they had seen a jedi (again, this was before jedi roamed everywhere like cochroaches). They simply couldn't believe that we existed. I must have fieded a few dozen questions while I stood there at the terminal. So I took the group out on a little expedition and showed them what a ranger could do. In the end, there was a lot of respect and I even came out of it with a apprentice.

In closing, oddly enough, I can remember quite vividly the first ranger I ever saw. He was standing between the cantina and the bazaar in Mos Eisly. Conversing with a friend. Greenish duster on and of course the ever present rifle. I approached him like he was a rockstar and he took it in humble stride. Like any good ranger, he offered me a few tips, gave me a hand me down item I didn't ask for but would need in the near future and waved goodbye before he went off on a group expedition.

Like in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie, I modeled myself after that ranger. Always wore the duster, never was without my T-21, always helped those who were training to be one of us and never left without a goodbye.

Thats what you came to expect...when you saw a ranger.
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MMOFringe.com

[Levinoss]

Great story!

I was a Bounty Huntard for a long time before I made a ranger. ^_^

~Lev
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[Nadya_Popova]

If you had looked on Endor or Dathmoor, you might have found us

My people came to the starport, collected my B/H/M and then Id go back into the bush after more.

[Tovan]

You'd have found me walking around on Dathomir, usually up towards Rancor Valley or the Spider Clan caves. Sometimes harrying Imperial troops at the prison.

I'd come into Dathomir Outpost (the Trade Outpost to some) to drop off my harvested items and collect payment or consumables, then disappear right out into the bush again.

People always marvelled when the spotted an HTFB on some hill in the middle of nowhere.

You'd hear, "What's that, an Imp base?"

Someone would reply, "Naw, must be a Ranger. We should rest up there, if he'll let us."

And I always did, naturally. Safe spots in the wilderness are our wont. What would we be if we refused hospitality to those in (often dire) need? The guests were always grateful, sometimes playing us a few tunes and dancing, sometimes offering up some bit of gear, food, or medicine in thanks. Always, they were gracious.

Camp times are my fondest SWG memories.
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Colonel Tovan Cassidine
Master Ranger - Master Rifleman
Consumer of beverages and eater of foods.

[Mjoelner]

Wow kefkah! Just wow! Almost like my own story with the exception that I was the first Ranger I ever saw. Even after I made Ranger, I'm not sure that I ever saw more than the profession du-jour type Ranger who jumped professions at the mention of something "uber". I guess people would freak out if they saw two of us together.

Nothing beat spending weeks at a time in the field solo. I can't wait to do it again!