RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Faye · **04-26-2015, 08:09 PM**

(04-26-2015, 08:03 PM)Arklonn Sargonnai Wrote: As for instigating..well, you really don't know what kind of roleplayer someone is until you interact with them, so there's no guarantee depending on where your story was going you might not instigate them one way or another, right? I mean, none of us can know the future one way or the other.

Hence I usually don't have my characters act like shitheads to someone unprovoked until I have a basic grasp of their RP and who they are OOC. Tongue

If you do that stuff to strangers godmodding can happen, hurt feelings OOC, etc. That's a risk some people are willing to take which is great, but it's not my cup of tea.

Paradox · **04-26-2015, 08:11 PM**

Fair enough! Like I said, Ark loves to fight. He'll start a fight with a toaster if you let him. Not all of my characters are like that though. S'vanoh prefers to make love, not war. xD

Enla · **04-26-2015, 08:24 PM**

(04-26-2015, 07:25 PM)Arklonn Sargonnai Wrote: My only (minor) gripe with this is, it only takes five minutes, not even that, to invite the person into a party, have a discussion with them, and see where they stand and if you can work something out. Hell, ask them their actual character's power. Goodness knows if they're good roleplayers, they'll tell you whatever you want to know barring special secrets. And you may be surprised, pleasantly. It could be their character has an inflated ego and can't back it up. Assuming they're going to godmod you might be selling them short. I don't like roll system. I really don't. I will agree to do it, if both of us (myself and the other player or players, not actually like..you and me in this discussion, I mean.) come to an agreement on why, but it's not my preference. However, forcing someone to use the system you prefer or else you don't even let them have a chance, seems like roleplaying in a bubble to me.

Admittedly no one can make you do what you don't want, and everyone has their own way, so that's that. And as stated, I will adamantly fight any reason to push me into rolling dice, I suppose I'm guilty in my own way of sticking to a specific preference. Pot and kettle, and all that, I know. So I'm not trying to sound judging at all so don't let it come off that way as it's not meant as such, but as Aaron said, there are probably far more decent roleplayers than jerks by the numbers. Hell, I got to know some of my favorite roleplayers in random freeform dust ups between our characters.

Edited because the quote bubbles hate me. OTL

Frankly the roll system isn't what I prefer either, I adamantly hate it most of the time and most people who know me have heard the rants I've gone on about how it can fundamentally change a character if allowed to run rampant. Personally my statement really only applies with people I've never roleplayed with before and whom want to role play a fight right off the bat. Two sessions is usually all I need to know what kind of person I'm dealing with, and I do go out of my way to talk to anyone I'm engaging in roleplay about their characters and try to make sure we're both having as much fun as possible. If by the second session I know I can trust the other player and they can trust me, all the handle bars come off and it goes extremely smoothly from then on. Hell, sometimes it happens right away during the first RP because like you suggested I do try to talk things out first and get a feel for the character and the person on an OOC level.

It really is just a case of where I've been bitten so badly by it in the past that while I'm not going to presume guilty before innocent, I still will do my best to make sure the playing field is level before unleashing the flood gates so to say. It's just as much a consideration towards myself however as it is to the other player, so they can get a feel for me and my style so we can see if the kid gloves can eventually come off and have a good old time. It really doesn't take me long to trust other people once I've talked with them. ^^

And I feel you on the quotes. x_x They're a PAIN.

Paradox · **04-26-2015, 08:29 PM**

Sounds reasonable. I guess I've fought so many fights in my time and lost and won my share, I just wanna fight for the fight. Like I said, combat RP is my favorite type of RP, so I'm a bit biased there. I know not everyone likes to fight, and it makes me sadface, but hell. Gotta do what you love, you know?

I like talking to people. It's fun to talk to someone even if your characters are beating the hell out of each other. I actually think it's more fun in situations like that. xD

Mercurias · **04-26-2015, 09:36 PM**

I believe that RP combat is a matter of consent. No one can force you to consent to being overpowered because their character is super badass. Everyone should always be given an out unless the conflict is already planned and agreed to.

Also? Who 'warns' you about how tough his or her character is? That's a little silly. Maybe you can write out that the person moves fluidly, or with a grace that implies confidence in combat, or even imply the character's movements are just a little too fast to be considered 'normal', to hint that this person is not someone you want to get into a fight with. Sending a /tell warning you that you're going to lose seems a little bit unimaginative.

If someone declares that their character is super powerful and that they want to pound your face in IC, especially in situations where it isn't warranted, then I have a magic phrase for it:

"Thanks much for the RP opportunity, but I'm going to sit this one out because I don't feel comfortable. I hope there are no hard feelings. Have a great night."

As a general rule, if someone I don't know is going to walk up to one of my characters and say "Fite me m8 I'm over 9000!" then my character is going to look at the person like he or she is insane and walk away. That is a perfectly normal and reasonable reaction. If the person persists, then that's where the town guard should come into play or I just go OOC and disengage completely.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Chris Ganale · **04-26-2015, 09:46 PM**

(04-26-2015, 09:36 PM)Mercurias Wrote: Also? Who 'warns' you about how tough his or her character is?

Somebody with way too much hubris for his own good. Admittedly, I take a perverse enjoyment in knocking those people down a couple rungs, but that has as much to do with coming up in the same lawless hellholes as Glio and Ark as it does anything.

Hell, if anything I try to undersell how competent my characters are, because the other guy underestimating me puts me at a hell of an advantage.

Verad · **04-26-2015, 09:55 PM**

(04-26-2015, 07:53 PM)Glioca Sargonnai Wrote:
(04-26-2015, 07:43 PM)Verad Wrote: Exactly. They're not fair. That's why fighting smart doesn't fairly guarantee victory. To suggest it should consistently guarantee victory is to suggest a kind of fairness.
I think I might have misrepresented what I meant by 'clever'. Â I'm referring specifically to the player willing to be inventive, creative, and willing to compromise and acknowledge when they might be outmatched. Â

If someone's fighting dirty against someone who's trying to fight smart, the person fighting dirty will likely have better tricks and get an upper edge, obviously because they're pressing the advantage, but also because they're not following traditional convention. Â That doesn't necessarily guarantee victory, but also doesn't guarantee a loss.

. . .Â

If a bad roll of the dice meant more than just a 'quick loss', people would be less eager to rely solely on dice.

But how do you tell when you are outmatched? Because the character has been out-fought by another character, or because the player has been out-witted by another player? When does an emphasis on freeform suggest that character skill should be equivalent to player skill? It's an argument people make frequently for PvP-as-conflict-resolution; in freeform, I see it as well, but with a different type of skill in mind.

I am eager to rely on dice because, in general, I find dice to be more unpredictable than freeform roleplayers in combat. They provide more interesting situations and when the results turn out in an unexpected way, I do not get cross that they violated my vision of how combat should go. Instead, they make me think about how to frame the fight in such a way that the results of the dice are sensible plausible. The notion that dice make it easier to mitigate losses have nothing to do with it.

To be fair, I understand how simple /random high-roll-wins combats are unsatisfactory. It's why I have a roll-system linkshell with a more complicated set of rules and a sheet system. Even in /random, however, I would consider it the mark of a good player to acknowledge that the dice don't go the way they expected, and then craft the narrative around that unexpected result, than to try and deny the result entirely.

Mercurias · **04-26-2015, 09:56 PM**

(04-26-2015, 09:46 PM)Chris Ganale Wrote:
(04-26-2015, 09:36 PM)Mercurias Wrote: Also? Who 'warns' you about how tough his or her character is?

Somebody with way too much hubris for his own good. Admittedly, I take a perverse enjoyment in knocking those people down a couple rungs, but that has as much to do with coming up in the same lawless hellholes as Glio and Ark as it does anything.

Hell, if anything I try to undersell how competent my characters are, because the other guy underestimating me puts me at a hell of an advantage.

Personally, I think it's more fun that way. I see a lot of those sorts of fights turn into "Nobody wants to lose" slog-fests, though. Sad

Mercurias · **04-26-2015, 10:02 PM**

(04-26-2015, 09:55 PM)Verad Wrote: To be fair, I understand how simple /random high-roll-wins combats are unsatisfactory. It's why I have a roll-system linkshell with a more complicated set of rules and a sheet system. Even in /random, however, I would consider it the mark of a good player to acknowledge that the dice don't go the way they expected, and then craft the narrative around that unexpected result, than to try and deny the result entirely.

I've seen this done before to hilarious or impressive degrees. My own "Fighter" character regularly spars in the basement of the bar he runs (Rum 'n Rumble, Mist Ward 5 Plot 20- check out my fightin' pit!) with all comers, and he's both won and lost. Usually, I just leave it to /random.

The best was when I rolled a 999 and my friend Rinh rolled an ACTUAL 0. I did not know there was even a 0 you could roll. It was amazing.

Typically, I leave roll combat as a way to inject randomness into a roleplay. In actual combat, I like to go in knowing an outcome and working towards the end with the other player to tell the story.

OttoVann · **04-26-2015, 10:05 PM**

I confront it by refusing to combat RP outside of extremely rare and highly niche situations. Spoil sport as fuck.

ArmachiA · **04-26-2015, 10:07 PM**

^
^ On RnR fighting, the NB (Who owns the bar Mercurias runs Wink

) is working on an entire system for that since dice rolls are extremely unsatisfying. We've already wrote the UNI system for roll20, which worked out well, now it's just adapting it to a pit-style Prize Fighter thing which takes into account character skill and strength as well. It's been tested a few times so far... Crits were pretty op though.

Kasumi Gakunin · **04-26-2015, 10:34 PM**

Personally I refuse to freeform fight with someone unless I've known them for a while and they don't seem like the type to godmode.Â
I don't think I've ever actually done combat not using rollz/random outside of a personal plot I ran a few months ago with some close friends.Â
Saying that I have a few friends who refuse to use the rollz/random system because it doesn't take into account their characters strengths/weaknesses which is a good point. Saying that, while I've be happy to do up some sort of character sheet to help make the combat system with another more fair I know most players don't feel the same way. It is a lot of effort.

Aaron · **04-26-2015, 10:37 PM**

Can't we all like. . .be friends?Â

Why y'all gotta beat each other up IC? D:Â

YOU LURE PEOPLE OOC WITH YOUR NICENESS THEN IC PUNCH EM IN THE FACE.

I see your plans.

Chris Ganale · **04-26-2015, 10:57 PM**

Hey, the only time I beat a guy up, he asked for it.

(Literally, I described Chao's fighting style to him and he was like "let's go test it! \o/" and she won when he suicide-bombed and she happened to stand up first)

Mercurias · **04-26-2015, 11:00 PM**

(04-26-2015, 10:07 PM)ArmachiA Wrote: ^
^ On RnR fighting, the NB (Who owns the bar Mercurias runs ) is working on an entire system for that since dice rolls are extremely unsatisfying. We've already wrote the UNI system for roll20, which worked out well, now it's just adapting it to a pit-style Prize Fighter thing which takes into account character skill and strength as well. It's been tested a few times so far... Crits were pretty op though.

PRETTY OP?

Man, with the health regeneration, multiple crits were the only way to kill people in the tests for a while.

It's fun, easy to get to use once you've done it a few times, and getting more and more towards balanced. A good beta and a fun system.

And yes, NB owns the bar IC. OOC, NB owns me, basically. >.>

Poll: How would you handle an OOCly, self-proclaimed powerful opponent? You do not have permission to vote in this poll.
Largely dismiss the opposition's singular opinion of strength against your own character's abilities	18.60%	8	18.60%
'Always' expect to get your hits in regardless of the end result	6.98%	3	6.98%
Allow your character to "lose" as a result of being weaker	25.58%	11	25.58%
Other	48.84%	21	48.84%
Total		43 vote(s)	100%

« Next Oldest \| Next Newest »
Pages (5): « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Random Confrontation and You

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes