Paradox

I've been burned by many an encounter. However, I don't allow that to force me to assume everyone's going to do that. If it does happen, I blist or ignore them, no harm no foul. Or in some cases, if they're willing to communicate, if they're inexperienced as a roleplayer and just flush with the idea of power, I try to help them refine their style. If they don't act like a jerk, then I've just made a new roleplay partner. Win/win. And all I've lost was a little personal time if they turn out to be a problem. It's not like someone actually kicked my dog. It could just be that I'm not easily frustrated by people's actions because I've seen so many different types, I just prefer to roll with the punches. I understand why some might be twitchy, but at the same time, it's equally ignorant to let one's personal experience at the hand of asshats allow one to assume that everyone will be an asshat and behave as such. I've encountered quite a few dismissive or derisive attitudes at Ark's willingness to fight, just because of such assumptions, without ever giving it a chance.

Something I inherently noticed is a lot of people immediately don't want to get into any kind of emote fight because they don't know or don't trust the person. In retrospect, how will you get to know or trust someone if you don't give them an honest chance? Admittedly, some will be asinine, but you won't know till you try. In response to those that say 'I'll only do it with rolls', that is indeed your option. However, win or lose, I prefer not to use rolls for most combat, and this is the reason why. Even if your character is seasoned, a roll can basically make you look like an idiot. Your skill, creativity, and representation of your character is immediately boiled down into totally random chance. To me, not only is that an unrealistic interpretation of not only my character's skill, but your character's as well, I find it breaks the immersion and capability of both the writer and the aspect that is presented. I understand a lot of people are afraid of emote/freeform fighting because there are asshats out there. The thing is, not everyone is such an asshat, and displaying cynicism by believing the worst of someone trying to fight you before even giving them a chance kind of tells me the reason why nobody likes to fight in the community that I've seen so far except in announced or pre-sanctioned events like grindstone or existing stories. And in a way this makes me sad. I love fighting. Combat roleplay is one of my favorite types because I'll be blunt: I enjoy conflict. Real conflict. I've never been one for romance drama or any of that, it bores me. No offense to those who enjoy that sort of thing of course. But, then again, I cut my roleplay teeth in a place where no one needed permission to kill or attack you. It was a kill or be killed, real time environment. The HTML-style chat rooms of the early to late 90's and on in to the early 2000's were the place I was. In the vampire clans and similar rooms, everyone was at constant war, and you could expect to be ambushed on the streets of whatever room you were in a lot, especially if you were even halfway good. Characters died a lot if you weren't on top of your game. It wasn't an every day thing, but people took their combat seriously, and in the early days, we had no such dice rollers, so we all had to freeform. Not all of us knew each other, either. Sure, we had godmodders and jackasses, but anyone who wants to not be ostracized plays at least somewhat fair. And I say that's the way to do it. Reputation and the grapevine will weed out the bads. The big problem is, a lot of people's playstyles don't interact well with one another, and therein lies the major problem. In this community from what I've seen, most people go by the 'permission to kill' rules. That being the case, a fight could at best, result in your defeat and humiliation, no death incurred unless you allow it. With this measure of control over character death, I genuinely see no reason not to fight at least some of the time. Now, I get that some of you have your own ways. But it also depends entirely on the approach in question. Ark for example, is an arrogant bastard. And he's quite strong, yes. But he already knows there's always someone bigger. But for him, the thrill of the battle is what's most important; win or lose, he loves to fight. That's not to say he won't use every dirty magical trick or combination in the book to whip that ass, yet at the same time he's not invincible either. S'vanoh on the other hand, is more tricky than powerful, so naturally when faced with overwhelming power, he could also run away. He is a ninja after all. The other thing I've also noticed is that a lot of people don't throw themselves into fighting. Okay, fair enough, it's not exactly everyone's thing. But also, in a world in constant conflict, expect some people to want to start shit IC because some characters are like that. And there are far too many who cop out with 'oh, it's not worth my time' or 'oh, if they don't do it the way I want, then they're obviously godmodders/metagamers/etc'. I find that elitism and dismissal from a lot of people who fancy themselves too good to fight just because they assume someone is going to shrug hits or no-sell their attacks just because they don't want to play the same way they do is as irritating as people who refuse to take their hits in the first place. Equally irritating are players who present their characters as strong, or seasoned, and then when confronted with a potential fight refuse to because they don't RP fight, or have such a strict way to do so, it essentially makes their IC posturing utterly pointless. I think if someone is going to play a character that talks of their combat prowess, they should be willing to back it up. I get everyone has their own realistic or fantasy style view of what a fight should be or shouldn't be. In terms of the poll..mmm..honestly, I'd take the fights as they came. I prefer freeform fights over rolls. Rolls are too random. In a scripted event, I can see where rolls have their point, but as a writer who puts a great deal of effort into his writing, I find having to depend on a random dice roller to represent my character's skills, honed or amateur they may be depending on the character, to be insulting both to my character's effort that's been given and to my own creativity and skill as a writer. I prefer to leave the dice to a game fully dependent on stats like Pathfinder. If this rustles some jimmies, my apologies. I simply suppose that I won't be engaging in combat with those people's characters. I've taken my lumps before and I'd certainly do so now. Till we meet in the field of battle..or not! Game on and have fun.

The top male hairstyle reminds me of Nobunaga's style from Samurai Warriors. Yesplz.

I'm of a mind to believe that if we have the ability to rain death and chaos from the sky and summon tiny fragments of elemental gods to serve our whims in battle, that creating an illusion around our bodies with various magicks or magicked items isn't such a farfetched idea. There is some lore, however vague that supports it as has been said. And interestingly enough, even mundane(!) professions can create a crystal with a prism and a little bit of whatever component that changes one armor visually into another. This leaves me with an interesting question. Mechanically speaking, you can re-dye glamoured armor if the appearance is dyeable. As Warren wonders, I also have to wonder in an RP sense, when said armor takes damage, does it appear as if the battle damage, smudging, or similar effects appear on the glamoured appearance of the armor, or does it temporarily dissipate when in battle or when it is affected? The bottom line is not whether glamours for the body exist, as several magicks can be used to facilitate this. The real bottom line is, just how many senses do these little tricks of light and magic effect? I think primarily the ones most people prefer to use affect the senses of sight and touch. Then again, by its own nature, a glamour is not a transformation. Even if a glamour can hide say...ears, the ears will still be there, unless the illusion has a phantasmal effect that affects the mind as well, and convinces someone that the ears are not there, even if you were to touch where they were. And that's just more complex magic. So is a transfiguration a transformation proper? Or does it just hide certain features akin to a polymorph or alter self spell? Another consideration; what school of magic does it fall under, exactly? Do all magic schools have some manner of illusionary sorcery? Or is it limited to more flexible magic schools like Arcanima, whose only real limit is its formulae? The mind spins with so many possibilities.

Depends on the character for me. A'rklonn is my strongest magical character, and he uses most magical disciplines because his goal is to learn all sorcery. The thing is, he primarily excels in offensive elemental magic, meaning that his conjury is basically devoid of most healing, as is his Arcanima/Summoning formulae. He's good at combining elements into multi-level effects (Such as combining Aero and Fire to widen the effects or burn up oxygen so melee combatants have a harder time), and he studies Void-Aether, or what he calls 'Negative Aster' as he's trying to actually create a new school of magic that's more akin to the umbral-element Thaumaturgy of 1.0. Still, thanks to certain weaknesses, he is incapable of using cold or water magic, or any kind of 'light' or holy based magic. Basically, he's very good at doing all sorts of things with the magic he's got understanding of, but has great difficulty doing things with magic he doesn't have a predisposed affinity for. His magi-surgical enhancements also help with his magery, allowing him to do things he normally could not, but at a large cost. He tends to be cocky though, and often uses up too much power in flashy spells too early depending on who or what he's fighting. One of his biggest weaknesses is his ego and self assurance in his power, so he's just as likely to defeat himself. In a sense, A'rklonn using varied magic is much like the Avatar or an Elemental Bender by way of example. Combinations, situational changes, and environmental adaptations, just without the martial arts element in most cases. A larger effect area or more than one or two elements naturally takes more time and focus unless he expends a huge amount of aether to compensate, but of course he cripples his other options later. This leads to the second limit, which is basically a no brainer: His Aether pool is finite despite being quite large, and since he can't access certain elements of nature like water from the land around him, his conjury is limited depending on his environment as well. Arcanima, while he uses it to a point, is mostly used for Egi-summoning to aid in his spellcraft. His own perceptions of what's honorable in battle or proper in a fight keeps him from using poison or disease magics. Basically, I try to keep my spells within the realm of the magic used in the game, but don't stick to the actual 'spells' on my hotbars. Hotbar-linking or only using in game spells is some of the laziest magical combat RP there is IMO..I use it more as a guideline of what's possible, and go from there with creativity. You can do so much with fire than just fling balls of it. Much the same here, Faye. Ark is my 'big flashy egotistical exploder wizard' type who relies on chaos and destruction and intimidation but sometimes lacks insight despite his experience, because physical and magical power's always solved his problems. I have another mage in the works who will deal totally with 'precision' magic; spell effects meant to disable, demoralize, and debilitate rather than outright kill. She's going to be a pure Arcanima caster with some Conjury knowledge on the side just for its use in biology. As a scientist she won't be the type to fight outright. Think of her like the TF2 medic; she'd fire the magical equivalent of 'syringes' with various negative effects in them to wear people down over time while using an Egi to defend her otherwise frail body.

When it comes to my characters, the list goes as follows. A'rklonn Sargonnai: A solid 2.5 no doubt. In between 2 and 3 suits him best. He's got a diverse skillset, and incredibly good skills with most kinds of sorcery (barring the fact he heals like a wet duck; he's only good mostly with offensive conjury or using healing effects for body reinforcement). However, it isn't raw power alone but also his magic combinations/multicasting and thinking outside of the box based on lots of experience that adds to the raw power. This character has a long history outside of the FF universe though, which accounts for a lot of his strength. Still, no one is unbeatable, and finding out his weaknesses means he can be defeated. Oriane Pelderain: Oriane is a 4 when it comes to using any kind of ranged weapon or thrown weapon/explosive. Someone who took an interest in gun weapons and magitek appropriated from Garlean sources after coming up as a heretic hunter in Ishgard, Oriane prefers range over close combat. She knows a little magic, but not very much; just enough to heal her wounds and keep a barrier up to protect her from other long ranged types. In hand to hand combat she's painfully mediocre; she can fight decent enough with a knife or sword to survive against your usual NPCs, but a skilled melee combatant would shut her down if she didn't have a small gun handy. She's most effective working in a two man cell with her partner. Charlotte Snakesinger: Charlotte is an odd mix; if she's allowed to use all of her abilities, she counts as a 4, more or less. Charlotte is also not the sort of person who fights herself in most cases, preferring to use deception or use her thralls to fight for her. While she's very good at Black Magic and a few special arts she's loath to show off, much of her unique abilities are for subversion, subjugation, and mental disruption that takes time. Add to the fact she has to siphon much of her Aether from outside sources, and there are some disadvantages there. Physically she's a martial artist, but her martial skills are mostly based on leverage, throws, pressure points, and redirection of force meaning heavily armored opponents can shut her down hard. Her raw power is highly lacking if she's forced to fight 'normally'. S'vanoh Tia: Van is a 4 for the most part. When it comes to mudra shaping, he's quick and efficient, and in hand to hand combat, he's good with knives and fists. However, outside of martial arts and ninjutsu, he doesn't have a lot of other talents other than knowing poisons. He combines physical strength and agility, along with good Chi levels, but his Aether is at the low end of the spectrum and he's basically incapable of magic. He's not a bad planner and is good at reading an opponent, but he's also used to working with a partner, and while he can win most one on one fights with someone near his level, he can be outsmarted. Tends to have a weakness for a cute or pretty face. Vaelen Sargonnai: Vae is a 3.5 for the most part. A magic fencer like his father, who combines swordplay and magecraft. He prefers single sword or sword and shield style fighting and is best with those. He's got some martial arts skills from his mother's training, so his fighting is well rounded and he's adaptable in combat. Vae's biggest weakness is like his father, he tends to be quite cocky. I have a few more characters in the works; one I need to namechange, and another that's going to be an Au Ra so I can't really designate what they'll be yet, though I have an idea. Also, to this:

New to the forum, so bear with me. This is my two cents, both what I think makes good RP from my opinion and standpoint, and also a few little gripes. Imagination: For me, what primarily makes a good RP is imagination. The willingness to grow and exercise the imagination is important to me, over most dictates of what's lore friendly or anything else. I like to see difference, and effort, even if that effort makes other people chafe sometimes. I've never been the type to really care if someone is particularly super realistic to a fault in terms of what their character is. I'll RP with anyone as long as it's fun and imaginative (but not TOO silly or literally impossible). I mean, if they're a high class voidsent in a [race here] shell, Or just some messenger kid trying to stiff me an extra gil for giving me a letter from the local magistrate, as long as I can see they enjoy their character, then I can enjoy it with them. Grammar/Spelling/Content: I like some nice meaty (giggity) verbosity as well, but at this point in my RP life, it's not a thing I'm going to stress over. It's nice to see detailed, well thought out posts with lots of imagination, but not everyone is an English major (for those whom English is a language they speak) or has been writing for a long period of time. I'm not critical of typos, as I know some people also speak English as a second or even third language, and context or spelling is sometimes lost in translation. Admittedly I'm a bit snobbish in that one or two line posts do make me go 'meh', but sometimes the person's enthusiasm makes up for things in that regard. I'm not going to accost someone for not having beautifully scripted and detailed posts. Admittedly in more private RP when there's not a lot of people to be subjected to a wall of text, more is better to me. I also detest post filler. Superfluous details actually make something less worth reading, not more. Opinion, of course. Reactions fitting Actions in regard to conflict/consequences: One thing I also think makes RP good is people who accept consequences of actions IC. You see this a lot; time and time again there are characters that love to talk a lot of smack, or swagger about, then one is informed when reacting at times appropriately as a character would, that the person doesn't RP fight, with dice or otherwise. I get that this is a personal player choice. However, if you have a character who is going to say something that might merit another realigning their jaw for them, it seems highly out of place to be told 'well I don't RP fight so you can't do anything about it'. This creates an extreme situation vacuum. Accepting consequences is a huge part of RP and applies to more than just conflict. Sharing the story/Being part of the whole: Another thing that makes good RP is willingness to share. Share your story, and let others share theirs. If you want to be the big hero, that's fine. But big heroes need a supporting cast. If you want to be incredibly powerful, then good for you, but just remember that a great power needs lesser powers to make their lives interesting. If you just want to be a humble shopkeeper, awesome too. Everyone needs to buy their goods from somewhere. I mean, where would those awesome magic items come from, if not the magic item shop? I don't really care if your character's more mundane, or fantastical, or off the wall crazy, or anything, as long as you're willing to make sure the enjoyment, and the story, is shared across other people. Whether you hug the lore like a religious text or bend it like a slinky, as long as you can interact nicely with the rest of the class and help shape a story with those you get involved in your own, then you're alright by my book. Sure, everyone will have their problems with certain people (IC and OOC), but keeping the story flowing despite it is a great thing. Communication: Oh [deity here], Communication. Honestly, nine out of ten conflicts of interest come from a lack of communication by the players involved. I find in conflict heavy RP especially, this is the case. Overall, it's good to just talk about things. Who knows? Maybe you'll make a friend while you're at it. RP is a thing we all make together, so doing what the best of art does: adapting and flowing as styles change and differ, makes it the best in my opinion. Just my two cents. Sorry if it was a bit..lengthy. I talk too much when I'm tired.