(03-05-2015, 05:45 AM)Tiergan Wrote: A lady who is a highly skilled and power soldier from participating in so many wars and battles might be struggling with some serious PTSD.
/cry
My RP tends to be heavily influenced by the rules of screenwriting I learned when it was my major in college. I view character arcs in that same episodic way over the course of their lifetime. Backstory creates your character baseline, and then everything afterwards is growth from the baseline. Like screenwriting, you're very often writing with a team of other writers and each of you has something to bring to the episode's plot. In roleplaying, I translate this into every individual RP scene/session and each of the writers is attempting to advance their player's storyline. What's important to remember is that even though an ensemble of important characters will appear in every TV episode, every character may not get equal representation in every episode for the sake of cohesive story telling. The scene comes first, in other words, and every character will get their opportunity to shine sometime that season.
So while (using my character as an example) Sounsyy may be that veteran soldier who's been in every conflict to date since the fall of Ala Mhigo, that fact isn't always essential to the story at hand, and can't be really, if RNG is involved like Grindstone. For some reason, Sounsyy has garnered a lot of respect from a lot of people at the Grindstone as an able gladiator, but definitely not by winning, since she rarely makes it past the first round and has only once made it past the second. So I don't think winning is so much the important part, it's giving a good show. Make a tense, cohesive fight that lets your character shine as well as leaving an opening for your opponent to shine, and you'll go far in combat RP, even roll-based combat. People will notice your character. Sure, it can be disappointing when your losing roll is to something that you don't think your character would feasibly lose to, like getting elbowed in the face when Sounsyy was wearing a cobalt facemask. But then it's up to getting creative for the sake of the scene. Well, Sounsyy's nose got broke last week, so I'll have it re-break. Check!
All that said, I don't really consider Sounsyy a powerful character. She's experienced and that's about her only edge. Her story is more about her losses and how she keeps going despite them. For every major loss, there's the hope of some small victory. That's the kind of story I want to tell with Sounsyy. And almost every character I've RP'd with seems to respect that determination as her "power level." I also give Sounsyy a lot of visible and believable weaknesses to enhance her strengths (experience and determination) like alcoholism, PTSD, playing injuries out, actually acknowledging she's sorely outmatched by a super-speedy monk or ninja. For example, when she got a spear through her shoulder, I roleplayed with her sword arm in a sling for about a month, even doing a Grindstone in that condition and just one-handing her matches with a shield. Of course the spectators were like "she's only got one arm of course she's going to get her ass handed to her" which she did, but I think the fact that she went through with the matches anyways won her some respect.
So TL;DR: 1) It's about what you do, not what you say you did. And 2) The best scene is where the most characters get something out of it. There will always be another scene where your character can shine, but sometimes you need to try to win the Oscar for best supporting actor instead.
