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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.

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%

Random Confrontation and You

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