Since we're just speaking of like personal opinion and such during these kind of situations I guess I'm one of those rare ones that lets the other person's writing dictate how I feel their character's 'power level' (for lack of a better term) is in relation to mine. My main a pretty competent fighter. He's no god of battle but then most people aren't. He just has training and experience which accounts for a lot compared to an un-trained and inexperienced individual.Â
For example, if someone is 'starting shit' as you might say, it would depend on how their writing reflected that character. Do they seem nervous or confident? Are they being described as someone who is just trying to get attention and show off some swagger or are they a calm and collected killer with a singular focus? All these things and many more will eventually shape my responses and such to that person and, in a perfect world, who will prevail in said confrontation.Â
I'd prefer to not use dice if at all possible since it is just kind of 'lazy' feeling to me. I mean I fully understand why people do it and I even agree, but if two people are good at the whole writing thing then just let it carry your narrative. I do like the idea of some OOC communication, though. It shouldn't HAVE to be necessary but again that's the whole 'perfect world' mentality.Â
Ultimately I think a lot of people's trepidation with "RP Combat" or "Freeform" is the notion that "If I lose then my character dies or worse, is humiliated!" Priorities, right? That's not always true and most if not all people who hedge when it comes to the idea of IC conflict and combat will cite some anecdotal circumstance where they got burned by some person who was a huge jerk. Ultimately these are relevant to the person but not everyone is everyone else and to write something off completely because someone gave you a bad experience once is kind of limiting yourself.Â
Take a chance, be open, be flexible, and as a general rule that I take to heart: Defeat doesn't = death; Defeat can actually mean MORE quality RP comes of the situation. How does your character handle the defeat? Do they escape? Are the saved by friends in the nick of time? Do the guards show up and break up the fight? Or was the confrontation just till someone yielded or first blood etc? Otherwise I guess it's safe to say just don't get into an RP combat situation where 'character death' is the inevitable result for either one of you until you've established how it is to go down beforehand. That kind of foreshadowing in plot is in fact essential to most writers. You lay down or have a rough outline of what is supposed to happen then build up all the good stuff until that conclusion.
We're all adults, here, right? Let's worry less about what happened that one time however long ago in that one game with that one person and just try to focus on having fun and telling a great story with some great characters. =)
For example, if someone is 'starting shit' as you might say, it would depend on how their writing reflected that character. Do they seem nervous or confident? Are they being described as someone who is just trying to get attention and show off some swagger or are they a calm and collected killer with a singular focus? All these things and many more will eventually shape my responses and such to that person and, in a perfect world, who will prevail in said confrontation.Â
I'd prefer to not use dice if at all possible since it is just kind of 'lazy' feeling to me. I mean I fully understand why people do it and I even agree, but if two people are good at the whole writing thing then just let it carry your narrative. I do like the idea of some OOC communication, though. It shouldn't HAVE to be necessary but again that's the whole 'perfect world' mentality.Â
Ultimately I think a lot of people's trepidation with "RP Combat" or "Freeform" is the notion that "If I lose then my character dies or worse, is humiliated!" Priorities, right? That's not always true and most if not all people who hedge when it comes to the idea of IC conflict and combat will cite some anecdotal circumstance where they got burned by some person who was a huge jerk. Ultimately these are relevant to the person but not everyone is everyone else and to write something off completely because someone gave you a bad experience once is kind of limiting yourself.Â
Take a chance, be open, be flexible, and as a general rule that I take to heart: Defeat doesn't = death; Defeat can actually mean MORE quality RP comes of the situation. How does your character handle the defeat? Do they escape? Are the saved by friends in the nick of time? Do the guards show up and break up the fight? Or was the confrontation just till someone yielded or first blood etc? Otherwise I guess it's safe to say just don't get into an RP combat situation where 'character death' is the inevitable result for either one of you until you've established how it is to go down beforehand. That kind of foreshadowing in plot is in fact essential to most writers. You lay down or have a rough outline of what is supposed to happen then build up all the good stuff until that conclusion.
We're all adults, here, right? Let's worry less about what happened that one time however long ago in that one game with that one person and just try to focus on having fun and telling a great story with some great characters. =)
