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

Paradox · **08-21-2015, 12:42 AM**

(08-15-2015, 04:58 AM)Marisa Wrote:
(08-12-2015, 06:08 PM)undefined Wrote: This echos my sentiments extremely well. Â A proper knife fight can really play to the emotions and allow characters to focus on interaction and tension. Â Flips and explosions rarely have the same effect. Â I find that the more RP'ers focus on kinetics, the softer the emotional impact of the RP usually becomes. Â

This is also my entire opinion on the whole thing. Why does combat realism matter in a fantasy setting? Because it has more impact than laser-light rock concerts claiming to be battles. And even with the presence of magic, realism doesn't change. We can know exactly how a fireball spell would be used in the real world, because it doesn't really alter the fundamentals of combat. With a bit of research and a good amount of rational thought, you absolutely can make believable use of Holy. Â Â

So if you're just out for a good ol' dick-waving contest, superhero fights are fine and dandy. But they don't make for a compelling story, so much as they end up being "who would win in a fight, the guy who shoots lasers out of his eyes or the guy who breathes mustard gas?"

If they don't make for a compelling story, it is entirely the fault of the people choreographing the fight, and not of the nature of the fight itself. You can make any kind of battle compelling if you know what you're doing. Just because a lot of power is being flung around doesn't necessarily make something a 'dick waving contest', and I find that this general approach and attitude to anything above cavemen waving their clubs or knives around as being dick waving, or 'overpowered' or so on. It is entirely feasible to make a 'superhero' fight as you labeled it very compelling, equally as much as two sweaty gladiators clashing blades like something out of Spartacus. If it doesn't compel, then the writers have done something wrong. That's all there is to it.

A fight doesn't have to be 'proper' by the rules of our own real world physical laws to have a compelling element to it. I've watched many a fantasy fight that had a lot of emotional, stirring, and compelling elements, just as much as I've watched more simple, dirty fights that are equally compelling. Then again, considering how dismissive some people are in the realism vs surrealism debate around here, the overall snobbery against 'superhero' fights rarely surprises. Especially considering we're using earth-physics to judge combat 'realism' in a world whose full physical laws we're not entirely certain of. The very presence of a fireball spell already violates a lot of realistic physical laws. But. /shrugs/ It is what you make of it.

But if we are going to sue for 'combat realism', then I had better see a lot more people willing to let their characters die in an encounter after they are stabbed or burned. But most people refuse to let their characters die or get wounded mortally without 'express permission' and don't want their characters to die, so the argument for any kind of combat realism is moot. Because combat realism would mean a lot of dead characters with all the fighting liberties they take.

Rant - The Problem With Eorzean Knife-Fighting

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