Miralath’s Guide to Freeform Combat RP

Because I know there are some out there who would like a simple text outlining the art of freeform combat RP, I’ve decided to finally attempt to put one up.

First, the rules of fair combat are thus:

1. RP is not about winning. If you want to focus on winning alone, PVP is there for you. Even an RP duel is about cooperative story writing, so if you think both players have winning in mind, either use a roll system or agree upon an end result by chatting in ooc tells. Nobody likes the sort of drama that arises from situations in which neither character yields.

2. Always ask before initiating violent actions against another character through tells, not ooc /says unless there’s a good reason. (Big group, etc)

3. Realism of actions and consequences. Magic isn’t “realistic”, but logic can be applied to how such things work. For example. Channeling a large fireball would take some time to formulate and probably intense concentration as well, thus leaving the caster open to interruption via melee or other means. Always remember LOGIC.

4. Injury – While I realize that in World of Warcraft, healing ooc is very easy, lore-wise it is less effective. You may stem blood loss and prevent death, even resurrect, but it is -very- taxing on a character to come back to life after such trauma. A good rule of thumb is to give a great deal of time for recovery to a resurrected character, and a decent amount for heavy injury. If you submit to something as horrific as being blown up or dismembered, it is unlikely that your character will be brought back at all. A warlock with a soulstone would need a new vessel and the help of others, but that is probably the only way for horribly damaged characters to come back.

5. Always ask for permission before killing another person’s character.

6. Every action is an attempt and should be emoted as such. If I were to say “Miralath conjures a meteorite to slam down onto the head of Joe, crushing him and horribly burning his body”, that would be considered Godmoding, or cheating.

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Now that the basic rules are out of the way, lets talk technique.

Long posts are not necessary, and longer does not necessarily mean better. However, short posts with little detail to go off of make it very difficult to freeform RP fight due to not having enough information.

Example of TOO MUCH information:

Miralath eyed the competition like a predator, her eyes narrowed into slits and hands glowing with red hot fire. She’d had a bad day, thoughts of violence and revenge flooding her mind and the man in front of her made matters worse. After all, she’d seen him murder a close friend, and that was enough to tick off even the most patient of people. She strode forward and muttered curses while raising her hands to the skies, forming a cloud of destruction to rain down on the enemy. Many fireballs rain down around him like a storm of flame while the woman stands, a testament to fury incarnate.

While the above is okay in its own right, there is a lot of information in there that the other player does not need to see. For instance: “She’d had a bad day, thoughts of violence and revenge flooding her mind and the man in front of her made matters worse. After all, she’d seen him murder a close friend, and that was enough to tick off even the most patient of people.” The other player is not going to know this, nor is it necessary to keep the flow of combat going. What it does, however, is slow down everything for everyone and make an encounter longer than it should be. Some enjoy this sort of detail, and they call it “Paragraph RP”, but for a quick and seamless flow of freeform RP your characters thoughts should be left out of the picture.

Example of TOO LITTLE information:

Miralath drew her staff and swung it at Joe.

How the heck did she swing it? How much force? From which direction? At which bodypart? Do you see the number of questions left open here? This does not help the other player with a response, nor make it look like much of a story. A better emote would be something like this.

Miralath drew her staff from her back quickly, gripped it tightly in both hands and ran forward, spinning the weapon in a skillful arc down hard from the left toward Joe’s head in an attempt to knock him out or at least stun the poor man.

While this isn’t perfect, it lets Joe know what direction the staff was swung and with how much force. It also lets him know that she ran forward and had to draw the staff beforehand, probably leaving him time to dodge and make a counter-attack even before the swing can be made.

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Thus concludes the basics of freeform RP combat. I will add more when its not so early in the morning and as I observe the antics of new guild members. Enjoy!