Post by Poet on May 26, 2014 16:02:25 GMT
After reading through Nick's(Entropic Discord) basic T1 guide,I feel this article is a great followup, and shares a lot of my beliefs as far as sophisticated high tier combat rp goes. I have edited the original work to match something more agreeable in parts, but overall I really agreed with majority of this.
Originally posted by Ran Iji of Valucre
Over time I have found that Role Play fighting has always had a plethora of unknowns, or ill-defined, concepts that are often exploited by players to get an advantage. The worst case is when a concept that many believe to be common grounds, is completely misunderstood by another player. In Ayenee, we hardly have a single definition for energies that are being used in the realm. Most people cannot even come to an agreement of what the source of Magic is. It’s no wonder that often, role play fights dwindle down to arguments, due to many key elements and concepts simply being misunderstood to the point where they have to be thrown out of the battle completely!
The premise of Type/Technique One (T1) was a simple one; insure that everyone has a chance to protect their character’s life, if they are attacked. It wasn’t a matter of if you could type the fastest or if you were the smartest person in the room, all you had to do was react, within a logical manner. Someone stabbing you with a sword, block with a shield. If they shoot a Fireball at you, stop, drop and roll! Whenever T1 was initially started, such gems as positioning a character for an optimal strike, taking into account weight, and physics, weren’t the norms of the day. The actions and the abilities of a character were what mattered. It was assumed then, that everyone was on even grounds.
It was easy to do so since, at the time, most of Ayenee was a Fantasy Realm that closely mirrored D&D’s class and ability system. Yet with the influx of users and the rampage of Anime and video games tapping into the RPG market, Ayenee began to evolve. New characters, new races, and new theories overran the realm. Due to the diverse nature of RP, conflicts with a Super Saiyajin and an Elf were doomed to have issues. Thus, specialized means of fighting arose; sub-styles such as Realistic Melee, Mild Powers, and PC implemented themselves into RP.
Over the years, T1 has demanded one simple idea: logic. It wasn’t necessarily in the rules, but the goal of T1 is to get the person you are fighting to BELIEVE that you have beaten their character, which they have invested numerous weeks, months, and perhaps years into playing. In order to achieve that, you had to convince the player, and those around him or her, that you had indeed managed that feat. The less realistic and more far-fetched it was compared to the norm of role play established, the less likely winning would become.
Yet many players have become so entrenched within powers, that they have forgotten the logical progression of the game. Not only the physics of the world, but the –actual- game of Role Play. The articles that I intend to write over the course of the month, and perhaps summer, will dive into the very fabric of the game and attempt to grasp upon the concepts and ideas that have become so muddled. I cannot rewrite the rules of T1, nor will I attempt to; this is only my insight into the Grey Area that Role Play has become.
We’re going to start at the basics, not to insult anyone, but simply to have a firm foundation to expand upon in the future. First and foremost, T1 is turn based combat. For every action that you do, you must give your opponent an equal opportunity to dodge, block, or even accept the action. It’s a principle that expanded off of Story based role playing. It was uncouth of a player to automatically write what his fellow player was doing, without giving him an option to describe his actions. Thus, the same is said about T1, you cannot simply say that you own the snot out of someone. They have the right to react, yet this is more than a matter of a punch or magic missile striking their character. As players, they have the right to react to everything that you do.
Often, it is overlooked by players, the length of time it takes to perform an action. Time is an element in role play that often separates the veterans from the unlearned. Characters, by and far, are not retarded, and if they see your character charging up a massive boom of doom, they are going to begin to react, before the attack occurs. The longer your post expands through time, the more options a player has to interrupt what you are doing. This will be covered later on.
Essentially, a turn is everything that you have typed towards your opponent, or in relation to your own character, before they have a chance to react. Turns, generally have two distinct sections in their composition which I have dubbed Phase A and Phase B. A turn is ended, when a player says that it is over, yet remember, the longer, more winded the turn is, the more likely, half of what you wrote will be interrupted.
What are these Phases, perhaps you’re wondering? Normally, Phase A is done in relation to a move that the opponent has done. It’s usually a Dodge or a Block, a reaction to the attack or preparation a character has done. Phase B is usually an attack at the designated opponent, or instead a preparation for a future movement. The phases are very important, in rationalizing what movements you’re going to do during a turn, and after a turn. Direct counters are simply a combination of Phase A and Phase B.
The main reason that these phases are so important is that it helps players understand the time it takes to do a move, in a rudimentary manner. When a turn is broken down into two passing phases, it’s hard to imagine that it would be logically to attack ten times, or Prep multiple spells in just one turn, eh? A Turn simply cannot be viewed as one massive blob of text, because it becomes nothing more than a rant. Take a moment to read other T1 posts, and you’ll undoubtedly see the Phases I have spoken about.
How the phases come into play in role play, is very important to understand. They give you boundaries in the fighting Time-Line that prevents you from encroaching upon the rights of the other player. If you attempt to take multiple Phases beyond just two in a single post, you’re opponent is certainly going to raise their voice in an OOC squabble, for good reason, no doubt. As long as you adhere to just taking Phase A and Phase B rather than multiple movements, the amount of interrupts that are being performed on your character, and the amount of arguments about the plausibility of doing such a maneuver in a time frame, will certainly be reduced.
Now, I know some free thinkers are out there scratching their heads asking why we don't just make things like timelining, or taking more than two actions or so in a post against the rules, to just nip that argument in a bud. And it is a good questions, but the answer is very simple. We are a free form forum, and so are many of the other (very well hidden) forums out there who share this ruleset we use. We implement basic T1 rules that are more or less universally accepted, and we can't take away someones right to perform as many actions as they feel like. In some rare occasions, doing this has even worked in the favor of the person doing it.
Interrupts are part of high level fighting by the more skilled T1 users. They came about whenever players simply thought to themselves when they were confronted by a Powers character preparing and unleashing a massive fireball of death and destruction upon their character, while talking and ranting about how awesome he was. ‘Hey… my character isn’t retarded, if someone is going to stand and rant, and waste time, surely he’ll move and do counter attack!” Makes sense doesn’t it? It did then, and it still does to this day. Remember, a player has the right to react, meaning to all instances of time that you are using for your character.
Since then, interrupts have been used in almost every fight, by almost every player. The efficiency and how they were used, is another story. Whenever you’re using them, you run the risk of appearing to ‘ignore’ an entire phase of someone’s attack. They must be used in moderation and within the bounds of decency. If you use them often, you will undoubtedly have arguments finding you in every fight. If you intend to use them, remember to respect your opponent in doing so.
With the initial rudimentary basics of T1 behind us, it’s time to delve into one of the more, poignant points of the game. Preparations (Preps) are just as they sound, they are actions that are taken to prepare your character to do a more complicated action. There are two styles of preps, Sequential Preps that can be considered a logical sequence of events that yield a larger result and the Traditional Preps that sacrifice an attack phase to gain power. Sounds simple enough, no? Yet the issue begins to arise of how much can you Prep in one post, or if you can even do so. By and large, the easiest means to prepare your character is to remember back to the Phases of combat that we talked earlier about, Phase A and Phase B.
Whenever you’re preparing an action, you’re leaving your character open for attack. Remember, everyone has a right to react to everything that you do in character. If your character lifts his hands up, then they have an equal amount of time to lift their own hands up, most likely to punch you in the jaw. Prepping is done whenever you forgo one of your Phases or both of them, to prepare for a greater effect on the battlefield. In other words, to get your desired effect, you’re going to have to NOT do something. You’re either going to take a hit, not attack, or both.
Before we dive deeper into what makes a Prep carry its potency, let’s look at what Preps aren’t. They are not verbal refuse, remainders left over at the end of a post. A Prep isn’t a simple line that’s simply stating, after your character has performed each of his Phases that he is now, beginning his next turn. Such Preps won’t hold ground against higher tier opponents, though you may be allowed to slide once or twice. Think for a moment, if you just sliced your opponent with your sword, after eluding their attack, and now you’re preparing a spell, before they’ve even reacted to any of your movements, surely you don’t expect to garner much power from that Prep?
The Effectiveness of a Prep is only as Potent as the style and sacrifice that is woven into it! If your Preps are merely left over residue from prior moves, they aren’t going to have a shock and awe to them; they aren’t going to do much. T1 is and forever will be a style that is about making your opponent believe, and accept that you are the better fighter, with the more skilled character. No one will garner you any strength, from Preps that were meagerly set together.
Sequential Preps are the rich man’s preparations in combat. The skilled played, has his moves work together, and lead towards a common goal. Everything follows a sequence of events that add up towards the end of the battle, stacking upon the field of play. An example would be, imagine a Water Mage that is fighting in an arid environment. Unfortunately, he is outside of his element, and he’s fighting against a weapon user, even worse! During his first turn, he conjures rain from the heavens to soak the ground and himself with water. After the next turn, he now has a means to cast a Water Ball or even create ice magic with.
Remember, all Preps are NOT created equal. Just because equal time is spent doing each Prep, and the same amount of turns are spent, their effectiveness is a completely different issue. What’s more effective, a character simply saying that he is powering up his Ki, or someone that’s meticulously setting a sequence of events that bring upon a tremendous event?
Note: Remember, these lessons and opinions here are just that, opinions, although they may be shared by quite a few of the fighters on her. They do not hold any "official" weight in things like tournaments unless explicitly stated. This is just something for newer, and even older fighters to consider while fighting to have the best combat experience, free of as much bickering as possible. That said, while these are not official rules, but just unspoken codes of conduct, I would suggest these be considered for installment into the official ruleset in some way later.
Originally posted by Ran Iji of Valucre
Introduction
Over time I have found that Role Play fighting has always had a plethora of unknowns, or ill-defined, concepts that are often exploited by players to get an advantage. The worst case is when a concept that many believe to be common grounds, is completely misunderstood by another player. In Ayenee, we hardly have a single definition for energies that are being used in the realm. Most people cannot even come to an agreement of what the source of Magic is. It’s no wonder that often, role play fights dwindle down to arguments, due to many key elements and concepts simply being misunderstood to the point where they have to be thrown out of the battle completely!
The premise of Type/Technique One (T1) was a simple one; insure that everyone has a chance to protect their character’s life, if they are attacked. It wasn’t a matter of if you could type the fastest or if you were the smartest person in the room, all you had to do was react, within a logical manner. Someone stabbing you with a sword, block with a shield. If they shoot a Fireball at you, stop, drop and roll! Whenever T1 was initially started, such gems as positioning a character for an optimal strike, taking into account weight, and physics, weren’t the norms of the day. The actions and the abilities of a character were what mattered. It was assumed then, that everyone was on even grounds.
It was easy to do so since, at the time, most of Ayenee was a Fantasy Realm that closely mirrored D&D’s class and ability system. Yet with the influx of users and the rampage of Anime and video games tapping into the RPG market, Ayenee began to evolve. New characters, new races, and new theories overran the realm. Due to the diverse nature of RP, conflicts with a Super Saiyajin and an Elf were doomed to have issues. Thus, specialized means of fighting arose; sub-styles such as Realistic Melee, Mild Powers, and PC implemented themselves into RP.
Over the years, T1 has demanded one simple idea: logic. It wasn’t necessarily in the rules, but the goal of T1 is to get the person you are fighting to BELIEVE that you have beaten their character, which they have invested numerous weeks, months, and perhaps years into playing. In order to achieve that, you had to convince the player, and those around him or her, that you had indeed managed that feat. The less realistic and more far-fetched it was compared to the norm of role play established, the less likely winning would become.
Yet many players have become so entrenched within powers, that they have forgotten the logical progression of the game. Not only the physics of the world, but the –actual- game of Role Play. The articles that I intend to write over the course of the month, and perhaps summer, will dive into the very fabric of the game and attempt to grasp upon the concepts and ideas that have become so muddled. I cannot rewrite the rules of T1, nor will I attempt to; this is only my insight into the Grey Area that Role Play has become.
Phases
We’re going to start at the basics, not to insult anyone, but simply to have a firm foundation to expand upon in the future. First and foremost, T1 is turn based combat. For every action that you do, you must give your opponent an equal opportunity to dodge, block, or even accept the action. It’s a principle that expanded off of Story based role playing. It was uncouth of a player to automatically write what his fellow player was doing, without giving him an option to describe his actions. Thus, the same is said about T1, you cannot simply say that you own the snot out of someone. They have the right to react, yet this is more than a matter of a punch or magic missile striking their character. As players, they have the right to react to everything that you do.
Often, it is overlooked by players, the length of time it takes to perform an action. Time is an element in role play that often separates the veterans from the unlearned. Characters, by and far, are not retarded, and if they see your character charging up a massive boom of doom, they are going to begin to react, before the attack occurs. The longer your post expands through time, the more options a player has to interrupt what you are doing. This will be covered later on.
Essentially, a turn is everything that you have typed towards your opponent, or in relation to your own character, before they have a chance to react. Turns, generally have two distinct sections in their composition which I have dubbed Phase A and Phase B. A turn is ended, when a player says that it is over, yet remember, the longer, more winded the turn is, the more likely, half of what you wrote will be interrupted.
What are these Phases, perhaps you’re wondering? Normally, Phase A is done in relation to a move that the opponent has done. It’s usually a Dodge or a Block, a reaction to the attack or preparation a character has done. Phase B is usually an attack at the designated opponent, or instead a preparation for a future movement. The phases are very important, in rationalizing what movements you’re going to do during a turn, and after a turn. Direct counters are simply a combination of Phase A and Phase B.
The main reason that these phases are so important is that it helps players understand the time it takes to do a move, in a rudimentary manner. When a turn is broken down into two passing phases, it’s hard to imagine that it would be logically to attack ten times, or Prep multiple spells in just one turn, eh? A Turn simply cannot be viewed as one massive blob of text, because it becomes nothing more than a rant. Take a moment to read other T1 posts, and you’ll undoubtedly see the Phases I have spoken about.
How the phases come into play in role play, is very important to understand. They give you boundaries in the fighting Time-Line that prevents you from encroaching upon the rights of the other player. If you attempt to take multiple Phases beyond just two in a single post, you’re opponent is certainly going to raise their voice in an OOC squabble, for good reason, no doubt. As long as you adhere to just taking Phase A and Phase B rather than multiple movements, the amount of interrupts that are being performed on your character, and the amount of arguments about the plausibility of doing such a maneuver in a time frame, will certainly be reduced.
Now, I know some free thinkers are out there scratching their heads asking why we don't just make things like timelining, or taking more than two actions or so in a post against the rules, to just nip that argument in a bud. And it is a good questions, but the answer is very simple. We are a free form forum, and so are many of the other (very well hidden) forums out there who share this ruleset we use. We implement basic T1 rules that are more or less universally accepted, and we can't take away someones right to perform as many actions as they feel like. In some rare occasions, doing this has even worked in the favor of the person doing it.
Interrupts are part of high level fighting by the more skilled T1 users. They came about whenever players simply thought to themselves when they were confronted by a Powers character preparing and unleashing a massive fireball of death and destruction upon their character, while talking and ranting about how awesome he was. ‘Hey… my character isn’t retarded, if someone is going to stand and rant, and waste time, surely he’ll move and do counter attack!” Makes sense doesn’t it? It did then, and it still does to this day. Remember, a player has the right to react, meaning to all instances of time that you are using for your character.
Since then, interrupts have been used in almost every fight, by almost every player. The efficiency and how they were used, is another story. Whenever you’re using them, you run the risk of appearing to ‘ignore’ an entire phase of someone’s attack. They must be used in moderation and within the bounds of decency. If you use them often, you will undoubtedly have arguments finding you in every fight. If you intend to use them, remember to respect your opponent in doing so.
Preparation
With the initial rudimentary basics of T1 behind us, it’s time to delve into one of the more, poignant points of the game. Preparations (Preps) are just as they sound, they are actions that are taken to prepare your character to do a more complicated action. There are two styles of preps, Sequential Preps that can be considered a logical sequence of events that yield a larger result and the Traditional Preps that sacrifice an attack phase to gain power. Sounds simple enough, no? Yet the issue begins to arise of how much can you Prep in one post, or if you can even do so. By and large, the easiest means to prepare your character is to remember back to the Phases of combat that we talked earlier about, Phase A and Phase B.
Whenever you’re preparing an action, you’re leaving your character open for attack. Remember, everyone has a right to react to everything that you do in character. If your character lifts his hands up, then they have an equal amount of time to lift their own hands up, most likely to punch you in the jaw. Prepping is done whenever you forgo one of your Phases or both of them, to prepare for a greater effect on the battlefield. In other words, to get your desired effect, you’re going to have to NOT do something. You’re either going to take a hit, not attack, or both.
Before we dive deeper into what makes a Prep carry its potency, let’s look at what Preps aren’t. They are not verbal refuse, remainders left over at the end of a post. A Prep isn’t a simple line that’s simply stating, after your character has performed each of his Phases that he is now, beginning his next turn. Such Preps won’t hold ground against higher tier opponents, though you may be allowed to slide once or twice. Think for a moment, if you just sliced your opponent with your sword, after eluding their attack, and now you’re preparing a spell, before they’ve even reacted to any of your movements, surely you don’t expect to garner much power from that Prep?
The Effectiveness of a Prep is only as Potent as the style and sacrifice that is woven into it! If your Preps are merely left over residue from prior moves, they aren’t going to have a shock and awe to them; they aren’t going to do much. T1 is and forever will be a style that is about making your opponent believe, and accept that you are the better fighter, with the more skilled character. No one will garner you any strength, from Preps that were meagerly set together.
Sequential Preps are the rich man’s preparations in combat. The skilled played, has his moves work together, and lead towards a common goal. Everything follows a sequence of events that add up towards the end of the battle, stacking upon the field of play. An example would be, imagine a Water Mage that is fighting in an arid environment. Unfortunately, he is outside of his element, and he’s fighting against a weapon user, even worse! During his first turn, he conjures rain from the heavens to soak the ground and himself with water. After the next turn, he now has a means to cast a Water Ball or even create ice magic with.
Remember, all Preps are NOT created equal. Just because equal time is spent doing each Prep, and the same amount of turns are spent, their effectiveness is a completely different issue. What’s more effective, a character simply saying that he is powering up his Ki, or someone that’s meticulously setting a sequence of events that bring upon a tremendous event?
Note: Remember, these lessons and opinions here are just that, opinions, although they may be shared by quite a few of the fighters on her. They do not hold any "official" weight in things like tournaments unless explicitly stated. This is just something for newer, and even older fighters to consider while fighting to have the best combat experience, free of as much bickering as possible. That said, while these are not official rules, but just unspoken codes of conduct, I would suggest these be considered for installment into the official ruleset in some way later.
