NEWCOMER ADVICE - basic overview and rules

[LocoColt04]

The following is four questions which I pulled out of a private message from Inferno Mage, and my responses to each of them. I thought it'd be a good idea for all of our new writers to see, so that they could maintain a better grasp on the realm of RPB writing here at TFF.

how can you win a battle if your attack is strong but is dodged?

Things like these, or do people spoil the game sometimes?

And can characters actually be dispatched?

And 1 last question: how many battles have you fought, and what are your experiences with these?

Well, let's see... question one. These battles aren't anything like an RPG system. The whole point is to pretend it's a real fight. You take some hits and you dodge others. If your attack is strong, chances are, it's a slow attack and wouldn't be tough to dodge. If you're doing something stupid like casting Ultima on your opponent or anything like that, YOU'RE the one that's godmodding, and your thread is closed and you lose by default. Curative magic is also heavily moddish. I'd suggest reading through the RPB rules, and even taking a look at the rules in the TOA section as well. In my (TOA) copy, I dive a little farther into specific explanations of what godmodding can be, making it a bit clearer to the fighters.

To your second, yeah, some people don't really understand. If I was really cruel, I'd have your current fight closed, because you've already been godmodding. You're ruining your own fight, not your opponent. But yes, sometimes things don't always go your way. That's the point here. You have to be creative without controlling your opponent or using any "no way out" attacks.

To your third, what's the point in dispatching a character? If it leaves, it loses. Basically, you'd be forfeiting. This isn't Pokemon.

And finally, to your fourth, well, that keeps changing.

A word of advice to you: communication with the opposition is a MUST if you want a good fight. The more you can talk to your opponent outside of battle (AIM, MSN, anything like that), the more your fight will flow and the more sense it will make to the reader. One of my personal peeves is reading through fights that don't make any sense at all. You'd be amazed at what can be accomplished by simply speaking with your fellow writers before or while writing your next post.

[LocoColt04]

AN UPDATE TO THE RPB FORUM RULES! FINALLY!

It's about time for a revision. I posted them here, in the announcement atop this forum, but since no one bothers to read the announcements... I'm posting them in this thread and altering the thread title as well. That way, you're sure to see them.





I'll start from the top. Each rule will have quite a bit of explanation behind it, so there will be a LOT to read. You're not required to read all of the reasons for everything, but you should be well-versed on the rules themselves.

Anything you see which may qualify as breaking a rule should be reported to me.



Rule the First: NO GODMODDING.

This is the prime rule of Roleplay Battling, and there will be a whole segment on this, complete with examples, at the end of this post.



ALL TFF RULES APPLY.

If you don't know what the TFF rules are... you have problems.



YOU MUST PROVIDE YOUR CHARACTER STATISTICS IN THE STICKIED THREAD.

Why, you ask? So that your opponents can know a little something about your character, and won't be surprised when you pull giant hammers out of your ass. Also, if you leave your posts empty (lacking detail) and your opponent wants to say something about your character, s/he will have something to refer to.



YOU MAY NOT INTERFERE WITH SOMEONE'S FIGHT.

Some of you may be thinking "well, duh," but you'd be surprised how often some new member sticks his or her head into someone else's RPB and says "kewl can i fight 2?"



NO TWO-LINE POSTS.

I know I said that speed counts, but you have to consider that you are still ROLEPLAYING here, even if the battle element is attached. Add some depth into your posts. It doesn't have to be much, just enough that your opponent (as well as your spectators) will know what's really happening. I'm not, by any means, asking any of you to write the way that I do.



YOU MAY, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, HOST YOUR OWN TOURNAMENT.

But there's a catch -- any tournaments must be cleared with me before they can begin. It saves us from unexpected spam tournaments. Any tournament creators and judges of those tournaments may not compete in their own tournaments, as it's entirely unfair. Years ago, the TOA judges competed in the TOA... and won... constantly.



YOU HAVE ONE ATTACK PHASE PER POST; USE IT WISELY.

Well, that's actually self-explanitory.



PREVIOUS RULES NOT LISTED HERE...

...no longer apply. There is no mandatory closing date, and there is no limit to the number of battles you may compete in at any given time.

The only rule which still applies, however, is the one referring to judgment. If you would like for your thread to be judged, PM me and I will either find an unbiased third party to judge it, or I will judge it myself. Note that I obviously won't judge anything I take part in.




And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
GODMODDING!!!

In a brief form, I can do no better than to quote Mike, the original RPB mod.

1: *No God Modding. This includes: the stealing/copying an opponents moves, using guns, using spells such as reflect, cure or Knights of the Round, never getting hit, and stating that you actually hit someone or controlling their character.

Now, allow me to break this down.

Curative Spells/Items. THIS RULE HAS BEEN UPDATED. Curative spells are now allowed, but only if they are not full recovery spells. These spells may also NOT be used instantaneously. In other words, you will waste an entire turn healing yourself, thus forfeiting an attack phase. Conversely, curative items are still restricted.

Undodgable Attacks/Abilities. ANYTHING that says "forcing the opponent to" in your character information will immediately be scrapped. Whether it's a spell like Ultima, or some last-ditch near-death ability from which the opponent has "no escape," it's against the rules. EVERY ability must have some way out.

Enforcement of this rule has been lax as of late, and recent enforcement of it is what prompted me to re-release the rules in the first place. If you guys think I'm being harsh on Wullfe for some of the things in his character info, you should have seen how swift the old moderators would have been. I'm being far more lenient. The others would've had him temp-banned from the RPB forum for refusal to comply.

Projectile Weapons. Guns, bows and arrows, and other such high-speed weaponry is considered moddish. HOWEVER, this rule has been lifted for quite a while now. Be careful when using projectile though, because if you overdo it, you'll be busted for godmodding. This isn't The Matrix. We can't all dodge bullets all day long.

Blue Magic. Or, as listed above, the copying of your opponent's moves. This rule has also been lifted, but blue magic may ONLY BE USED WITH YOUR OPPONENT'S CONSENT. If your opponent says no, and you use it anyway, you get shut down for godmodding.

Summon Spirits, Pets, and other secondary parties. Generally frowned upon as they tip the scales in your favor, turning a 1v1 fight into a 2v1 fight. Again, this is something that can ONLY BE USED WITH YOUR OPPONENT'S CONSENT.

About the summoning. Let's say a character summons a GF or such, to fight for them, but themselves don't participate in the battle in any way, at least until the GF has left, could we do that without the consent of our opponent? And I think you should incoporate your answer into the public rules and such.

That's a legitimate question. No. Summon spirits are obviously far stronger than your character would be. Fighting one is really godmoddish enough to begin with, but fighting one without even being asked if you want to is ridiculous. For something like that, you still need consent, even if your character wouldn't be active during the summoning.

Superdodging. In short RPBs, it's understandable. But in any thread that has more than eight posts, you better be taking a hit here or there. If you dodge all of your opponent's attacks after his/her fourth post (as in, four each), you will be shut down for godmodding. This doesn't mean you have to take hits often; it means you have to take hits once in a while. This doesn't mean you can take one hit at the start of the fight and dodge everything else, either. Be considerate. It makes things a bit more exciting, and creates vulnerabilities. It also makes the fight slightly more realistic as well.

Super (or "uber") characters. You can't load your characters down with so many abilities and so much "impenetrable" armor that it would be realistically impossible for anyone to damage you. Just because you may avoid giving your character unstoppable weapons and unstoppable armor doesn't mean that an overload of "lesser" equipment is proper, either.

And finally, the most important of all, controlling your opponent. This is by all means ENTIRELY off-limits. Even if you're throwing an attack at the character, and you say that he dodges it and then you attack again, you're godmodding. What if your opponent had wanted to take that hit? The VERY MOST at which you can control your opponent is to the extent of DIALOGUE. Even then, you may only do so with approval. You simply cannot control anything anyone else does. That's the largest difference between RP and RPB.