Selene-Mun's Guide to Fighting Fair in RP
Okay kids! I haven’t seen anyone do this at all, and since I’ve seen it happen multiple times on my dash whenever someone gets into a fight ic, I’m going to compose a guide on how to fight in rp fairly.
Give your opponent a chance to evade, dodge, or counter
Leave room for interpretation
Make it enjoyable for both parties
Automatically have your character hit their opponent
Dodge, evade, or counter every strike
Have your character be devastatingly powerful to a ridiculous degree
Have your character take very little damage if they are hit
Drag on the fight until you win, or your opponent gets tired and forefeits
Let’s cover these in a little more detail, shall we?
For tutorial purposes, character A’s name is Joe. Joe is an average male of average strength with average skill with a sword. Character B’s name is Bob. Bob is incredibly skilled with a sword, but isn’t as strong or as big as Joe.
Head-to head, it seems like Joe would win. But Bob might be a little faster or more skillful than Joe, disarm him, or land a critical blow that Joe did not see coming.
Let’s take this into application.
Joe swings his sword at Bob. Bob blocks and brings his sword around for a parrying strike. Joe steps back and swings again. Bob is struck, but returns fire. Joe has no room to dodge and is thusly struck. Both men are bleeding and injured, but could potentially go on.
See how each character got a maneuver in before they were struck? This brings balance to a fight. Even if Joe far outmatched Bob, the battle should still go much the same, excepting that Bob should probably take a little more damage from that hit. Still, Joe was within striking range and should not have easily been able to return Bob’s parry.
And now, the same fight, except with Powerplay (also known as Godmode or Metagame depending on what term you prefer)
Joe swings his sword. Bob blocks and brings his sword around for a parrying strike. Joe steps back and swings again. Bob is struck, but returns fire. Joe steps back at the last second and takes Bob’s sword to fight Florentine and attack Bob. Bob has no out and is struck a second time.
That is a huge no. Joe should have been struck.
In theory, if one phrases it properly, Joe could have attempted to get the sword away from Bob to complete the action. If not, he would have been struck.
Some might complain that if a character is skilled enough, they could get away with that, but there is only so much that someone bound by physical limitations can do. Even a superhuman character would have to do some fancy footwork and dodging to get out of an arms-length sword strike.
Consistently dodging and blocking hits makes it no fun for your rp partner, despite how powerful it may or may not make your character look. It’s annoying to try to write with, and is generally not fun. Not everyone wins all the time. Remember to mix it up. No one likes a Powerplayer.
A favored tactic of mine when it comes to a character blocking, dodging, or otherwise evading a hit, is the Three-to-One Dodge Formula. This basically means that for every three dodges your character makes, they should receive one hit. This prevents people from Powerplaying, and makes the rp interesting.
Know your character’s limits. If they’ve been shot full of bullets, even if they’re some sort of enhanced strength or superhuman, they can’t go on. Let’s face it: no one wants to fight a corpse. Know when it’s time to call it quits because your character’s been beaten up. Not every fight is a fight that can be won!
It’s much more fair for a character to make an attempt at a strike than it is to automatically assume they hit their target, unless there are extenuating circumstances for it.
Example a.
Joe swung his sword, attempting to strike Bob’s from his hands
vs
Joe swung his sword, knocking Bob’s from his hands
See how it leaves room for your partner to interpret your actions and move against them? It makes for a much more fluid fight, and leaves room for improvement, and exciting new developments within the battle!
Auto-hitting is permissible when a character is in no position to dodge, or when striking with something that effects a large area (magic, explosives, ect.)
Why is this such a big deal? I like how my character fights!
Right, but chances are the people you’ve fought in rp don’t, and it’s a quick way to make people angry and not want to rp with you anymore. I’ve watched so many friendships ruined by this kind of mentality and auto-hitting, Powerplaying, and the like. It’s not fair, and it isn’t fun, so do everyone you rp with a favor and adjust your fighting style.
With understanding, planning, and a little help from this guide, we can all have awe-inspiring, mesmerizing, fair fights on our dashboards. Go forth and train! And remember; fight fair.
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