Hey AD,
I want to engage in the forums and partake in the discussions(because it honestly seems fun) so I thought I’d start a topic about something I find interesting , which is combat in roleplay.
How do you, when you engage in it, choose to describe what your character is doing ? Do you describe their motions to the detail or keep it vague? Do you take a line or a paragraph ? Why ?
I emulate my idol Thammaron and make sure to write a five paragraph explosion of text for a single action.
Unless I’m referencing both in character history and IRL philosophy it’s a failure of an emote.
good god i remember him spouting exposision for just wiggling his eyebrows…
on topic; depends on how long the fight is gonna be for. if it’s intended to be short and sweet, i keep it generalised. if it’s intended to be for a while, i pad out with some detail though i generally try to keep a restriction of 2 paragraphs at max.
i used to be one of those cringelords that’d write a 8-10 paragraph novel on how i kill an infernal but those were in my younger, more naive days and i rarely (if ever) do that now.
It depends a little who I play with, when and where. In general I prefer to do this type of roleplay with people I already know or have a hunch that the other person is in it for the fun for both parties instead of just competing whose character is more overpowered. With unfamiliar people it can be difficult to discern what kind of a roleplay experience they seek from the combat encounter.
But let’s say during RP-PvP events I try keep the emote descriptions fairly concise, as you are usually surrounded by a lot of people and the battle situation can change very fast around you. The chat moves quickly and there’s multiple people around who might suddenly target your character with something. Under these circumstances it’s imo better to try maintain a snappy pace with the combat roleplay, focusing more on the what (ie. a block) than the how (ie. spending several minutes minutes on thinking how to describe your cinematic moment).
When it comes to one-on-one combat in a less crowded environment I think of the how more to make the descriptions more interesting and entertaining, more storytelling. But even so in my personal opinion/taste it’s best to
a) first react to the opposing player’s attempt at your character
b) then throw the ball back with just one attempt at something at once. Max two if they can be pretty easily tied together for the other person to respond to.
I have been in combat roleplay where I had to type a response to 3 or more attacks thrown at my character at once (all coming from 1 other character) and then also write my own attempt to throw the ball back. It felt a bit too much like an information barrage and I didn’t enjoy it. Especially so when there were a few spectators waiting to read your response to the other player, putting a bit of pressure on the reaction time.
In general I feel that the more information you can deliver in just a few lines the better!
I keep it brief but descriptive, assuming other people are involved and I’d rather not stagger the pace of things with a novel’s worth of prose over a single strike. Different classes fight differently, too and magic users get to be a bit flashy.
Practicality and substance over leaden prose and theatrics.
Mostly I do it like.
/e attacks you/hurls a bolt at you/shoots at you
I tend to leave the attempt away because the attempt is implied in the message by the fact that he -is- attacking you, which is mine to control. The other party can then decide how to react to the attack, does it hit, how does it hit, etc. The damage done is decided by the receiver, not the sender.
I do this to spare room in my emotes and make them compact and easy to understand.
It also gives very spare details for people who want to make super long and detailed martial art emotes, so they don’t have a lot to work with or attempt to force me to emote in a set way due to my previous writing.
This. A thousand times this. I know it’s a general thing and considered ‘polite to attempt’, but if my character is attacking you, he/she is attacking you. There’s no attempt about it. It’s down to the receiver whether or not they take the hit or dodge it, just like I can decide whether I want to receive or dodge damage.
Sorry for the miniscule rant, but ‘attempt’ this and ‘attempt’ that really get on my nerves. As you say, it’s already implied in the attack itself.
Despite repeating the word ‘attempt’ in my post as I couldn’t think of a better general word for “Player A tries X with player B”, I agree with you Atahalhni & Murkresh. Adding ‘attempts’ to every strike and charge looks very repetitive too!
My n1 rule for myself is try not to inflate it with meaningless info and make sure it contains at the very least what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve with it, I never needed more then 2 paragraphs
This reminds me of playing neverwinter nights where there was a RP server that decided whoever makes the longer post wins the round (I felt the need to stress that)
The record holder had somewhere around 30 paragraphs give or take, the winner of a round would open the next one (tho most weren’t this crazy)
It was basically just people constantly trying to one up eachother but to be fair it helped newbie RPers learn how to pay attention to detail real quick even if it was overboard at times
If anything tho it made me admire the effort people would sometimes put into it so its not all bad
I think you can still use an attempt while keeping control of your own character’s actions instead of leaving them to chance.
Rather than ‘attempts to strike at X’, you could say ‘swings his axe toward X , aiming to strike at his vitals’ or something along those loose lines.
Thiiiiis! With random encounters I feel too often people just want to show off how strong they are and always win. I don’t mind losing in combat events but it’s not cool when you just feel like you’re brushing someone’s OOC ego 
I mix things up, depending on my character’s actions. A simple attack needs only a sentence, but if details are important (Attack direction? Quick or strong attack? Which weapon part is used, which body part is aimed for?) they are added as necessary.
That said, my character rarely approaches combat in the 1-2-1-2-1-2 manner of taking turns to make single attacks that so many others do. She can remain defensive for some time in wait for a good counter-attack opportunity, or sometimes attack several times with no pause in between. However, even in the latter case, I still try to keep the emote at most a paragraph and a half in length - I’d argue that there are only so many actions you can take before the opponent should get their chance to emote!
It is absolutely more fun to fight your most trusted friends above all else. The mutual understanding that is in place means you can safely RP out asymmetric or unconventional situations, and when both players know each others’ characters well you can be a lot less conservative.
With my quill and great verbosity!
In honesty, not in a particularly innovative fashion. I try to keep my emotes a little descriptive, mostly to add flair; but I find emoting out combat and the waiting process you get at DM’ed events (as inevitably somebody has a four-paragraph detailed study of anatomy ready) to be pretty dry.
The last thing I wanna be is the guy who keeps everybody up till two in the morning because I wanted my emote and character to look better than any other entry. Same reason as to why I prefer small-scale DM’ed events. To give the “proper” attention a roleplayer needs to be engaged I think a comfortable five players to one DM kinda ratio works - that’s how D’n’D is played anyway afaik? Obviously more skilled individuals than me manage numbers much better - there are some heavy hitting bureaucrat types on this realm who thrive on raid groups.
Short and sweet, I make my attacks simple to understand and give a general area where my character aims for, which can of course be blocked, dodged, partially dodged and so on.
I don’t think you really need more than 2 paragraph emotes, it just hits purple prose by then.
“Brevity is a sister of talent.”
That is a good quote that applies to pretty much all RP (imo) and not just combat RP. There is no need to stamp dozens of paragraphs how you cast a single spell. Be quick and have mercy on people you roleplay with, because many simply cannot handle reading novels.
While I agree that short is cool, combat entails a lot of unpredictability which should be portrayed. I personally don’t find RP fun if it does not involve creativity, ie simple ‘statement emotes’ such as /look. Surprise? Happiness? Disgust? (disclaimer: this statement does not apply to any and all situations)
I don’t write novel emotes and am an advocate against them when in larger groups whose experience might be impacted, but descriptive is necessary [for me] to make an emote readable. I won’t enjoy a bloated carcass of a thesaurus spewage any more than I’ll enjoy three bland words.
Place the agency on your opponent, “Sir Stabbington shanks Flankworth the Meatshield in the stomach” should instead be
“Sir Stabbington lunges weapon at Flankworth the Meatshield’s stomach.”
This allows for the attacked to react in a way they wish for their character to be harmed, or not harmed.
As mentioned already brevity is important, especially so in larger groups of people. I am of the opinion in a smaller group of friends there is certainly more room for detailed nuance to have its place but in public and large groups? Keep it simple.
Importantly above all else is communication with the other player prior and during combat so one does not get themselves into unfortunate situations which could leave a bad taste in both players mouths.
I tend to keep it short with the necessary informations. Usually they end up with a single or double paragraph.
Though some times it is just as entertaining when you just go much further into details… but once you hit an hour of a regular spar, stuff gets quite dull and repetitive so once more I shorten the emotes 
how do i write combat rp you ask? really well
Outside of MT u dont 