Hey there. I’m Mion.
You may remember me from such guides as ‘Writing Good Character Profiles’ or my other guide that was a very wholesome commentary on the nature of pregnancy in role-play which is still accessible, but has been locked as a result of crafty social engineering.
The results of the recent ‘Mion help pls’ discord polls are in, so today I’ll be overlooking the relatively droll subject of ‘combat RP’. Shoot me now.
In my own personal opinion, there’s no such thing as any specific form of role-play, unless you’re doing ERP in which case that’s honestly just a justification for cybering.
Therefore I find terms like ‘combat rp’ or ‘medic rp’ a bit silly, since to me, everything my character does is a form of role-play but yes, shut the frack up, Mion! You don’t know what you’re talking about!
So then; let’s get down to business. The first step to understanding how fighting works in role-play is to first comprehend the various ways and means that this can be accomplished to satisfying effect.
My own personal comment on this, regardless of what method you use, is just simply; is it furthering the narrative, or are you just trying to turn the role-play into a mini-game for your amusement?
Now without further ado; we’ll take a look at the tiers.
Yes, that’s right. Believe it or not, since the dawn of text based internet role-play there have existed a few diverse tier sets designed specifically for the feat of combat. Just remember, by understanding and comprehending these in fullness, you might possibly be dooming yourself to eternal geekdom and hairy palms.
Just for reference, I will not be posting anything above T1 because I’m not a virgin, have real life commitments and if I felt like writing a novel, it wouldn’t be condensed into a single role-playing scene. Some of you would be blown away by the true, elite enthusiasts out there who will type hundreds of thousands of words for one scene or emote.
Pro Tip: None of these people play WoW. If you want a career in writing and you want to achieve that through role-play, LOL, this might not be the medium for you.
T1 Combat - Turn-based Paragraph Focused Battling
So; this is the format I’m the most familiar with because it’s just what’s been expected from most of the avenues I’ve role-played in. I did this for years before anyone ever told me that it actually came under ‘T1’, and at the time I had no idea what that actually meant.
In short, the two, or more of you involved will all take turns to write up detailed and descriptive paragraphs of what you are doing.
The general rule of thumb is to decide how you’re going to respond to all attacks made against you, preferably without spamming the word ‘attempt’ and then retaliate how you wish.
There are some other rulings concerned, for example only being able to make one attack per paragraph but in my honest opinion this is up to the people playing as some attack patterns or combinations are possible in a branched attack or action, and an action by itself isn’t necessarily an attack or technique.
In WoW, you’re somewhat limited by the text box size and even if you use an add on to expand on this, you run the risk of holding people up who may be involved with the on-going fight. T1 fights are typically quite lengthy. Now; here’s an example of what a T1 RP fight might look like:
Mion: (Paragraph/Paragraph+++) Attacks
Chatty: (Paragraph+) Defends/Dodges/Takes-the-hit, retaliates, flees, etc. Probably flees.
Mion: (Paragraph/Paragraph+++++++) Defends/Dodges/Avoid/Takes-the-hit, flees kills, etc. In this entirely realistic and every other universal scenario, Mion obviously wins.
God-emoting, which I will cover a little later is generally not tolerated in this form of combat.
The Pros of T1:
- It’s a good opportunity to flesh out a detailed scenario with another human being.
- It allows you a chance to show off your writing skills and stroke your self-insert’s tremendous obelisk of masculinity.
The Cons of T1:
- It’s time consuming. You’re going to be forcing people to wait on you.
- It requires a decent level of detail so there are no misunderstandings between the participants.
- It leaves time for your inevitable neck beard to sprout another few inches.
T2 Combat - Pretty much T1 only a lot faster
T2 is a shortened version of T1 which probably suits WoW a lot better because it requires a lot less lines and details. Rather than throwing in loads of adjectives and being overly descriptive, you’ll ultimately just be getting to the bare bones of what’s actually happening. So as an example:
Mion throws herself at Tehya in a daring tackle.
Tehya is overwhelmed by her immense superiority and takes the blow to his solar plexus.
Mion throws her arms high into the air as her fanfare plays in the background.
So yeah. T2 is basically sentence play whereas T1 is paragraph play. Some people will argue that there are further and more intricate differences but those people are all wrong because I said so, and I’m smart.
The Pros of T2:
- It’s quick and to the point.
The Cons of T2:
- It lacks detail, clarification and depth.
- It’s boring.
T3 Combat - Goldshire Brawling
It’s a free ranged style where you can type as much as you want, but your attacks are usually decided before your opponent can type their dodge/etc or response. You’ve decided it has connected, which is basically god-emoting, but more on that later. You could literally have this form of combat consist of one word. For example:
Mion smacks Kaytlinne.
Kaytlinne is smacked.
The end.
Pros to T3 Combat:
- It does not require a full, working use of your mental faculties, so even people wearing Naruto headbands can get involved.
- It allows you to quickly identify who you don’t want to role-play with.
Cons to T3 Combat:
Tiers 4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-etc
It literally gets worse the higher the numbers climb, kind of like WoW’s expansion conte- I MEAN, kind of like, you know, that thing what when how. You know what I mean. The rest of the tiers are entirely god emote based or just follow extremely absurd logic that shouldn’t be permitted beyond the realms of cradle dribblers and sentient paraplegic badger men.
Now then, let’s take a look at ‘god emoting’ and what that represents.
God Emoting
I generally view this as enforcing your will upon another’s character, i;e: you’ve personally decided an outcome on their behalf, without their consent and have by result, taken control of their narrative. So if character one aims a punch at character two, they will decide exactly how character two receives the blow.
Koiffen throws a dagger at Mion.
Mion deflects the dagger with her chi fist, spins it around and stabs it into Koiffen’s skull where he screams in pain and begs for the sweet release of death. He also wets himself because why not.
In this example, Mion is a god emoting vertically challenged abomination and should be buried in a deep pit somewhere.
If someone does this to you, kindly tell them that they shouldn’t do it, and educate them on how to properly write an emote in regards to what the general WoW community consensus is on such things. Unless they’re a ‘pillar’ or own their own standing player army. Then you should just take whatever they throw at you because they’re not keyboard warriors, those, my friends, are keyboard GODS.
Other Systems
On WoW specifically and in the AD community, there are many unique systems that exist between guilds that incorporate stats, dice rolling (god why) and other various bastardised means of having what should be a relatively simple fight.
Heck, some players decide on outcomes via in-game ‘duelling’ and we all know how toxic that can be.
That’s right. Fear not, you weeaboos out there, or those of you incels just learning of ‘JJBA’ for the first time (a dated anime/manga series revived by memesters and hipsters alike, known for its ott use of tropes and special attacks), there are many a Stormwind guild that will accept your bankrupt concept into their lore and allow you various transformations and finishing moves to your heart’s content even if they’re not fitting into the game’s very well crafted narrative and lore.
Here are some tips just for you:
- Make sure to scream your attack names out-loud to give them more power and empthasis.
- Put on some Linkin Park or your favourite Seven Steps From Hell OST.
- Make sure that all of your abilities and techniques have no basis in reality, follow no strict sense of physics or real world knowledge, and use as many stolen or plagiarzed abilities as you will to make your opponent frown ranging from the turtle destruction wave to a gomu gomu no gatling.
But you people, really… I mean…
Mion Specific Hints and Tips
Know who you’re playing with. Odds are, if you already do then you won’t have to go through an awkward OOC discussion on how the fight is going to go.
Generally, don’t think of the role-play itself as a ‘game’ that you have to win and treat it as part of the open ended narrative that the world of open role-play around you permits. Do not be fixated on winning or losing, because that’s not the point of role-play.
Avoid people with ‘IC Kill Counters’ because they’re obvious power gamers and shouldn’t be tolerated.
Don’t make ‘character power’ a huge thing when interacting with other people or crafting your profile because it’s boring and you could just go and actually play the game instead.
Don’t watch Jojo in English because it’s a waste of your time and the original dubbing is clearly superior in every way, shape and form. If you’re watching it in English, then you’re doing it wrong.
Keep in mind who you are role-playing with and where you are. Scale yourself and your style appropriately to benefit your surroundings and role-play partners. Also keep your equipment in mind because that should surely play a big role in any form of combat themed role-play.
Granted that most characters in role-play seem to know how to fight for whatever bizarre reason regardless of their profession, you should always make sure that you’re prepared for anything ranging from a baker dual wielding baguettes to a tailor coming after you with sewing needles because on AD, everyone without exception, even child role-players, are grizzled veterans.
Oh and don’t do this:
If you spend this length of time talking or powering up in a fight, Mion’s just going to kill you.
GGWP
Oh and here is an example of what a good RP fight should be like. I will warn, this scene will contain mature content of a violent nature but yet probably still more wholesome than your typical Stormwind brawl so if you’re overly sensitive, a complete wuss or your abusive father doesn’t let you watch Game of Thrones because it contradicts his religious beliefs, avert your eyes:
Supplementary Material - Rolling and You
First of all. Let’s ask Mion! What do you think of rolling in WoW RP, Mion? Mion thinks she doesn’t need to roll a sixty five to drop kick a tauren because it’s well within her skill set and that burdensome beast isn’t paying attention to begin with, damn it!
Nonetheless, I’ll go over my personal experiences in rolling and throw around how this can be approached.
Ultimately for my preferences, I don’t use any form of RNG based material outside of guild events or realm events unless it’s for something that’s inherently random such as weather conditions, character illness or other random scenarios that we would absolutely have no control over in the real world.
The best way to avoid a childish confrontation that can only be settled with an OOC roll, is to simply not approach or be approached by people who can not make a distinction between role-playing out a narrative and simply using RP as an OOC means to have their character fight.
These are, however, just my preferences. I’ve had characters fight in numerous instances that have ended beyond any ‘true’ black and white result, and I’ve had huge balance breakers occur without ever needing to rely on lady luck.
I would definitely advise that people use rolls for acts of random consequence or feats of nature. I encourage DMs to use them to determine certain natural outcomes or potential choice paths ahead of time.
I highly recommend that people try to incorporate a guild stat/combat system to make it more fun and intricate.
If there’s an event on, and two members are fighting. One is an inexperienced warrior and the other is a death knight veteran of some description.
If it comes down to random, unmodified rolling, and the inexperienced warrior somehow wins by normally swinging his sword - that to me, is a very unsatisfying and droll result. Whereas in T2, without dice, if we’re having that fight and both players are reasonable, there could be an entirely realistic path of choices that lead to inexperienced warrior proving victorious, or at least taking something valuable away from it.
One of the negative sides of rolling that I’ve witnessed recently is that in certain guilds, it’s used primarily for efficiency over the development of a narrative that could occur within a battle or fight scene. Your lucky rolls have somehow let your character win, or lose, and nothing of consequence happens as a result because by the time you’re trying to justify in your head what they took away from this, already the next set of rolls are being thrown out.
Those same guilds, who will not be named, are however ran by children who just like the idea of having a big guild over the idea of having an interesting one. More on that in a future guide.
Pros of Rolling:
- It’s quick, efficient and although people might try, you cannot argue with a dice.
- It’s less confrontational.
- It can be used for a wide range of different things, not just RP combat.
- You can design and develop all manners of systems around it.
Cons of Rolling:
- It can have entirely unrealistic outcomes that are hard or difficult to justify via a constructive narrative
- It takes away an enormous amount of control from players that are perfectly capable of writing without ruining a scene.
- People are often upset and agitated when the RNG is not in their favour, and will lose interest entirely in playing that character for the day if the dice isn’t even remotely in their favour. A bad luck spell shouldn’t mean your sure sighted archer can’t hit a target after firing a hundred arrows.
- If you are using a personalised rolling system, even if it incorporates stats, a lot of players are easily overwhelmed by this.
On a note to leave off on for those of you who aren’t drooling mindlessly into their popcorn buckets; the bottom line is. Remember, you’re not your character. Their losses, are not -your- losses. Their achievements, are -not- your achievements. Keep that in mind. Healthy distinction to make.
Supplementary Material - Duelling
Go for it. In WoW, I prefer this over rolling sometimes. It’s more fun, interactive and I get a chance to work my character’s skills physically.
Although I suppose this only works either in limited scenarios, or if both characters are heavily armoured veterans with a good knowledge of their class skills/abilities, or if we just regard all of those as mostly OOC and just use the outcome, I suppose that also works.
Toodle-boo.
