My issue with emotes alone is that players often go above and beyond to ensure that their characters come out on top despite obvious and overwhelming IC disadvantages, instead of taking the L for the sake of “gud RP/the story”.
My issue with emotes + rolls is that without set character stat/roll mechanics, IC character traits fail to properly influence RP outcomes. This can however be achieved and executed relatively well within organised RP, e.g., inter-guild environment.
My issue with PvP is that it’s often not representative of IC character related factors. OOC gear and skill dictate outcomes.
I prefer simple emotes. Rolls can make a strong character weak if they roll wrong. And I hate pvp in general and because IC =/= OOC.
When emoting, people should be conscious around their character’s abilities, but yea, we can’t trust everybody to be fair, hence I don’t RP fight if I don’t have to. But emotes are the most fun.
For me, it’s emotes if there’s no time limit (ie it’s just two characters going at it, or it’s a wide-scale battle where everyone’s hitting each other).
Emotes + rolls is useful for things like tournaments or competitions as those are usually best of threes or best of fives and thus you can limit the number of rounds each competitor undergoes so you can keep it all moving along.
PVP I’ve never been a fan of, but I think if both people are well-versed in PVP and willing to go that route then why not - go for it!
It mostly just comes down to trust. You’ve laid out the pros and cons of each method pretty succinctly, and I’ve had good experiences with all of them depending on the situation. For example, emote + roll with complete strangers at Kosh’harg was perfectly fine, and RP-PvP is entertaining in both restricted and unrestricted with the caveat that I’d never engage with it without friends backing me up.
I think it’s just regular emote fights with strangers that I’d try to avoid where possible because they can escalate in weird directions very quickly. If I had a penny for every time someone has tried to pull this character through a rift into a cosmic dungeon dimension I would have three pennies.
Emotes with random encounters, but rolls for events is the best way to go imo.
Not that I’d mind rolls with random encounters, since it keeps the fights brief, but quite many are horrified by the idea of having to roll for their character’s fate.
So I usually just give in and adapt my character with the situation and hope the other does the same. Also pray that they won’t write a novel for every action they do.
Something like a 1-on-1 duel at an event like a Kosh’harg or Mugambala? Ideally PvP if one could remove gear as an equation. And no bloody tank specs.
In a skirmish or staged battle as part of an event series? Emotes.
I’ve soured on /roll as anything other than for personal usage to add flavour instead of enforced, ever since a 14 year-old elf won the Kosh’harg archery contest 2 years running against seasoned archers, snipers, rangers. You could argue “but what about modifiers?” and my response is that gets too far into the weeds and importing house rules you can’t and shouldn’t expect everyone to abide by and blah, blah, blah…
I personally prefer full emote battles or emotes with rolls, depending on the situation and agreements with the other roleplayer. If it is a duel or spar that isn’t part of a greater event, I tend to ask how the other person prefers and on which grounds, we’d determine the winner.
But ultimately, everything goes when there is OOC trust. With a good friend of mine, we’ve gone through all three forms of RP combat without discussing about rules at all, as it simply flows naturally.
But sometimes someone’s roleplaying style is very different and it just feels that you’re off-sync. This is usually where a pure emote fight would call for /roll, to cull the power emotes.
The frustration with heavy use of /rolls, is very valid, however. When your RNG determines your character’s skill level beyond your own portrayal and backstory, it becomes unrewarding. I don’t mind failing 1-2 emotes or even losing in a fair play, but failing to attack 4-5 times in succession would feel frustrating in most scenarios.
My biggest annoyance, not only about RP combat but social roleplay as well, is the competitive approach of some roleplayers. That in order for my character to stand a chance at winning, my character doesn’t just need to outsmart/outplay the other character, but I’d also have to outsmart the other roleplayer as well. Which imho takes away the spirit of collaborative roleplay that I enjoy and can relax with.
“Respect my character’s skillset and power level, and I will respect yours.”
No but, emote + rolls is the best combination for me personally. PVP duels have never felt like true roleplaying to me, while with only emotes I wouldn’t even trust myself to not try to outshine the opponent ever so slightly. Then again, I roll with house rules, using more often than not specifically catered stat/roll system to aid in making the fight feel balanced enough, enough so that it feels similarly rewarding or similarly punishing to both of the players present.
While I am open to all three options, I generally prefer just emotes / emotes and roll. Even then, I only engage in RP combat with people I know and trust. So my characters, even confrontational ones often have good reason for not getting into fights at random.
I’ll be the odd one out to say I like PvP. I enjoy implementing in-game mechanics into my roleplay and PvP’s one way to utilise the classes we have. Obviously it doesn’t always fit well, as when you play a different class from your OOC class, don’t have gear or play healer, but it’s nice when it can happen.
Otherwise, usually a simple roll battle with 3 HP is my go-to. I like to trust my fellow roleplayers but I don’t always know what they expect from me. Easy way to standardise things a little. Free-forming is reserved for friends.
Rolls are the better choice in my opinion for mostly all combat events and scenes including brawling and sparring.
Just because you think your character can slay a titan and you lose to a vulpera doesn’t mean anything. End of the day, the Vulpera just whittled you down a bit more and got a couple more hits in no matter how strong or weak they where.
When it’s pure emotes people tend to go for the magic where they pull anything out of their backside to try and win the fight rather than just accepting a loss or not paying attention to injuries or similar.
This works best on Horde side because unlike Alliance where peoples power balance varies WILDLY. – On Horde we’re all just a bunch of lads around a fire cracking open a stella with 3 teeth between us.
Horde is more balanced and accepting of battling one another even if a Tauren realistically should curb stomp everyone.
I come from a community of RP servers ( not Retail, everyone received BIS gear/stats and max level to make things fair ) where PvP was the norm. While it is true that it’s based on OOC skill, it’s a lot more entertaining for onlookers to watch and they can actually react to it in real time, whereas an emote fight is way slower than real time so people need to either pretend the fight is in slow motion or AFK for minutes at a time while the combatants RP it out.
Said community often had events tailored around arenas where people would fight for the entertainment of the crowd. There’d be bets and DMs/GMs sometimes playing ‘bosses’ for adventurer parties to take on. It was fun stuff.
One of my favorite RP moments of all time was myself and 2 friends playing roamers/nomads, ending up in a Strahnbrad that was in the process of being resettled by a guild and then fighting in a war between the settlers and an Alliance lord who came by to lay claim to it just because.
It was some 40 people fighting it out in PvP and it was glorious. We became local heroes for a little bit and the settlers even offered us our own house as a reward.
I feel as if I go out of my way to avoid violent confrontations with other players IC, and that might be precisely what led me to prefer PvP as the go-to resolution.
In short I grew tired of random acts of violence against me and discovered that when you’re open about preferring PvP in your profile, people attack you a lot less for fear of actually having to be tougher than you, instead of just emoting that they are.
I am in favour of Emote/rolls all ways. its what i been doing for all my time on AD. and in the circles i frequent. Full emote fights often get a bad rep for the prevalence of God emoters.
I am a Giant Tauren, wielding the Light. There are not many people among the Horde who could Win from me in an emote battle. because i am obviously the Stronger opponent
But I have lost to Goblin in Roll duels all the time. and you know? that’s great, The bigger they are, the harder they fall they say. I don’t have an inflated ego thinking my Super sized Holy Tauren should win all fights he goes into (i mean i should i could just Bubble like a real paladin you know).
The best part about Roll battles is that you’re forced to write a foul. A gnome comes running at you with her daggers and you are a mighty knight with a shield. and she rolled a 56 and you a 32? well shucks man. Strain those creative muscles and write up how her attack did in fact hit your infallible character.
where they pull anything out of their backside to try and win the fight rather than just accepting a loss or not paying attention to injuries or similar.