When RP Power Scales Vary

Argent Dawn
41

What’s wrong with RPing one?

In fact there’s a number of rather significant footman RP guilds around.

42

Unironically I remember I rolled 1 twice in a row in one DM’d event and as such I literally had my character, who’s supposed to be a skilled and quick-on-his-feet rogue break his leg after slipping on a banana peel that someone left by the road.

While I appreciate that RNG gives me chances to insert stuff like this for the laughs, in the end you do want something to protect you from being worse than some Joe the Militia Man Farmer who used his pickaxe as a weapon for the first time in his life.

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43

My method is the best and every other method is bad: The thread

Every method has its place, but to pretend that /duel is good universally is intellectually dishonest at best.

Unless you think that people should play characters that have no identity beyond ‘orc warrior’ or ‘human warlock’.

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44

I mean /duel is not always wrong, but I’d only advocate for its use when the OOC balance (class matchup, gear etc) matches the IC odds, and when both characters fight in a way IC that matches the OOC toolkit.

Such situations would probably not be too common, but when they do occur, by all means, feel free to take the chance to add some visual flair.

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45

nothing, provided you’re not being a jank and expecting everyone to conform to your personal fantasies and you’re okay resolving conflicts using non-combat methods, such as /roll fights.

likewise pretending it’s universally bad is intellectually dishonest, and pretending it’s not “WoW combat” is disingenuous. you don’t have to resolve IC conflicts using WoW combat, but you can’t pretend that /roll is a more “faithful” representation of WoW combat than actual WoW combat. it’s perhaps more representative of your personal fantasies, but that doesn’t mean it’s WoW combat.

46

I also dislike rolls. Both /duel and /roll only function for characters that are remotely close to one another as far as skill goes, because with /roll everything is just lolrandom and with /duel you’re very literally making an IC thing a completely OOC thing.

My personal recipe tends to be straight emote combat with clear OOC communication when possible. Works most of the time, all the time.

47

But that isn’t what is being said. Rolls aren’t perfect, /Duels aren’t perfect, Emotes aren’t perfect. None of them are. Each of them have their place.
Let me give three examples:
If you are John the farmer, thrown on a Gryphon, never flown before, no idea what you are doing, you’re pretty likely almost certain to lose against someone like, well, yes, Brigante, who is a veteran of more than a thousand years of aerial combat. Rolls would be ridiculous in that scenario, Rolls wouldn’t work, /Duel certainly wouldn’t work. Emotes do.

John the Farmer gets into a fight with Dave the Farmer, they’re both in dungarees, hats and carrying shovels. Rolls -could- work, Emotes -could- work, but /Duel is fair. Unless Dave has his three brothers with him, in which case /Duel just doesn’t work.

John the Farmer is trying to beat down a Gnoll trespassing on his farm during an RP Event. Well they can’t /Duel, they could roll, with John being at somewhat a disadvantage, or they could emote.

All three have their place, none is ‘best’.

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48

But Classes do use those OOC abilities IC, it’s what defines them. Sure, not every Warrior can turn into a rock Avatar, but most of the abilities are lore friendly.

I know what you’re getting at, it’s the typical farmer vs knight scenario I’ve seen 100 times. Here’s the deal, most roleplayers have no idea how combat works, especially medieval combat.

I know a guy who does archaeology and medieval reenacting for a living, the dude’s a complete medieval warfare buff and he could emotefight a farmer with a pitchfork to beat your plated knight easily, purely due to better knowing how weapons and armor and momentum works.

At the end of the day, it’s all an OOC skill whether it’s rolling, ‘‘emoting’’ ( my char is faster, he’s stronger, writing ability ) or PvP. The deal, however, is that PvP actually takes into account your character’s progression ( gear, level, talents ) and isn’t a simple dice roll like roll is.

49

it’s precisely what’s being said.

my issue is not with people’s methods of resolving IC conflicts. my issue is with the idea that duelling isn’t WoW combat when it is quite literally WoW combat.

50

What was meant is pro’lly that duelling isn’t a particularly immersive form of combat, not that it isn’t 1:1 the game mechanics of WoW.

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51

That’s my point. You’re not describing ‘John the Farmer’ there, you’re describing ‘John the guy who owns a farm but knows how to fight with a variety of weapons and armour types, including techniques’. That’s not ‘John the Farmer’, that’s a Guy called John who knows his shiz, but happens to have retired and runs a farm.

Fair, but none of that has any relevance in RP. “I have a longbow, I could hit you from hundreds of yards away, but I will close up till we are in melee combat range, because…uhh…reasons…”

Didn’t work at Agincourt, no reason to think it would work in WoW.

Also, I’m not advocating roll combat between characters here…as I say, its awful when the skill levels are so highly off kilter. No method is perfect, is what I said.

It is WoW combat, in a controlled environment where only two participants can possibly take part, the instant a third party is added, as often happens, then it is not an accurate depiction of WoW combat anymore.

The other night, relaxing in Orgrimmar, some mental Nightborne came up and kicked one of my fliers in the back, for no reason, they just went around doing it to people at random. Now lets assume it was possible to /duel in Orgrimmar. How does this play out? I mean I would have smashed the pommel of my blade against their head to try and knock them out. Could I have done that, if the two of them were in a Duel? No. Why couldn’t I? There is no reason. 1vs1 Duels work, any other type of conflict, not so much…

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52

So… Just semantics?

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53

Thing is, the OOC toolkit does not represent -every- warrior. It represents -A- warrior, but just about every other warrior than the player behaves very differently in some way - ranging from the cinematic portrayal of Garrosh, grunts, footmen, Genn (though maybe he’s a rogue? He’s a bit of a hybrid) and everything in between.

If your warrior is a carbon copy of the OOC rotation that is fine, you decide yourself what your character is like, but I feel like it is so very limiting to squeeze in everyone in that box - combat presents enormous variety, and that is before magic is added to the mix!

Edit: Sorry for doublepost. New forum bad.

54

that may be what they mean, but it’s not what they’re saying. that being the case i can sympathise with the sentiment, even if i don’t share it.

… so it’s appropriate for situations in which your character would duel. it’s also actual WoW combat as opposed to /roll and emote fights, which aren’t.

we’re not discussing the meaning of the term, we’re discussing what qualifies as “WoW combat”. duelling is WoW combat. /roll and emoting are not. that doesn’t change simply because WoW combat doesn’t portray you personal fantasies in a way that satisfies you.

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55

Why are you so obsessed over what is ‘wow combat’ or not?

If you want your ‘wow combat’ so badly, go do some BGs.

It doesn’t sound like you have a very high opinion of RP to begin with if that is what you call it, so I wonder why you are in this thread at all.

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56

What does something being a representation of “WoW combat” have to do with a RP fight? Purpose of roleplaying in WoW is to stay in the Warcraft universe and create stories that fit into the lore, not to religiously stick to using the in-game mechanics to the point where you’d do an OOC duel when characters get into conflict. If we were all doing our best to portray the game mechanics, TRP wouldn’t have a custom class option to begin with. If you have two unarmed civillians getting into a duel, are they meant to fistfight forever because the damage they’d do this way is lower than the passive regen?

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57

Try a basket of fruit.

58

The good way to avoid critically failing at something you’r character should be good like, agility, wisdom etc would be talking beforehand with GM and state that you character cannot fail at some specific situations.

SO for EXAMPLE, my warlock is very good at enchanting and magic stuff in general :mage:. Let’s say I wan’t to enchant someone sword in RP and I have to roll for how good the effect will be. :zap::crossed_swords:

But I rolled one out of ten. :frowning:

Does that mean I failed the spell and the sword changed the state to dust?
Well, if i spoke with a GM earlier or just simply i had written it somewhere in character sheet, I cannot fail. If not for jokes (When I would just say, “oh yeah, seems like you need to get a new sword, sooowyyy”) I would simply say that the effect of the said enchant is somewhat medium and not my best work.

That’s how I would attempt such things anyway. I can be wrong.

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59

This is why I like RPing with medium-smallish guilds, where everyone learns about each others’ characters. You form an impression about their general abilities - for example, Chieun’s specialisation is ludicrously heavy armour, so where others would need to take cover from arrows, gunfire or even explosives, she is relatively safe.

But it comes at a cost of mobility - she can’t actually swim in her armour, for example, which is something of a disadvantage on Kul Tiras…

60

Mannoroth rolls Nat 1, Grommash rolls Nat 20.

Grommash makes a swing with an orcish axe that’s just like every other axe in every way except the name, Mannoroth blocks.

Mannoroth’s demonic weapon that just split the ground with a swing, made of stuff orcs can’t even touch breaks in two pieces.

Mannoroths’ heart is pierced, killing him shortly, causing a leak of volatile Fel from the demon to make heavy burns on the orc

How does this make sense really? The weapon is destroyed too.