by Tash
The most common way to screw up in a fight is called godmodding, or forcing actions upon another character. An example of godmodding:
[Bob] *Throws Bill across the floor, breaking his arm in the process*
[Bill] *has his arm broken but picks up a chair and knocks Bob out with it*
This is bad. How would you feel if your character had their arm broken and you had no say in it? The way this player should have gone about it could be:
[Bob] *tries to grab Bill's arm and throw him over his shoulder, dropping to his knees to try and achieve this*
[Bill] *is grabbed and thrown, rolls and comes up in a crouch cradling a now sore arm, and grabs a chair with the other to try and hit Bob around the head*
In this you can see that "attempts" at an action is acceptable. To vary saying the same thing over and over, alternatives include "aims a punch/ blow at," "tries to hit," "endeavours to land a blow to Bobs neck," etc. Use your imagination.
Another large scale problem during RP fights is a lack of realism. If you decide that, yes, that move would have broken your character's arm, then the correct response would not be:
[Bill] Ow! *holds his arm and looks at the bone that is sticking out*
Seriously, even if you've never broken anything, you've all seen movies. Keep the reactions feasible. No matter how insanely high your character's pain threshold is, a break hurts. Yes it does. In that example, it should be more like:
[Bill] *pales dramatically as he hears the bone break, staggers and clutches his arm to his chest, backing away and whimpering with pain*
Likewise, a hard blow to the head will render your character dizzy, and a stomach blow may wind them (meaning they have trouble breathing for a short time).
If you are unwilling for your character to accept injury during a fight, do not get them in one. You cannot expect, for example, a seventeen-year-old boy who has just about reached his man's weight and height to repeatedly insult a twenty-eight-year-old mercenary, and either:
- Not get hit, at all. If the character they have insulted has a temper, they will hit yours. In Character Actions = In Character Consequences . This means that when your character does something that will get them in trouble, they get in trouble. Deal with it.
- Win. This is more on the feasible train of thought. Sometimes the outcome of a fight is obvious, but the best way to go about any fight is to work out with the puppet master of the other character involved who will win, and what damage you will allow.
If you don't know which character will win, don't refuse to let your character get hurt just so you win. This is, to a smaller extent, godmodding. If two fairly evenly matched characters are fighting then perhaps it will be a draw, or perhaps there will be a lucky hit (you cannot force a character to take a hit, you only have that power over your own character) which will decide the outcome. Either way, both characters are going to take some damage, and you're expected to understand this before you get a character involved in a fight.
In a fight with an obvious outcome, try to be graceful. A sixteen year old, five foot seamstress will not beat a six foot one soldier, unless she sneaks up behind him with a blade for his throat. And if you're planning to have your character do this, permission must be obtained. Your character cannot inflict injury on another character without explicit permission from the puppet master. The attempt to have the younger, inexperienced character win is called the 'young pup' situation. And young pups do not beat old dogs. Be realistic.
Notes on clothing and weapons
- If your character is fighting in a skirt or dress, that will hinder their movements.
- Leather is semi effective in deflecting blades (if they aren't sharp) and also negating some of the force in a blow.
- Commoners are not allowed swords unless they are soldiers, and a soldier wouldn't be hanging out at the Inn. No matter how much you want it, or how they'd hide it in their massive bosom, or down their trouser leg. Just no. Deal with it and move on.
- Throwing knives are a speciality. You have to have good aim to use them, and if your character didn't ever practice, they won't be able to do it. It is not a gift one is born with. Ditto archery. These skills are learned over a long period of time.
- Learning a fighting discipline, to a basic extent, is easy. It is possible to become proficient at (for instance) hand to hand in a year or so, if you train. To make a living fighting (mercenary, soldier, assassin) requires commitment. Like seven years or so.
- If you want an ohemgeesokool weapon that is unique to your character, all we can say is you better have some solid reasoning backing it up. Just because you want your character to carry a nine foot chain of solid silver with a peridot weight on one end and a razor sharp sickle on the other does not mean that she can.
- The most common weapons are obviously daggers, varying from very small blades to dirks. Anything longer than sixteen inches is a sword, and so an automatic no.
- Staves of wood are also a common and useful garden-variety weapon. You can't get arrested for having one, and walloping someone on the head with it should render them fairly insensible.
- Unusual weapons are not totally impossible to have. As long as the reasoning is sound and you've done some research, there's no reason why your character couldn't fight with a weighted baton or a double bladed fist knife.