[quote=@ImportantNobody]
That gaia tournament seems difficult in a bad way. You get a super bad penalty for killing your opponent, so this limits most characters you could do and most actions, as you'd need to constantly worry about killing your opponent so would always pull punches when the possibility of killing them comes up. Opening to the neck and you have a sword? Too bad, can't take it, etc. Someone like a brawler with their bare hands would be so much better in that ruleset as they would be easier to respond without lethal force. Not to mention the character tier limiting a lot of other characters. I'm fine with their rules but not as a main place to go for combat. Perhaps a different, less restrictive combat thread could be made in gaia. There appear to be enough people around that some could show interest in it even if already in the tournament.

Anyways, my character for our battle here would also be a student, as I would look silly having them a master and make mistakes in their form. 


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I've discussed it before -- at length -- but the bottom line is that deathmatches trend towards being efficient at killing, which leads to a narrowing of viable character archetypes, both in power and in equipment. Nonlethal matches are the most viable means of ensuring that, for example, a fist-fighter can square off against a swordsman. The swordsman can still hamstring his foe or even jam his sword into his belly because the wound won't be IMMINENTLY fatal (a rewording I'll need to make and clarify). It's meant to keep people from "going for the throat", which is the narrowing trend that deathmatches promote. Having done plenty of deathmatches in the past, I've always found them to be both boring and an endless source of arguments whenever I've been made to judge them.

We also use a fairly specific scope of power because a) that's the major trend in our community's events and b) it's the easiest form of powered combat to balance because profile grading and adjustment is a thing in many of Gaia's tournaments. Mild powers has, more or less, been the calling card for Gaia's tournaments ever since about 2007/2008 onward. That being said, I personally promote any kind of event, provided it's run well by someone who doesn't have their head up their ass. People complain about no killing? Make your own event. Don't like mild powers? Make your own event. Want to do tag-team tournaments? Make it happen. The biggest issue in the quasi-fractured community on Gaia is that we lack in leadership. Lots of Indians, few chiefs, and a lot of people who just want to piss and moan about the color of the feathers on the headdress without putting it on.

For unrestricted combat, we have Kharessos, which will be revamped shortly whenever I find someone capable of running a separate thread solely for arena combat. I, unfortunately, haven't the time to do so while also running/revamping the seasons and pursuing my own personal projects and hobbies (cooking 3,500+ calories of fruit, veggies, eggs, and chicken takes a lot of work, as does touching base with agents and editors). I realized that too late after making Kharessos, so Kharessos will be filtered down to "seasonal story shit" and another thread will be made solely for fights, where players are only limited by what they mutually agree to.