[@ELGainsborough]
Like I said, I'll avoid posting here from now on; there isn't a need for me now that I've given perspective and allowing things to not flow towards only a single bias. If you would actually like me to give my input concerning the matters of your idea that have [i]nothing[/i] to do with free-form (I've already posted them, but I won't hold it against you if you don't want to read all of this) then it will need to be over PM; I intend to ignore any further flame baits directed at me.

You're entirely right about it being "to each their own". That was the entire reason I joined this thread in the first place; to give another perspective. All of this is by its very nature subjective, and there's no problem with that. If you want a role-playing duel that emphasizes collaboration and good writing over power gaming and competition, I simply believe what I've been suggesting is the more viable way to achieve that. You've set this up to work under the D&D system, at least based on the opening post, but since you wanted my input I've given it.

All the best with your journey.

P.S. In order to avoid long-windedness (as you've asked), I've decided to leave a portion of the post I had planned for you in a hider; whether you want to use it in order to contribute to your goal of prioritizing writing over competition is entirely your call. I don't plan to post here again.

[hider=My Final Input]Since you keep emphasizing [i]good writing[/i] as the ultimate priority here, all of my posts have been directed at explaining how, from my own personal experience, using various RPG mechanics don't just cripple a role-play competitively; they cripple it as a piece of writing entirely. This sentiment is not shared by everyone, but I don't actually see anyone giving constructive counterarguments for everything I've spent time offering here, so there's simply no point even being present.

My experience with RPG mechanics in role-play has done nothing but show that it limits creativity (one of the most important elements of good writing) and doesn't facilitate realism. Everything I've been doing is to move this debate forward so that emphasis can be made for a focus on quality of writing instead of just competitive attitudes or a system that will stifle writing itself.

On the other hand, sadly, yes, the arena is about winning as much as it is about good writing; that's precisely why I've been making a point to people that all of my free-form role-playing experience took place [i]outside[/i] of this sort of environment, without "Win/Lose/Draw" records polluting some people's minds. I should also make a point that many of the battle-orientated role-plays that I've actually taken part in worked the opposite of power gaming; coming up with a good strategy to overcome an opponent with an less overpowered skill set than they had; learning how to creatively optimize tools. There's a big difference between doing this and simply removing creativity entirely by limiting things to a small list of commands; one of them is realistic while the other just belongs in video games.

Admittedly my characters are "broken", as I have said to you before this thread turned into nonsense, but what I didn't tell you is that I've never role-played these characters at their full potential, but rather under extreme self-imposed limiters; I've never role-played in a free-form duel with power gaming as the priority, while the people who I was involved with at the sites that used RPG mechanics for their combat system were [i]always[/i] power gaming. By their very nature, stats prioritize power gaming.

I actually created a thread specifically for the purpose of testing out their system to see how creatively I could come up with an interesting character, asking one of the members to run a "simulation" (read: [i]not[/i] a competition) with me to test my character out, and my opponent ignored the whole point of the thread and reduced it into a "metagaming" exercise that literally killed that thread shortly after arrival and made me realize how unbalanced their system really was (not to mention the writing potential was terrible with the limited skill sets and dice being implemented); the next year was spent completely reworking that system. This was only one of many experiences I had like this.[/hider]