[OOC] Arena FAQ/Advice

[Bartimaeus]

Alright thanks

[Rilla]

An Ode to Firearms in T1
By @Skallagrim

Magic and technology are opposites. Magic bends physical law to the will of the mage. Technology depends on physical law. In the arena the use of technology reinforces physical law, countering the effect of magic.

A magic using individual casting an offensive spell works by summoning some form of fire/ lightning bolt / ice/ acid etc. out of thin air (physically impossible!), and then accelerating that flame/ lightning bolt/ ice shard/ acid spray to high speed along a finely controlled trajectory, merely by force of will (also physically impossible). In contrast, a gun takes advantage of several physical laws to achieve the same ends.

If we accept the possibility of magic in textual combat then the reality of firearms does not become anything other than another form of attacking your opponent. Bullets do not automatically kill your opponent; they do not automatically penetrate armor any more than a spell does. Like all T1 attacks prepping is required to do substantial damage. With firearms it is more difficult to attain the ‘preps” because you cannot continually aim at the target.

Prepping is achieved easily with ‘powered’ weapons such as lasers and particle-beam guns by simply stating that the character is powering the weapon up. With gunpowder weapons it is more difficult. I have in the past used the word focused, focusing, focus on etc. to build up ‘preps’. This allows for cues that the opponent may see as the gunfighter is targeting them. These cues are no different than prepping a spell with the descriptors congruent with the magic the caster is employing.

Other than that gunfighters and spell casters are very similar, both require preps to establish the power to break through their opponents prepped defenses. As for bullets, guns fire a maximum of three bullets per attack and guns do run out of ammo, after ‘X’ number of attacks.

How does Focus work as a prep, and what of magical guns?

Focused is akin to being more accurate when fired. Other than that a firearm follows all conventions of a T1 attack be it magical, melee, brawling, psionic etc.

Magic based guns are like energy weapons you simply imply the weapon is charging.

[Bartimaeus]

What ddo you guys think about making a thread where people can like post their characters up and have other characters hire them as mercenaries/bounty hunters for matches and stuff, and the mercenary/bounty hunter gains money/coin that they can then use to go to a shop/store/depo( a seperate thread just for that purpose) and they can buy things to upgrade/advance themselves as a character.
That way people can earn a way to advance their character instead of just like adding stuff on?
What do yall think?

[Rilla]

I think that would be good if we started another PW, or something. But it would also be fairly difficult. We'd have to price things for people, for instance, in universes we may not be familiar with. On top of that, nothing would really be stopping people from having said item anyway.

IN a PW, it would be somewhat manageable, however.

[Bartimaeus]

I guess your right. Im assuming PW stands for personal world?

[Rilla]

Persistent World, or in our case we typically use Multiverse.

Which is a world in which many 'verses come together to create only, allowing for characters from other universes to interact together, when they usually wouldn't.

For instance, say the

Bleach Universe, Naruto Universe, One Piece Universe, and Black Butler Universe, suddenly became one.

[Bartimaeus]

Dont know what black butler is but ok

[Rilla]

Going to be totally honest, I don't either - aside from it being an anime.

[Bartimaeus]

How big was the arena community before this crash i keep reading about? How big is it now, like 20?

[Rilla]

It wasn't particularly big to be honest.

[Skallagrim]

Arena sections never comprise more than a small percentage of an RP site. Some are better at fostering a persistent multiverse setting while others leave it to the players. There are some that interact with other sites to develop cross site wars. Some are tech based others fantasy.

[Rilla]

The worlds are different, and yet same same.

Skally, you go on in there and help me figure out the evolving/upgrading thing.

[Bartimaeus]

The cross-site war thing sounds fun.
Yet this is the best RP site ive been to. :)

[Bartimaeus]

[...]

[Skallagrim]

The worlds are different, and yet same same.

Skally, you go on in there and help me figure out the evolving/upgrading thing.

@Rilla

So you want to upgrade the keys like a video game?

[Rilla]

in theory, yes. I have the upgrading mechanic down. Uthur and koke-Kain, for example.

Evolving some is the issue. I think I'm on track with Coil and Strike, but those could easily just be evolutions.

To bypass it, I could just have them all be upgrades, but some would get new keys/better keys(Uthur/Koke), and some would effect their state(Coil/Strike).

[Skallagrim]

Do you need to evolve all the keys? Can some be just a basic upgrade that grants "X" more power because they don't warrant any further development. And use the third stage, the evolve, for powers/abilities that naturally you can see a furthering of? This way you don't need to crush yourself doing all of them but only certain ones. This way you pose the question, "Does this power have a third stage?" If you look at the power objectively and say no, it just can upgrade and be done with it.

[Rilla]

No, not all will upgrade or evolve.

Some like the elemntal ones will have the upgrade(See: Swimming Bass - Uthur; Koke-Kain - Pongo). Kusanagi, for example, has his Coil and Strike. Some won't, such as Pride of the Lion, King of Crows, Crazy Monkies, etc.

[Bartimaeus]

Im thinking about making a child character, and i hear they are dificult to play. Also i hear they are kindsa frowned upon in rp because they arent played right most of the time, this is ccorrect, yes?
But i think i may be able to do it.

[Skallagrim]

You can create a child character. I just don't like fighting them personally.