[color=fdc68a][center]MinhyrdinWindrose posted this on http://www.imvu.com PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:37 pm Post subject: T1- Paragraph, turn-based fighting. [/center][/color] T1 is a type of fighting style generally used by people in chat. These people are generally the more serious RPers. Average time to learn T1 can take anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on the time spent learning and perfecting the form. It is based off the idea that the paragraphs you use should appear to come out of a book using detailed descriptions so that the people watching can ‘see’ what is happening in chat to make Role Playing a more enjoyable experience. T1 is probably the hardest way to role-play if you are not good at being descriptive. T1 is turn-based, so you have to wait for your opponent to finish typing his/her attack. It is also paragraph fighting. In a T1 match, your opponent can strike you. You have the ability to reverse the attack or take the hit and come back with one of your own. In T1, you can only type one attack each paragraph. If you type more than one attack in a paragraph, you will be disqualified. You may need to type more than one paragraph, so when this is needed, use at the end and beginning of your paragraph. Once you complete your attack/entrance, put an at the end to symbolize the finalization of your paragraph. Example: John: (paragraph) Attacks! Tim: (paragraph) Defends/avoids/takes-the-hit, counter attacks. John: (paragraph) Defends/avoids/takes-the-hit, counter attacks. Further Reading: Technique 1 Fighting Styles Explanation of T1 What T1, T2 and T3 are T2 High-paced fighting style. 7 words to attack. 10 connect. 7 dodge. 12 counter-attack. T2 is another type of style created shortly after T1 became widely-used by Ayenee shortly after the creation of the ‘Games’ section in chat around four or five years ago. T2 was created by people who felt T1 was too long and took too much time to use. You have to have a minimum of 7 words for your attack. And the same for the outcome. To reverse you need the minimum of 10 words. And the same for the reverse outcome. It takes a minimum of 12 words to post a counter-attack. Example: As John jumps up, he ducks the attack and picks Tim up on his shoulders. (counter-attack) John would attempt to toss him over. (attack) John then slammed Tim's back very roughly onto the ground. (connect) Further Reading: How to Speed Fight and T2 T1 and T2 are referred to "Legal Fighting Styles". T3, T4, T5 and T6 are all generally referred to as "non-Legal Fighting Styles". T3 T3 is probably the easiest and most noobish way to role-play. To attack you need a post of one word or more, then another post to connect, then another to "seal", to make one hit. You would block or dodge the same way, but using a blocking or dodging word in place of the attack word. Posts can be as long or as short as you want. There is no typo limit and no other rules than those stated. The idea is simply to "seal" your attack before your opponent can type "dodge". Because it is considered "noobish", T3 is generally not used much. T4 T4 is a new fighting style which is a mixture of T2 and T3. It is an S15 fighting style meaning that all posts must have at least 15 words to be valid. The only exception to this is range posts, which merely require 7 words. Also, T4 is based on a point system. You must have at least 5 points to win a match. T5 T5 is often used in Gor-related RP's in reference to legit kills, and has to do with the number of lines, plus the number of words per line. T5 states that a legit kill is if you post 5 separate lines of 5 words each without being interrupted by a dodge or a counterstrike, ergo making it a legit kill. At any point in turn, the one being T5'ed must post a 5-word dodge before the 5th post drops. The 5 lines of post do not have to be consecutive, though, and sneaking around the posts of others is allowed. Still, a specific set of actions must be done prior to the kill. There must be statement of intent, withdrawing of weapon, approach to intended victim, action of intended attack, and statement of death. Example: *I look at Tim with intent to kill* *I quickly palm my knife* *Quietly, I walk up behind Tim* *I aim the blade across his throat* *As he dies, I drop him to the ground* At any point in time prior to the last line, Tim could post a five-word dodge and avoid death. T6 T6 is also referred to as "Freestyle". It is an "anything goes" fight style in which players use whatever is in their power to win. Autos, what ifs, and other forms of attacks generally dismissed as god-modding are considered perfectly okay. Further Reading: Fighting Styles Port Kar laws RPTC (Roles Playing Training Core) More RP Fighting Etiquette Source: http://www.dpsinfo.com/rufussafer/roleplaying/rpfightrules.html Rule #1: No more than two posts for any one action in a fight. There is no reason to do more than two since any one action that takes more than that is most likely a god move and therefore invalid to begin with. Rule #2: Magic should be used sparingly. Magic also has to be prepped for each spell cast. Prepping takes several posts but they must not be followed by more because the posts require time given to anyone else. The longer you prep your spell the more powerful it can be. If you are distracted, though, you lose the spell. Magic is best used by people who can type fast since they can hit enter on their first post and write their second post fast before the enemy has time to write something as well. Rule #3: Portalling. You cannot vanish and appear in the same post. They must be at least a post apart. Rule #4: Shape Shifting. You cannot shift form AND attack in the same post. They must be at least a post apart. Rule #5: Remember, an attack post must say "at" or "towards" and doesn’t actually hit (that's an auto). It should be at least 5 words (preferably more than that). Dodges are invalid if they are under 5 words and must make some form of sense. Rule #6: Grabbing someone in a hostile manner (in attempt to throw, kidnap, etc) is an auto... you have to GRAB FOR and it must be at least 5 words. Rule #7: NPCs. Non player characters can be killed by autos as long as no one is in direct control of them. Direct control of NPCs is limited to about 3-5 at a time (this can include pets, monsters, dragons, soldiers, etc). Rule #8: You cannot attack twice in the same post. You shouldn’t combine the casting of a spell and weapon rush at someone, and you shouldn’t use more than one weapon in the same attack. Combination attacks can be seen as unfair and in the event that they are used, the same consideration for the number of attacks used should be granted to your opponent as well, to be used in the following post by your opponent. The same goes for magic spell... you can't cast two at once! you need to prepare them individually... don't forget rule #2. Rule #9: This is not really turn based in the sense that "you can't post till the other posts". Here's how it works. If you posted an ATTACK you have to wait for your opponent to post before you can post again... but if you posted a defense... or what not... you can put in another post for an attack... prepping.. landing... or what not. It's only after an attack that you have to wait to post. This can lead to an attack and a non defense move clashing... if you post a move while your opponent is attacking and your opponent gets that post in before you get your action. You're may find yourself hit by the move they made, so it can be dangerous. Source: http://maxpages.com/rplbook/The_Way_of_the_Sim 1. “The Try, Not Do Policy” THE MOST IMPORTANT SIMMING RULE! When fighting, you do NOT hit the opponent! Rather, you use your weapon on the opponent. Examples: RIGHT WAY- *Notches an arrow on his bow and shoots the arrow toward John Doe* WRONG WAY- *Thrusts his sword into John Doe’s belly* WRONG WAY- *Knocks John Doe’s sword out of his hands with a thrust in Jack’s hand* RIGHT WAY- *Taking his sword, John Doe swipes the blade toward Jack Deere’s head* WRONG WAY- *When he casts the fire spell, he blasts it at John Doe and hits him at full force* RIGHT WAY- *Finishing the chant, he casts the fire spell and fires it toward John Doe* If you understand, you do NOT directly hit your opponent; always leave room for your opponent to block or counter the attack. 2. “No one-hit KO’s.” One thing I thought I’d mention is the concept of character death. You can not automatically kill your opponent unless he tells you OoC that you are allowed to. The only person who can choose if a character dies is the owner of the character. Because of this, sim battles usually end when someone has to leave (It’s usually covered up IC by saying something like (“Argh, you have weakened me, I will leave to work my strength up. You won’t be so lucky next time! *Disappears laughing*”), when one stops the battle, (“Enough! You have proven yourself worthy…”) or when some natural thing stops it. (*Suddenly, for whatever reason, an earthquake forms directly in the battlefield and both fall into the vent*). 3. “Never think you are the best and no one can defeat you.” No one can be undefeated. Everyone will find someone who is better than them. For example, I can never defeat Lloyd. His style is very hard for me, and he can beat me easily. 4. “Don’t do a million things at once”. Don’t cast six spells, slash at someone’s head thrice and at their chest twice, and then kick their chest all in the same turn. In one turn, you do one thing. If you are a mage, you take one turn chanting before you cast the spell. Lately, it has come to my attention that there are now battles are either turn-based or active. In turn-based battles, opponents switch off doing attacks. This is mainly for slow typists and people who prefer to be more organized in battles. Personally, I prefer active battles. In those, you type as fast as you can to get turns in. However, sometimes there can be a problem for if both people type an attack. For example… John Doe: *Starts to chant a fire spell to counter the ice spell he knows Jack Deere is chanting* Jack Deere: *Finishes his ice spell and blasts it toward John Doe* If the chat is like WoN and the uppermost messages are the more recent ones, there will be a problem over whether John Doe will get hit by the spell or will counter it to save himself. Sorry to say, but in times like this, the attack that comes in first is the one that has to stay; John Doe will have to change his move. This brings us to the next rule… 5. “If doing an active battle, try to be with someone at least your typing speed”. Self-explanatory. It’s not fair if you do six turns while your opponent is still doing their first one. 6. “Remember your limits.” Be rational with your attacks. Doing something like: *Raising his hands, he chants a spell that causes a monstrous energy blast bigger than the world they stand on to head for John Doe* is not only being a lamer, but summoning that much power would kill your character anyway. 7. “Summon wisely”. Summoning is no small matter. I believe that summoning is okay as long as the thing you summon is not a rip-off and does not do such a powerful attack that you would be considered a lamer right off the bat. I say the best way to summon is to chant like a normal spell and then summon an elemental demon. 8. “Armor does not block everything.” Although armor will sometimes deflect blades, a hard swing of a battleaxe definitely will not be stopped by armor. Even if you are a warrior with armor, you need to be cautious and do not block everything, which brings us to the next rules… 9. “Don’t block everything.” A very important rule. Even though the Try, Not Do Policy gives you a chance to think of a creative way to counter or block the attack, don’t just sit there and block everything and expect everything you do to hit your opponent… that is the number one lamerish thing you can do. 10. “Don’t rip off spells/weapons and their effects” Not only is using a spell like Death lame anyway, saying it will automatically kill your opponent breaks Rule 2 anyway. Rip-off spells include things like Blizzaga, Knights of the Round, Luminaire, etc. Weapons are such as Masamune, Excalibur, etc. The effects I mention are things like that using a spell like "Frost" from FF9. You cannot say it automatically freezes your enemy, and your next attack destroys it automatically. My advice is that, when doing a spell from a game, just use the same spell, but only mention its effects. Say I want to use Ice3 from FF2. *As John Doe finishes his chant and raises one hand, he drops the ground as he starts to summon grand powers. Gasping words of commandments, John Doe drops his hand as a green aura surrounds around him. Having to rest, he does not see as countless numbers of massive and sharp icicles fall down toward the 50-foot radius of Jack Deere* 11. “No healing” Don’t get me wrong, healing is allowed, but only certain types of healing. It is possible to waste two turns healing something. (First turn to chant, second turn to confirm what you want to heal, and then you heal in the third turn), and all you can heal are flesh wounds. If you have a cut across your chest you can heal it. However, you cannot heal yourself as in to give yourself completely refilled health (i.e. Hit Points) so if your opponent is near death, you will be back to how you were at the very beginning of the fight. The use of healing magic is that you are even able to reattach a missing limb if one gets cut off. (Note: Healing is MUCH more practical in RPing. In fact, healing in simming is probably altogether lame) 12. "Limit your spell casting" I got an e-mail and decided to include this. Casting spells does not cost anything like Manna or MP. However, every spell will weaken your character; accordingly by strength. Summoning a dragon will greatly tax the strength of your spell caster. You have to be honest, though, when it comes to tiring yourself out. If you go so long casting all these strong spells and not showing any sign of weakening, your opponent will probably dub you lame and quit the fight. This, of course, would give spell casters a slight disadvantage, but a good strong spell is better than a regular weapon, isn't it? The disadvantage: Warriors will not get as tired from fighting with weapons as mages will do with magic. Remember that spell casters may carry small weapons (daggers, staves), and they should resort to those, too. (Note: In normal RPing, it really doesn't matter how much magic you use... as long as you don't attack someone outside of a sim battle) Lesson 2- Details and Variety “Now I understand the rules… but how do I actually fight the right way?” This is definitely the hardest section to write. First of all, you don’t need to rip off spells because you use variety in your magic. You say *Casts a spell which makes a freezing wind form around John Doe. The swirling wind starts to encase John Doe in a block of solid ice*. With an attack like that, you are using correct Sim Tactics and you are also following the Try, Not Do Policy. Magic is very hard, at times, to follow the Try, Not Do Policy with. Doing something like *Casts Ice 2 on John Doe* is A) lame, B ) Breaking the Try, Not Do Policy, and C) Breaking Rule 10. See, with Sim Tactic, you use detail in your attacks. It’s the detail and the variety of your attacks that makes someone have a different style. Everyone will have a different style because everyone will use different details and variety. The same thing goes with regular weapons. *Unsheathes the Masamune and slashes at John Doe* just doesn’t work because it is A) lame, B ) Breaking Rule 10. But also, you did not use detail. Even if you DO use the Masamune, you need to make it clear it’s a sword, and also, you need to ALWAYS, ALWAYS make it clear where you are aiming your weapon. Even if I kept the name “Masamune”, the better way to make this attack would be *Unsheathes the Masamune and, as light gleams off the tip of the blade, John Doe slashes the Masamune at Jack Deere’s head* While it seems that the best thing to do is use loads of detail, that is not true. In fact, too much detail is worse than too little detail: While *Slashes sword at John Doe* is hardly enough detail to use at all, it’s not always preferable to *John Doe, an evil stare in his eye, grimly reaches his gloved hand down toward the hilt of his blade, before quickly taking out the blade from his scabbard, the blade singing as it escapes into the air. John Doe, giving a menacing battle cry, takes the blade back and thrusts it forward toward Jack Deere’s unprotected throat, preparing to watch the blood pour out from the opponent’s throat*. While that attack may have seemed awesome and you wish you could use detail like that, hold yourself back. That attack was way too long and it will do little good. It will annoy your opponent while he tries to read it while you are already starting your next attack, which will probably make your opponent stop the fight anyhow. All that detail was pointless, and one of the best ways to combine those two attacks into a more balanced detail is something like *Unsheathing his blade, John prepares himself before thrusting his sword toward Jack’s throat*. It doesn’t seem like a lot of detail, but it is adequate and probably the best way to word the attack. (Note: I just thought I'd mention that even if detail in simming is limited, you can use as much detail in RPing as you want; no one really cares.) Now that you got detail, let’s get variety… it makes sense that if your character is a knight, he will not be able to use magic, first of all. And if your character is a mage, he will not be able to take a battleaxe and slice off somebody’s head. If you’re a mage, it’d be tempting to do every single kind of spell you can think of, but remember your limits. In the next chapter, I will add to the lesson book by talking about strengths and weaknesses. You should use your strengths and weaknesses to determine the spells you can use. If you are an elemental, you can use magics of that element without having to chant first. That seems like an advantage, but that leaves you with a weakness that your opponent can use to quickly take advantage of you. If you’re a knight battling a mage, you’ll have to rely on cutting through his weak physical defense to defeat him. Paladins and fighters both have to rely on their weapons, while mages have to rely on their magic. Fighters can carry more weapons and have stronger weapons, but paladins can use adequate weapons and healing magic. Now about countering and blocking: Countering is making an offensive move to parry or cancel out your opponent’s move. Example: If John Doe lets loose a fire spell toward Jack Deere and Jack Deere fires an ice spell to counter, the spells will hit each other, change into a hot mist, and cancel each other out. The same thing works with swordplay. Blocking is letting some part of your body or your weapon block the blow. (It can hit your armor, or maybe it will hit your weapon. Both of these will block the attack). What is considered GOD-MODDING in RP Fighting 1: Teleportation of ANY kind, including portals and moving at a speed that is so fast that it might as well be teleporting, if used during a fight or for the purpose of starting a fight, such as teleporting behind someone to hit them or anything like that, is a god mod. It is a mod because it makes it nearly impossible, if not entirely impossible to hit you -- and don't be like "well what if I"... No, no you can't do it because it's a form of teleportation. Don't do it. 2: You cannot block an attack with your body and take no damage from it. No matter how insanely powerful your character may be, if you are directly hit with any attack, you take damage from it that is relative to the attack dealt. For example: if someone slices your arm, and you fail to either dodge it or block it with a weapon or shield or something of the like, your arm gets cut. Depending on how the attacker worded the post, your arm could in fact be cut clean off. Don't make excuses if this happens. If you're retarded enough to stand there while someone slices your arm, you deserve whatever damage it causes. 3: Your attack, no matter how complex, no matter how powerful, no matter how long it took you to charge it, CAN AND MUST be able to be completely avoided in some way. Now, the way it can be avoided can be extremely hard to figure out, or it can take a lot of power to avoid: power equal to the amount of power it took to make the attack. Which means that if you put every last ounce of your energy into an attack and someone manages to avoid getting hit by it, you're out of luck because you just used up all your power and are now almost completely defenseless. Bottom line is, there is no such thing as an attack that cannot be avoided, period. 4: Armor does not protect you from everything. If someone with the strength to punch a building and turn it into a crater slashes you with a sword, no matter how thick your suit of armor is, that steel isn't going to prevent it from penetrating. Armor is almost completely useless in a high power RP fight, and it is recommended that it be used only for show. Another thing, if you're wearing a super thick suit of plate armor made out of some fictional RP material that you made up that is super strong and able to withstand that kind of stuff, you better not be able to move faster than a snail, because if for some reason you're so super strong that it doesn't hinder you, then someone can just as easily cut through it. This rule also applies to barriers both physical and magical. Any kind of protective shielding can be broken through. 5: An attack requires an equal amount of power to create as the amount of damage it causes. The harder it is to defend against, the more power it must drain from you in the process. For example: If someone makes an attack that is powerful enough to take out several people and deal incredible destruction to the area at the same time, that is what we call a "Finisher" move. Such a move usually requires the user to be drained of nearly all power after usage. It is a trump card, if you will. 6: Illusions are a tricky thing to call into an RP fight for several reasons. One of those reasons is that it's so easy to god mod when using one and usually takes a lot of skill and practice in order to use one that is not a mod. In order to use an illusion, you MUST make it possible to whoever it is being used on to figure out that it is an illusion. You can make it difficult to figure it out, but it must be able to be figured out without asking if it is an illusion. Another more noobish way of doing it, is to include in the post itself that it is an illusion. You can't make some kind of super crazy attack that nearly destroys someone and then say "oh it was an illusion, don't worry" UNLESS you make it so that they can figure out what it is BEFORE it is used. They don't HAVE to actually figure it out, but you have to provide what is needed in order for them to have been able to do so. 7: Any weapon can be broken if it is put under enough strain. You can augment your weapon, enchant it, forge it, whatever it to make it stronger both physically and magically, but it is by no means completely indestructible. Even if a weapon can be disassembled and reconstructed, or shattered and reconstructed, it can be permanently disabled/broken somehow. Again, the way to do it can be hard to figure out, but it can be done. 8: It does not matter what race you are, how you got your powers, how old you are, what your blood line is, or anything of the sort. You are not the most powerful being in the universe. You are not one step below god. You are not all powerful. You cannot control the planets. You cannot control the flow of souls. You cannot move a star/planet/anything that huge and powerful. GET OVER IT. Doing so would take so much energy and power that even attempting to do it would drain a person of their strength and cause them to collapse, no matter how strong they are. 9: You do not have an unlimited amount of energy. You do not have the ability to completely drain your energy in an attack, and then absorb energy from something else to regenerate all the energy you used up. You may be able to become stronger or obtain more energy based on certain circumstances, but it is not unlimited. 10: God characters. God characters are known for being just that, godly. However, they can only remain godly when they are within their own domain. For example: the essence of evil is extremely powerful, but it falls under the same rules I have listed here just like everyone else. However, when it is inside of hell it has the ability to break certain rules listed here. Those rules will not be named, but to put it simply, don't go to hell thinking you're going to go kill the essence of evil because it won't happen. 11: This is probably the most important rule on this list. It is also probably the most basic and most important rule ever for RP. It is simple. YOU CANNOT CONTROL ANY OTHER CHARACTER BUT YOUR OWN. To clarify what exactly this means: you cannot attack someone and say in your post that it hits. YOU DO NOT have the power or ability to tell someone that your attack hits them before they even have a chance to defend against it. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. Do not post something like *I shoot you in the chest and you die* because you do not get to decide whether or not they die from it, nor do you even get to decide if it even hits them. They have the chance to defend against it. ONLY if they cannot find a proper way to defend against it does the attack succeed in doing what it was intended to do. Even if you have the gun pointed point blank at their head, you still do not get to decide if the shot kills them, they still get the chance to defend. Only after they fail to do so does your attack hit. THIS ALSO INCLUDES MIND CONTROL. Mind control is not possible unless the person you are using it on willingly agrees to allow you to do it. 12: Self healing is only acceptable in very few ways. For one, it is best never to do it in a fight as it is cheap. Also, there are only a few ways it is not a mod in a fight. One way is if it is a spell that requires a significant amount of time and energy to cast. There is no such thing as a "fast cast heal" when you're in a fight. The amount of damage healed must also be relevant to the amount of energy and time it takes to cast the spell. For example, if your character is bleeding badly with several serious injuries, broken bones, gunshot/sword wounds, etc. it would take at least a full minute of RP time to cast the spell and probably take a TON of energy to complete it. There is such a thing as partial heals, where you only heal yourself for a small amount of damage taken, such as healing one serious wound when you have several left unhealed. These spells take less time to cast but still must be relevant to the amount of damage healed. Also, healing takes a lot of concentration (and no, you can't say your char is a super awesome healing mage that can cast a full heal in 1 second; it doesn't work that way) and as such, doing maneuvers while casting would prolong the process. There is such a thing as "passive" healing that doesn't require a spell cast, much like how a vampire's body self heals itself. However, this process is extremely prolonged (even if you're a super awesome powerful vampire) and for example, you can't passively recover from a direct gunshot/stab wound within a matter of seconds, or even minutes for that matter. Any damage sustained in a fight will 99% of the time not be healable in this way while the fight is taking place. If you take too many hits and are still alive to tell about it, REGARDLESS OF YOUR POWERS/RACE/WHATEVER, it is best to flee the battlefield if at all possible. The fight is lost for you if that happens, but you can take the time to heal once you are out of harm's way. RP is NOT like an RPG in that you can have a "white mage" character that sits back and makes sure everyone is at full HP during a fight. Keep that in mind. 13: Hybrid characters. If you decide to make a character that is something like a vampire/human or any other mix of races for that matter, you must abide by certain ground rules. The main of which is how those mixed races powers and weaknesses interact with each other. So let’s use vampire/human for example. If you are this kind of character you will suffer the weaknesses of a vampire, such as vulnerability while in sunlight, burning from holy water, all that good anti-vampire stuff. Just because you are also part human does not mean that you are immune to those weaknesses, although the weakness to it may not be as much as that of a full vampire. For example holy water will harm you, but perhaps not quite as much as it would a full vampire. Also, any strengths or powers you might gain from being part vampire will also be halved. You will only be half as strong as a full vampire, half as fast, and so on. This rule is based on the percentage of each race that is part of your character. Let’s say a character is human/demon/vampire/angel. You would share the weaknesses of each race and will only be 1/4th as strong as a pure breed. Just because each race shares similar strengths does not mean that those strengths will stack up. Demon+vampire does not mean you are as strong as a pure breed just because both races share increased strength. You may be stronger than a human but a pure breed would still be able to best you in a straight strength contest. There is also no such thing as switching between the races in order to have 100% of any of them. You cannot be a vampire/demon and have a vampire form and a demon form and be just as strong as pure breed when in those forms, it doesn't work that way. Regardless of what form you take, you are still 50% of each and your attributes will remain the same regardless. Edit: these rules are made for T1 fighting, but can also be applied to virtually all other styles unless specified differently by whoever is leading the RP, which doesn't happen very often. also, as for the description of T1 fighting, it all looks accurate, however the rules that states that only a single attack can be done per turn is a matter of opinion. typically that rule only applies to less seasoned RPers who don't like things too complicated. However in the higher end T1, multiple attacks can be done per post, however there is still a limit. typically, one attack can be done with each weapon a character has the time. so if you are dual wielding with 2 swords, you can make 1 attack with each individual sword. for a total of 2. also, spells do not always take more than one turn to cast. they CAN take more than one, but as I stated in the rules, a spell's power is directly related to the amount of power used and the time it takes to charge. therefore, typically a spell that is charged and casts in the same turn will be very weak compared to one that takes more than 1. weaker, but still doable. Further Reading: God-modding, and Its Many Forms Sim Battle -- Rules Godmod RP Battle Rules