BrokenPromise

1x1 Combat (D&D Style)

*shrugs* A shame @Vordak hasn't elaborated on how he balances out these "debates" yet. If it couldn't help along this project, it would be pretty useful for the off-topic section!

I don't think this type of system is ever going to appeal to free-form writers. The only way I see this system working is if there's a clear disconnect between what's being done in writing and what's being done in the game itself. As an example:

Player X performs a basic attack

Player Y casts attack amplification buff

Player X casts dispel, removing amplification buff

The above scenario could be written in a variety of ways. It doesn't even have to be an actual fight. We could have Joe (player Y) trying to convince his wife Anna (player X) not to have a divorce with him. The "fight" starts out with Anna accusing joe of cheating on her. Joe then asks Anna to recall the time they first met, granting a buff to all his "remarks." But then Anna dispells it by announcing that they only met because he was so drunk he mistook Anna for his date that night.

The people interested in a system like that, one that asks it's players to wrap the rigid rules in imagination, are not ever going to appeal to free-form players. Free form players are debating. But what Vordak didn't mention is that it's a debate between opinions. There are few facts in the debate-like fights in free-form battles. The only thing that's fact is the character sheets, while everything else is making up powerful suggestions.

You have two very different ideas here, and I don't think one will ever appeal to the other. I don't think anyone is set in their ways, just that there are those of us who prefer rigid rules and those of us who prefer free-form fights. It's like comparing turn based RPGs to action based RPGs, the same concept for very different people.

@BrokenPromise
Referring to my post as a "rant", when it was actually a well thought out counterargument to everything you'd been throwing at me, is not a very sincere way to apologize.

@Shoryu Magami

I was hoping that you were going to just accept my apology and get this out of the way... but I guess I was expecting too much from someone who'd rather gossip about the event in a chat room. I have no problem talking things over with people who think I'm flaming. Accidents happen. But I have no respect for drama mongers. You lack the level of maturity required to have a civil argument with me, and I refuse to read arguments written by such people.

Wanna know why I can enter your chat room and not rant my head off? I chose to be like Bill.

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Introduction thread is a great place to get PM bombed to oblivion. Just make a thread, or leave a message in someone else's thread. Just make sure to leave creative replies.

The Mysteries of Awilix (A Planetary, Magic RP)

[BrokenPromise] Use Imgur.com

Also, just a heads up, horticultural means basically the management and cultivation of gardens (IE: Planting crops and etc, it's a synonym to agricultural)

I would just use the term "Wild", perhaps "Indigenous" (sounds fancy). I know the terms aren't perfect and that's kind of intended. New world, Rough science.

@Synthesis

Tinypic came back, so the image hosting isn't a problem anymore.

In addition to the suggested change to Indigenous, I noticed that I called the Venus Thorn a Venus Razor several times. So I fixed that as well. Ghosts of RP past are haunting me.

So here's the completed Venus Thorn:

Venus Thorn

_{» C A T E G O R Y}

Indigenous ● Industrial/Food Crop ● Spice

_{» D E S C R I P T I O N}

Venus thorn Is a small, vicious plant that gets its name from its “slender figure” and its thorn shaped pistil. While the thorn appears to be the most dangerous part of the plant, all of its flat surfaces are razor sharp. In addition to water, the plant flourishes on a tiny amount of blood from animals that may come in contact with it. Most animals don't even realize they've been cut by the parasitic plant's fine blades. The bulb on the top of the plant gets bigger as it absorbs more blood, assisting with the growth process. The plant reproduces by detonating its thorn and releasing spores, expiring shortly afterward.

Because of the Venus Thorn's odd dietary requirements, the plant is difficult to grow in captivity. It is usually planted out in the wild where it can come in contact with animals naturally.

Venus Thorn is best known for the burning sensation the bulb causes when people touch it, caused by a mild poison. Despite the dangers, people have been grinding the bulb into a spice and deluding the plant with other ingredients. Depending on the mixture, Venus Thorn can be as hot as a chili or more severe than a ghost pepper. However the “heat” seldom lasts longer than a few seconds.

Undiluted Venus Thorn has its uses as a self defense weapon. The powerful burning sensation and short burn time makes for an effective self defense weapon that doesn't cause lasting harm to its victims.

Also, before I go on to making tools, what sort of template should I use. Something like this?

Possible tool template

(IMAGE PLACEHOLDER

_{» C A T E G O R Y}

Type of industry ● Type of tool ● Intended use

_{» D E S C R I P T I O N}

Body of discription

I also plan on making some vehicles. Would you use a template like you did for Jackson's pistol? Except instead I'd list the vehicle industry (class), crew riding capacity, passenger riding capacity, utilities (if any, would be changed to "arments" for hunting or military weapons) And then the description. If you'd really like to get nerdy though, we could also list fuel sources, type of drive (2-wheel, 4x4, 4x8, etc), Weight, Armor (if any), Weight, Tongue Weight (for towing), and accessories (Headed seats, climate control interior, air freshener)

The Mysteries of Awilix (A Planetary, Magic RP)

well, if you put down a list of content you'd like the players to assist with, i'm sure we'll all adhere to it and work with it @NuttsnBolts.

By the way, I didn't put up a picture of the Venus Razor because tinypic is down for maintenance with the rest of photobucket. Because of this, I didn't describe the plant especially well. It'll be up when my image hosting service returns.

Stagnant Ideas

So, how do y'all develop ideas for stories? Any tips?

@Fubsy

I question every aspect of the story, and I let those answers develop the story.

I always come up with the same problems: the world is too complicated, there's too many plot holes

@Fubsy

Those problems present questions, and the answers write your story.
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"This guy and girl need to love each other 'that' way, but they can't because they are siblings... and incest is gross! How can I do this?"

One can be adopted.

"The family is poor and can barely feed one child. why would he adopt?"

The family was paid by royalty to care for a child as his own.

"But the father HATES royalty, he'd sooner die than accept money from them. Why would he do that?"

Because the child is that of a concubine, one he use to love very much before the king enslaved her. She stole as much gold from the kingdom as she could carry and headed back to the father. Between the hard trip to the father and giving birth, she died. His hatred for royalty actually stemmed from the concubine's act of selflessness, and he hates them for what they did to his previous lover.

"i thought you said he was paid by royalty?"

That's just what he told his current wife to keep her happy. She wouldn't like to think they were surviving because of the work of her husband's old flame."

"...That's actually pretty good."

Thanks, It was your questions though.

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By breaking apart a problem into smaller questions, you can easily answer and sew them together to form an ultimate solution. And that solution is your story. Things can get a bit more tricky when you try to sew other players into your story, but the process is the same.

The Mysteries of Awilix (A Planetary, Magic RP)

Well, I can see I'm going to be pretty busy designing mining equipment and carpenter's tools over the next few days. In the mean time, here's the plant that Holla uses to make her pepper bombs.

Venus Thorn

(placeholder for image)

_{» C A T E G O R Y}

Horticultural(?) ● Industrial/Food Crop ● Spice

_{» D E S C R I P T I O N}

Venus thorn Is a small, vicious plant that gets its name from its “slender figure” and its thorn shaped pistil. While the thorn appears to be the most dangerous part of the plant, all of its flat surfaces are razor sharp. In addition to water, the plant flourishes on a tiny amount of blood from animals that may come in contact with it. Most animals don't even realize they've been cut by the parasitic plant's fine blades. The bulb on the top of the plant gets bigger as it absorbs more blood, assisting with the growth process. The plant reproduces by detonating its thorn and releasing spores, expiring shortly afterward.

Because of the Venus Razor's odd dietary requirements, the plant is difficult to grow in captivity. It is usually planted out in the wild where it can come in contact with animals naturally.

Venus Razor is best known for the burning sensation the bulb causes when people touch it, caused by a mild poison. Despite the dangers, people have been grinding the bulb into a spice and deluding the plant with other ingredients. Depending on the mixture, Venus Razor can be as hot as a chili or more severe than a ghost pepper. However the “heat” seldom lasts longer than a few seconds.

Undiluted Venus Razor has its uses as a self defense weapon. The powerful burning sensation and short burn time makes for an effective self defense weapon that doesn't cause lasting harm to its victims.

Also, where do you prefer to receive stuff like this? Is it easier to manage in PMs or is the OOC fine?

How do I upgrade my 1x1 interested check to get more people seeing it?

I haven't made a 1x1 thread. Even better, I've looked at other people's threads and been turned off by them. So I think what I say is relevant.

Bump is good for getting people to see your 1x1 thread, but from there your potential players have a few options.

-Decide to RP with you
-Make an inquire/question
-move onto another thread

The trick is to get as many people to try the top two options as possible. The following all help your chances:

-Good formatting: Like you said if it's pretty, people will stop and read it. Pictures are a nice touch too.

-Less negativity: Both towards yourself and towards other interests. You don't have to tell people that you're the greatest writer ever, but you might want to leave out things about your grammar or spelling. You're probably just trying to be honest, but people will exaggerate this and think you can't write at all. Also, while people who hate the same things are drawn together, it can push away interested parties. You don't have anything to do with disinterests of that nature, but if you do decide to add them, just be polite about it and try not to come across as too blunt.

-Find a niche: If you're the only person who likes to do 1x1 RPs in an ancient china setting, you'll have partners who are into that beating a path to your door.

-Participate in group roleplays: Some people will go into your profile and look at your previous posts to get a feel for how you write.

1x1 Combat (D&D Style)

A respectable outlook, @Vordak.

I've heard about these measures to ensure free-form fights don't get too crazy, but I haven't seen any examples of them. While honoring ELGainsborough's wishes, would you mind giving a TL;DR version of how you deal with such things? Would you attempt to balance or even entertain a fight between a monk who fights with chi powers and a human-sized-sausage that copies the attacks of his defeated foes? Or are such duels not possible to manage properly even by free-form standards?

Getting in the mood to write

I think regardless of what you do, you'll always end up hating some part of it, especially if you do it for a really long time.

I've been writing for a really long time, and it does get harder to press your craft forward. It use to be fun to discover new ways to represent ideas, better ways to write descriptions, etc. But these new discoveries use to happen on a daily basis. Then weekly,then monthly...

Like arenasnow said, thinking about the destination helps. I've stopped making characters with really cool endings and have instead started making characters that can have interesting reveals much earlier on.

I have a love hate relationship with collab. I hate how slow some of my partners are at responding, but it's really fun to write something and take turns stringing the scene along. Not so much with fights, but try having a character ask another character an awkward question. Preferably one that you don't really know how they will respond to. You'd be surprised the kind of joy that can bring you.

Lastly, I convince myself I do actually love the writing. I tend to proof my posts before submitting them, and it's so much fun for me to replace words or restructure paragraphs. I love editing, so I don't worry about writing really good the first time anymore.

1x1 Combat (D&D Style)

Since you've decided to turn a debate into a flame war by getting personal with me...

@Shoryu Magami

Nope, wasn't flaming. I had no intention of upsetting anyone, causing IRL rage, etc. I'm even going to say I'm sorry if that helps at all. I won't read the rest of that rant though.

- People are entirely too set in their ways.

@ELGainsborough

If I'm going to be honest, the only time I've enjoyed writing a fight with someone was when we decided on the victor before hand. But you're right, passion is pretty high in this topic for some reason.

Shoryu may compare it to chess, but there's another analogy i've heard that's better to my liking: roleplay fighting is a debate, where by analyzing and carefully setting up the various inherent factors of a fight - body positioning, momentum, commitment, timing, spacing - you must convince your opponent that they're stacked in favor of your action.

@Vordak

I actually agree with this. While it's not something i'll ever enjoy, I do understand now why some people would enjoy or even prefer this over a dice system.