FelisNoctu

Ok, you seem to have taken me completely wrong. I didn't say that if you didn't except that style, you're immature. I'm saying that people who can't accept the fact that it's possible their character obeys the laws of...well...physics I guess, are immature. If you were hit hard enough, you wouldn't recover from it. You'd get pulled into a combo, or at least hit with something even worse. I tend to base my combat off of what I see in fighting games. If you leave yourself open, or do something stupid, you're going to get punished for it. It's the same in real life fighting, and its the same for roleplaying fighting.

No matter who you think I am, please don't assume. I never push that style on anyone, and never have. Every fight I've ever done, I always ask what style of fighting they prefer. I tend to go with whatever my opponent prefers, purely because I'm in it for the roleplaying, not for the win. I just want to have fun. I WILL admit however to trying to teach anyone who asks me that style, because I prefer it. In my point of view, it is the most realistic style of fighting because of its close ties to real life. I also understand that it is extremely complicated to write out, and most people find the condtions hard to understand. That's why I ask what style they prefer, I'd rather they had fun then sit there confused over what's going on.

Also, about the big baddies thing, I think you misunderstood me, and now that I look at it, that's understandable. I didn't make it completely clear. Around me, I try to let NO one have the "perfect" character. I try to tier myself depending on what I see appropriate, and what everyone else around me is doing. But that's besides the point. What I meant by "big baddies" would be NPC-style enemies. They're the bad guys, the kind that you would see in a comic or cartoon, that are impossible to beat at first. You don't play them as YOUR character, you merely control them for story purposes. That's all they're there for, story purposes.

Your rant. I love it, and I know exactly what you mean. Things get so rediculous when opinions and styles collide, but unfortunately they come with the art. That's why I try to use the style of the person or people I'm roleplaying with. I've been around the block, RP wise. I've seen so many arguments it's just painful to even think about it. It almost always comes down to people arguing over who's "right." Hell, I've seen arguments between bystanders over some other people's actions, that's actually happened to me. Why even bother? No one honestly cares. You may get all huffy because something isn't going your style, well guess what? If you want everything to go your way, good luck. Never going to happen, ever. In RP, just as in real life, people all have their own ideas. If you can't bend to other people's wills, then your life is going to be very hard. If you can't even work with other people in RP, especially if you disagree with them, just give it up now. You'll never find a place where everyone is like you, and thinks the way you do, so you might as well either learn to bend or just go away.

That's real life. Some people may be trying to escape from real life. Don't use roleplaying for that. You'll run into people like myself that will correct you when your ton-of-muscle character can suddenly leap to the sun for no particular reason. Use video games to escape from your life if that's your goal. The rules are set in stone, but they're still different enough from you that it is an escape. Roleplaying is like writing a story, but with several people all at once. Those people are bound to have different ideas about what is the "right" thing to do. You'll just end up in an argument, and that's never fun. It'll just remind you where you are.

I'm not even going to touch the MM topic, but there is one thing I would like to point out.

There are, in some cases, times when what is considered "Godmoding" IS going to happen. Two off the top of my head are, one, if you're running a secondary character, say the main enemy. Yeah, in the beginning of the story, you're going to lose, horribly. The whole point of a story is for your "hero" to get stronger, learn to deal with new things, and THEN go back and kick that villain's butt. Even sometimes, after the story, you'll go back, and the villain will STILL beat you down. It happens. I've made several "big baddies" in my time that my characters are still totally and completely unable to beat. In a case like this, be sure to warn the people you're playing with how bad this villain really is, so that they know they can expect not to win, or at least get hurt a ton.

Second is, in say one on one combat, there will be some times where a "dazed" hit occurs. A good example I can think up is when, a couple years back, one of my characters jump kicked another (yes, another person's) character in the jaw. Now, I didn't actually claim the hit mind you, they saw it as completely legal, took the hit, and acted out the stunned "OW" effects that you can easily imagine, if you had been kicked the same way. I then took the opportunity to spin-kick him into a wall. Simple as that. Read the above as "*blank* quickly spun and slammed a solid kick into the left side of *blank*'s face, sending him smashing into the wall." Yes, I called the hit.

The point I'm trying to make there is, there are some things that are unavoidable. If you've been stunned from a punch, expect another one to come your way. Look at boxing for instance. If someone just had their clock cleaned, and they're still standing, they aren't going to be dodging. They're gonna take another hit, maybe possible more than one, and those hits are going to land solidly.

Now, this style of rp combat has a lot of controversy around it, because no one seems to like to admit it. Yes, your character has weaknesses. Yes, they ARE going to have to face those weaknesses eventually, and often. Admittedly, sometimes it seems like claiming the hit isn't fair, but if you're playing with another mature person, they'll understand. There tends to be a wall there. The immature people will start moaning about how claiming a hit isn't right, or that they should get a free hit now, or some such thing. A mature person will see the logic in said hit, and will work with it. I know personally that if someone kicked me in the jaw, if I was still standing (not very likely, but still), they wouldn't just wait around for me to recover! They'd take advantage of it!

I forget the exact term of this style of rp combat. I think I remember someone dubbing it "Conditional Modding." In any case, it comes down to being able to analyze effectively. Some "godmods" are logical, and if played right, are also fair. The example above, both of the nuke and of the defense, are cases of where it just isn't right. That isn't fair at all. Even a simple change would have made it more likely. Ok, the big baddy fired off the nuke. He's godmoding, you can't fix that. But you, in your defense! Try getting in a protected room! Maybe the bunker was blown away, but your underground room would be safe from the explosion! You have to ride with the punches sometimes.

If someone is godmoding against you, start messing with them. That's what I do personally. If someone claims a hit, knocking me to a wall, I'll then claim to fall over during his next hit, so that he punches said wall. If someone shot a nuke at me, I'd dive into the closest underground thing I could if available. If nothing else, I'd flip him the bird as I went up in smoke. Have fun with it! These people who godmode often enjoy the argument that follows. They have the need to prove that they're right, and you're completely wrong. Don't let em have that! Even if your character dies in that one story, you can still use it for others. And even in that story, if you choose to continue, just create a new char to keep going! No one is stopping you.

(/endrant)

*typical Mr Burns* Excellent...

I r b hapy wtih u! *cough* Er...I mean... Great idea posting this up! A lot of roleplaying forums I've been around seem to miss this sort of thing, and then people wonder why the entire story gets out of hand so quickly. If only everyone had the common sense you do!

I'd like to add that there are plenty of spellcheckers out there for people who aren't sure how something is spelled. Now, for a lot of you, you can just use Word or the equivalent. For those of you who are like myself however, and don't have that luxury, there are plenty of places to check spellings of words you aren't sure about. For instance, the most obvious: http://www.dictionary.com/ Bookmark that people, or commit it to memory! It's really easy, I used it all the time to check specific words I'm not sure about.

Also, it helps even more if you know more than one word or phrase for something. Take a look at these two sections.

"I hit her with a boulder, and then her fireball hit me. After her fireball hit me I ran forward and hit her in the jaw."

or

"I hurled a boulder at her, which smashed into my opponent with a ear-shattering crash. When she recovered, she quickly conjured a fireball and flung it in my direction. This was unexpected, and the flames crashed into my chest, sending me stumbling back a could feet. However she was still stunned and I took advantage of this, rushing forward and threw a bone-shattering hook to her jaw."

Don't take it as a literal example, seeing as there's liberal powergaming in there, just look at how the two are written. They both may be extremes, but you would be surprised how many times that sort of thing will pop up. It's boring to read, boring to respond to, and really doesn't show much for your writing skill. No one really expects you to write like the second section every moment you roleplay, but throwing in some synonyms and similar phrases every once in a while really does make a difference.