No Dice! Free Form Fighting

No Dice! Free Form Fighting
By Bloodsong - [Reproduced with kind permission.]

Okay, now we all know we're not supposed to 'lop people's heads off and watch them roll on the floor,' nor to assume that we can actually punch them, nor, in fact to assume we have any affect on them at all. The articles here tell us, begin the intent to action, but let the consequences of said action be handled by the object of said actions.

Well, fine. Now what? What do you do after your initial attempt to thwack somebody? What do you do if somebody attempts to thwack you?

Know Your Enemy

Firstly, you should know who this person is who is attempting to whack you (or whom you are attempting to whack). You should have some idea of their stature, and what arms and armor they have visible upon their person. If you don't know, /msg them and ask. It's no big secret what they're wearing; everybody can see.

Notice that this forestalls most "munchkinry" of suddenly producing better and more powerful weapons and armor. Once you can see somebody is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, you know your sword isn't suddenly going to bounce off some plate mail. Also knowing your opponent's size and strength relative to your own, you can better judge what damage this person might be conceivably able to inflict. If you're fighting a 3' kender, for instance, how's he gonna kick your 6'3" warrior in the face? (Answer: knock the 6'3" guy down on the floor ;))

Know Your Self

What arms and armor is YOUR character packing? Did s/he wear all those accoutrements today? Do you always carry your big war bow and arrows around, or only when you go out hunting? Hmmm. Information about your character's visible aspects should also be plain for anyone to see.

Most importantly: Visualize

- A: Visualize the Characters
Now that everybody knows what everybody looks like, it should be more clear what is a feasible attack, and how much damage it would do. Did the 3' kender try to kick you in the face? If your face isn't anywhere near the kender's feet, you can simply state so:

<Bloodsong> ::face is not within reach of the kender's foot::

Most likely, the kender aiming for such a lofty target would fall on his butt. Personally, I'd be tempted to add that bit, but... we're practicing the art of not dictating what happens to other characters.

- B: Know Your Position
Besides the participants' relative size/strength, there is the environment to contend with. Keep in mind where you are. Are you going to leap backwards out of reach of an attack? If you're in an inn/tavern, more than likely, there's a whole lot of furniture, and you're not going to leap too far without running into the bar, a wall, tables, chairs, other patrons, or the fireplace. Additionally, did you come in and stand with your back to a wall or the fireplace? There ain't no leaping back, now.

Be specific. Vampire Hunter D mentioned a need for eloquence on the part of players, to express just what it is they are doing. You should also keep in mind your character's location in space. If you just come into a room and start talking, exactly where are you standing? Or sitting? Did you sit down at all? At a table, or at the bar? Near the door or near the wall? Okay, don't get all niggling with details, like:

<Bloodsong> ::comes in the door, walks 3 paces south and sits at the 2nd table from the east wall, facing slightly north-northwest::

But people should have a sense of where you are, and YOU should know, in your mind at least, where you are. I usually shove a chair over into a corner or against a wall and sit in it. One day some guy was trying to pester me (not exactly a fight, but the principles are the same). First he tried to do something to my table.

<Bloodsong> ::not sitting at a table::

Okay, then he tried to sneak up behind me and read over my shoulder.

<Bloodsong> ::sitting with chair shoved up against the wall::

Finally, he gave up. :) But you can see how your location can affect attacks upon you, and your ability to launch attacks.

- C: Use Your Brain
Now that we have our lovely contestants, and a nice arena for them to fight in, and there is someone's fist heading towards your face at speed....

Did the manner and timing of the attack surprise you? Then your character is probably surprised, and has less of a chance of completely avoiding the attack. You been sucker punched.

If you DID expect an attack, what has your character done to be prepared for it? Did you step away from your antagonist? Shift in your seat to be able to jump up quickly? Put your hand on your weapon? Tense up? If so, you have increased your chances of avoiding the attack. Did you have a plan for what you would do when the attack came? An escape route? Were you prepared to dodge? Then you probably can do so.

If you want a fighter/warrior character, you should probably know something about fighting! Not everybody can study the martial arts, but you should be able to appreciate a good battle scene in a fantasy novel, or even write a well-choreographed fight scene on your own. Learn some tricks and strategies from wherever it is you get your fantastical inspiration. Plan your attack and/or defense, using your visual imagination of place and characters. If this guy is more heavily armed/armored than you, you'd better plan on how you can extract yourself alive. Or know who your friends are. ;)

- D: Be Realistic
Realistic? In a fantasy setting? Well... yes! We DO have gravity, here (although dragons can fly, other things tend to still fall as normal). Wood is combustible. Ice, blood, ale, slush, stuff on the floor makes it slippery. Objects have weight, making a table rather hard to pick up. Wearing certain things restricts your movement. (Lord Bolan STILL to this day, has not satisfactorily explained to me how he can wear black full plate armor, and still do a Van Damme-style high kick to someone's head.)

Things in motion tend to stay in motion. If you swing a big sword and miss, the momentum tends to carry you further than you expected to go. Things at rest tend to stay at rest. If your skull smashes into large objects, they usually don't start moving fast enough to make the blow any softer. You get the idea.

Into The Fray
(Note: these labels are ones I arbitrarily made up)

- A: High Spar
This is for advanced characters and players, who know all about the rules and theories behind not dictating other people's actions; who are mature enough to know when they're beat, and who are reasonable enough to fight fairly. Each character will launch her attack with intent, and each opponent will finish the thought, with results, reactions, and counteractions.

Such a fight is truly a thing of beauty, as it is a give and take dance between two masters of the art of ffrpg. It utilizes the above-mentioned personal characteristics, and the techniques I have described in this article to make it work.

- B: Common Spar
This is for the rest of us. Depending on your opponent's maturity/experience level, you may need to do more of the work yourself. If you launch your fist at that annoying kender's face, and he just goes on talking incessantly, without deigning to notice your fist.... Just what happens?

KAPOW!

If you have given your target reasonable time to react to or dodge from your attack, and your target disdains your gracious offering to do something, well then, there's nothing to stop your attack from connecting, is there? If you expected him to dodge, maybe you should pull your punch. (Keep in mind the stark reality of lag on the 'net. It might actually be five minutes before your intended target even notices your fist! You can judge this with a ping, and you can avoid such problems by using the smaller IRCs, or at least connecting to the same server, if possible.) This does not mean you should drop from the High Spar method of only beginning attacks, and just pummel the poor sucker. Keep beginning the attack in one action, then, if no response is forthcoming, end the attack in another. Teach by example.

Your opponent may respond with the low-blow all-in-one attack of punching you in the gut and happily watching you double over and writhe on the ground. Try to educate these people. You can read this overt overture as an attempt to punch you in the gut, and react accordingly -- which may or may not be in compliance with the attacker's version of it. Do try to NOT respond in kind. I know it is SO tempting to change:

<MightyMunchkin> ::punches Knightdude in the gut and watches him writhe in agony on the floor::

to:

<Knightdude> ::MM's fist connects with plate armor, crushing all the bones in his hand::

But don't. :) Instead, use the explanatory action:

<Knightdude> ::is wearing plate armor::

THEN if he STILL wants to punch you in the gut... that's his problem.

- C: Low Spar
This is how most fights actually go. GuyA punches GuyB in the face; GuyB punches GuyA in the stomach, GuyA kicks GuyB in the groin.... And they often watch the dramatic outcomes of their pre-completed attacks. You know the drill. Please, help these people.

Conflicts in Fighting

Having a fight without conflicts? Sounds like an oxymoron! :) But what I mean is, times when your version of game reality clashes with your opponents. Here are some common problems:

- A: Incessant Dodging
You keep attempting to hit this weenie, and he keeps dodging and blocking everything! No fair!
Did you get a good look at this guy before you tried to hit him? If you're trying to swat a little pixie, chances are that bugger is WAY too fast for ya. If he's a big fat guy in heavy armor, perhaps you can ask him how he moves so fast in that stuff. Actually, if he is THAT heavily armored, he doesn't have to dodge much, does he? (see: Know Your Enemy)

Did any of his hits connect with you? If not, then he has the right to claim the same foul against you. Remember to be fair in your assessment of your own abilities (see: Know Your Self). If you can dodge all his attacks, why can't he dodge all yours?

If you punched to his head five times, and he ducked five times.... Why the heck don't you just punch to his head, then follow up with a low punch to where he is ducking to? Anticipate. (see: Visualize, part C: Use Your Brain)

- B: The Force-Field Dog, and the Dinosaur Who Eats Force-Field Dogs
Whenever an attack on you fails, this guy whips out a bigger and better weapon. Or, when you finally figure out the weakness in his armor, he whips out heretofore unnoticed better defenses.
Did you get a good look at this guy before you tried to hit him? Well, what armor was he wearing? Did you plan for that? (see: Know Your Enemy) If he is pulling out these miracle saves, you can point out he didn't have those a minute ago when he sent you his character description.

- C: I Hit You First! Did Not! Did Too!
Often, two opposing attacks are typed in at almost the same time. In the old days (read 300 baud), it was generally accepted that whichever action came up on the screen first had precedence over anything that appeared subsequently. In fact, this was often used in place of High Spar, where the person with the fastest fingers, and the fastest brain, usually won. I don't think this is as feasible in an IRC situation. Actually, I suspect that you can always see your own typing before others do, so you would always appear to be first to yourself. (Unless you are WAY lagged.)

With High Spar techniques, this should not be a problem. If you punched at some guy's face, and he punched at your stomach... just visualize what would happen in such an instance. (My interpretation: the guy who lunged for the stomach shot would probably have moved his head forward, making the impact of the face-puncher's fist more acute. Also, the face-puncher would have been unable to dodge the stomach punch; though his ab muscles were probably tensed, reducing the vigor of the attack.)

Also, in the old days, we relied heavily upon shared reality, and majority rule reality. In this case, the by-standers of the fight play a role in it. They, too, know the fighters' descriptions, strengths, weaknesses, position; the location and availability of furniture, etc. If some munchkin guy came in and started impaling a knight guy with forks or some such nonsense, the majority would agree to disbelieve those actions, and support the knight's version of reality, where forks bounce off his armor.

The potential danger with this is, whose side are they on? If they like one player or character better than another, they can form a clique and just disbelieve anybody they don't like. Still, by-standers are a good source of fight moderation. They can (semi-impartially) make judgement calls on fighting tactics, help point out to some newbie his mistakes and educate him on proper fighting; they can offer assistance to a fighter (and thus no longer be a by-stander!), or try to break up the fight. Especially if they own the inn/tavern, and you're messing up their furniture. :) (Or bleeding on the decor.)

- D: But I Don't Want to Fight
Some pig-headed weenie picks a fight with your weak and helpless 12-year-old orphan character.
Did this guy get a good look at you before he started something? If so, maybe he gets off on attacking helpless victims. Try not to ignore this type of thing. Once you ignore something that doesn't suit your idea of what your character's life is supposed to be like, it's easy to start ignoring other things, as well.

When you character is on paper, or in your mind, you have complete control. Once you send him/her/it out into the world, things don't always go as planned. No, you shouldn't let power-gaming munchkin weenies kill your character for no good reason. But some life-altering damage could make things interesting for ya.

If he didn't get a good look at ya before he picked this fight, maybe you should send a character description. Maybe his macho ego won't let him beat up a kid. (see: Know Your Self)

Avoid a fight. What would your character do to avoid a fight? Run away. Cry. Hide. Beg. Bleed a lot on his nice new clothes. Call your big dragon brother. Never underestimate the help you can get from other characters. How about if your piteous cries alert the town guard NPCs? (Note: please don't use this as a deus-ex-machina crutch to avoid all conflicts you don't like.)

If In-Character stuff doesn't work, ask this guy, in a message, why he is so intent upon beating up your character, who obviously does not want to fight? If he can't give you a good reason, try to point this out. Try reasoning with him. Do try to educate him.

Magical Attacks

It has always been my contention that casting a magic spell takes concentration and requires exact gestures and phrasing. Therefore, if you make a typo while you're describing your spell, that means the spell fails. Um... nobody likes this idea! Mainly because most people can't type. And a lot of them just can't spell! I dunno; I say if you want to play a fighter type, you should know something about fighting (theory, anyway), and if you want to play a smart mage type, you should at least be intelligent enough to spell.... People think I am stifling the creativity and imagination of people, and put too much emphasis on book learnin'. Well, if you have a better idea on how to tell if a certain spell fails, you let me know.

Otherwise, all the points described thus far stand for magical attacks as well. Visualize: If you duck a fireball, does that really do you any good? The heat from proximity to one is pretty intense, and they expand... and they tend to set wooden things (like the majority of stuff in an inn/tavern) on fire. Be Realistic: No, your plate mail won't burn. But it can get awful hot! Yowie!

Know Your Enemy: Mages have an advantage over us normal folk, as most of their spell goodies are hidden in pouches and secret pockets, and covered by mysterious robes and stuff. Who knows what potion of Mass Chaotic Destruction they got hidden under their pointy hat? ;) Plus, they have those annoying trans-finite Bags of Holding, which can store anything from a spare magic wand, to an armored elephant. (Still think my criteria for spell failure is too stringent?) You can still see what they are wearing. Maybe you can use that long, trip-causing robe to your advantage.

Magic Resistance

- A: Magical Items
We are not without recourse. Not only do wizards try to attack us, they also make handy useful devices to protect us from attacks. Heh heh! Does your character have one? An amulet, or object, or magical weapon? Where'd s/he get them from? What are their specific purposes, and what are their weaknesses? (An amulet to protect from fire, say, won't do diddly squat against an ice-based attack.)

Remember: Know Your Self (and your goodies!) Some mages may be sensitive to magical items and recognize them as such. Most need to cast a spell to Detect Magic. If they don't bother... that's their problem, ain't it? ;)

- B: Magic Resistance
Some creatures have a natural, boosted resistance to magic. Demons, dragons, elves to some extent, etc. Use your character's natural (or device-enhanced?) resistance to lessen the effects of spells cast upon him, or to thwart some (but not all!) of them. When I run my highly magic-resistant daemons, I tend to have them resist 3 out of 5 spells. (In DND parlance, they have 75% magic resistance, but I think 3/5 is more fair.)

Now is this fair: Somebody whips 3 spells at my daemons and they shrug them off? Well, you can bet the other two should work, and those other two had better be darn good ones!! Of course it is fair, and it goes back to my insistence on intelligence. A mage should know a daemon is magic resistant. A mage better bloody well plan what to do if one of his spells fails. And don't go casting three silly spells so you can save your Holding and Fireball for the two good ones. I said I resist 3 out of 5... but I didn't say *which* three. (Makes life interesting, don't it?) ;)

If you don't want to bother picking a ratio to resist and deciding which ones to resist or not, you can partially resist all spells. For example, if someone casts a Hold spell on you, maybe it won't hold you frozen, but only Slow you. Or it will Hold you for only a short time. Or only Hold part of you (maybe you can still move your arms?). A Sleep spell may only make you drowsy. Or knock you out for only five minutes or so.

All right, that's whimpy stuff. What about people whipping fireballs and lightning and magic missiles at you? Well, depends on whether you think the fire in a fireball is magical fire, or normal fire. And whether the heat put out by one is real heat, or magical heat. Sounds dumb, huh? I'd say resisting a fireball blast falls under heat-resistance, not magic resistance. On the other hand, if the fireball explodes and doesn't burn down the inn/tavern, then you can say that's magical fire, and it doesn't bother you. Same with lightning. Magic missiles, they're made of magical stuff, you can shrug them off.

Now, what about magical weapons? Magic resistance can thwart a magic of an armor-piercing sword, but the metal blade is still a metal blade, and pretty sharp, to boot. Do you own a magical weapon? Critters with magic resistance have a hard time using magical items; they tend to dampen the magic. (They don't have any such problems casting spells, however.) Or maybe you think they only resist magic cast on/at them. Well, in that case, they would NOT thwart a magic armor-piercing sword, because the spell is on the sword, not on them. Everything has a price. :)

Wrapping Up

Remember, a fight does not mean death (always). Unless you're an egotistical maniac who doesn't know when to quit, you can end the fight almost whenever you want. Providing your opponent isn't an egotistical maniac who doesn't know when to quit! Be realistic: fighting to the death is stupid. You go around killing people, and sooner or later, they're gonna lock you up. Or kill you.

When we all learn to fight balanced fights, and be honest about how well we do in those fights (ie. when we know we LOSE), then the winner can put an end to it. Simply stop fighting when you win. Simply stop fighting when you lose! Or run away. Do you want your character to be a coward, or do you want him to be dead?

Your choice.

Also, I wholeheartedly support sparring. Fight your friends! Use wooden weapons, or (if your characters are *very* skilled) use the flat end of your blade. Or fight weaponless. This is THE BEST way to hone your High Spar fighting skills. No lives are at stake. You can trust your opponent. Try it out. What kinda warrior are you, anyway, if you don't practice?? :)

When you do come in contact with someone who is not as skilled as you, or someone who is... "fight-etiquette-challenged," try to be... generous. The sad fact is, these munchkins are the future. Try to educate them instead of blasting them, or banning them, or smashing them or.... At least try. Please? :)

Isn't turning a munchkin into a good FFRPGer worth the effort? Do you have so many players now, that you can't stand some new ones? If you work with them, they will get better. If you ignore them, or ostracize them, they can only get worse.

Lastly.... KICK BUTT!!!! :)

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