So.. Wait, are RP battles, like, collective? Not individual?
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Like others have said, it depends on the one running it. I tend to run mine as a bit of a mix of both styles. Individual for the journey and Collaborative with the Bg Bad. But I have been extremely busy lately so for this one I had some of the first sections cleared by previous folks so people could get to the boss fight. These things are stressful and I honestly dont like doing them because I feel bad not having the time to dedicate to everyone so they have fun.
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That makes sense. I was mostly just wondering because I’ve never done one of these before (the RPs I was a part of didn’t have a comment-chain structure), and the one I was thinking of making a while back (never did, probably won’t) was essentially going to treat the separate comment chains as basically different timelines of the same events, which is kinda just how I assumed they were done. Kinda just trying to see wjat I’m in for if I start joining in on RPs. (Not that it matters because everyone put’s them in space, and my characters aren’t made for space!) [quote]These things are stressful and I honestly dont like doing them because I feel bad not having the time to dedicate to everyone so they have fun.[/quote] Well, for what it’s worth, I might’ve only participated for a whopping 3 comments, but I really like Mirabelle, who I made mostly for this specific thing, so I’m just satisfied getting a new character out of this! :D
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I have honestly seen it down both ways. It really depends on the situation and the DM.
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I’m just thinking of trying an RP, joining in as either Mirabelle (as I did below, here) and/or Beldam, and am trying to figure out how it works, exactly. I was under the assumption it was taken as each comment thread happens individually of eachother. How does this thing work, then?
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It depends. I tend to make it a large group effort, but when people get behind I leave stuff for them to do. Like if I have a set of floors each floor will have two or three secrets for people that are behind to do.
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Doesn’t seem bad. I’d still kinda feel left out if I fell down a ramp only to come back and see the boss was already defeated, though (which is what would’ve happened here had I not dropped out), secrets or not.
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Edited by Ace Night Owl: 2/13/2020 4:37:41 AMWell sometimes the guy you’re here to take out isn’t the biggest bad in the building. Sometimes you can be here for entirely different reasons like investigating a power surge and some stuff just goes off the rails! One sec and I’ll link a couple RPs I’ve run to showcase some of that (Also killing the boss isn’t always the end. There’s either an escape or one final hoard to deal with) Edit: here it is! Anything after coronation is off script so it’s worse IMO https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Topics/0/0/0/theeclipse
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It’s the difference between facing the big bad, and finding the secret final boss, though. The secret boss is cool, and beating them is hard, but it’s not the same. Besides, presumably if the RP is talking about a evil bad villain, then they’re expecting you to try & fight them. Not doing that kinda just sounds rude.
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[quote]It’s the difference between facing the big bad, and finding the secret final boss, though. The secret boss is cool, and beating them is hard, but it’s not the same. Besides, presumably if the RP is talking about a evil bad villain, then they’re expecting you to try & fight them. Not doing that kinda just sounds rude.[/quote] Sometimes you just do rps to develop your character, I used to do that a lot in my Valmredia RPs. It makes you more invested in other more important stories you rp in.
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As long as it’s designed that way, and providing an alternate method of gameplay rather than just skipping combat that can work.
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True. It’s always better to be there for the baddie. But about your second point, as a DM I always like to see unique ways to win that don’t necessarily involve fighting. One person has managed to turn two baddies by being persuasive and merciful, if it’s the main villain it’s a bit different tho.
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I was more meaning as far as player motivation went. Me, as a player, would be kind of rude to say “Mirabelle decided none of this was worth her time and left.” (ironically, Mirabelle [i]was[/i] leaving, but I did it in a way that was obviously meant for her to stay) I’m not one for letting the bad guy off without a fight, but that doesn’t mean they have to necessarily be killed. Just, no “skip the encounter entirely” situations. Let the player fight [i]then[/i] they can turn them. Perhaps a persuasion to shorten the fight, just not to skip it.
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Edited by Ace Night Owl: 2/13/2020 5:24:18 AMI’ve been thinking of how to respond to this and I can’t come up with much. Your points are great but it just isn’t the way I prefer to run things. The best way to describe why I prefer this is I like my RPs to be more character driven/character consistent(?), fighting is just less fun then character interactions IMO and if a character would be convinced without a fight why fight?
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For sure. I watch a lot of game design videos, though, and I remember one in particular about combat vs negotiations. In combat focused games when you’re given the option to talk you way out of combat, 90% of the time what you’re doing is robbing you players of te experience you crafted for them. Now, disclaimer you [i]can[/i] do combat skips right, by testing players on their observation, or deduction skills, but the important thing to note here is that it’s not skipping combat, it’s an alternate route. Here’s an example of the issue. The group finally tracks down Kitty Cattail, and corners her in the museum! Halfway through the battle, there’s this huge “Omigosh, WHAT!?” moment, where Kitty flips over the entire arena, and everyone fights on the ceiling. But, let’s say, I want the party to be able to talk their way through this fight. Now, if they just persuade her to change sides, all I just did was basically rob the party of that big epic moment, by letting them skip the encounter. This could be done well by instead leaving a bunch of clues around that hint towards Kitty’s past, or why she became an assassin, and the party would have to bring that up at the right time to turn her, or they’d need to piece together a big mystery that reveals something about the plan that makes her change her mind, etc. The big thing to note here is it’s not talk your way out of a fight, it’s solve a mystery, or use careful observation skills to give an alternate path to gameplay, rather than skipping it outright. But there is a flaw here. If they can just talk their way through every encounter, then you can accidentally kind of undermine the threat of your villain, or lose out on some much needed tension in the story. Ultimately, there’s two sides to the coin for a reason; they can solve mysteries, and use their keen observation on one side, but unless it’s not a combat faced story to begin with, letting the player skip combat can kind of undermine the narrative structure you’ve been putting together in the first place. After all, you put the fight there for a reason, didn’t you? Man, I just rambled, didn’t I? Never ask me questions when I’m sleepy, I’ll drag on for hours! :p
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Edited by Dislay: 2/13/2020 4:23:46 AM[Redacted]
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Well I assume the dm tales account for everyone’s actions and makes sure to keep track of what health the villain is at. I haven’t ever ran one of these over the internet so I am not 100% certain about every minor detail. But I believe it is just like a large scale tabletop rpg battle
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Hm.. Maybe I can’t really take part in these after all; I’m usually on her for short bursts during my work breaks. Only really time for a comment or two—I’d get left in the dust!
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Well do some damage and contribute to the battle. I was not here for that long and yet I blew my spell slots to end it. Now that I think about it I need to see if I have enough spell slots to teleport home. Since I am using a d&d character sheer and every time I roleplay here I keep track.
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I guess Mirabelle could’ve [i]maybe[/i] done a little bit of damage, but, I dunno. The character sheets I’ve made for Beldam & Mirabelle don’t use DnD rules, so I’ve got no idea how their power compares to the standard.