Yeah it took a while for me to think up something to whine about X{D, but here’s one. FIGHTING IN ROLEPLAYS. NO, this isn’t going to be me complaining about “VIOLENCE IS BAD! NERRRRRRRRR!” I mean… yeah Violence is BAD, but th- okay right, off topic, sorry.

Anyway, Fighting in Roleplays is usually… one of the most annoying things ever. If someone is fighting someone else in a roleplay, it is can be at times what I like to call “Stubborn-one-sided” where both side will act like no matter what, they are the ones in control, and the superior. Now I originally was going to say that it was almost ALWAYS that way, but there’s both GOOD things and many other BAD things that aren’t this.

So what leads to issues in Fighting Roleplays? And what’s wrong with losing? Well a number of things. A LOT of roleplayers will have generally balanced characters with abilities and such (Give or take, while the characters may be balanced, the average you’ll find one that is generally balanced is not balanced… yeah I’m confused too.) and they want to go have fun some, so they’ll end up in a fight in an rp. They’re having a good time, but then they notice, “Hey! This guy is blocking, deflecting, not getting affected, by EVERYTHING I do! That’s not fair!” Now when this happens to me, I go flat out “Hey, I doubt you’re character knows how to block something he’s NEVER SEEN BEFORE, please cut me some slack.” But a lot of people take an alternate route, and really… I don’t really blame them that much.

So what is this alternate route? Well that would be them doing the exact same thing the other person does. This is so they can get their own hits in, in attempt to make the character opposing them look like a wimp or fool, or because they don’t want to risk the rp ending by complaining. And… it almost never works. If you choose to play along, and fight fire with fire, it isn’t going to extinguish, it’ll just build up heat, and eventually you’ll run into the “GARY-STU-ATTACK!!!!!!” (DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!) These can range to *rips off character’s arm* to *Kills you*, because they want their way, and either feel cheated, or/and are afraid to lose. And then it gets BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. Cussing, hate, saying they’ll never rp again, this CAN and HAS happened, sadly immature but true.

So let’s go over what attributes of the character got us here.
1.    He is INDESTRUCTABLE!!!!! Answer me this, how can you fight a character, if you can’t actually do something to them? It’s no fun. It’s like hitting a punching bag out of anger at someone, only the punching bag IS the person, and they’re mocking you the whole time. Someone might call me out on something here so I’ll address it now. My character, Dimension 4, CANNOT be harmed physically. At least not by something that ISN’T core energy. However he needs air, and food, which opens up weaknesses. So… DROWN THE CHARACTER, and if the person tries to drown your character people, don’t do something to instantly counter it, actually have them struggle.
2.    The character is all-powerful. Used this topic to death, so in short; either make your weak with about five abilities max (or medium with five abilities max), or make them SUPER POWERFUL… with ONE ability, not TWO, ONE.
3.    The user is One-sided. This isn’t the same as Stubborn-one-sided (There’s a word for that I know, I just like feeling original X{D). This is where the user harnesses the power of the plot and/or the MORALITY of the roleplay. This isn’t actually only something that can be attributed to just fighting, but arguments as well.
Example: Your character is arguing with another character, and they make the plot agree with them, be it in narration “Despite how much Trim argued with Elmo, he could not convince his friend that he was right, and he was of course right.”, or in actions like *The people around stare angrily at person*. This is the point where the user thinks that they are completely right, and become very hard to convince otherwise, and usually will end the argument in some way that it won’t need to pop up again, and even treat the person they argued with like dirt or a villain in the future, to emphasize “I WAS RIGHT, YOU WERE WRONG!!!”

DO NOT ALWAYS ASSUME YOU ARE RIGHT IN AN RP, AND DO NOT MAKE YOUR CHARACTER RIGHT BY DEFAULT! IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MUCH YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR OPINION!

Remember that people disagree, and what you call right might be called wrong by someone else. And while you’re free to “NERRRRR” all about how “right” you are in ACTUAL arguments, rps are for fictional characters, in a fictional world. It’s for enjoyment, so don’t try to prove a point like that IN an rp, AT LEAST not so much that it leads to DICTATORSHIP!

Now I know this didn’t really go into actual violence, so I’ll give an example of that now.

If your character is getting beat, unless you have a cannon Deus Ex Machina with your character that’s commonly known (Like a bracelet that gives them extra health that didn’t JUST NOW get written in, but was actually in there at the beginning, can be seen in a picture.), you are NEVER to pull things out of thin air. You CAN’T gain extra strength from sheer will-power (Certain person might hate me for that comment there, I assure you I mean no offense), you CAN’T have them suddenly get something special from the SUDDENLY CHANGING WEATHER, and you SHOULD NEVER get a sudden revival of some sort that lets them go SUPER SAND EPIC GIRL GOLDEN HAIR MODE!
4.    (Wow that took a while) Boredom in fighting. Not as bad as the others, but still annoying. This is where both people, or just one, is … SHELTERING of their character in a way. This can be from giving vague attacks, stretching things out, going *Running away* ten comments later *still running away*, or just ignoring the fighting all-together, which leads to Any of the topics above.


Okay so here’s what you CAN do.
~Give your characters easy to use weaknesses. DON’T give them something that is extremely rare and no one would know about/where to find/how to use.
~Write up everything your character is able to do, and what you are willing for him/her to be able to do in an rp, then send THAT to the person you roleplay with, and have them do the same. That way no one has the upper hand unless It’s ACTUAL skill. If you have too many things to list, just write up SOME of them, and use only those. It won’t be the end of the world if you can’t use your *Summon toad* ability (Not a shout out X{D).
~EXPRESS any displeased feelings you’re having about how the rp is going WITHOUT insulting, yelling, or acting offended. People will usually listen, and they’ll probably change the circumstances if you’re not enjoying it, especially if THEY made the rp, because after all, the rp is like a house, and you’re the guest, so their goal is to make the guest HAPPY.

One last addition that didn’t really fit in anywhere else is that ALL of these points should always be considered, but they should be the most considered in Fighting Rps. And by that I obviously mean rps where the whole point is to fight and see who wins. You can’t use your Deus Ex Machina’s, and you can’t suddenly get power by sheer will UNLESS all you have is THE POWER OF SHEER WILL (By brightest day, by blackest ni- *Shot*)! These rps are to test skills, they aren’t meant for plots, they’re meant for strategy. How do you have strategy against someone who starts gaining “SOME MYSTICAL POWER FROM NOWHERE!” ? You don’t.

So any opinions you’d like to share, huzzah, feel free, but please don’t overdo it. Anything to add, again feel free.






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This little part here isn’t related to the actual article, but it’s something I wanted to point out about rps that needs to be addressed. I would’ve put it in a separate article, but I thought it was too short.

When roleplaying, don’t assume that the person that’s using the character IS that character. That is to say, if someone’s character is being obnoxious, don’t get mad at the user, it’s how the CHARACTER acts.
An example I ran into was when *Nameless-user* and their characters were arguing with my character, and then she/he got mad at me saying that I was being annoying. But the thing is I’m not my character. I’m not as hyper as Rin, or as temperamental, so don’t assume that I’m saying those things, I’m having the CHARACTER say those things.

If my character is angry at your character, that doesn’t mean I will be angry, which can be said for anyone. So don’t assume so.

And people, try NOT to show how much you disagree THROUGH your characters. If you have a problem, address it, and I don’t mean by saying “Stop being annoying.” If you NEED to make sure of your story just ask “Um is that what you really think?” and even that should be avoided unless you are TRULY FULLY bothered by something.


Alright, that’s pretty much it. PIE!

Eat Pie and Prosper