By Combat RP, I mean combat in general. Be it in a Fantasy Sandbox, a Nation RP, or...Well, anything, really. Is there any proper way of going about it? Do you have any tips?

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm rather inexperienced with the concept when it doesn't involve a d20 or something along those lines. I want to make sure to respect the story while the combat goes on, while also showing respect to the storytellers themselves.

In my experience it's best to recognize if you should be on the inferior side of things or know where or how someone else would "give". In most cases on my end and among the people I RP with we establish if we're going to fight ahead of time. As we work up to the moment we may have figured out details on how we want it to go so we can work it into our story with questions like, "How will this enrich my writing?" worked out.

In the case of something like Precipice of War we've had the idea that we need to kick up the major second Great War for a while. The RP was built on the idea it'd happen. But it took four years to get to it somehow because previous suggestions were just too forced. The chips fell right and we had the right people in place to move smoothly into it.

we generally like to have the one fighting win some and lose some. Even a master of some art of combat ain't perfect. Everyone can make mistakes.

Far too often, people will have an inexperienced protagonist prove him or herself perfect with the chosen weapon, be it a gun, a sword or a lightsaber.

I completely destroy my opponent because I never lose. Ever.

Enforce something close to realism (or realism within the confines of the world that you have created). That is all you can do, really. From that, you have to hope that the people in the RP are respectful enough to not to be god modding dicks. If people do try to present themselves as overpowered, remind them that nobody wants to read about people who win at everything all the time and too much winning will make them boring. Losing creates weight, and risks make it feel as if something is at stake. If Star Wars was about how the rebels build twelve death stars and shot them all at Darth Vader, that movie wouldn't have been popular beyond grindhouse drive-in's.

As for writing the combat itself, the best way is to write quickly and somewhat matter of factly. Think in terms of how somebody actually in combat would experience it. Even if you are not writing from a character's perspective, quick moving writing gives the sense of action so long as it is done right.

For nation roleplay, I just use a simple formula to figure who wins. I take the number of troops (Lets say 2000) multiplied by .2, then I take that number multiplied by their army morale (depending on the country but I will use the base of 3) then divided by the opponents morale (Just go with 2). I also use an outnumbered multiplier, but I won't calculate that. So we get,

2000 * .2 = 400 * 3 = 1200 / 2 = 600 This is how many men the army can kill.

If you allow your character to be faulty, it shows realism. When someone swings a huge warhammer at you, you can deflect it with your shield, but make sure you let them know it staggered you and made you take a few steps bacl. This way it lets them know you're willing to be 'real' with it, and it might make them be 'real' with you when the time comes. That's what I gathered from experience.

Also, just explain what your character is doing, and what they intend to do. Never say that the hit connected, because this borderlines on bunnying. So after your character staggered back from the axe's blow, you lunged forward with your sword and aimed for the opponent's heart. You didn't stab his heart, you just aimed for it.

But sometimes you need to point out why they can't succeed. You may say something like: your character took advantage of the heavy warhammer's slow speed and lunged for the opponent's heart as he readied his next blow. The person may or may not agree with this, but everyone knows warhammers are heavy, and even swinging sledge hammers in real life lets you know it takes a lot longer to pull them into another 'attack position'. So you have the right of realism on your side then.

...

This one time I created a character called a Ziori who used an array of weapons and experience to combat his foes. Another guy made some sort of over-powered flying reptile-merman hybrid who carried a trident and could control lightning and the ocean. We despised each other before the RP even began, so we started planning the ultimate battle. I would have had to travel across two seas and travel a continent to get to his domain, but boy was I ready.

I was going to flee into a nearby cave and let him follow me in. That would have negated his abilities to use lightning and the ocean, and flying around in a cave would have proved cumbersome. All he would have had was his trident. And we all knew my arsenal and skill in combat would have overcome his skills with a trident. I had a shield, a retracting spear, and two shortswords at my disposal.

By Combat RP, I mean combat in general. Be it in a Fantasy Sandbox, a Nation RP, or...Well, anything, really. Is there any proper way of going about it? Do you have any tips?

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm rather inexperienced with the concept when it doesn't involve a d20 or something along those lines. I want to make sure to respect the story while the combat goes on, while also showing respect to the storytellers themselves.

Each combatant plots out the fight together; either in an OOC thread or PMs. Combat RP, like any other kind of RP, is collaborative writing. Give and take. Pretty sure I've lost just as many as I've won over the years. The key is realizing a win, a loss, or a draw will all affect your characters and the plot. Hence the very reason for combat RP; conflict, enriching the overall scene and story.

Elsewise, the Arena is for you.

Thank you all for the advice! I'll consider what you've all said, and take each piece of advice to heart. If there are any other tips that may be necessary however, those would be appreciated.

@Gendarme

Horses don't simply ride into spear walls. They turn to get out of the way.

In addition to what Dinh AaronMk said, if you're doing a war roleplay, make sure you know the basics of warfare and counters to types of units.

It always made me angry when, in Lord of the Rings, the Rohirrim charged directly into a spearwall and survived.

With the Rohan scene, you can forgive them because that first part does actually involve cavalry succeeding at what cavalry is supposed to do, and that is scare the shit out of the guys they are charging toward. When the Orcs break and run, everything is cool.

Reality breaks down when they keep going and start running over large numbers of Orcs. Horses won't do that of course, since numerous high speed collisions tend to hurt. And even if we say they are magical Middle Earth horses with, like, better health insurance or something, keeping up momentum like they do would still be physically impossible with all those collisions. Imagine barreling through a field of deer with a car. If you've ever seen a person hit a deer, you know how ridiculous this is. And a car has more horsepower than a horse does.

Still, that scene is fucking boss no matter how unrealistic it is.

So yeh, cavalry will have a difficult time with spears, a worse time with pikes, but they are super scary. Also, they have to slow down or stop if they engage in combat, unless they are Mongols. Mongols used to hang out of their saddle and shoot underneath their horse so the horse would shield them from enemy fire. Those guys were beast.

At the same time, don't just sit down and follow RTS logic. RTS games are rock paper scissors because they are games and need balance, but the real world doesn't work that way. In the real world, formations are vital. Pikes in a wall are virtually unstoppable, but hard to maneuver and completely unwieldy on rough terrain. A single pikeman, on the other hand, is at a disadvantage because his weapon is a pain in the ass and is useless if an attacked slips passed the tip.

On the other hand: fielding a dude with a spear is easier than fielding a dude with a sword. Because the technique with a spear is ultimately a lot easier to master than with a sword. The spear is such a basic and primitive weapon, the ultimate and basic use hasn't changed since Grog the caveman went to go kill some lion on the hill.

With a sword though, you need to know the right way to hold it, and you can't simply blindly wail. And you also need to know how to grip the blade for some of the ways you can use a sword beyond a hack-and-slash weapon. You can use the pummel and hilt as a mace in the right situation, and in often times against armored foes you pretty much have to grip the blade when thrusting between plates of armor so the blade doesn't bend and be as useful as a flaccid cock.

With the Rohan scene, you can forgive them because that first part does actually involve cavalry succeeding at what cavalry is supposed to do, and that is scare the shit out of the guys they are charging toward. When the Orcs break and run, everything is cool.

Reality breaks down when they keep going and start running over large numbers of Orcs. Horses won't do that of course, since numerous high speed collisions tend to hurt. And even if we say they are magical Middle Earth horses with, like, better health insurance or something, keeping up momentum like they do would still be physically impossible with all those collisions. Imagine barreling through a field of deer with a car. If you've ever seen a person hit a deer, you know how ridiculous this is. And a car has more horsepower than a horse does.

Still, that scene is fucking boss no matter how unrealistic it is.

So yeh, cavalry will have a difficult time with spears, a worse time with pikes, but they are super scary. Also, they have to slow down or stop if they engage in combat, unless they are Mongols. Mongols used to hang out of their saddle and shoot underneath their horse so the horse would shield them from enemy fire. Those guys were beast.

At the same time, don't just sit down and follow RTS logic. RTS games are rock paper scissors because they are games and need balance, but the real world doesn't work that way. In the real world, formations are vital. Pikes in a wall are virtually unstoppable, but hard to maneuver and completely unwieldy on rough terrain. A single pikeman, on the other hand, is at a disadvantage because his weapon is a pain in the ass and is useless if an attacked slips passed the tip.

I thought the orcs held position, guess I was wrong. And yeah, I'll give it to them, that is probably one of greatest scenes in the movie. Love the Rohirrim.

That's neat about the Mongolian horsemen, I didn't know that. Strange that, as much as I like history, I know little about the Mongolians except as far as a few battles and Kublai Khan.

On the other hand: fielding a dude with a spear is easier than fielding a dude with a sword. Because the technique with a spear is ultimately a lot easier to master than with a sword. The spear is such a basic and primitive weapon, the ultimate and basic use hasn't changed since Grog the caveman went to go kill some lion on the hill.

With a sword though, you need to know the right way to hold it, and you can't simply blindly wail. And you also need to know how to grip the blade for some of the ways you can use a sword beyond a hack-and-slash weapon. You can use the pummel and hilt as a mace in the right situation, and in often times against armored foes you pretty much have to grip the blade when thrusting between plates of armor so the blade doesn't bend and be as useful as a flaccid cock.

If you take two peasants and give them swords to let them blindly wail, they'll do some damage. They might not stand against a trained opponent, but that is just as true with a spear.

There are a few advantages that spears offer. The most obvious, and the reason why they were so popular with untrained men, is that they are way cheaper to produce. When looking at Feudal Europe, you are looking at a society organized to be cost efficient. They couldn't afford to arm their levies properly.

Another advantage is that spear walls lend themselves to tight, compact formations, whereas swords require some breathing room. If you have a bunch of men pressed together holding spears or pikes, they can't really run even if they want to. If you've ever been to a concert and you tried to get close to the stage, you've probably felt what it is like to be held into position by the people around you. That sort of force will keep the cowards in your battle line from breaking.

If you aren't using formations, spears are pretty shitty though. Even in a case where you have a single spearman vs a single rider, since the spear just means the guy on the ground has more reach than he usually would. This is why it was so common for raiding cultures like the Germans and the Vikings to use swords and axes.

<Snipped quote by Vilageidiotx>

I thought the orcs held position, guess I was wrong. And yeah, I'll give it to them, that is probably one of greatest scenes in the movie. Love the Rohirrim.

That's neat about the Mongolian horsemen, I didn't know that. Strange that, as much as I like history, I know little about the Mongolians except as far as a few battles and Kublai Khan.