What is the extent of his magic power? Can he make wind blades? Summon tornadoes? Incinerate an entire forest? Simply light a cigarette? Also, you mention the arsenal of blades and their effects. What weapons does he have and what do they do? It's important to declare these things before a fight begins.
*Sage nod*
Don't leave vague generalities or space for interpretation in your CS, it will lead to arguments later on. State statistics if necessary, or just be as clear as possible as to anything your character can do beyond human capability, which is the assumed average for anything not stated (or required, for example having strong bones if your character has superhuman strength is pretty much a necessity in physics terms.)
You can use terms such as mid level or low level manipulation of an element, but you'd be expected to keep to that level by whoever you pick as a judge for ranked matches, so you're at the mercy of someone else' interpretation of your abilities.
Soon, we'll be at a point where everything will require an insane amount of detail to cover for every instance.
At times, I miss the simpler days.
What, where everyone could stretch their abilities to escape every situation? If you have too much flexibility Arena doesn't work at a competitive level, you have to make every fight for fun story battles and we'll have to do away with ranked, not that I'd care either way. I enjoy the competitive side and the story side.
I'm personally interested in designing a sword and sorcery game of a similar style to the multiverse, where people have lower tier characters and develop skills and abilities with slower progression. It would be a nice change from the 'everyone fights with superhuman characters that shoot lazers out of their eyeballs'. Magic would be less powerful and innate, requiring actual sacrifices rather than perfectly complimenting spellswords, and the story would be based on a single continent rather than spanning universes. Basically I just want to make an RPG in Arena.
Soon, we'll be at a point where everything will require an insane amount of detail to cover for every instance.
At times, I miss the simpler days.
I remember the AOL chatrooms where it was pretty much anything goes. Imagine trying to have a competitive match with somebody without even seeing a character sheet.
@MelonHead I've had a few competitive fights without the use of a sheet, mainly because I do so against people who've shown themselves trustworthy. Or because I'm bored. Either way, it's quite fun. I didn't say it had to be for every battle, but Kei'taro's abilities aren't super described(especially the elemental ones), and he's/I've had literally no complaints about how he was used(that includes a wind tornado and fire... in a tournament... ain't that right, Green? Lol)
@Takashi I remember being on MYB prior to the coming of paraposting. Holy shit, the shit that went there. I'm a big fan of CS', but in general, most folks here could have a considerably good bout without one, without it getting to the 'ermergawd batman!'
@MelonHead I've had a few competitive fights without the use of a sheet, mainly because I do so against people who've shown themselves trustworthy. Or because I'm bored. Either way, it's quite fun. I didn't say it had to be for every battle, but Kei'taro's abilities aren't super described(especially the elemental ones), and he's/I've had literally no complaints about how he was used(that includes a wind tornado and fire... in a tournament... ain't that right, Green? Lol)
That's up to the individual, personally Kei'Taro's abilities aren't specific enough for me, but he is a very high tier character in terms of his abilities, so I'd just assume they were as powerful as abilities usually are at that level. If you say your character is High Powered and the only ability listed is like, Fire Manipulation, I'm probably going to expect them to be able to generate fire (despite that being a different power) and to be able to manipulate it on a large scale. However, most people aren't all that trustworthy when it comes to competitive play, so I like at least someone to know what sort of abilities my opponent has before we go into a fight, to prevent a batman utility belt saving them constantly.
I remember being on MYB prior to the coming of paraposting. Holy shit, the shit that went there. I'm a big fan of CS', but in general, most folks here could have a considerably good bout without one, without it getting to the 'ermergawd batman!'
Yea, most of the people here seem experienced enough to know what's fair. But in those old chatrooms... I literally had people try to write my own characters' backstories. And my poor dragon Talon would get confused for that bird lady from Static Shock of the same name. lol.
Kei'taro isn't that strong to me, I'd say he's highly versatile, but rarely gets to use more than a couple at a time. All his elemental ones, for instance, are mid to low tier.
Don't leave vague generalities or space for interpretation in your CS, it will lead to arguments later on. State statistics if necessary, or just be as clear as possible as to anything your character can do beyond human capability, which is the assumed average for anything not stated (or required, for example having strong bones if your character has superhuman strength is pretty much a necessity in physics terms.)
You can use terms such as mid level or low level manipulation of an element, but you'd be expected to keep to that level by whoever you pick as a judge for ranked matches, so you're at the mercy of someone else' interpretation of your abilities.
Sorry this took me so long to get to, I'm a bit slow. Now:
I can't see someone who's Versatile enough would be able to cover literally everything possible. Mostly because the human mind is adaptable and there are those who think outside the box in combat, increasing the difficulty to be able to do that perfectly. However I do understand the frustration behind this and in my case, I usually use a Versatility vs Power system for my PCs. More Versatile than less Power it should have as that energy has to be loose enough to warp and change, while a fixed spell would be more powerful due to being more focused and putting more energy into that single task.
It's like multitasking in a sense, and though some can do that, some quality (power) and never truly realize or see it, is lost in the process to some degree than if you had put all your energy into a single task. Then again, that's just my line of thinking.
Here's an example of that system in rp PC of mine,Darius. Namely his Telekinesis ability.
Name Telekinesis: Darius can do many things with this magic as its strength relies more in flexibility. He can create barriers by shifting large amounts of air and particles in front of him, shielding him from physical attacks to manipulating objects in his surroundings. He can easily toss a object whose weight is at least one ton and toss it accurately for five meters from his position. However, hitting is another matter. Levitation, push and pull, bind in place, manipulating, and even exploding an object that is within his eyesight. At his current level he can explode objects made of concrete rather easily though those along the caliber of steel is much harder.
Type Combative Range Within Eyesight and 15 foot radius from him. Duration N/A (Varies depending on what he does) Other info -He must be aware of an item before he manipulate it, as well as its location, before he can manipulate it. In addition he can influence the actions or puppet living creatures. The resistance is far too difficult, putting too much stress on his mind and could damage his brain killing him in the attempt. He can't affect objects already being manipulated by magic since it already took root and takes more effort, namely
Granted there's still quite a few limits not mentioned but that can become taxing and specific to include every, single, last one in the spell description. So even when I don't have them listed, there's always limits as well as new ones being added when I think of them or come up with a new way of using a spell. Ask a few friends... I'm an OP phobic. :p
Then again, this might just be a bad example of a spell format though to be honest I like pretty well. Namely because it states the important stuff that influences a battle though I will likely add a post charge requirement as well for fighting style common. AT least the one I'm semi familiar with, though with some spells tempted to allow them to played right but need a cool down period before they can be used again. Kestrel had that in his Library rp and it was rather fun and simple. XD
Also, finally got Iron done but now sure if the CS would be suitable by arena standards. >_> Hence why he's not posted as I'm fretting over it.
@takashi if you had read the powers for Para Domorte, my blade, you would notice the techniques of fire in which I have listed. i also have a skillset of abilities for my handgun, Castalania, as well as different rounds of ammo.
Things like range of manipulation and some of the more important technicalities are more than enough detail most of the time.
There's thinking outside the box in combat, and then there's having a character who can manipulate fire as their only ability then saying they can set the air around your character on fire from fifty feet away by clicking their fingers, instantly incinerating you. If all I say is 'Fire manipulation' what's stopping me from doing that exactly? Seems like it falls under that general sphere to me. That's why you have to be specific, because otherwise there's nothing regulating your magic at all, and half of all magic has the capacity to kill people instantly. Water manipulation with no restrictions - tear someone apart, control their body, burst every blood vessel, all possible.
Fire, burn the air in their lungs, air, suck the air out of their lungs, earth, break their bones apart or open a hole directly underneath them breaking them to pieces. All of this fits under general terms for elemental manipulation.
It's not thinking outside the box if you just have powers that kill people instantly.
Things like range of manipulation and some of the more important technicalities are more than enough detail most of the time.
There's thinking outside the box in combat, and then there's having a character who can manipulate fire as their only ability then saying they can set the air around your character on fire from fifty feet away by clicking their fingers, instantly incinerating you. If all I say is 'Fire manipulation' what's stopping me from doing that exactly? Seems like it falls under that general sphere to me. That's why you have to be specific, because otherwise there's nothing regulating your magic at all, and half of all magic has the capacity to kill people instantly. Water manipulation with no restrictions - tear someone apart, control their body, burst every blood vessel, all possible.
Fire, burn the air in their lungs, air, suck the air out of their lungs, earth, break their bones apart or open a hole directly underneath them breaking them to pieces. All of this fits under general terms for elemental manipulation.
It's not thinking outside the box if you just have powers that kill people instantly.
Isn't spells with auto kills/hits already unaccepted within the arena?
My main point was that creating a spell to cover everything in a fight isn't possible, though I admit to rambling off topic I guess.
There's a difference between auto-hitting someone and launching an ability that can't logically be avoided, one is banned the other is bad form, but it's essentially the reason why you have to ensure your abilities have some restrictions you've bothered to include.
To be completely honest, I will have a much better setlist of limitations and powers for Giovanni soon. I just moved to this site, so I aim to usually test the groups in specific fights before I attempt to fully stay. The detailing and such is why I like to T1 detail in particular, my forshadowing abilities seem to be very good. But if you truly want a better explanation of his abilities, I will try to make it in the next couple of days.
@takashi if you had read the powers for Para Domorte, my blade, you would notice the techniques of fire in which I have listed. i also have a skillset of abilities for my handgun, Castalania, as well as different rounds of ammo.
Do you have a link to that? None of it is listed in the CS section.
I see where the issue is, you've formatted your weapons as individual posts which probably gave Takashi the impression they were other characters rather than your main character's weapons.
You may just want to use hiders or something and keep it all in one post, as they haven't made it from your CS deposit to the Ranked deposit, so for all intents and purposes your character wouldn't have the weapons if he was challenged.
