Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Skallagrim
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Skallagrim Walker between Worlds

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how wins/lost works, how battles usually play out, and what are the tiers of characters?


Win/Loss is self-explanatory. Fights themselves are left to the combatants to work out the parameters unless it is a tournament, in which case the rules are preset and must be abided by. When engaging in a fight, most of us use the T1 Eden era or some variant of those rules to conduct our fights. See my signature of you want to learn more about T1.

Ranked matches require a judge to make sure that everyone is playing fair and to settle any disputes regarding actions/defense/damage by the characters in the fight. Judges rulings are final, although a second Judge may be called upon when things get really nit-picky so establishing the judges right away prior to the fight is important when you want to ensure quick resolutions that are fair.

Tiers for characters, such as they are, are fairly simple. Human, Enhanced, Moderately Powered, then Powered. Some use Godly as well but really? No one likes fighting at those levels much. Human and Enhanced are fairly simple to discern when comparing characters. Moderately powered and Powered are where most people get snagged up. So sharing CS's with your opponent and negotiating power levels is pretty much standard.

Most of us have scalable characters which can slot into the enhanced, M-P and Powered ratings easily enough depending on whom we are facing. Others have specific characters set for each power rating.

When building a character, if there is a question, you can always submit it in the GuildHQ thread and ask for advice on how to better make the character fit into the arena framework for characters, although there is no established CS, there are important elements that have to be addressed. Powers (explained in detail), equipment (explained in enough detail to make clear what it can and cannot do.) Some backstory if you are looking to make a persistent multiverse character that can be in multiple storylines and places. Make the backstory accessible to others who may want to build upon something so there is a natural rivalry or alliance.

Have Fun.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by rawkhawk64
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rawkhawk64 Master Gamer

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Yeah, I've been wondering about tiers of characters as well. Like, how do you rank them based on power so that they don't face someone too strong/too weak? Also, how would a character who can summon work? I have a Deity-class (self-ranked, mind you) character who has the capability of summoning other powerful beings to fight for him (provided his foe can summon as well. If not, then he doesn't use them).
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by LeeRoy
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LeeRoy LeeRoy Brightmane

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@rawkhawk64
There is no uniform scale of power level. We actually have arguments about it frequently, though I personally use an incredibly complex system to grade my characters. There's this 10 tier system, the system Skallagrim explained, and plenty of others between. A character you'd call godly could be less than so on my scale, or greater than. Y'see?

Trying to regulate this sort of thing is difficult because of how everyone sees their own character's abilities, and then the character's personalities come into play. A high tier character whose an incompetent martial artist fighting a character whose physically weaker but significantly better trained? It's totally up in the air.

The problems that emerge when trying to grade the characters on a scale is incredibly difficult.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by rawkhawk64
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@LeeRoy Makes sense. Now, how would a character who can summon work?
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by LeeRoy
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@rawkhawk64 Summoning is up in the air for me, honestly. If it's ALL the character can do, they may as well have the summon there at the beginning of the fight. However, if they've got other abilities, I believe it should require a turn or two of charging before they can do it. Not a long enough delay to keep it from being totally inviable, but long enough to have a way to prevent them from doing it.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by ImportantNobody
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@rawkhawk64

You'd probably judge the power of all of the summons and the character themself compared to the power of the opponent to see if it's a fair match-up or not. This would mean the summoner would likely be a lot weaker of a character than the opponent. If not then there would be something very difficult about summoning like LeeRoy mentions.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by fourtimesnine
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fourtimesnine

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Hi everyone! I'm new to the arena, so I don't really know how things work, and this seems like the best place to ask.

1. How exactly do you start/join/organize matches? I'm used to using Interest Checks, but I looked at a few and apparently that mostly goes on in the Chat and HQ threads. How does that work?

2. Do characters persist across roleplays? Again, I'm used to characters that are made for a specific RP, but a few things I've read here suggest otherwise.

3. Is there a place for story fights? That is, fights where the goal isn't for one character to win over another, but to write a story about the characters with the battle as part of the plot.

4. I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but for now, is anyone willing to RP with a newbie? Experience is the best teacher, after all.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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MelonHead The Fighting Fruit

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Hi everyone! I'm new to the arena, so I don't really know how things work, and this seems like the best place to ask.

1. How exactly do you start/join/organize matches? I'm used to using Interest Checks, but I looked at a few and apparently that mostly goes on in the Chat and HQ threads. How does that work?

2. Do characters persist across roleplays? Again, I'm used to characters that are made for a specific RP, but a few things I've read here suggest otherwise.

3. Is there a place for story fights? That is, fights where the goal isn't for one character to win over another, but to write a story about the characters with the battle as part of the plot.

4. I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but for now, is anyone willing to RP with a newbie? Experience is the best teacher, after all.


Hey there, yes this is the best place for these sort of questions.

1. There are two main methods, one is using an interest check to send out a general challenge (ideally with a character, an arena, and a fighting style mentioned so people know what they're getting into.) Then, once a compromise is made on character selection and everyone is happy, you can upgrade to an OOC/IC and get started. Oh, or if you simply want to join a fight you can look through interest checks and declare your interest in the normal fashion.

The second method is to send out a challenge in the ranked area or the Arena chat thread, which most of the ranked people tend to frequent. The same process as before will also take place, where you will decide on characters etc.

2. Completely up to you, the Arena does allow for multiple instances and therefore unless you've joined a specifically persistent world (the Multiverse for example, which pops up from time to time, or a tournament) every arena fight is a self contained story. So, if a character dies you don't have to make that 'canon.'

3. Hopefully every fight will be a story fight, it's a misconception that Arena isn't still predominantly about telling a story, it's just through the medium of battle. Still, if you favour strong story telling elements over the competition, avoiding ranked battles and going for unranked instead is the answer. In an unranked fight the rules are more flexible and with very little on the line people are going to be more applicable to story elements.

4. Depending on what sort of power (tier) you want to fight at I might be able to indulge you in an unranked battle to cover some of the broad Arena concepts if you want. Tier is a little subjective, but I personally don't stray over the 'high powered' bracket with my characters. Which is somewhat applicable to street/city level destruction. I'm more around the powered/low powered bracket, think Vampires, Werewolves, Cyborgs etc.

These are the two important threads for talking with Arena peoples.
Ranking Headquarters http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79678-rpguild-ranking-headquarters/ic
Arena Chat Thread http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/78452-arena-chat-thread/ooc
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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It's also just occurred to me the FAQ thread doesn't even have a decent FAQ section, get on that Rilla, I feel like the same questions are being asked and answered.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by fourtimesnine
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@MelonHead

Thanks so much, your answers are really thorough and helpful!

An unranked battle would be great. I'd be happy with the powered/low powered bracket, although I'm not familiar with vampires or werewolves specifically - my tastes tend towards medieval fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, etc. What kind of characters/setting would you want to have?

Edit: Just saw and read your cheatsheet, think it's an awesome resource.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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MelonHead The Fighting Fruit

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@MelonHead

Thanks so much, your answers are really thorough and helpful!

An unranked battle would be great. I'd be happy with the powered/low powered bracket, although I'm not familiar with vampires or werewolves specifically - my tastes tend towards medieval fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, etc. What kind of characters/setting would you want to have?

Edit: Just saw and read your cheatsheet, think it's an awesome resource.


In unranked fights I prefer my fights to be conductive to a story, so I tend to insist on characters from roughly similar universes. If you have a character in mind I can find my best character to match them, or I could link you to my character deposit and you could pick a character from there you think you could match.

My character deposit http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79934-people-trapped-in-a-giant-melon/ooc
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by fourtimesnine
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@MelonHead

Thanks! Do you think this character could match Anna? I'm sorry, I know this CS is way shorter than yours, but I didn't know what else to write. If you want, I can try to elaborate later.

Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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MelonHead The Fighting Fruit

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People use the word Emet to describe outsiders in my current locale, pretty funny.

Anyway, that character is more than suitable, I'll set up a thread and send you a PM of it.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by Slamurai
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I'd like to ask a question, which I wrote about in an Arena IntCheck just recently:

So I'll be honest: I've always scoffed a little at the idea of an arena section. Not that I think it's silly or anything, but as a RPer, my focus tends towards narrative and story-driven scenarios and outcomes. I understand the gist of writing combat, but doing so in a competitive setting never appealed to me. Who's to say just what's permissible and what's not? What if it devolves into a 'who can bullshit the best?' battle? How do you determine Player X really hit Player Y, if they both have different mental pictures of the scenario?

So yeah - I'm curious as to how you enforce what flies in terms of hits and so forth.
Ex. Player A does some 'jumping downward slash' while Player B's back is slightly turned - who's to say Player B can't 'sense the attack coming and roll into a counter jab' ? How do you stop battles from becoming metagame BS fests? If players interpret the angles or arcs of hits differently in their mental pictures, how do you know what gets through?

And then you potentially have it worse when you factor magic and technobabble into the equation. "Oh no, that magic breath attack has no effect on my shield made of laminated windonium." Or, "I don't care what your backstory is, my char's will is stronger than ten thousand gigawatts, and no blade can pierce it!"

This is my cause for concern in the arena section in a nutshell. And, having not participated in it before, I've no clue how these things are handled.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by Vordak
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So yeah - I'm curious as to how you enforce what flies in terms of hits and so forth.
Ex. Player A does some 'jumping downward slash' while Player B's back is slightly turned - who's to say Player B can't 'sense the attack coming and roll into a counter jab' ?


There must be a logically sound justification to every move you make, so you can't do that just out of the blue. The only way Player B can say they 'sense' the attack without having supernatural senses as an ability in their character sheet is if there was a precedent for that set in the previous posts - say, for example, Player B had their back turned because they were in fact baiting the attack and closely listening to their opponent's approach.

How do you stop battles from becoming metagame BS fests? If players interpret the angles or arcs of hits differently in their mental pictures, how do you know what gets through?


You have to make sure there is no room for misinterpretation. But if such occurs, you can discuss it in the OOC. Can't say i haven't seen it happen - i certainly have - but this isn't too prevalent of a problem, especially since it can always be ironed out without much trouble.

Draw a stick figure picture if things get too tough - should last you for a while. :P

And then you potentially have it worse when you factor magic and technobabble into the equation. "Oh no, that magic breath attack has no effect on my shield made of laminated windonium." Or, "I don't care what your backstory is, my char's will is stronger than ten thousand gigawatts, and no blade can pierce it!"


That is why character sheets in the arena are always expected to have a detailed description of how exactly an ability functions and what results its use is expected to have.

If windonium is said to withstand the temperature of molten iron for a couple seconds - which would be at around 1600 Celcius - and the magic breath attack is a brief burst of 2000 degree fire, then the windonium shield is expected to work, but be heavily damaged in process. That's more or less how we deal with problem around here.

Backstory is not a relevant source for anything but a characters personal knowledge. If they've never seen a gun before and don't know how to fight against one, that's information related to their backstory. If they're a combat mage and they know what a fireball is, then that's backstory related info too.

Certainly, arguments are unavoidable in the long run, and sometimes, they are only resolved through the help of a third party's judgement - but they're not bound to pop up with every post you make, even in the most competitive of environments. And in the end, if you want to become the best of the best, just keep that all in mind and find strategies that work no matter what complications arise.

There's no such thing as perfect, and for how vast the possibilities are in roleplay combat, there is a certain price to be paid. As PvP oriented videogames must have constant patches and updates to not spiral out of control, we, also need to resort to OOC talk from time to time. So yeah, the most important rule of them all, i'd say, is to respect your opponent.

Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Fang
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Fang The Wanderer

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Okay, so I am not sure if this was addressed or not, nor am I aware if anyone is available to answer my queries, but:

Where does one post their character, and is it okay if a character sheet does not follow the cheat sheet you have provided?

I have also posted this in the Arena Chat thread. I apologize for any mistakes I might make in decorum. Forgive my newbie-ness!
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Dolerman
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Could I get a more detailed explanation on how 'prepped attacks' function in RP combat?@MelonHead@Skallagrim
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by MelonHead
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Could I get a more detailed explanation on how 'prepped attacks' function in RP combat?@MelonHead@Skallagrim


1. Any attack can be prepped, it requires you to mention your character 'preparing' an action in the previous post, though this usually refers to a magical spell, there's no reason why one couldn't take time with a shot, or pull the pin of a grenade, or a similar act to show that prior thought went into a future attack.

2. It should be visible, both in an OOC and an IC sense, to your opponent.

3. It comes with the price of either a lack of concentration or a pre-emptive warning to your opponent to dodge, simple attacks may be launched at the same time, but you certainly couldn't unleash complex magic or prep another ability simultaneously.

4. Being hit removes the most recent prep.

5. A prepped attack supercedes an unprepped defense, so upon landing it causes some damage, which increases depending on the number of prep turns that went into an attack.

6. Only one attack can be prepped at a time.

7. Defenses may be prepped in the same fashion.

There's probably more, but those are some of the fundamentals in regards to preps. Many of these things are flexible and may be changed to suit different contexts.
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Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Natsucooldude
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So i was looking at this forum and have been wondering, at what scope would the fights here happen? Are they exclusively one on one fight or would a skirmish with two warbands or even armies clashing be allowed.
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