[OOC] New Beginnings Tournament.

[Rilla]

<Snipped quote by DJAtomika>

Convince Rilla to make an arena discord, I cba to join the general one.

@MelonHead

There is one.

[Eklispe]

Its even named Arena ^.^

[DJAtomika]

@Rilla I think he means a whole new server, not a channel on the general server.

[MelonHead]

I did mean a whole new server, but I guess I'll just join the general one.

[Rilla]

Far too much work when that one is perfectly fine. :P samewithmentoringehyshoukdiwhenihaveyoupeople

[BrokenPromise]

I'm speaking as someone who's very exited to see how this whole thing plays out, but not feeling like it would be worth my while participating in. I say this with a character sheet resting in my inbox that I made to what I perceived to be the specs for this tournament.

How about, if @Darth is agreeable we keep the current system of players creating their own characters. Because it is part of the learning process, and we take Darth's idea of pre-made skills, and apply it to them. He can help structure a wide array of abilities to be simple, yet bring something unique to the table so everyone isn't doing all the same things with different elements.

@Rilla

I think this is a great idea, or at least it would have been a great idea. But you've already got people submitting and possibly working on applications for this. I do think Darth's points would at the very least be worth looking at.

If this thing is still in the ideas/conceptual stage, I have a few observations.

As someone who's been rollplaying for a while and doesn't have more than one joke arena battle to their name, The following things are my primary concerns with arena in no particular order:

Arena players are jerks.

It's just two people beating each other up with no storytelling.

It's competitive.

While my previous experiences with arena players outside the arena section has been that they are argumentative, stubborn beasts, I can now see that not every arena player is deserving of that reputation. You guys can be pretty fun, level headed, and even agreeable. If this tourney does one thing for arena, it will be to clear away arena's reputation of being a toxic community.

The second one is just wrong. When you actually look at some of these battles, they are more than just slug fests. Sure, some of them are, but the really good ones actually are based around a story. The stories are as diverse as the arena players themselves.

The competitive element... Make no mistake about it, I have no problem playing competitive card games or the occasional team based FPS. But these affairs do not require me to interact as “intimately” with my opponent. I have no problem creating a story cooperatively with a bunch of strangers, but I'm not sure I could do the same thing competitively.

I'm not sure if this is what you already had planned, but I think what would help alleviate some of the anxiety is for everyone to have like a tutorial sparring match with their mentor. It would help write the story and give everyone a bit more insight of what's expected of them. I don't think people outside of arena are as uncreative/inexperienced as you think, they just don't know what's cheating and what's fair in your eyes. As an example, the fire ninja that is linked in the first post has dominance over fire, but they can create steel weapons. Isn't that more in the realm of earth/metal than fire/heat?

[Vordak]

Adressing Worren the fire ninjer, afaik, the character sheet format is weapon/element/side element, meaning that the shuriken summoning and whatnot is a seperate category of special weapon abilities.

[Vordak]

@rocketrobie2

Sorry, spot's already taken and i don't think i'll be able to provide full mentorship to two people at once - taking state exams in two months and i pretty much have to ace them, so not too much time on my hands.

Still, i'll gladly provide some general advice on how to approach a brawler playstyle; as for a mentor, i would recomend DocDoctor - one of his most used characters is based entierly around hand-to-hand. He's signing up for position of a judge though, so i'm not sure he'll be available, but the guy certainly has a lot of experience if he'll be sharing it with you.

[Rilla]

I'll address the full post when I get home, but Worren doesn't create the weapons. He summons them with hand signs and runes. Think Naruto ninja summon scrolls.

[Guru]

I wanted to say, in reference to mentors and students fighting, Each Mentor will definitely take different approaches. We all have different styles and ways in which we do things. Honestly... no 2 people will probably be taught the same way. But, that is the way of the Arena. It is very diverse as far as perspectives go.

[Vordak]

@Guru

Certainly. We all should probably write a brief guide of our own after this tournament, based on our mentoring experience, and create an anthology of them. Gonna be good both for newcomers to learn from many different sources at once and for vets to take a sneak peek at what's going on in another's head, maybe confirm some of their theories.

[Rilla]

I'm speaking as someone who's very exited to see how this whole thing plays out, but not feeling like it would be worth my while participating in. I say this with a character sheet resting in my inbox that I made to what I perceived to be the specs for this tournament.

<Snipped quote by Rilla>

I think this is a great idea, or at least it would have been a great idea. But you've already got people submitting and possibly working on applications for this. I do think Darth's points would at the very least be worth looking at.

If this thing is still in the ideas/conceptual stage, I have a few observations.

As someone who's been rollplaying for a while and doesn't have more than one joke arena battle to their name, The following things are my primary concerns with arena in no particular order:

Arena players are jerks.

It's just two people beating each other up with no storytelling.

It's competitive.

While my previous experiences with arena players outside the arena section has been that they are argumentative, stubborn beasts, I can now see that not every arena player is deserving of that reputation. You guys can be pretty fun, level headed, and even agreeable. If this tourney does one thing for arena, it will be to clear away arena's reputation of being a toxic community.

The second one is just wrong. When you actually look at some of these battles, they are more than just slug fests. Sure, some of them are, but the really good ones actually are based around a story. The stories are as diverse as the arena players themselves.

The competitive element... Make no mistake about it, I have no problem playing competitive card games or the occasional team based FPS. But these affairs do not require me to interact as “intimately” with my opponent. I have no problem creating a story cooperatively with a bunch of strangers, but I'm not sure I could do the same thing competitively.

I'm not sure if this is what you already had planned, but I think what would help alleviate some of the anxiety is for everyone to have like a tutorial sparring match with their mentor. It would help write the story and give everyone a bit more insight of what's expected of them. I don't think people outside of arena are as uncreative/inexperienced as you think, they just don't know what's cheating and what's fair in your eyes. As an example, the fire ninja that is linked in the first post has dominance over fire, but they can create steel weapons. Isn't that more in the realm of earth/metal than fire/heat?

@BrokenPromise

If you want. I can go over the sheet for you. This may be worth your while, as creating stories is a large part of what we do and there js a lot of fun to be had in creating your own, as well as being involved in the evolution of someone else's character.

Competition is our lifeblood. Really. But we have learned to make our fights exciting. Me and Guru, for instance, have a story built up over years of interacting anf it's mainly still all competition between us, to try and have the top family. And it's the same in some respects for us all.

Also, I am throwing my name in as.

A participant. #cheatmode.

Wait. Guru just informed me that I am not allowed. But I can mentor.

[Guru]

All of our minds, together? That's a scary thought

[Vordak]

We shall be known as the RPGuild hivemind and reign supreme over the rest of the rp fighting world. Simple as that.

[Rilla]

Am I the head of the hive mind?

[Guru]

Am I the head of the hive mind?

@Rilla

Wouldn't that then made it NOT a hive mind? Kind of nulls the point if someone is the head.

[Dark Light]

All the violent minds connected and working together.
Reminds me of psycho pass.
You could become a twisted instrument of evil prevention.

[Rilla]

<Snipped quote by Rilla>

Wouldn't that then made it NOT a hive mind? Kind of nulls the point if someone is the head.

@Guru

Someone has to control you guys.

[Kratesis]

Hey peeps, I want to say I appreciate the creation of a newbie tournament and you guys seem pretty cool but I'm going to bow out. I was thinking about it yesterday and today and although Vordak (my mentor for this tournament) has some neat ideas I'm ultimately just not interested in writing a character with elemental powers right now. Artistic differences I suppose!

Thank you and good luck to everyone :-)

[Guru]

Hey peeps, I want to say I appreciate the creation of a newbie tournament and you guys seem pretty cool but I'm going to bow out. I was thinking about it yesterday and today and although Vordak (my mentor for this tournament) has some neat ideas I'm ultimately just not interested in writing a character with elemental powers right now. Artistic differences I suppose!

Thank you and good luck to everyone :-)

@Kratesis

Aww. Don't leave us!

What did Vordak do? Did that jerk try to get you to be his personal sandwich maker!?

Dang it, Vordak! I told you... no hazing.