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Darth Member
The Thunder Tyrant
- Last Seen: 1 yr ago
- Joined: 9 yrs ago
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- Darth 9 yrs ago
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AVAILABILITY:: CST timezone; work is from 11pm to 7 am, I sleep from 7 am to 3pm and go to the gym from 4pm to 5pm, my days off are Wednesday and Thursday. My optimal availability times are Wednesday and Thursday from 6 pm to 6 am. While I intend to try and post outside of my strictly stated availabilities (e.g. Wed and Thurs at the aforementioned hours), I cannot guarantee it because of the nature of my job, which sometimes requires me to stay late or go in early. The stated days and hours are just the times when I know I can post.
EDIT:: Sleep times may change in the future. I'll know where my hours lay closer to the event.
[hider=P R O F I C I E N C I E S]
Proficiencies are graded on a scale from Untrained to Grandmaster; the former represents the lowest level of proficiency while the latter represents the greatest. The grades are as follows: Untrained [U], Basic Proficiency [BP], Standard Proficiency [SP], Moderate Proficiency [MP], Advanced Proficiency [AP], Master [M], and Grandmaster [GM].
Pistols [GM]
Rifles [AP]
Shotguns [BP]
Explosives [BP]
Swords [MP]
Daggers [AP]
Bludgeons [SP]
Axes [U]
Staves [SP]
Spears [SP]
Hand to Hand [AP]/[M]
Throwing Weapons [M]
[Specialization] Gunslinger
Caius has trained extensively in the use of pistols. His accuracy while firing on the move or from the hip is exceptional, and he can perform numerous trickshots and a variety of feats [rapid reload, dual-wielding, gun kata, hyperprecise aim, etc] with his weapons of choice.
[Specialization] Telekinetic Combat
Caius's gunslinging abilities are complemented by his ability to fight utilize telekinetic power to bolster his melee combat or to control multiple weapons at once -- particularly throwing daggers that are designed specifically for telekinetic use.
[/hider]
EDIT:: Sleep times may change in the future. I'll know where my hours lay closer to the event.
[hider=P R O F I C I E N C I E S]
Proficiencies are graded on a scale from Untrained to Grandmaster; the former represents the lowest level of proficiency while the latter represents the greatest. The grades are as follows: Untrained [U], Basic Proficiency [BP], Standard Proficiency [SP], Moderate Proficiency [MP], Advanced Proficiency [AP], Master [M], and Grandmaster [GM].
Pistols [GM]
Rifles [AP]
Shotguns [BP]
Explosives [BP]
Swords [MP]
Daggers [AP]
Bludgeons [SP]
Axes [U]
Staves [SP]
Spears [SP]
Hand to Hand [AP]/[M]
Throwing Weapons [M]
[Specialization] Gunslinger
Caius has trained extensively in the use of pistols. His accuracy while firing on the move or from the hip is exceptional, and he can perform numerous trickshots and a variety of feats [rapid reload, dual-wielding, gun kata, hyperprecise aim, etc] with his weapons of choice.
[Specialization] Telekinetic Combat
Caius's gunslinging abilities are complemented by his ability to fight utilize telekinetic power to bolster his melee combat or to control multiple weapons at once -- particularly throwing daggers that are designed specifically for telekinetic use.
[/hider]
I haven't fought in about.. six years now. I guess I'll dust off the boots for this tournament, though, since I've been getting a bit of the itch in the past few months.
I also joined the Discord with 2swole2control as my tag, although I don't know how active I'll be there.
I also joined the Discord with 2swole2control as my tag, although I don't know how active I'll be there.
I've played across the whole spectrum of character power and I've generally found low levels of power (what people often call "mild powers") to be the most challenging and the most enjoyable. This is by and large for the simple reason that limitations breed creativity, much as necessity is the mother of invention. If I tell you to draw a line from point A to point B and give you a blank piece of paper, you'll draw a straight line. If I give you the same instructions but with a maze -- that is, limitations of where and how you can draw your line -- now there's a challenge involved. The same largely applies in roleplay combat. It's why it takes less effort to shift a character up in power than it does to shift them down: down-shifting requires applying harder, more concrete limitations.
That being said, I did enjoy high powered combat when I played it, especially with the DBZ approach of just "fuck it, laser beams for everyone!" There's nothing wrong with it. From a competitive angle and ensuring that characters can be placed on as level a playing field as possible in tournaments and similar events, I prefer mild powers. I (as Melon knows) even prefer the additional limitation of making fights non-fatal to force people to really think about their posts by removing the option of going right for the throat, both literally and figuratively. Puts people on their heads.
Also, if you want to read about superhero regulation or lack thereof, read Ennis's The Boys. Mostly because Ennis is hilarious.
That being said, I did enjoy high powered combat when I played it, especially with the DBZ approach of just "fuck it, laser beams for everyone!" There's nothing wrong with it. From a competitive angle and ensuring that characters can be placed on as level a playing field as possible in tournaments and similar events, I prefer mild powers. I (as Melon knows) even prefer the additional limitation of making fights non-fatal to force people to really think about their posts by removing the option of going right for the throat, both literally and figuratively. Puts people on their heads.
Also, if you want to read about superhero regulation or lack thereof, read Ennis's The Boys. Mostly because Ennis is hilarious.
As @MelonHead said, this is something we used to (and still somewhat) do on Gaia. We treat Gaia as a multiverse (referred to as the "Gaia Mainstream") where characters from any given setting can pop up. We have people who run events -- whether fighting tournaments or DMed mini-campaigns -- and these events are very condensed in terms of time, usually. Less so for tournaments, but even then we try to use a very clear timeframe for our events, and I think this aids a lot in promoting activity.
For example, a long-since-departed player named opaj used to run events; he basically developed the idea for those of us on Gaia who play in the Mainstream and he coined the term Gaia Mainstream. His method was something like this: Develop a campaign or event and tap a few people to DM it with him. They would then DM according to a specific schedule, and during those scheduled times people were meant to post as much as possible, within reason.
So, for instance, during one event he might say "The DM team will be rolling the story forward Thursday through Sunday. We will NOT DM NPCs or advance the plot on Mon-Wed. This event will last two weeks, and will conclude on the second Sunday." Basically, he would use specific timeframes to encourage people to post by saying "here's our active period, post then to be part of the plot's advancement" while having off-days where it would be less DMing and more general roleplaying to grease the wheels of the story. During this period, they might still DM casually, but more for interaction than for pushing the story to its conclusion.
All of opaj's events were ran on very particular, very condensed timeframes. I can't remember his events ever being longer than two weeks, and I think he ran one in a single weekend of constant posting. Admittedly, this is back when most of us were in high school or college, so we had more time, but I think the approach still has a lot of merit because a) as adults, we have some control over our schedules and b) it gives us an impetus to roleplay because we know we're working within a very specific timeframe, instead of a more lackadaisacal "it'll finish when it finishes" approach.
opaj-style events have fallen by the wayside on Gaia at the moment, but as someone who participated in one, I can tell you: they were immensely enjoyable, especially because you had this atmosphere of frenetic activity where everyone was just rolling along at a good, steady clip of roleplaying. No waiting for days or weeks, no hemming and hawing. Just people jumping in and playing and getting shit done.
For example, a long-since-departed player named opaj used to run events; he basically developed the idea for those of us on Gaia who play in the Mainstream and he coined the term Gaia Mainstream. His method was something like this: Develop a campaign or event and tap a few people to DM it with him. They would then DM according to a specific schedule, and during those scheduled times people were meant to post as much as possible, within reason.
So, for instance, during one event he might say "The DM team will be rolling the story forward Thursday through Sunday. We will NOT DM NPCs or advance the plot on Mon-Wed. This event will last two weeks, and will conclude on the second Sunday." Basically, he would use specific timeframes to encourage people to post by saying "here's our active period, post then to be part of the plot's advancement" while having off-days where it would be less DMing and more general roleplaying to grease the wheels of the story. During this period, they might still DM casually, but more for interaction than for pushing the story to its conclusion.
All of opaj's events were ran on very particular, very condensed timeframes. I can't remember his events ever being longer than two weeks, and I think he ran one in a single weekend of constant posting. Admittedly, this is back when most of us were in high school or college, so we had more time, but I think the approach still has a lot of merit because a) as adults, we have some control over our schedules and b) it gives us an impetus to roleplay because we know we're working within a very specific timeframe, instead of a more lackadaisacal "it'll finish when it finishes" approach.
opaj-style events have fallen by the wayside on Gaia at the moment, but as someone who participated in one, I can tell you: they were immensely enjoyable, especially because you had this atmosphere of frenetic activity where everyone was just rolling along at a good, steady clip of roleplaying. No waiting for days or weeks, no hemming and hawing. Just people jumping in and playing and getting shit done.
The biggest problems are a) a lack of traffic and b) a lack of organization. There's the ranking system, sure, but there's nothing really promoting fighting. New faces come in once in a blue moon, but there's no structure to keep them around or to "remind" them to check in. You can "just" have a lot of fights if you have a good population and can steadily bring people in (even if they pop in and out) but if you don't, you need to have some kind of a lure. Just having a handful of people who sometimes, sort of, maybe fight isn't enough. It can be frustrating because it's kind of the work/experience or chicken/egg thing. You have to work to get experience, but you have to have experience to get a job. You have to have a population to have fights, but you have to have fights to have a population.
Gaia has a similar problem in maintaining a PERSISTENT community, but we also have the advantage of a lot of cross communication across several dozen individuals. Someone can clap their hands and shout "FIGHTING EVENT AHOY!" and people will crawl out of the woodworks. People message each other over Skype or Discord, or even text each other whenever it happens.
Skalla and Rilla get a lot of immediate attention when they try to host something for a few reasons. A) They've been around a while, and havce run things in the past with varying degrees of success and B) like Melon said, they basically worked to build the Arena subforum from the ground up.
I think the drop-off has a lot to do with the change-over from Old Guild to New Guild. Fighting, overall, has seen a decline since about 2011, which is probably a mixture of people getting older and the changing technology. Back in 2007, not everyone had Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and a dozen mobile games on their phone. For a big chunk of the 2000s, the whole "forums" thing was a novel concept because most people didn't know about Usenet. You're always going to have roleplaying, but you can't just walk two paces and trip over a brawler anymore. You have to find them and then reel them in and get them involved.
Chat fighting has been dying a slow, ugly death for a decade. Forum RP has more sustainability, but only if people can commit to it.
Gaia has a similar problem in maintaining a PERSISTENT community, but we also have the advantage of a lot of cross communication across several dozen individuals. Someone can clap their hands and shout "FIGHTING EVENT AHOY!" and people will crawl out of the woodworks. People message each other over Skype or Discord, or even text each other whenever it happens.
Skalla and Rilla get a lot of immediate attention when they try to host something for a few reasons. A) They've been around a while, and havce run things in the past with varying degrees of success and B) like Melon said, they basically worked to build the Arena subforum from the ground up.
I think the drop-off has a lot to do with the change-over from Old Guild to New Guild. Fighting, overall, has seen a decline since about 2011, which is probably a mixture of people getting older and the changing technology. Back in 2007, not everyone had Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and a dozen mobile games on their phone. For a big chunk of the 2000s, the whole "forums" thing was a novel concept because most people didn't know about Usenet. You're always going to have roleplaying, but you can't just walk two paces and trip over a brawler anymore. You have to find them and then reel them in and get them involved.
Chat fighting has been dying a slow, ugly death for a decade. Forum RP has more sustainability, but only if people can commit to it.
That gaia tournament seems difficult in a bad way. You get a super bad penalty for killing your opponent, so this limits most characters you could do and most actions, as you'd need to constantly worry about killing your opponent so would always pull punches when the possibility of killing them comes up. Opening to the neck and you have a sword? Too bad, can't take it, etc. Someone like a brawler with their bare hands would be so much better in that ruleset as they would be easier to respond without lethal force. Not to mention the character tier limiting a lot of other characters. I'm fine with their rules but not as a main place to go for combat. Perhaps a different, less restrictive combat thread could be made in gaia. There appear to be enough people around that some could show interest in it even if already in the tournament.
Anyways, my character for our battle here would also be a student, as I would look silly having them a master and make mistakes in their form.
I've discussed it before -- at length -- but the bottom line is that deathmatches trend towards being efficient at killing, which leads to a narrowing of viable character archetypes, both in power and in equipment. Nonlethal matches are the most viable means of ensuring that, for example, a fist-fighter can square off against a swordsman. The swordsman can still hamstring his foe or even jam his sword into his belly because the wound won't be IMMINENTLY fatal (a rewording I'll need to make and clarify). It's meant to keep people from "going for the throat", which is the narrowing trend that deathmatches promote. Having done plenty of deathmatches in the past, I've always found them to be both boring and an endless source of arguments whenever I've been made to judge them.
We also use a fairly specific scope of power because a) that's the major trend in our community's events and b) it's the easiest form of powered combat to balance because profile grading and adjustment is a thing in many of Gaia's tournaments. Mild powers has, more or less, been the calling card for Gaia's tournaments ever since about 2007/2008 onward. That being said, I personally promote any kind of event, provided it's run well by someone who doesn't have their head up their ass. People complain about no killing? Make your own event. Don't like mild powers? Make your own event. Want to do tag-team tournaments? Make it happen. The biggest issue in the quasi-fractured community on Gaia is that we lack in leadership. Lots of Indians, few chiefs, and a lot of people who just want to piss and moan about the color of the feathers on the headdress without putting it on.
For unrestricted combat, we have Kharessos, which will be revamped shortly whenever I find someone capable of running a separate thread solely for arena combat. I, unfortunately, haven't the time to do so while also running/revamping the seasons and pursuing my own personal projects and hobbies (cooking 3,500+ calories of fruit, veggies, eggs, and chicken takes a lot of work, as does touching base with agents and editors). I realized that too late after making Kharessos, so Kharessos will be filtered down to "seasonal story shit" and another thread will be made solely for fights, where players are only limited by what they mutually agree to.
The GCL front page is going to get revamped between seasons. I didn't get a lot of feedback on the layout, but it needs to get reworked to include some missing info and to clarify some stuff.
@Starfall
It would be funnier if I haven't had to grade profiles that approximate that image -- or are worse than it by several orders of magnitude -- for past events.
/ten thousand yard stare
The shit I've seen.
It would be funnier if I haven't had to grade profiles that approximate that image -- or are worse than it by several orders of magnitude -- for past events.
/ten thousand yard stare
The shit I've seen.
My answer (ripped from the GCL thread):
There's no real wrong or right answer as to whether or not defending or attacking is easier/harder. There's too many variables. What kind of character are you playing? What are they playing against? What are the weapons? The powers? The environment?
Are you fighting a counter-boxer, an out-boxer, a swarmer? A swordsman, someone with a spear and shield? Do they have armor? How much? What kind? What kind of powers?
There's enough variables that you can't definitively say one or the other is easier, especially when "attacking" and "defending" are very broad topics. It's going to vary from situation to situation, and part of being a good fighter is knowing when to attack and when to defend.
There's no real wrong or right answer as to whether or not defending or attacking is easier/harder. There's too many variables. What kind of character are you playing? What are they playing against? What are the weapons? The powers? The environment?
Are you fighting a counter-boxer, an out-boxer, a swarmer? A swordsman, someone with a spear and shield? Do they have armor? How much? What kind? What kind of powers?
There's enough variables that you can't definitively say one or the other is easier, especially when "attacking" and "defending" are very broad topics. It's going to vary from situation to situation, and part of being a good fighter is knowing when to attack and when to defend.
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