Drifting Pollen

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

Speaking as someone who only even joined this site because it had a highly visible arena section, I'd say it shouldn't be merged.

Buddha seems to have been very selective with his screenshots, as if you look at the Arena right now there are four threads active within the past day alone- one of which has no less than seventeen players signed up to battle, with more on the way. Yes, the arena has had periods of inactivity, but when it pulls people in it really pulls them in.

What would the benefits be from making a merge? Uh... better "organization?" I mean, if you mostly play in free/casual/advanced, those categories are already neatly arranged atop the others. If you don't care about arena, so what- all it's doing is making you scroll down a little more to get to the "off topic" sections. Is that really such a big deal?

What would the harm be, then? Easy answer: reduced visibility. The arena is right up there as a category, and clear to see when looking at the site's main page- which, to someone clicking through a bunch of sites looking for somewhere to fight, can be a major factor in attracting them here particularly. I personally only came here for the arena, but since then I've branched out and posted in a few other roleplays outside of it- and I very much doubt I'm the only one. There is a very real demographic of people out there who want to do combat-style RP, and that same demographic can also contribute to story-driven RP.

So the solution here? First things first, I think leaving the Arena in it's current position doesn't hurt anyone and can benefit the site in some ways. However, I agree there is a problem. The problem is moderation.

The current arena moderators (Rilla and Skallagrim, from what I know) are barely active at all. I think it would definitely help to find new moderators to both boot up the ranking system again and encourage activity by starting tournaments and events. In general RP it's pretty easy to start something on your own and keep it going for a while, since generally multiple people are involved, but Arena fights are more precarious- in a one-versus-one you need both people participating, and participation itself can be quite stressful, given the often argumentative nature of the writing. The solutions to this:

- Get tournaments/the ranking system started. Fights can end prematurely, but if you put a larger framework in place then a couple participants dropping out won't necessarily stop the event from going on. See the current tournament: with 17 characters we'll see several fight threads in the first round alone, and that's even if we lose a few people beforehand. Plus, events and rankings can give people the motivation they need to keep a fight going.

- Experiment with group battles. I've been on other sites where battle have reached incredible proportions- 3v3s, 4v4s, a free-for-all with a dozen participants, and even a massive event where over thirty characters teamed up to fight a titanic boss. While the often disorderly nature of these battles makes them difficult to turn into competitive tournaments, they can be great fun, and can also survive one or two people leaving the thread. In short, worth trying out.

Essentially, I argue that the arena does contribute to the site as a whole, and having it in a prominent position can help draw in people looking for the specific type of roleplay it offers. While I agree there has been some stagnation there, I feel this can be remedied by replacing the inactive moderators and working on setting up more tournaments/events involving greater numbers of players.

TZDL2017 Rules/Signups/Updates

What's the weirdest place you've fought in an RP fight?

@Everett

Some of the more unusual venues I've played in include a fish market, a zoo, a paintball range, the interior of a plane about to take off, and an ice cream factory. The latter probably tops my weirdness list, since the IC reason for the battle was both sides fighting over the ice cream.

There was also one particular battle where the arena itself wasn't weird (a field/forest combo), but its effects were. The fight in question was a 3v3, which would already be chaotic enough, but then the admin decided to have a bunch of aztec-style tribal warriors run into the arena and start attacking everyone indiscriminately with all kinds of weird magic. It was complete madness, with one character losing all his clothes and fighting on completely naked, another getting swallowed whole, and a third ending up covered in vomit!

TZDL2017 Rules/Signups/Updates

Just, in the future guys, if you have a problem with me come to be about it so that I can address it in a collected and polite manner. Please.

@Everett

I don't think there was any problem with you at all- we were just talking about some of the weird and/or hilarious shit that happened in various fights, and that copy/paste thing came up. Which, combined with the fight taking place on a bouncy castle of all things, you have to admit was pretty freaking funny. Everyone here's likely had ridiculous stuff come up in our past battles, though, so I doubt anyone would hold that against you.

TZDL2017 Rules/Signups/Updates

Player Name: Drifting Pollen
Availability: 1PM to midnight PST on Saturdays and Sundays.
(Will try to post on weekdays as well, but availability there will likely vary week to week).

Lyra

Name: Lyra Gwynn
Age: Around 50 years
Height: 5'7''
Weight: 125 lbs
Race: Undead, formerly human

Appearance:
Lyra looks much younger than she actually is: she was twenty-two years old when she died, and her body has stayed that way ever since she came back. She has a willowy build, with brown hair tied back in a ponytail, light brown eyes, and gentle, almost childlike features.

For clothing, she tends to favor primitive dresses, woven with intricate patterns in colors that match the environment. She makes these herself, and each one is meant to reflect the nature of the lands she finds herself in. They offer virtually nothing in the way of physical protection, but they're short and loose enough for her to move freely in them.

She also wears a thin belt, with a dagger at her left hip and a small pouch at her right, and carries a long white spear.

Weapons or items:

- Dragon spine: A two-handed thrusting spear, crafted with great effort from the bone of a beast Lyra slew long ago. It's around seven feet long, and made entirely of the same material, with no visible seams or cracks. Light, sharp, and astoundingly durable.

- Dragon tooth: A short white dagger, made from the fang of a beast Lyra slew long ago. Mainly used for a specific purpose (see Abilities), but also works pretty well for shanking people in a pinch. As sharp and tough as the spear.

- Gas bombs: Six egg-shaped stones, kept in a pouch on her belt. When she touches one, it will begin to rapidly deteriorate, and will explode after two seconds, releasing a cloud of thick green gas, a unique substance synthesized from the decomposing corpses of dragons. This gas is an incredibly potent corrosive substance capable of eating through solid matter with frightening speed. Flesh, metal, kevlar, and even artificially synthesized or magically strengthened substances are vulnerable. However, it doesn't attack dragon bone, nor purely supernatural 'solids' (such as force fields or energy barriers). Other than the aforementioned properties, it behaves much like any vapor, and can be stopped or dispersed by forces or barriers it doesn't eat through.

Abilities:

- Physical abilities and training: Even before dying, Lyra had something of a natural talent for combat. Her speed is well above peak human levels, and she has the reaction times to match it. Years of experience have helped her learn how to maintain excellent control and balance while moving extremely fast, as well as how to apply her swiftness to close-quarters combat and traversal of difficult terrain. Her strength and endurance aren't amazing, but she hasn't slacked off on them and isn't nearly as weak or frail as she might appear.

Her true specialty, however, is stealth and deception: she's quick, quiet, and light of foot, and able to mask her presence and intent well enough to launch effective surprise attacks on even seasoned warriors and assassins.

- Gale runner: Lyra was born with some psychic potential, and can use it to hinder mental attacks somewhat, but she never learned to attack the minds of others or create magical constructs. Instead, she attuned her instincts to connect with something far simpler but still hugely powerful: the air. Through a specialized form of telekinesis, she can usher it into motion, and direct its path in gusts both slow and fast, with the latter able to reach speeds beyond anything found in nature. She can't produce 'constructs' such as blades of wind, nor control air on a delicate enough level to pull it out of someone's lungs. On the other hand, she can generate gusts at range and even ride on flows of air like a kite, using the wind's speed to move herself around when her own maneuverability proves insufficient.

- Undead body: Since Lyra's retrun from the grave, she's found that she doesn't really function quite like she used to. Due to her particular state of undeath, she remains animate even though most of her biological functions have stopped: she moves, thinks, and senses her environment, but doesn't breathe, eat, or maintain a set body temperature. It's possible for her body to perform these functions, but it takes a voluntary effort on Lyra's part to do so. Her nervous and circulatory systems seem to have shut down entirely, and she's shown no signs of aging as time goes by. Her brain and muscles still work, but everything else is bypassed by the inscrutable force that holds her in her current state.

- The Shroud: Lyra is bound to a floating mass of dark particles, a cloud of mysterious smoke that moves with her wherever she goes. In more casual settings it will lie hidden in her shadow, compressed and passive, but in combat she deploys it in full force, and it can grow large enough to fill a small house. The Shroud seems to be related to her state of undeath, and Lyra can manipulate the size and shape of the cloud as if it were part of her body, which combined with her wind summoning gives her excellent control over its form. However, it can't spread out beyond a certain minimum density, which restricts its reach to two thousand cubic feet at most.

Other than being movable, the Shroud possesses three dangerous abilities. The first is that it absorbs and stores light and sound, including frequencies beyond those visible and audible to humans, such as ultrasound or radio waves. It's perfectly black, and masks any noises passing through it. Light and sound it absorbs can be gathered and later redeployed offensively, as wide bursts or tightly concentrated beams.

The second ability is that it not only responds to Lyra's thoughts and impulses, it relays sensory information as well. While she's inside it, it can directly plant in her mind the patterns of light and sound coming into contact with its outer edges, allowing her to see and hear what's going on outside. It also keeps her aware of its own contours, allowing her to effectively 'feel' anything within the cloud. The Shroud differentiates between her own thoughts and those born of other powers, obeying only those that are truly hers, and she can use it to detect foreign incursions into her mind.

The third ability is that the Shroud will resist any and all movement within itself not initiated by Lyra or her abilities. Its minuscule particles are made of a strange material from a far-flung universe devoid of life, and they bend physics around them slightly, slowing down other matter and energy passing through areas where the particles are gathered. This effect works more powerfully against faster movements: walking through the Shroud is merely uncomfortable, running through it is like pushing against a wall of molasses, and bullets or anything similarly fast will face opposition strong enough to slow them to a crawl. The more spread-out the Shroud is, however, the less powerful the slowing effect becomes. At five hundred cubic feet or below, the slowing effect is as described above. However, it decreases proportionally with spread, so that at two thousand cubic feet the effect is only one-fourth as powerful. As a result, when spread too thinly it will self-concentrate around sources of movement where necessary, to better resist them. Although Lyra, her weapons, and the matter/energy she controls with her powers are immune to this effect, she can't control the effect itself.

- Cryokinesis: Lyra can freeze liquid or gaseous water, and manipulate ice and snow. On a basic level this functions similarly to her power over wind, so she must use what is present in her environment rather than creating it herself. She has fairly precise control over ice, and can both levitate and reshape it, but this comes at a cost: this ability doesn't extend over a wide area, but instead gradually spreads, like a virus. Her cryokinesis must be initiated within a range of about two feet from her. Once she's seized control of a fragment of ice, she can maintain this control outside of said initial range, and spread control to water and ice near the fragments she already commands. In short, she usually starts with small amounts, but can chain her cryokinesis to build up larger effects.

The actual freezing process is of course exceedingly fast. Solutions pose some additional problems: the more solute is dissolved in water, the closer her power needs to be to freeze it. Bodily fluids are complex enough that her ice needs to make direct contact before she can freeze them. Lyra's power can also be used to keep ice packed together, which can vastly increase its effective hardness- but the more ice she applies this to, the lower the overall effect. Similarly, the speed at which she can make ice move decreases as the amount of ice she's controlling increases, though in both cases the inverse is also true. Lyra may release ice from her control if she so chooses.

- Bone dragon: Once per fight, if Lyra brings her dragon-tooth dagger into direct contact with her own bone, she may transform herself into a massive skeletal dragon. This form lasts about a minute. Her own bones grow explosively outwards, becoming durable dragon bone and forming a thick shell around Lyra's human body while extending around it to form the monster, with the shell located within the ribcage. In addition to being fucking awesome, this form grants her tremendously increased strength and durability, as well as the ability to emit the green gas seen in her gas bombs from her jaws and nostrils in huge quantities. Although it has no skin, muscle or nervous system, this form can move and fly as if it did. After the time runs out or the shell is somehow broken, the bone dragon will shatter into thousands of pieces, releasing Lyra onto the field.

Backstory

Lyra's first memories are of hard times, of dust and dirt and exile. Some years before her birth, her people were forced out of their ancestral homelands, whole cities laid to waste when an ancient and powerful dragon decided to make their mountain home its territory. Faced with the wrath of a monster none could challenge, the indigenous population was left with little choice but to flee. Even as they left their lands behind, however, they vowed to one day take them back.

From a young age, Lyra and her fellow children were trained in the arts of war and magic. Their elders told them stories of their homeland, instilling within them a burning will to return to the life of old. Year by year, they practiced relentlessly, eventually leaving their parents to travel the world and seek new skills and powers that might help them defeat their mighty enemy.

Lyra had never been particularly talented with conventional magic, so she sought out an order of psychics, and learned to channel the wind through more direct and instinctual means. She wasn't satisfied with this, however, and strayed further still, scouring her homeworld for something powerful enough to finish her enemy for good. She traveled further than any other, through burning deserts and towering mountain ranges, to the farthest reaches of the continent. She saw landscapes that dwarved anything she'd ever dreamed of, came to know of peoples and creatures whose vibrant diversity fascinated her, and heard enough tales and histories to fill a thousand books. As a girl she'd been told to yearn for her stolen homeland, but as a young woman she found her true home: on the frontiers, exploring, ever forging new paths.
Still, she couldn't keep traveling forever. There remained her duty, one she had to see through for once and for all, before she could truly be free.

So she sought out a rumor, a ghost. Whispers of a traveller from another universe, a mad genius wielding unimaginable power. She walked out across a frozen sea, to the faraway point where she'd heard this being sometimes passed through her world.

To this day, Lyra has never told anyone what she found there. What is known is that she came back with the Shroud.

There was no more need for training or exploration. She traveled straight back to her homeland, and rather than wait for her comrades to gather their forces, walked straight into the dragon's domain and challenged it alone.

It was barely even a fight. The beast blew through her defenses and snapped her up with its massive jaws, swallowing her in a single gulp.

As she'd intended.

Lyra had made a contract of sorts, a deal. She'd give up her mortal life, and receive in exchange a rebirth, a one-time resurrection via a permanent joining with the Shroud. For the other party, she was a guinea pig of sorts, a test of whether the otherworldly cloud really worked as predicted.

What Lyra got out of it was a way to kill her dragon.

No human could survive in the corrosive, poisonous interior of the dragon's stomach. She died in an instant- then woke up and tore the beast apart from the inside.

As soon as the news reached her people, they rejoiced. Scattered families flooded back into the ancestral homeland, with the many would-be dragonslayers acting as a powerful deterrent against any foreign powers trying to claim the now dragon-free territory for themselves. Lyra herself was honored and celebrated, with many suggesting that she should be made queen of this land now reclaimed.

She politely refused. In that fateful meeting out across the sea of ice, Lyra had learned that there was far more to the cosmos than one lonely planet and one simple quest. Something in her craved more. There were endless foreign lands waiting to be explored, monsters far worse than dragons that needed to be killed, impossible roads she yearned to journey down. So she carved new weapons from the beast she'd slain, and set off on her own once more.

Since then, she's left her world behind, traveling to new realms and honing her skills and powers along the way. There's no knowing where her path will take her, but as of yet she'd shown no signs of wanting to stop.

TZDL2017.. BUT ON RPGUILD!

Oh, oh, pick me! I'll fight!

Over

The mismatched pair of Song and Dancer limped their way slowly down the upper deck, the taller of the two walking very slowly and very carefully as he followed his partner towards the front of the ship. After a rather unnerving and violent experience on the bridge, Maya had decided to take some precautions before they left. Now, they moved uncomfortably, not looking at each other or speaking, though their minds were still actively exchanging commentary.

Just to make sure we're on the same page: we are not telling anyone about that. And that includes fucking AMRO.

We're not supposed to lie on official reports, and I'd rather not risk annoying our superiors any more.

Don't fucking deflect, you know what I mean. Use all that fancy wording of yours, leave out the nasty details.

Maya made the tiniest of nods. We entered the bridge, found a chemical weapon, and disposed of it before it could do to much damage. Effects on both asylums were temporary and negligible. There's no need to mention you bawling like a baby-

That's enough of that!

Oh, come on. It's not like you haven't embarrassed yourself far worse before...

The strangeness of the experience aside, they had been successful in their mission. The bomb had been found, and while they hadn't defused it, its effect had been spent on them and caused little actual harm. Probably more of a prank than anything else. Maya knew it pissed off Dancer to no end, but it was still better that actually having the ship blow up on them. The crew was back on the bridge, the other Asylums appeared to have dealt with the other bombs, and the boat was quickly heading towards its destination. Not a bad start, all things considered.

Or so Maya thought. Dancer was still utterly convinced that something was going to go horribly wrong.

Still, there were no immediate screams or explosions as the cruise ship docked, nor did the ladders or the docks show any signs of collapsing as the crowds of Bloodline members disembarked. Dancer's eyes flicked back and forth as he walked onto the island, a heavy duffel bag slung over one shoulder, but no immediate threats presented themselves. The peacefulness only made him more paranoid. If whoever was out there wasn't attacking them now, that could only mean they were saving all those nasty surprises for later.

His ire and attention, however, were soon drawn by the crowd of Asylums dicking around in front of the estate they were supposed to be protecting. His right hand smacked into his forehead. "Maya... please tell me this is another fucking bomb, and that the little shits aren't actually acting like a bunch of five-year-olds?"

She smiled back at him. "I'm afraid not, there's no signs of foul play." Then yawned. "Seems we have some colorful reinforcements on our hands, here. Not that I mind, if it means less work for us." She waved at Geko and the others, pleased to see them. She could tolerate her grouch of a partner better than most, but it'd be nice to have some fresh faces around to lighten the mood.

The Invincible Girl versus an Old Snake

The invincible girl's grasping fingers vainly struggled against the molten iron, but it was not proving easy to dislodge. Although the hammer's head was gone, Vol Lok Ra still held the pole that had been the lamppost's shaft, and touched it to the flowing metal, commanding it to obey him. Vincy's fingers broke through the red-hot liquid easily, but each time she did, her blazing mask would reform, a little cooler and tougher each time. Before long, she'd have a mask of solid iron wrapped tightly around her face, preventing her from seeing or breathing.

The lizard king's aim had been to disable her, for it would be all but impossible to defeat the girl if he didn't stop her from attacking somehow. However, he'd only been partially successful in slowing her down. He'd fought many battles over his long, long lifetime, and now his experience worked against him: his instincts told him that an opponent who had just been hit so hard wouldn't immediately get up and strike back. Unfortunately, this was precisely what Vincy did.

Caught off guard by the charge, Vol took the first mighty blow head-on, feeling something snap inside him as his opponent struck out with surprising fury. A grow of pain forced its way out of his throat as he reeled back, surprised and hurt by his mistake. She was uncoordinated, yes, but also hitting harder than before, perhaps he'd actually managed to slow her down slightly. Worse, she didn't seem to be getting tired at all, while he most certainly was. He needed to figure out how to to pin her down- and fast.

When she flailed again, he was ready, hopping backwards with surprising nimbleness before whacking her hard with his lamppost-pole. He knew it wouldn't hurt her, so he aimed for the metal on her face, reinforcing it with his magic and calling once more upon the mass of the earth, channeling it through the pole into the mask he'd forged to bind her. Vincy would feel the metal on and inside her getting heavier, slowing her down and making it harder to move around. Vol, meanwhile, suddenly leaped to one side, prowling around her to try and get out of the way of further blind strikes and hit her from behind.

Arena FAQ/Advice

So, I'm new to arena based Roleplay and I was wondering if someone could help me with all this stuff cause it really looks interesting.

@Jorik

Most people around here are pretty helpful. I'm too busy right now to fight you myself, but if you ask around in the Arena Chat thread I'm sure you'll find someone willing to give you a spar!

Wait should I make a character for these role play battles? Or just do whatever

@masterwriter234

Make a character. If you want to do battle, you'll need a fighter- and character sheets are almost always shared before a fight, to make sure everyone sticks to their guns and doesn't start pulling powers or equipment out their ass.

Arena Chat Thread

Which of my characters would you want to fight anyway?

@MelonHead

Any of them would work. George, Anna, Sigurd and Metz seem the most interesting out of those I've read, but I'll face whoever you feel like using. Name a tier, and I can offer an opponent around that level.

Arena Chat Thread

I should fight you sometime. Not now, but soon. Soon.

@MelonHead

Sweet. Let me know when the time comes.

Im open for a fight if you'd like one.

@Divinity

Could be fun. Were you thinking of going up against Tybalt, or is any character good?