RPing a Duel

[PrlUnicorn]

Lately, I have noticed that some people's duels have only had the round calls going to screen and nothing else.

I realize that newer players need time to adjust to the place and work the kinks out of how their duels should be put into words and how they should look on screen, but as we should have learned at a young age, we don't learn something or learn to perfect something by not doing it.

To me, it's somewhat disrespectful to the player of your opponent to be silent on screen. Responding in some way is a visual cue to them that you have seen the call and are ready to move forward. We have a lot of players among us that have small children and other responsibilities that take them away from the screen momentarily. I have never minded waited for those players to catch up. However, people that don't put anything to screen at all is another matter entirely.

Another reason this bothers me is that it tends to perpetuate the myth that those who participate in duels are not role players or are lesser skilled role players than those that play exclusively on DM. I know I'm not the only one that doesn't like that image.

Simply put, please RP your duel in some fashion if for no other reason than to show respect for your opponent's time and the caller's. If your opponent is waiting on you to send their next move, the caller is waiting on both of you.

Thank you.

[G]

To me, it's somewhat disrespectful to the player of your opponent to be silent on screen. Responding in some way is a visual cue to them that you have seen the call and are ready to move forward. We have a lot of players among us that have small children and other responsibilities that take them away from the screen momentarily. I have never minded waited for those players to catch up. However, people that don't put anything to screen at all is another matter entirely.

I will freaking second this to the Nth degree, except to say that it's not SOMEWHAT disrespectful, but Incredibly disrespectful. Nothing angers me more than to make an effort in a duel and suddenly find out, who am I RPing with? Nobody? What? Why bother freaking dueling? I've thrown people on a list of those I won't duel because of it, and if I encounter them in the ring asking for a match, it isn't going to happen now.

As an aside to the one with children, I may not have kids of my own, but I do live with a family and am often helping with putting my niece to bed, or getting milk or whatever. If you're going to be away from the screen for an extended period of time and are in a duel, PLEASE at least let me know either in IMs or something. Just say "AFK" or whatever. People are extremely understanding in these sorts of regards and I've heard complaints about people being in a duel and having moves sent in advance. This upset that player a bit and I can't tell you how wonderful it was for me to hear about it. I figured it was child related and it calmed them down a bit, but yeah, let people know before doing something like that. I know I'd rather get an "AFK" and wait for the next round to RP than just find myself sitting there having moves sent that weren't being RPed.

Just RP your duels. You find you might have more fun that way.

[Harris]

My best suggestion is that this be communicated to the player(s) who are guilty of it *directly*. Ping them with an in room IM asking them about roleplaying their duels. If you see it happen and just say, "Well, I'm not gonna duel them" suddenly they're blacklisted and may not understand why people are refusing to duel them. The first step is making them aware of the issue so that it can be properly corrected.

[PrlUnicorn]

My best suggestion is that this be communicated to the player(s) who are guilty of it *directly*. Ping them with an in room IM asking them about roleplaying their duels. If you see it happen and just say, "Well, I'm not gonna duel them" suddenly they're blacklisted and may not understand why people are refusing to duel them. The first step is making them aware of the issue so that it can be properly corrected.

I have addressed one of the parties involved. The correction only lasted for as long as the duel did.

[Harris]

My best suggestion is that this be communicated to the player(s) who are guilty of it *directly*. Ping them with an in room IM asking them about roleplaying their duels. If you see it happen and just say, "Well, I'm not gonna duel them" suddenly they're blacklisted and may not understand why people are refusing to duel them. The first step is making them aware of the issue so that it can be properly corrected.

I have addressed one of the parties involved. The correction only lasted for as long as the duel did.

Then I absolutely agree it's a level of disrespect that shouldn't be tolerated.

[Teagan]

I'm guilty sometimes, for a number of reasons.

Sometimes I get distracted and miss a round, either from outside influences or simply trying to pick my next move. Admittedly I have had a lack of motivation when it comes to dueling or RPing lately. Sometimes when I start a duel I get part way into it and lose interest. That one is not a very good reason, but it still happens.

[PrlUnicorn]

I will freaking second this to the Nth degree, except to say that it's not SOMEWHAT disrespectful, but Incredibly disrespectful. Nothing angers me more than to make an effort in a duel and suddenly find out, who am I RPing with? Nobody? What? Why bother freaking dueling? I've thrown people on a list of those I won't duel because of it, and if I encounter them in the ring asking for a match, it isn't going to happen now.

As an aside to the one with children, I may not have kids of my own, but I do live with a family and am often helping with putting my niece to bed, or getting milk or whatever. If you're going to be away from the screen for an extended period of time and are in a duel, PLEASE at least let me know either in IMs or something. Just say "AFK" or whatever. People are extremely understanding in these sorts of regards and I've heard complaints about people being in a duel and having moves sent in advance. This upset that player a bit and I can't tell you how wonderful it was for me to hear about it. I figured it was child related and it calmed them down a bit, but yeah, let people know before doing something like that. I know I'd rather get an "AFK" and wait for the next round to RP than just find myself sitting there having moves sent that weren't being RPed.

Just RP your duels. You find you might have more fun that way.

You know, you're 100% right. It is incredibly disrespectful. No one is asking for a masterly crafted theatrical production, something simple will do. We were all new once, trying to make our way and fit in.

This is a text medium and what goes to the live chat screen is what our characters are doing that other characters can see, hear, and react to. Just because a caller announces a round doesn't mean the characters have actually done anything. That responsibility for bringing that to life is on the individual player.

[Elijah]

This is a good thing to be said and I agree that while happening veteran players should make an effort to coax those doing this offending practice out and get them involved. Most of them may not even read these boards either.

[Napoleon Bonarat]

Eh, I posted a response to this elsewhere, but things like this don't bother me a lot (though it can be annoying) and I don't think it has anything to do with respect or lack of it. We attract both gamers and roleplayers. Nothing wrong with that. And sometimes newer people or people trying to get a feel for their new character just don't have a lot to say.

Roleplay your half of the duel, and don't worry about what the other guy is or isn't doing that meets your RP expectations. Of course, no one says you have to fight them again, unless they end up being matched with you in a tourney or team event. And even then you have to weigh your vow to never duel them again against what's best for the team or tourney.

[Carley]

When I RPed and dueled I preferred someone who would RP as well most of the time (though sometimes just getting a duel or two in real quick was nice), but there is definitely a gamer thing going on here too. Some people are here primarily to game, not RP. Though even then most of that crowd sends out bare minimum stuff. ::Cut:: :Hit:: and so forth. I can't really say why someone would send NOTHING out, but I wouldn't be so hasty as to presume it's a matter of a person trying to be disrespectful.

Sometimes I found it a little hard to RP duels, because there was only so many ways to say that my character punched or stabbed theirs. And if you've been at it for a while or you're not good with describing fights or legit new and having a hard time grasping the concept of how to RP a duel it can get boring, tedious, or downright confusing. IMO a good way to encourage RP in a non confrontational manner would be to give them something to RP off of. Not just what's going on with the duel moves, but maybe have your character start up a conversation with theirs? Something that makes sense for your character to do that can be reacted to.

[Harris]

And I would absolutely understand and accept the gamer vs. roleplay argument if people didn't roleplay everything else.

If you RP your character entering, RP your character drinking at the bar, RP your character joking with a buddy, and basically RP *everything* else I'm hard pressed to swallow the gamer vs. rp argument. Because none of those things are required either. Nobody has to actually enter the room with a character. They can simply cruise around IMing people for duels, duel, leave, and never post anything to the room at all. That's a gamer.

Roleplay is a two way street. Having a *limited* amount of ways to describe a move is still far superior than not describing it at all. Even if it is just the classic ::swings sowrd:: that's at least something to draw from and play off of. I really don't grasp how anyone can play a completely one-sided fight with nothing to feed off of. Can I do whatever I want to your character during the match? If I lop off your arm... is that cool? What's the limit? That's something a player has to set for themselves by way of RPing their duel. There's a lot of information that stems from in ring interaction that's paramount for both players.

The problem is, no, we can't *force* anyone to RP. So broaching the subject is extremely difficult right off the bat. Carley makes the best point where really we're all limited to trying to coax it out of the person as nicely as possible, which is a great suggestion. Finding out the why first is always the best. We should be trying to generate RP in every form from everyone, in my opinion. So, kid gloves when necessary.

[Andu Kirost]

Greetings.

I myself have a rule for any character I duel. Before I Duel, each of the "moves" must have a basic description. Yes, this creates artificial limits in some of the duels. But it also makes it easier to RP each move while trying to decide my next move.

As a couple of examples.

Luether Driftwood. (DoS) High Cut. A slice taken at the oponent while at the top of a leap. The RP would depend on his last move, and the position that move would have left him in. Of course various moves also dictate what following moves are possible. A slash can't follow a duck for Luethar because when he ducks, he drops down into a "push up" position.

Dia Solari (DoM) Mage Bolt For Dia this is essentially a "Wireless taser". visually it appears as a lightning bolt from spring from her hand. DoM by its vary nature has zero limitations on what moves can follow what moves for most of my characters.

Just my 2 copper pieces.

[Goldglo]

Basic descriptions are cool and can be useful, but I don't think they have to be necessarily limiting.

A slash can't follow a duck for Luethar because when he ducks, he drops down into a "push up" position.

Sure it can. A slash doesn't have to be 'a diagonal downward attack' - it can be anything. It can be an upward leaping attack that Luethar launches into from his crouch. It can be a kick to the kneecap, it can be driving his weapon into his opponent's foot.

If "slash" needs to have a basic description, maybe make it as basic as: Slash: "A move designed to blow past my opponent's defense". That's basic enough to leave the role-play of that move open-ended and based upon/reactive to the move selected by your opponent and your opponent's own play of that move.

The matrix-moves are strategy, selected by us the players within the dueling metagame; I believe that the role-play of those moves & the actions of our characters are and should be adaptable to any given duel and any given opponent, based on the back-and-forth cooperative RP of that duel.

--Matt

[DUEL Goblin]

Don't think it's a gamer thing, I'd describe myself as a pure gamer. And I prefer duels where there is a lot of dialogue in addition to physical movement. The fact is this game loses most of its appeal without the interactions.

I thnk people should be aware that most others do not want duels without RP, and that if there is something preventing them from interaction they should inform the other player. I mean otherwise its like dueling the practice programs.

[PrlUnicorn]

Andu's got some got good ideas there.

Even in table top gaming, there's discussion of what actions a character is taking. Sometimes, the referee/game master/storyteller needs a better picture of what's happening. That's usually done with words or a bit of show and tell if the players are so inclined.