the Rift


:: Help us make sparring more fun ::

Official Posts: 847
Administrator
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
Official
#1
So introducing the dice systems has DEFINITELY increased the volume of started and completed spars, which is what it was supposed to do, however! There is still an issue with completing spars.

1. How should we combat this?

Admin idea:
Make monthly "RE spars" where the RE sets up a unique scenario that has IC meaning in the battle board. The first to characters to respond to it get to participate. Some of these will be SWP related, some not, but all of them matter IC. In the dice rolls, admin add little things about the environment to help you react/write in your posts.

So for example, the Random Event would post this in the battle board:
"A darkness envelops you, tunneling your vision while the light envelops the other. The wind picks up on top of the Heavenly Fields, and the clouds turn to ash, raining down from a blackened sky. You know in your heart that the other must die, so you fight."

Then, first to post gets to choose their position and battle out with this scenario.

Would this help you guys?


2. Is there a stress reliever you can think of that we can implement?

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#2
1. I LOVE this idea. I think a few things could be done with this.

Have a monthly "Challenger." Or maybe every three weeks if you really want to encourage sparring, though for records purposes it would be easier to do it by the month. Something like the things you had to fight for Halloween in Isilme, if I am remembering. People sign up to fight against it and you do a die roll for whoever gets to that time, and if you competed the previous month you can't do it again. The winner receives a prize, either something off their wishlist or something one of a kind and related to the fight--So if they fought a skeleton monster, they get a magical bone charm or whatever. You have to finish the spar within the month (encourages completion and efficiency) or else you lose automatically, because the creature's power grows so great or something as time passes. If you finish but lose, you get a small prize for your efforts, just not the main one. If you drop out, someone else gets rolled from the list. Prize could either be a surprise or stated beforehand (IE: Winner of this will receive MAGIC or UNIQUE BONE CHARM). For IC reasons I think unique tokens would be more interesting, personally.

Other thing: When you start a spar, include an "RE Allowed" tag--if that happens, an RE can pop up in your spar and do something that either affects one or both characters. If just one, die roll to decide who for fairness, and die roll for damage too, giving all RE things a set of base stats that members are aware of.

Also--Occasionally an opportunity to spar with THE GODS. AND LOSE PROBABLY. BUT HAVE FUN. Not that they'd dabble with mortals, maybe, but...



2. To be honest, one of the most stressful things for me is knowing that on top of trying to be clear and just figure out how writing works, the style of my writing is being critiqued at the same time. I understand grammar mistakes and whatnot, or points off for it being completely unreadable/incomprehensible, but I've never understood why the writing had to be so closely examined. And I know I want to be able to start sentences with and (lol I did this one) without being penalized--it's not technically grammatically incorrect and it's a style choice, but it's just one of those little things that sometimes get counted against people. IC it also isn't as relevant to me, you know? Idk, I think that is a huge stresser for me. Sparring is the only time when the quality of your writing is being judged on this site which is all about a mutual love of writing freely and however you want, and it's also such a subjective thing.

ALSO THE WORD LIMIT. I go above 800 almost every time because I have to include so much to clarify and then I feel as though my actual good writing suffers. Usually the parts I edit out are style and thought and I feel as though I lose something with that. Maybe if the writing style was less focused on and we were made to bold all attacks, it would be easier for the admin to focus on the technical stuff and read the rest less closely, so the word limit could be done away with (or at least raised)?


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead


Arya Posts: 50
Hidden Account
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16 hh :: 2
Minx
#3
1. I personally really like this idea! I don't have a lot to contribute though as far my own ideas.


2. Is there a stress reliever you can think of that we can implement?
I'd really appreciate the ability to have shorter word limits. Writing 600-800 word posts can be extremely difficult for me. Especially since my battle skills are lacking and I'd love the ability to have short more fast paced spars. It's really all those word counts that stress me out, and makes me avoid sparring so much. I spend a lot of time dreading the fact I have to sit down and write a small essay, but, I do understand why we need this. Certain writers require high word counts in order to meet the amount of detail.

I also agree with Jen's points on stylistic choices. Some of my characters have very different styles from others. A Maitimo post will be written differently than an Arya post, due to their drastic personality differences and demands. And like Jen said, it's very subjective. Which is totally fair! We all have writing style preferences. It'd be nice for it to be more focused on the technical, that way I can feel like it's more or less based on my skill as a battle writer versus my writing style, which is still developing as a whole.

• tag in opening posts only 
• violence/magic is permitted. maiming/death is not without prior permission
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#4
1. I like this idea. The only problem I see with Jen's suggestion of fighting NPCs is that it puts a fairly unfair workload and pressure on the admin team :/ So I think themed spars where we simply fight one another is better :)

2. Wait do we have a LOWER word limit in spars that has nothing to do with our basic word count?? o_o; I checked the Guidebook and it only mentions "maximum 800".

Anyway, I, personally, am not stressed by spars, my problem is usually just that I find them incredibly boring because my character has no real drive to fight :< but that's a personal problem and not a system one. :P
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#5
@[Mauja]--I agree on the admin burden, I thought of this too on my walk home and was like oh yeah duh. Perhaps people could sign up to play as NPC so it could be member-based too? The admin could maybe come up with the creature and prize, or those could be member-suggestions and then rolled for at random, but members (though of course admins could too) would do the actual fighting? The person who volunteered to play as NPC could also get something for their efforts, since they wouldn't be getting EXP for their character (Maybe art like COTM, or one of the small prizes or amulets or what have you).

Also @[Arya], I believe Neo is right that there is no word minimum in spars other than the sitewide one. Spar posts can be anything between 350 and 800 words, as far as I am aware; I was saying I have the opposite problem where I often find I run out of words to say what I want.


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead


Tamme the Tempting Posts: 140
Administrator
Mare :: Other :: 2 :: 2 HP: 9001 | Buff: Admin
Tamme
#6
Clarification :

- Spars can be between 250 (site minimum) and 800 words! This is because our admin team cries when we have to read roughly 8000 words to judge a battle and critique all within. The only time the admin make a note that you used too few words is if something was lacking (ie, you didn't really include/notice the fact that the ground was soggy)

- The reason we don't do NPC battles is because it's too easy to just let your opponent win, thus it's not really VP anymore! All VP should be earned in a battle that's pvp

- Admin do not judge style in the battleboard! Check out some of our rubrics! We take a technical approach and judge grammar, but we often let stylistic grammatical errors go. Such as (There was nothing but hate. Hate and death.) Technically "hate and death" is a fragment, but it's not something we would dock points for.

- If you feel any discomfort about your rubric or how it was judged, please PM official :) We will clarify and/or rejudge/

Elsa the Icebound Posts: 644
World's Edge Protector atk: 6 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6
Mare :: Pegasus :: 16.2 Hands :: Six (Frostfall) HP: 73 | Buff: BULK
Edgar :: Plain Zephyr :: Arctic & Wakiya Klare
#7
1. Love the idea of RE Surrounding-realted thingies.

Personally I like taking erratic weather and playing around with it in spars. Especially for some of my characters, if it isn't emotionally driven, I can sometimes piggy back off of weather to help pump them up a bit (if that makes sense). So for instance, if Elsa was flying, and then weird wind patterns appeared, it would be cool to have her need to work around that problem. Or, if she was on the ground, say that there is a sudden storm and the thick drops blur vision. That sort of thing would be cool, because I agree that trying to have RE only spars/NPC spars would be too much work for JA's and admins.

2. So I think the main thing for me is just having motivation to write creatively. This, obviously, could be solved with the above. Which is why I like the idea so much. xD Or even putting optional pitfalls/injuries that could occur that isn't related to who is being attacked. For instance, if Elsa is pushing someone, and gets a luck 6 damage rule, being "pushed" alone doesn't really call for that sort of damage. So saying that there is a possibility of hitting a boggy patch could allow them to take the attack, as well as making it realistic by saying that their characters hooves or something got wrapped in the drenched plants and such.

If I kind of need to explain things, just ask. I think as a type so sometimes its a little jumbled. :)
  • Any force can be used against Elsa.
  • Please tag any posts that involves Elsa.

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#8
Now that I have sparred a lot more and had more time to think--

I think having the OOC sparring teachers on hand to help new people scared to get into it would help. Just to let people know they can always do an open spar with the tag [Open Teaching] and a teacher will join in would be swell. Getting teaching advice and talking with my teachers has helped me tremendously and I find that the more you know and more you do it the more you have fun. Or just in general encouraging people who are timid to start or feel less than confident to open spar--maybe the other way around, so OOC teachers can start spars once and a while (maybe on a rotating basis when they are free) that are open to anyone with less than X VP. Since not all teachers are admin this isn't an admin only burden so much as a community shared thing, helping each other. And the more that get taught the more will eventually be able to become teachers themselves, I know I hope to be good enough to be one someday.

Another option is simply an open forum for it--maybe on skype--where if people are stuck with their spars they can message these people and be like, hey, I'm in this tricky position and I am looking for advice, or, I want to know how much damage I should take or if this is realistic, etc. The person still has to write it themselves so it's not cheating or anything, obviously.

And I do still think the occasional RE weather/environment/what have you roll could be fun. Maybe you could ask Mythical Request in your roll thread for simply a couple sentences of something happening in the battle thread, be limited to one use per fight so as not to overwhelm.


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead



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