I stumbled across and excellent article, sadly I am unsure as to who the author is. However its a great perspective on Battling/dueling in free form rp. I am posting its entirety so please feel free to share your thoughts and views.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost everyone at some point in time ends up fighting, wheater in a duel for honor or just caught in the crossfire of a barfight, everyone at some point ends up fighting. But how exactly do you fight without being unfair?
None of these methods are perfect, but if you don't want to create a character stats sheet according to any set RP system, they're worth a try.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Method 1: Predecided Outcome
The fight has just broke out. Both you and your oponent go OOC and talk about who should win. This works well with two-person fights where the winner is pretty obvious (ex: weak, cocky nobel VS angry trained mercenary armed with a Rapier) but may be more dificult for closer matches (ex: two normal males dueling).
Method 2: Roll the Bones
Instead of negociating, you roll dice to see if you hit or not or successfully dodge. Roll off your chances of failure, I usually think of it as fractons of 100% and will roll 1d10 to represent the 100%.
For weak or very untrained characters, the roll would be anything over a 3 (30% chance of hit) is a failure.
For normal characters, anything over a 6 (60% chance of hit) is a miss.
For trained fighters, anything over an 8 (80% chance of hit) is a miss.
Use your common sence as to who to assign what roll, and feel free to slightly alter things depending upon situation. Such as if it's very dark or your character is hitting at a jumping target, you may want to lower your chances of hitting or, if attacking, raise your chances of missing.
Mehtod 3: Nothing But Logic
It's dark and foggy, you're a old horse trying to defend youself against three well-armed bandits. From the mists one of them leaps at you with a dagar.... What do you think would happen?
That's how the Nothing But Logic approach works. You take into factor the enviromental conditions, your character's condition, and what is being done as to decide whether or not you hit or miss. Below is an example using the scnario started before...
Riall is an old clydesdayle walking home from a tavern on a foggy night. He is armed with nothing but his walking staff, which he leans on for support sometimes due to a split hoof. He has not drunk heavily, only having taken two ales the whole night. A band of three robbers attacks him. There is one weasel who carries a rapier but is mising his left eye, A very muscular Spaniel (a dog) armed with a knife, and a male cat with no tail, armed with two dagars. The cat carries his dagars point down, drawn, as he threatens Riall to give him all his money. Riall has no money and tells them, the bandits don't belive them, so they attack Riall.
Step 1: Analyze the situation.
Three on one, not good. The weasel is missing an eye, so his left side will be more vulnerable. However, he will also tend to be more defensive. The Spaniel is probally strong or very strong and will use his strength more than the knife to do damage. He may also be fast if his legs are powerful,or slow due to his bulk. The Cat is a trained fighter, either that or he's bluffing by holding his dagards like one. He will not be as graceful as the others because his tail is missing so he may be easier to knock over, but he is trained so that may make up for it. It may be best to run.
Weasel lunges in and thrusts with his rapier at Riall.
Riall hasn't been drinking enough to impare him. He should be able to block the weasel if he's close enough to strike.
Riall blocks the rapier with one side of his staff, using the other to hit the weasel's left leg.
The weasel is blind in his left eye and was focusing on Riall's chest, not his own legs. He should be hit.
Weasel falls and says he twisted his leg.
Spaniel helps up weasel and props the weasel up against himself and begins helping the weasel walk away.
Cat jumps at Riall with dagards raised.
The cat is missing his tail, his balance will be bad. Also, it is a foggy night, and the distance could be easily misjudged for both striking and blocking. Riall's sight is failing a bit with age, though his ears are still good. Dispitethis, If he can see the cat is tailless, he should be able to see the jump.
Riall tries to run.
Cat misses Riall.
Spaniel sees Riall try to run and carefully shuffles the weasel to one side so he can put out a leg to trip Riall.
Riall has an injured hoof so he isn't going too fast. The Spaniel is further away and it's foggy, though Riall may pay attention where he's walking as to be careful with his split hoof..
Riall sees the spaniel and changes direction, still running away from the bandits.
The cat has to get up, Riall will have a head start. The Spaniel is too buisy helping the weasel to chase. Also, it's a foggy night, Riall may not be visable if he gets too far away and it would be harder for the less graceful cat to follow due to not being able to see obstructions (such as rocks) on the ground.
Cat stumbles to his feet and tries to catch up to Riall, but trips over a rock.
Riall gets away.
----
That's how the Logic approach works. Sometimes you may still want to roll dice when unsure, such as if the cat trips on a rock while running or not, though dice are more optional here. Also, if someone questions an action, you can explain it better if using the logic approach because you have allready thought out how and why things have happened. However, this appoach may be more difficult for those who are not used to thinking how things happen and thus may make the battle take longer as actions are thought out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost everyone at some point in time ends up fighting, wheater in a duel for honor or just caught in the crossfire of a barfight, everyone at some point ends up fighting. But how exactly do you fight without being unfair?
None of these methods are perfect, but if you don't want to create a character stats sheet according to any set RP system, they're worth a try.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Method 1: Predecided Outcome
The fight has just broke out. Both you and your oponent go OOC and talk about who should win. This works well with two-person fights where the winner is pretty obvious (ex: weak, cocky nobel VS angry trained mercenary armed with a Rapier) but may be more dificult for closer matches (ex: two normal males dueling).
Method 2: Roll the Bones
Instead of negociating, you roll dice to see if you hit or not or successfully dodge. Roll off your chances of failure, I usually think of it as fractons of 100% and will roll 1d10 to represent the 100%.
For weak or very untrained characters, the roll would be anything over a 3 (30% chance of hit) is a failure.
For normal characters, anything over a 6 (60% chance of hit) is a miss.
For trained fighters, anything over an 8 (80% chance of hit) is a miss.
Use your common sence as to who to assign what roll, and feel free to slightly alter things depending upon situation. Such as if it's very dark or your character is hitting at a jumping target, you may want to lower your chances of hitting or, if attacking, raise your chances of missing.
Mehtod 3: Nothing But Logic
It's dark and foggy, you're a old horse trying to defend youself against three well-armed bandits. From the mists one of them leaps at you with a dagar.... What do you think would happen?
That's how the Nothing But Logic approach works. You take into factor the enviromental conditions, your character's condition, and what is being done as to decide whether or not you hit or miss. Below is an example using the scnario started before...
Riall is an old clydesdayle walking home from a tavern on a foggy night. He is armed with nothing but his walking staff, which he leans on for support sometimes due to a split hoof. He has not drunk heavily, only having taken two ales the whole night. A band of three robbers attacks him. There is one weasel who carries a rapier but is mising his left eye, A very muscular Spaniel (a dog) armed with a knife, and a male cat with no tail, armed with two dagars. The cat carries his dagars point down, drawn, as he threatens Riall to give him all his money. Riall has no money and tells them, the bandits don't belive them, so they attack Riall.
Step 1: Analyze the situation.
Three on one, not good. The weasel is missing an eye, so his left side will be more vulnerable. However, he will also tend to be more defensive. The Spaniel is probally strong or very strong and will use his strength more than the knife to do damage. He may also be fast if his legs are powerful,or slow due to his bulk. The Cat is a trained fighter, either that or he's bluffing by holding his dagards like one. He will not be as graceful as the others because his tail is missing so he may be easier to knock over, but he is trained so that may make up for it. It may be best to run.
Weasel lunges in and thrusts with his rapier at Riall.
Riall hasn't been drinking enough to impare him. He should be able to block the weasel if he's close enough to strike.
Riall blocks the rapier with one side of his staff, using the other to hit the weasel's left leg.
The weasel is blind in his left eye and was focusing on Riall's chest, not his own legs. He should be hit.
Weasel falls and says he twisted his leg.
Spaniel helps up weasel and props the weasel up against himself and begins helping the weasel walk away.
Cat jumps at Riall with dagards raised.
The cat is missing his tail, his balance will be bad. Also, it is a foggy night, and the distance could be easily misjudged for both striking and blocking. Riall's sight is failing a bit with age, though his ears are still good. Dispitethis, If he can see the cat is tailless, he should be able to see the jump.
Riall tries to run.
Cat misses Riall.
Spaniel sees Riall try to run and carefully shuffles the weasel to one side so he can put out a leg to trip Riall.
Riall has an injured hoof so he isn't going too fast. The Spaniel is further away and it's foggy, though Riall may pay attention where he's walking as to be careful with his split hoof..
Riall sees the spaniel and changes direction, still running away from the bandits.
The cat has to get up, Riall will have a head start. The Spaniel is too buisy helping the weasel to chase. Also, it's a foggy night, Riall may not be visable if he gets too far away and it would be harder for the less graceful cat to follow due to not being able to see obstructions (such as rocks) on the ground.
Cat stumbles to his feet and tries to catch up to Riall, but trips over a rock.
Riall gets away.
----
That's how the Logic approach works. Sometimes you may still want to roll dice when unsure, such as if the cat trips on a rock while running or not, though dice are more optional here. Also, if someone questions an action, you can explain it better if using the logic approach because you have allready thought out how and why things have happened. However, this appoach may be more difficult for those who are not used to thinking how things happen and thus may make the battle take longer as actions are thought out.
