That's how we roll. [WIP]

[Nexi]

Feedback welcomed!

I don't run any events, but when I do...

Anyway, there are two major styles of combat RP on CotH: Rolling, and Trust. Both styles have their strengths and weaknesses. Rolling can often lead to results that are absolutely ridiculous, but the system is "fair" and relies on pure luck, and Trust opens the door to godmodding, but the combat can be realistic if all participants are reasonable people.

I thought I'd type up this guide that will attempt to help both sides by taking the good parts of each.

To the participants - Know your character.

No two <class>s are or should be treated alike. Your character's history and reasoning for becoming a(n) <class> are entirely his own and would determine what "tree" your character developed. It's important you know what skills your character excels in, and which he falls far behind. Remember that developing one skill often comes at the cost of another.

Things like age and experience can be used to determine how well your character can perform a task, but only to a reasonable degree.

For instance, let's assume I have a Enhancement Shaman who's only just recently been acknowledged as a Shaman. Let's also suppose this character of mine and a veteran Enhancement Shaman are in the same event. Is it logical and fair that the veteran receives a higher advantage in melee combat? Of course!

But at the same time, let's suppose that veteran Enhancement Shaman is an 35 year old Troll, and he's fighting alongside another veteran Enhancement Shaman, only he's an 85 year old Tauren. The massive age difference shouldn't earn the Tauren a greater advantage than the Troll because while one may have been doing this for far longer, both know how to wield the Elements in this manner admirably well and have the experience necessary to do their job effectively.

To the DMs - Know your participants.

I don't expect you to know every detail of the 20+ characters in your event, but you should understand the above and distribute advantages to those characters who would logically shine in the given situation. This is in contrast to events where characters will be given an advantage for the duration of the event regardless of what is happening at any given moment.

Let me explain.

Let's take my main, Nexi, as an example. For the sake of simplicity, we'll say the event is purely about combat and Nexi is just an Enhancement Shaman.

As an Enhancement Shaman, if she were to engage the enemy, it'd be wisest for her to do so in melee range. Any emotes that describe her attacking in melee could be given an advantage because melee combat is her focus. But if she were to attack by ranged means, such as Lightning Bolt, no advantage ( and maybe even a disadvantage instead ) should be given because attacking in this manner isn't her focus.

Going further, her healing should also take a hit since that's no longer her focus either. I've seen some creative healing mechanics in some of the events I've attended where the healer will /roll x and the target would receive x HP, but again, some characters are better healers than others and there should be some variation in how high they can roll for healing. Perhaps Nexi, as an Enhancement Shaman, could heal for only 1 HP, while a Restoration Shaman can /roll 3 or more.

But it's not so cut and dry like this realistically. Two different <class>s may have delved deeper into the same tree than they did with the others, but it's unlikely they did to the same degree. One may have forgone mastery over one tree in order to develop a second tree a bit, and this should be taken into account.

To the lot - The fallacy of superiority.

I'd also like to stress that this goes for Prestiges and Core classes alike. Looking at the templates, you'll see that we quite clearly defined strengths and weaknesses for each class, but the weaknesses end up being ignored if the character can do absolutely anything, and better than those characters who excel in an area that prestige has nothing at all to do with. ( E.g. Spirit Champion receiving an advantage to firing off a Lightning Bolt while an Elementalist Shaman in the group receives none )

That's not to say that Prestiges shouldn't get a higher advantage compared to their Core Class counterparts in the exact same situation ( Enhancement Shaman compared to Spirit Champion, or Elementalist Shaman compared to Far Seer, etc ), because they should since most Prestige classes focus on developing an aspect of a Core class beyond normal bounds. My point is that all characters are unique, and their uniqueness, strengths and weaknesses, should show through in events.

A final word.

I understand that trying to make an event where every character's uniqueness is taken into account would turn a simple event into a pain in the ass for most DMs, mostly because it's a lot to remember and because there will always be at least one participant who insists they should be more powerful than you're letting them be or claim unfairness because he or someone else was given what they feel is too high or too low of an advantage, and what DM wants to stop their event, an event that would take a few hours to complete even if everything went smoothly, to explain these things? So it falls instead to the group as a whole to work together with the DMs so that the end result is an event where all participants had fun and feel their characters got a lot out of being a part of it and played a major role in how it all turned out.

[CappnRob]

I hate roll fights. That all said, I understand their necessity sometimes. A good way I've found to work with roll fights is to make it as simple as possible. I avoid using things like crits and defined counters, and letting the rolls simply be a numerical value that determines who hits and who misses. The rest of it? Creative writing. If your character is a badass veteran who got beat by an upstart, there are options available as to HOW. You lose a roll, you could describe it as taking the hit hard, or you write it out as taking the hit lightly, but you still take the hit. All the HP in roll fights are is an arbitrary means of determining when the fight ends, because the main problem with trust fights I have found is not so much they're prone to godmodding, but that they never end fast. How your character loses that HP is entirely within the confines of your writing ability. Likewise, it applies to attacks to. If your character is a poor fighter, even if he scores a "hit", write it out properly. Like he throws a weak punch that manages to get a lucky hit, for example. It doesn't change who "wins" or "loses" the fight, but it does make a difference in the effect the fight has.

tl;dr roll fights can be vastly expanded on with creative writing.

[Uguu]

Well written, Nexi.

I still hate rolls...

[Bovel]

I don't expect you to know every detail of the 20+ characters in your event, but you should understand the above and distribute advantages to those characters who would logically shine in the given situation.

..there will always be at least one participant who insists they should be more powerful than you're letting them be or claim unfairness...

What I have realized through the events lead through the Draenic Pilgrimage is that people are -WAY- too good at healing. No matter the injury it seems that as soon as I am not around it gets healed in an instant. So when it comes to combat vs healing, how does one make it fair? I myself have reached the point where I want to disallow healing without my input.

What would you do in my seat?

[Kaghuros]

Grakor seems to like using numerical healing rolls (roll 1-3 or even just one point in some cases) to determine how much you heal and even that out. So it's a benefit to healers, but you can also only heal once per encounter during combat. Out of combat? Well, that's a different story altogether. Players don't like keeping their characters wounded, obviously, but if you need them to be you can just tell them not to time-skip and that wounds should continue into the next event.

[Ural]

Recently Grak hosted an Ashrune event where Irogh kept getting ambushed 'cause he's a nub. After every fight his max HP would lower, he stated at 6 and was down to 4 by the time I had to leave. I thought this was a great idea, and a bit more realistic. Yes I love magic but sometimes it's a bit over done.

@Topic, If we the player base can police ourselves and already think about our own characters' strength and weaknesses, then when the DM asks for our input we can be ready with something better than 30 seconds of quick-thinking.