Post by Shinigami Kyra on Dec 8, 2009 17:36:58 GMT -5
Fighting Guide and FAQ
((OOC: For your enjoyment, I have done this all IC, while breaking the fourth wall, so enjoy))
Brunette strands bounced with every step she took as the Lieutenant of the Fifth Division entered the large squared structure, which seemed vacant of life, save for a single female figure that stood several meters away. Momo Hinamori smiled happily as she clapped her hands together, and waved for the other figure to join her in the center of the squared Dojo. There were some mild cursing let out, followed by several censored expletives. Eventually, however, the long, crimson haired Shinigami began to make her way over toward the Lieutenant, Captain's Haori draped over her shoulders and arms crossed over her chest.
"I really don't want to do this," Kyra Rounin, Captain of the Fifth Division replied dryly, obvious frustration upon her features, having been recently wakened from a rather blissful nap just for this stupid lesson.
"Well, it's your duty as a Captain to fulfill such roles," Momo inclined the woman with a sly grin. "So, Rounin-taichou, would you do the honors?"
"Gah, I hate that honorific," Kyra sighed heavily, before facing a non-existent crowd, and breaking the fourth wall. "My name's Kyra Rounin, Captain of the Fifth Division. It has come to my attention that some of you idiots suck at fighting."
"Kyra!" Momo shouted, brows pinched inwardly in a bit of annoyance. Momo quickly waved a hand, apologizing quickly for the Captain. "Please excuse my Captain; she just woke up from a nap, so she's a bit cranky. Anyway, we have been informed that some people may not know some of the common aspects of a proper Fighting Thread, or Sparring Session. And for that, we have come to help you understand the proper process of a battle!"
The pair of women entered the arena, where Momo extended her arm for further explanation.
"First, I would like to point out to you that on this forum, you will find an Applications FAQ," the woman spoke softly. "While this was first created to help aid those finding difficulty in creating a proper application, more has been added to the Applications FAQ, to the point where it has simply some general tips for proper Role Playing!"
"Read that shit to a T," Kyra pointed a finger outward with an arched brow. "Moderators and Staff hate pointing out the Applications FAQ repeatedly, so read all that shit first, then come to us with questions. Otherwise, the staff will just be repeat'n itself, and they hate that shit."
"Kyra, language!" Momo hushed her Captain, fighting the urge to smack the back of the girl's head. She then focused her attention upon the reader. "Moving on, the first thing you should come to understand is the different aspects of fighting when it comes to Online, Forum-based Role Playing."
"There's Players versus NPC," Kyra announced, standing next to Momo, as a few Hollows appeared before them. "NPC stands for Non-playable Characters, which for this website, can normally be considered Hollows for Shinigami, or stray Shinigami for Arrancar. Basically, they're characters who are brought up by either player, or a staff member, that hold no real application, and are basically just there to create drama for you."
"In more detail," Momo elbowed her counterpart in the side, her brow twitching in annoyance. "They are person or persons, or sometimes, creatures, that arrive in a specified area to create a conflict with a player's character. As stated, they could be hollows for Shinigami. This is considered a PvNPC type of battle."
Drawing their Zanpakuto, the two Shinigami rushed toward the appeared Hollows, each dispatching the would-be attackers in their own fashion. When the opponents faded from existence, the two women sheathed their swords and turned back to the reader.
"Such battles are normally conducted with a team of players, or simply one player fighting against an opponent, normally controlled by another player," Momo explained. "However, there are times where players can fight one another. That is called PvsP, or Player versus Player."
"Here's where the godmod questions start," Kyra began to rub the sides of her head as she collapsed to the ground, cross legged, not really wanting to get into the conversation at the moment. She suddenly spoke in a rather high-pitched, child-like voice, filled with a mocking tone. "Wtf, my kido attack hit you! Why are you dodging? Wtf, my character is one level tier above yours, wtf, my wah wah wah, freak'n wah."
An elbow sharply connected with the top portion of the Captain's skull, forcing tears to build up in an instant as her hands attempted to rub away the excessively large bump that appeared from the strike.
"What my Captain is trying to say," Momo forced a smile, despite the obvious frustration breaking through that plastic expression. "Is that a lot of you may want to jump right into a fight with your new Shinigami or Arrancar, but before you do, you should take some things into consideration before doing so. First, you should find a player that you can contact regularly, or at least, speak with outside of the thread, whether it be by Privately Messaging the player, using the Xat chat located on the main page, at the bottom, or by some other means of Instant Messaging."
"Oooooo! Staaaalkerrrr," Kyra muttered, her hands moved up by her head in a ghost-like manner, as though to scare the girl. "Doooon't give out your ceeeeelll numberrrrrrr. Crazy stalker person!!!"
"Kyra, be serious," Momo shouted, slamming a foot down on the ground. "We're supposed to be teaching these people!"
"Yea, yea," Kyra rolled her eyes, along with a single hand, as she took a few steps away from Momo. "Next on the topic, like she was say'n, is a Player versus Player fight. This would obviously be where two players have their characters, battle it out. Like she was say'n, you should keep in contact with the other player. Normally, it'd be smart to dictate the victor of the battle in advance, unless y'er just do'n a spar'n session or some shit. Then, who really cares who wins, right?"
"What you should do," Momo delivered a rather uncharacteristic drop kick to her Captain, launching her far across the arena. "Is talk it over with the other player; decide what type of fight you would like to have in advance. Planning things out is the best way for both players to truly grasp the proper experience of Role Playing. If you plan things out in advance, then you won't have to worry about surprises erupting within your thread, or having it suddenly run off course!"
"WTF HAX!" Kyra shouted, holding a hand to her newly bruised cheek. The woman held a furious expression while hurling an accusing finger toward her opponent. "AUTO-HIT FTL!!!"
"Thank you for bringing that up, Rounin-taichou," Momo bowed her head to her injured Captain, then returned her attention to the reader. "Auto-hitting is highly frowned upon, as it is simply too close to Godmodding to have accepted on this board. Kido-based attacks, Zanpakuto-based attacks, or even physical attacks should never be assumed to automatically hit your opponent. Your opponent should always have a change to dodge, parry, or counter the attack dictated in your post."
"I didn't get no freak'n chance," Kyra whined as she wiped her swollen cheek, tears welling up in those crimson hues. Wiping the tears away, she turned to the reader. "A fighting post should have certain things within it; like all posts. Your character, obviously, some form of the environment; most likely, their location, some dialogue, if you so choose, and a course of action. With fight threads, dialogue is minimal to nonexistent, in some cases, so we'll stick with mostly action."
Kyra moved herself in front of Momo, drawing her Zanpakuto.
"Now," Kyra continued. "Normally, if you don't plan your threads in advance, then you should limit the number of actions you have in a thread. Drawing your sword can be considered one action, and quite frankly, releasing it can be considered the same action, or a secondary action. Those two can happen in the same thread, followed by an attack."
Kyra built up a good amount of reiatsu, cobalt blue aura swirling around her frame. With both her swords held out in front of her, she summoned forth her Zanpakuto's spirit.
"Burn Blue, Kagutsuchi!" In a fiery blue explosion, her blades took on their Shikai appearance; twin pure dark blue blades, guard removed, with a light aura of blue flame engulfing both blades.
"Now, I unsheathed and released my sword, and this could be done all in the same post," Kyra announced as she turned toward Momo. With a quick step, she lunged toward her Lieutenant, with an arm extended outward. "Hadō 1, Shō!"
The scene paused, the build of of Kido surrounding Kyra's hands literally frozen in time as Momo broke the time space continuim and stepped forward toward the reader.
"Normally, this is where one post would end, and the counter post would start," Momo stated. "Kyra released her Zanpakuto, then made one physical action; in his case, a Kido-based attack. Notice how she didn't say that it had hit me, but simply left it in mid-process. This leaves me open to either accept the hit, block it, parry it, or counter it. Leaving such openings allows for more possibilities for the other player, which in the end, results in more possibilities for the thread in general. Now, let's get back to the action."
With a lowered brow, Momo quickly unsheathed her Zanpakuto, both hands gripping the hilt firmly as she called forth her companions name.
"Snap," Momo cried out. "Tobiume!"
As her Captain came rushing in toward her, Momo released her Shikai and quickly used her Shunpo ability to side step the Kido-based attack, the blast just partially connecting with a piece of her robe, which forced her balance to alter slightly. With a quick shift of her weight, however, her feet slickly landed several meters away, a single hand pressed out to assert her balance, as she skidded several feet back.
"Tobiume!" Momo cried out and slashed her sword vertically, forcing a build up of her own spiritual pressure to collect. From the tip of her blade, ignited a fiery ball of heavy reiatsu, spiraling toward her Captain. Again, the scene froze, and this time, Kyra was the one to inform the reader.
"Now, Momo released her own Shikai, and parried my Kido-attack," Kyra announced, arm extended toward her frozen-in-time Lieutenant. "She also came up with her own counter attack. Notice how, like me, she didn't assume the strike had hit. This sort of fight is normally a very slow-paced fight, where one action occurs every post. Of course, not all posts within this thread can be like this. This is why you should always be able to converse with your sparing partner, so you can discuss how to differ your thread in a variety of ways, instead of just having action by action posts. Otherwise, just imagine how many posts you would have if you had that Grimmjow, Ichigo fight in Hueco Mundo..."
With that, Kyra turned back to the place she had been during the fight, but paused for a moment and turned back to the reader.
"Before I forget," she said as she pointed her sword skyward. "You should also keep into consideration of your Power Tier."
At that moment, the words 'Master level, Weak' appeared above the Captain, and with an extension of her other sword-wielding hand, she pointed above Momo; above her, 'High level, Average.' Kyra lowered her arms and rubbed the tension that started to build between her eyes.
"Before you start questioning and whining about 'I'm stronger than you, blah blah blah' bullshit," Kyra started out, knowing she'd be able to get away with saying it while her sparring partner was frozen. "You should understand that the Power Tier is a representation of your character's strongest point. Now, I for one, have Bankai, and a Vizard Mask. If I were to go Bankai and draw out my Inner Hollows abilities, I would represent the Master Level, Weak Tier. However, I am simply in Shikai, so I am not yet at that level. Thus, you could say that Momo and I are on even ground at the moment."
Above her head, the Master level, Weak fades, and High-level, Average shimmers into existence.
"Now," Kyra quickly altered her stance. "Most Original Characters who don't have Bankai won't receive a High Level Character. So, in Shikai, the highest point you can have is normally Mid-Level Strong."
And with that, the Power Tier above Kyra shimmered down to Mid-Level Strong.
"Thus, right now, you can even say Momo's stronger than me," Kyra announced with a roll of her hand. "Normally, Canon characters will be stronger than their Original Character counterparts. If we didn't have some sort of limitation on Original Characters, than we might as well run the Bleach Universe over with Original Characters, right?"
Kyra shrugged a single shoulder and spared a glance over her shoulder, noticing Momo appearing to tremble in her frozen state.
"Kyra," Momo whispered, attempting to talk while not moving her lips. "Can you hurry it up? My arm's falling asleep..."
"Right," Kyra nodded her head, then got back into her previously frozen stance. That fire-based attack from Momo was hurled toward the Captain, and with a quick motion of her blades, she launched a quick counter attack. "Konpeki Shakkahō!"
The two blasts collided, canceling one another out, and forcing a burst of spiritual pressure to explode, creating a large cloud of heavy smoke. Momo came out of the smoke, which again, seemed to freeze time, waving her hand in front of her face, coughing madly.
"Ahem," Momo attempted to regain her composure. "Kyra's counter attack nullified my own attack. Neither attacks seemed to outdo the other, so instead, they clashed and dissipated. Now, should one person be a higher level Tier than the other, let's say, Mid Level Average versus High Level Strong, you might say that one attack may over throw the other, though that attack may still be weakened from the previous blast."
Time suddenly sped up and Kyra appeared out of the smoke, swords drawn and ready to attack.
"Konpeki Shakkahō!" Kyra shouted, then rushed in for a vertical strike of her sword, then launching a hand outward. "Hadō 54; Haien!"
"Kyra, what the hell?!" Momo shouted, attempting to parry or at least block all of the sudden attacks drawn upon her. The second blast from the woman's Zanpakuto was quickly dodged, a quick step forcing the Lieutenant high into the air. The oncoming slash was parried by Momo's blade, but the sudden attack of Kido was too much. The blast of violet spiritual energy struck her in the chest, forcing her high into the air, where she froze momentarily.
"I sped things up," Kyra announced with a bored expression. "Notice how I threw in three attacks instead of one? Now, normally, this can be considered Godmodding, as I didn't really give her a chance to react to the first attack, let alone the second one before throwing in a third. However, if you talk to your fellow player, you can speed the fight up if you like, by adding in more than one action per post, but leaving each one open for the other player to decide how they will react to each action."
Time sped up and Momo quickly rolled her body, flipping it in mid air, and pressing a firm hand to the groundless surface, collecting a bit of spiritual energy beneath her feet and hands, skidding to a stop.
"That was cheating!" Momo shouted, while Kyra shrugged a single shoulder.
"Things are moving too slow," Kyra announced as she turned skyward. "We need to speed this shit up; this thread's already considered several posts in, and we haven't even got to the main portion of this FAQ."
"Fine then," Momo wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, taking the moment to recover from the kido blast. "Let's move on!"
Momo charged forward, sword drawn, and clashed blades with her Captain. The woman, still in Shikai, was easily able to parry the blast, though Momo was quick with a horizontal swing. She watched as her Captain easily leaped backward over the swing, back flipping a good safe distance away. Momo charged forward with a thrust of her blade, only to have it parried by her Captain. With a quick swing, Momo charged another burst of her spiritual energy.
"Tobiume," Momo cried out as the fiery burst of energy exploded from the tip of her blade and shot toward her Captain. Again, time froze as Kyra extended an arm to her Lieutenant.
"Notice how she dictated action there for a bit," Kyra asked. "I wasn't the one actually doing the 'posting' of my actions. This can be considered 'Godmodding,' but if you talk it over with your fellow player, and allow slight access to your character, you can include more action that would normally just go back and forth, and skip straight to the main attacks that will either hit or miss, or dictate the flow of the fight in general."
With that, Kyra quickly slashed her sword upward, a hand trailing over her face. A powerful amount of Reiatsu collected as she moved her index finger to her lips, then began to draw a heart shape over her face, which in turn, forced specks of white to materialize over her face. The heavy cobalt aura that surrounded her started to shift to a more dark, violet hue as she summoned forth her Inner Hollows powers. Her sword slashed in the air and cut straight through the fiery blast, severing it into two pieces that exploded several meters behind her.
"Now, Kyra activated her hollow powers," Momo announced.
"Power Up Mushroom!" Kyra chimed with an arm pump. "Where's the Raccoon Tail?!"
"We can safely assume now, that in Shikai, and with her Inner Hollow powers, that she's slightly more powerful than I am now," Momo nodded her head. with that, the injuries and smoke all faded, and the two reappeared at the center of the squared dojo.
"This battle could go on for several more threads," Kyra stated, her voice doubled over by her inner hollow's. "But since this shit's already ridiculously long, we'll just chalk it up and say I won. Oh hey, my font color change! So did my voice! Helloooo! HELLOOOOOOOO! ECHO!"
"You are a Captain after all," Momo replied dryly to winning, forcing a bit of a plastic smile. She quickly shook the tension away and turned back to the reader.
"Now, for characters who are fairly good in Kido, we've received a lot of questions of just how much Kido someone can produce," Momo stated with a roll of her hand, both their Zanpakuto sheathed. "Or how high a level one can produce a spell, with or without the incantation."
"While I hate really stating 'you can do this, but not this,'" Kyra stated out with a roll of her hand. "Since you're all wanting to know the limitation of your characters; which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, I'll break it down for you."
"Those with intermediate level of Kido, in the Mid-level category, I would say, have a basic understanding of Kido," Momo nodded her head, then extended her arm to the suddenly appearing large list of Kido-based spells. "They can summon, maybe up to mid-level Kido spells. Skipping the incantation may make them weaker. However, if an incantation is not listed, that does not mean your character cannot recite it; you can just say they recited it, and not actually have it in as dialogue. But, remember, reciting the incantation does require time. So, make sure you have enough of that before producing your spell."
"For those High-level, advanced, or High-level Intermediate," Kyra took over, pointing to the list. "They pretty much have a really solid grasp on Kido. While they don't have the mastered level, they do have a full understanding of Kido, and can sometimes skip the incantations to produce quick-casting Kido combination spells."
"Combination spells?" Momo arched a brow.
"Right," Kyra nodded her head. "Let's say you wanted to produce a Way of Binding, along with a Way of Destruction."
"We didn't go over Bakudō in the fight, though," Momo pressed a finger to her lip, in deep thought. "Perhaps we should have."
"Bakudō should be taken as similarly as Hadō," Kyra nodded her head, then turned to the reader. "Remember; do not assume that you have suddenly captured your opponent in your Way of Binding Spell. Give them an opportunity to either accept the attack, or counter it if possible. Way of Binding, automatically hitting, would just be ridiculous."
"That would make me almost as HAXXOR as Ichigo," Momo threw a hand sheepishly behind her head while letting out a chuckle. Kyra nodded her head in confirmation, cowering in fear of thinking Momo's unique Kido being an auto-hit maneuver.
"Anyway," Kyra shrugged off the feeling, returning her attention to the reader. "To make things more interesting in a fight, someone who is advanced in Kido, and has a high Power Tier, lets say, High-Level Average and up, can normally start to use combination of Kido, and the more higher level Kido spells."
"Does that mean I can use forbidden spells?" Momo chimed, clapping her hands, Kido of course, being her specialty, and the thought of being a super uber character enough to knock her out of character. Kyra let out a hesitant laugh while shaking her head.
"No," Kyra shook her head, but then paused. "Well... maybe you... but not someone like me, or other Original Characters; we pretty much suck when it comes to that. Then again, depending on your Power Tier and background, I suppose it could be possible. If you spent time in Kido Corps, or have in your background that your character has studied a lot of Kido, or something like that, then maybe you could develop your own Kido."
"We have a section for that!" Momo raised a hand and pointed to the board. "Custom Kido and Quincy Spells!"
"Yup," Kyra nodded her head, then blinked as she lifted up her Vizard mask. "Wait; when did our personalities change?"
"My bad," Momo blushed, bringing her hands to her cheeks. "I get like this when I talk about Kido..."
"Moving on," Kyra shook her head, then returned to the Kido List. "One should always take into consideration the amount of Reiatsu it takes to summon various amounts of Kido Spells. Remember, being in Bankai also takes up a good deal of Reiatsu, and the more power you use, the more power you've drained."
"That means I can't just start firing Sōren Sōkatsui after Sōren Sōkatsui?" Momo blinked, turning to her Captain with a finger pressed against her lip in question.
"Nope," Kyra shook her head. "You should likely estimate your own character's level; how many spells they can produce consecutively, so on and so forth, in accordance to their Kido level, their Power Tier, and their over all background and abilities."
"So everyone's unique," Momo blinked, to which Kira nodded her head. "Well, that's pretty much it for Kido. You can expect similarities between Kido abilities and Quincy, or the Arrancar's variety of Kido, being Cero and their Natural abilities, and so forth."
"Do we need to tell them that they shouldn't kill their opponent?" Kyra blinked, turning to Momo. The woman seemed a bit shocked and let out a gasp.
"Kill?" Momo gasped again, then turned to the reader, eyes filling up with tears rather quickly. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"
"There are a variety of conditions that must be fulfilled in order to 'kill' the character of another player," Kyra confirmed with a nod. "First, it must be 'OKed' by the player, then a fellow staff member, so that the application can be readily moved to archives after the bout. Of course, there are other circumstances where a character will unwillingly die, either by sheer stupidity or storyline reasons..."
"What else," Momo pressed a finger to her chin, then looked to Kyra. "Should we take questions?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Kyra nodded her head, pressing her fist to her palm. "I think we've covered a lot thus far, and anything that we may have missed, we can answer now."
"So," Momo smiled as she turned to the reader. "If you have any questions for us, let us know by either replying to this thread, or asking a fellow staff member."
"Don't ask me," Kyra waved a hand with a shake of her head. "I'll just bitch slap ya."
"Kyra!" Momo shouted, then slapped the back of the girl's head. "Feel free to ask ANY of the staff members, including Kyra; she will be HAPPY to answer ANY questions you may have."
"No matter how stupid they may be," Kyra forced a plastic smile while rubbing the back of her head.
