OOC talk for Monster Academy.

[Where Is My Car]

@Icarian Dreams Would you? I feel bad asking someone else to do it for me lol, you could just tell me what to do. But basically I have two pictures, one of a guy and the other of a pair of wings and I wanted to see if I could combine or overlap them somehow

[Icarian Dreams]

12 minutes ago, Where Is My Car said:

@Icarian Dreams Would you? I feel bad asking someone else to do it for me lol, you could just tell me what to do. But basically I have two pictures, one of a guy and the other of a pair of wings and I wanted to see if I could combine or overlap them somehow

I mean, it's a matter of what the software you have and what images want to combine - there's plenty of tutorials on the internet that go through the basics if you want to do it yourself. Just google ">program name here< combining images" and you should find something. If you don't have the software, GIMP is a good free tool, and if you'd rather not download anything, you can check Photopea, which should also have everything you need for this.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Icarian Dreams

[Where Is My Car]

@Icarian Dreams Gotchu. I’ve never messed with this stuff before, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I’ll try it out, thanks  

[JennyDK]

Hello and good evening everyone!

I return to you this fine evening after a nice and fun day IRL buddies.

I hope you have all have been well?

[JennyDK]

Good evening everyone. I am hopeful that your day has been nice and well so far!

Since I am currently not overly busy, I am thinking of planning and starting the first mock battle.

[Thatannoyinggod]

Heyo everyone ^~^ how's everyone's day going?

[JennyDK]

Greetings and salutations @Thatannoyinggod and welcome once more!

I am doing pretty good. Just returned from a nice and profitable walk.

Did any of you guys want to arrange mock battle 1?

[Where Is My Car]

I’m big chillin at the moment, going to work in a few hours but whateva 

@Thatannoyinggodhows your day going bud

 

[Thatannoyinggod]

20 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

Greetings and salutations @Thatannoyinggod and welcome once more!

I am doing pretty good. Just returned from a nice and profitable walk.

Did any of you guys want to arrange mock battle 1?

Yeah! I'm down to try it out

6 minutes ago, Where Is My Car said:

I’m big chillin at the moment, going to work in a few hours but whateva 

@Thatannoyinggodhows your day going bud

 

It's tiring, but only 1.5 hours left until I clock out and have the weekend to chill out :3

[Where Is My Car]

I’m off to work but I’m a delivery driver. The replies would be a little bit slow for a couple hours, but I’d be willing to try that mock battle out

But my character is also in an interaction atm, so I’ll probably have to wait until that’s all good and wrapped up.

Either way, battling sounds like a good time, whenever I get to do it

[Thatannoyinggod]

33 minutes ago, Where Is My Car said:

I’m off to work but I’m a delivery driver. The replies would be a little bit slow for a couple hours, but I’d be willing to try that mock battle out

But my character is also in an interaction atm, so I’ll probably have to wait until that’s all good and wrapped up.

Either way, battling sounds like a good time, whenever I get to do it

With it being a mock battle, I'm pretty sure we can just state that it's not cannon so you could still use the same character.

[JennyDK]

These are the rules I have in mind as the first draft. Let me know how you guys like them:

• The duel is max 5 posts from each person, thus max 10 posts in all
• Powers lasts for max 2 posts - so you can max use 2 per duel
• Absolutely nothing lethal - knockout at best
• Try and be fair - this goes both ways of course. So if it seems like a power will affect you, it will most likely unless you can argue for how it does not
• Ask the GM or moderator if there are any questions
• One action per post

Edited May 7, 2021 by JennyDK

[Thatannoyinggod]

Looks good! Will be interesting to try out. On the power usage portion, how do you want to go about passive powers? Like the character I'm going to use for the mock battle generally passive abilities not active ones. So how do we want to do ruling on that?

 

[JennyDK]

For passive powers, I think that they can be in continuous effect. If they are deemed a bit too overpowered as such, perhaps they need to be either toned down or rules out altogether.

What does it or they do?

Edited May 7, 2021 by JennyDK

[Where Is My Car]

In dnd each round of combat only lasts 6 seconds. But if you’re trying to put a time limit on it, we could say... Each post covers like 10 seconds. Could possibly help people trying to post by giving them a frame of reference and not letting them do too much?

That passive power question is a good one, because my character’s entire style is based on a passive power lol 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Where Is My Car

[JennyDK]

I don't think we really need to say "A post lasts X amount of time". This is not D&D, thankfully, and thus it can be more arbitrary than that.

Passive powers can be overpowered and thus I want them to not feel like you are basically winning for free.

[Thatannoyinggod]

36 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

For passive powers, I think that they can be in continuous effect. If they are deemed a bit too overpowered as such, perhaps they need to be either toned down or rules out altogether.

What does it or they do?

Heat resistance, enhanced smell and taste (not necessarily helpful in duels), and enhanced strength basically. That's it

[Where Is My Car]

Heat resistance >.> you’re a bad matchup for Talon lmao

[JennyDK]

Heat resistance versus my mage is also pretty much going to make it onesided.

[Icarian Dreams]

Just came back, a couple thoughts of mine:

2 hours ago, JennyDK said:

I don't think we really need to say "A post lasts X amount of time". This is not D&D, thankfully, and thus it can be more arbitrary than that.

Passive powers can be overpowered and thus I want them to not feel like you are basically winning for free.

Considering timeouts are a thing, I think setting a time limit for each turn, even if only as a suggestion and not a strict rule, would be beneficial, especially so for folk coming from RPG/Wargaming backgrounds. It's good to have a relative idea of how much you can do in a single post, and frankly, a "single action" is very vague if we don't have strict definitions of what's even considered an action.

You still haven't made it clear how you want to handle passive powers, but, if you want my opinion, if it was allowed in initial character creation, it should be allowed in the duel as well, with no restrictions. Most of these powers are specifically combat-focused, so stripping characters of them, or nerfing them in some way would be really hurtful, considering it's one of the very few scenarios where they may come in useful. It's a general sentiment of mine - monsters are not made equal, so if one power directly counters that of another, or is generally powerful in combat - so be it! Will force people to be more clever about their fights - maybe try to win through technique and style as opposed to brute force. (I still very much dislike the speed criteria, by the way, since it's pretty much useless unless the battle has a decisive ending)

[JennyDK]

I never said the list of winning criteria was definitive. It was meant as a draft, just like anything else up to this point. It gets easier to see what and what does not work with some trial and error. Hence, why the mock battles are supposed to be done.

While I agree that some are stronger than others, I still think certain things should probably not be allowed - like if you have a mind control power, for instance. Anything that practically spells outright victory seems pointless - why have the duel if you already know the outcome?

For posts - I am thinking one move action and one regular action of any other kind, within reason. I trust people are able to make some sort of judgement of what seems possible in a short span of time. This is not meant to be some sort of math project or excel ark adventure, but more narratively driven combat.

[Thatannoyinggod]

Hey all, I'm back. Though disclaimer, I am drinking tonight, so I might be in and out 

So I think for now, let's just try out one mock battle with things as is. As long as everyone knows that its all in fun (win or lose, it happens to everyone) and adheres to an honor rule that its kept fair, I think it might turn out pretty well. If shit might hurt your character, then let them be hurt. Win could open up some neat character development, but loss can as well. Run with it!

[JennyDK]

I very much am in agreement with my dear moderator here. It's supposed to be just a good time. I will also trust in my future judges that they can deem duels in a fair and balanced manner too.

This is not some serious wargaming scenario, just some good old combat fun.

[Icarian Dreams]

32 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

I never said the list of winning criteria was definitive. It was meant as a draft, just like anything else up to this point. It gets easier to see what and what does not work with some trial and error. Hence, why the mock battles are supposed to be done.

I never claimed it was definitive either, just trying to point out what I believe could be an issue. Mock battles won't necessarily highlight everything that could be potentially a flaw. That said, I am curious to see what will we get from them after they happen.

32 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

While I agree that some are stronger than others, I still think certain things should probably not be allowed - like if you have a mind control power, for instance. Anything that practically spells outright victory seems pointless - why have the duel if you already know the outcome?

That's a fair point - though I believe you have been keeping a degree of moderation regarding "overpowered" characters creation in general. From what I gather (and from what I can see looking through the character lists), most powers which could be potentially too strong are restricted to the teachers, in whose case it makes sense (and who won't be taking part in the tournament anyways). There are very few powers which are overpowered to the point where the opponent cannot try to gain points in alternative ways (which was the point of the scoring system), so I think moderation over that should be kept to minimum.

To be frank, I'm mostly trying to advocate here for not nerfing some power because it seems particularly strong in a certain scenario - such as, say, heat resistance against opponents who mainly deal in fire damage, as was mentioned before in the thread. It would be a disservice to these situational powers, and, as TAG mentioned, your character develops from both victories and losses, so even unwinnable battles make things interesting.

Also, though I know it's not quite the point you're attempting to make, I actually endorse discussing how you want a battle to play/end out with your partner beforehand! Roleplaying is a collaboration not a competition, so it could help set up some interesting narratives and upsets!

32 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

For posts - I am thinking one move action and one regular action of any other kind, within reason. I trust people are able to make some sort of judgement of what seems possible in a short span of time. This is not meant to be some sort of math project or excel ark adventure, but more narratively driven combat.

Then that furthers my point of having turns be defined more by an amount of time rather than vague "actions", which inherently suggest some system behind it. In fact, I think best you can do to have the battles not feel wargamey is to let go of either restriction completely, and let the combats flow naturally, rather than forcing players to consider whether something they do is an action or not.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Icarian Dreams

[JennyDK]

I am sorry, but there will not be any heavily set amount of time per post nor will actions be defined heavily. I just don't see it working out well while also going with mostly narrative combat as well as keeping to the K.I.S.S. principle. I don't wish to make this into something that gets more complicated than absolutely necessary.

I do agree on discussing a battle with your partner beforehand, thus making need for moderation even less, which I am quite in favour of.

In regards to nerfing, that was only meant towards really powerful abilities. While I certainly think that difference in power does and should exist and show off, it also should still have a minimal sense of balance and such.

The students I could imagine I could use:

• LuBelle sisters (with their familiar)
• Malikah
• Molly

I am sure that some of the others could work as well, I don't see them doing it as it probably doesn't fit their personality.