Suggestions on how a non-Epic board battle can be set up

[john greymore]

Theses ideas popped up recently:

IDEA 1

The current system is such that the battle master posts, then the players post, battle host decides whether action passes or fails, continue posting until situation is over, and then battle host sets up new situation.

How about a system where the battle host takes charge of the situation but instead, the players 'suggest' where the action flows? The battle host posts the setting, and the players will then IMPLY things, be it emotions/actions. The battle host will then read these through and decide which one they may like to follow and post accordingly.

To illustrate this better, imagine a simple scenario where there is.... a boy, named John greymore. The setting is simple: Today's Earth. John is simply a boy living his day.

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BATTLLE HOST, POST NO. 1

The alarm rang, slapping John up from his sleep. Groggily, he sat up and after a while went off to brush his teeth. Breakfast, then school. The usual classes, then alas! Recess!
Taking his lunch money, he ran out of the classroom, finding his best friend, Benny. But luck was not on his side today, for lo and behold he bumped into... Freddy, the class bully. As Freddy noticed this small fry and moved to him, several thoughts swam into John's head.

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And this is when the players join in. In this case, they'll be playing characters in his mind. For the sake of this setting, let's make John love Shakespeare... with twists.
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PLAYER, POST NO. 2

Macbeth sat upon his throne. Just moments ago he had been told that his greatest foe, Freddy, was coming along through the forests. He was dead. 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow..."  He rose, turning to face his wife. just a few moments ago, one of his guards sneaking off duty had saved his wife from suicide. The guard was promptly rewarded... then beheaded for non-vigilance. Alas, the sight of his wife moved him too much. He grabbed her and ran away, far far away from the castle. He would not die today!

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Of course, Lady Macbeth did commit suicide and he actually did face Macduff, but who cares. The point here is that this post shows the emotion of FEAR. The implied action would be to FLEE TO SURVIVE. Let's say that there's a third post.

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PLAYER, POST NO. 3

Hamlet gazed upon the dreaded figure before him. The guards had lied! That wasn't his father! That was his nemesis-who-he-had-killed-long-long-ago! Freddy!!!! He froze on the spot, not even hearing the words that the apparition was saying. But those eyes! He couldn't look away!

Something within his brain clicked. And suddenly, he thought he saw the trees move, the clouds laughing at him... Wait, what was that? No!! Not the grass too! Anything but that!!!....

...The guards around him stared at their young master as he screamed, grabbing his hair and running around before jumping off the castle walls. As the shock disappeared, it dawned on them... Who was to be king?

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Implied Emotion: Fear to the point of Madness
Implied Action: Doing something totally nuts! Maybe even causing John to go TOTALLY insane!

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PLAYER, POST NO. 4

No! Not Romeo! Oh, it was a stupid idea to drink that poison. The plan wouldn't have had worked, what had she been thinking!!!!!! She saw the blade in his hands. That same phallic blade that had pierced through him... She grabbed it, hovering it above her stomach, readying herself.

Then it came down.

But she just couldn't! Damn that blade hurt! Oh... but she had to die to see Romeo... standing, bading her love to wait a while longer, she turned and walked out of the building. She had to find Benny, he would know what to do.

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Note that there was no implication of Freddy within that. I do not feel that the target requires mentioning, as long as the implied things are to be taken into account. A battle host may then interpret the situation as such.

Implied emotion: Suicidal tendencies but unable to carry them out
Implied action: Seek out benny and get his help!!!!

Then our battle host logs on and checks out the posts. In the end, he may decide that post 1 and 2 seem fun, or maybe 3 made more sense than the others, or maybe 2 and 3 had a nice ring to it, hell all 3 had their perks, why not have them all in!!!

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BATTLE HOST, POST NO. 5

John froze, his instincts immediately telling him to run. But his eyes were glued to those fists of Freddy's. What pain they've caused since day one! Oh, it'll be the same tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

He had to escape... but how? Then an idea popped into his head. Raising his fists, he took on a fighting stance, enticing Freddy to come foward. And as Freddy took the bait, he screamed and ran around in circles, then falling to the floor and rolling around laughing his ass off before running to one of the girls (coincidentally the one he likes) and hugged her before running off the hallway. The dazed Freddy could do nothing but stare at this madman, wondering who he could bully now.

Away from the corridor, John peaked around the corner before deciding it was safe enough to look for Benny. He would know what to do.

And as he walked around the playground that he now found himself in, he saw a few of his classmates playing around on the monkey bars and slides. Passing them, he thought...

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And the cycle continues!

Of course, I realise a lot of limitations. This would be hard to use for a board battle. However, I think this may be seriously fun for more comedic situations. The players cannot have too much of a direct impact, if at all, on the situation, or else it gets a bit out of hand. But I'm thinking of things like...

An officer trying to lead his squad members through deadly territory on an important mission. The soldiers however, are new and prone to mistakes. How long can their luck last?

The all-mighty ruler of the world has decided to call on a monthly forum where he asks his peasants and followers for their suggestions. The peasants (Players) will suggest things based on the current economic/military situation and the King may decide to follow/ignore the advice altogether...possibly with disastrous results.

What do  you think??

IDEA 2

For non-epic board battles with 2 distinct sides, I'm thinking of letting players play the 'other side' too. I realise that this would take a lot more work for the battle master, but the results may be extremely rewarding.

I have to thank Faidth for this, her recent suggestion just knocked it into my mind! Link to the suggestion: http://nerdramblingz.com/starforums/index.php?topic=96.0

Suppose there were the classic Humans vs Orcs. The battle host may wish to open those sides up for playing.

I propose the following system:

One thread opened specifically opened for the human players, with its own unique password that the battle host sends to all human players. One thread opened specifically for the orc players, again with its own password.

Then, as the story converges, as it should, a new thread could be set up, where all the players meet up and clash/meet/take down the ultimate common enemy, at this point it will run like a normal battle.

I know we'll need passwords, which I'm not sure we have, a lot of time on the battle host's side, and a way for the meeting up to flow smoothly. I'm undecided as to whether doing the discussion OOC would be better than a sort of meeting up on the board battle itself.

Using Faidth's suggestion as an example, it is theoretically possible via this system to play both as the Ageless and The Forsaken. Since both have their own culture, it'll make for some very developed gameplay/characters, with input from everyone.

What do you think?

EDIT: Corrected my first line, where I had accidentally left in, after backspacing, 'Whether the battle master '  Also changed 'Board Master' to 'Battle Host'. Apologies about that n00b mistake

[Cameron]

Interesting ideas there.

As far as the passwords go, I would have to check. The only thing I don't like about the second idea is that we've had pretty notorious problems with anything even resembling PVP in the past. But I think the password locked threads might just help with that.

[john greymore]

Yea I can see all the problems for PVP. Subjective nature of movements and stuff.

Then I suggest a DnD style play. Use dice and pure random chance.

However, there are considerable factors that come into play. Height, gravity, wind, species advantage, distance, etc.

Thus, for a PvP post, again with the battle host doing the setting and with full control, to lay out the battlefield exactly as it would be. Then, he/she must state exaclty what the dice modification are.

Now, to become extremely orderly (although also extremely tedious), I propose a turn base system. This doesn't mean that the fastest character/player must post first, simply that the host must take into account the fact the faster character does something before the slower. I suggest that this 'agility' be posted specifically and clearly on a different reference thread, where people can check out who's faster than who and make decisions from there.

At this point, it'll become very subjective. The battle host will have to sit at home with 1 or 2 or 3 dice, the number of dice being agreed upon before the meeting up of the characters. Then, they role the dice and Lady Luck takes over, determining who wins and who doesn't. We have to trust our battle host, but we must also trust the laws of probability. If in the 1/69 chance that all the slower characters beat the faster characters, regardless of how much disbelief we hold, we must trust our battle host. There may be a lot of tension, but as long as everyone remembers the rules, I think we'll be fine.