Combat in Roleplaying

Probably the most important principle in free-form roleplay is that of a player's autonomy in his/her character's actions. It is considered bad form to "control" another player's character without their consent. The player always has the last word on what his/her character does, says, what damage is taken in combat, etc. In combat, it is acceptable to state your attack and where you're aiming. While this page was written with chat combat in mind, the principles are the same when you are addressing combat in a forum setting as well.

Attacker: "I swing my broadsword toward your left side, intent upon a crushing blow."

This leaves the defender with several options:

a) accept the blow as written;

b) dodge or parry;

c) dodge and still get hit.

An example of A:
Defender: "I turn just in time to see the sword coming at me. I have no time to dodge, and although my armor stops the blade, my ribs are badly broken from the impact. I fall to the ground, wheezing and struggling to breathe."
(Feh. Where's the fun in that?)

An example of B:
Defender: "As I see your blade swinging toward me, I drop to the ground to avoid it. Quickly I roll to my right, drawing my own blade as I come back to my feet."
(Well, at least you'll last a bit longer, and you've set yourself up for your own attack.)

An example of C:
Defender: I see you coming toward me. I jump back twisting to the right causing your blade to graze my back, the force hard enough to send me sprawling to the floor. Quickly I begin to roll to the left away from you as I prepare to stand up.

"Other damages suggested by an opponent and determined by the defender includes falls, how far? Catch something going down? Poisons, while they can wait until after you've ingested it to tell you it's there, they can not tell you if it kills you. As with magic spells the defender still has the same rights as in combat but must be aware that there is always some physical reaction to poisons or spells. There are usually enough eager healers around to counteract the damage of such weapons. If not, then there's always the good excuse for a campaign or quest to find the cure. And don't become a godmoder yourself, it is a very derogatory term among RPers. Allow hits occasionally, there are those around who can patch you back together and even sometimes bring you back to life, so don't be afraid. Besides don't you want to show off a few scars on occasion?"

Not taking hits/damage realistically (allowing for us all to be excellent swordsmen and women, of course!) is referred to as godmoding. Along with munchkining, godmoding is one way to become extremely unpopular among free-form rp'ers.

Finally, in combat, one should ALWAYS allow an opponent to react before posting again. If there are several scenarios going on (think barroom brawl), reacting to something else is fine. But allow your own opponent to react to your actions before continuing an attack upon him or her. Fights may be fully orchestrated privately, then posted all at once. This makes for very nice continuity, and it's a LOT of fun. However, you can also just wing it as you go. That takes a little longer, but in the end it'll still make for good combat.

I've borrowed the last three paragraphs directly from a friend's page with her permission. I don't think I could re-state it better. While we don't deal with magic much in Temmarendil, the information is still very useful. If you'd like to visit her page, you can find it here.