[GRIT] {Meta} Fight Scenes Author: mistophopheles Date: 1999/02/26 Forum: rec.arts.anime.misc Things move ahead... since I planned to do exactly what HR did (ie, post that they trained for a week but not how) I wanted to point out a few things as a sorta pointer about how to write a succesful fight scene (or part thereof). There are three types of fight scenes: Duels, Team-ups, Melees In a Duel only two people are fighting with each other and for some reason (nobody else is there, it's a formal duel etc.) others can not interfere. It is best in this case to have the two major concerned parties discuss the fight privately over e-mail, ICQ or AIM and then have someone post the fight in one gaint post. In a Team-up a group of people is working against a single opponent (typical archvillain final battle stuff). Generally there is one person playing the antagonist and many other people playing the "heros". When you play the heros make sure you do the following: 1) Have a good idea who else is in the fight. For this reason a fight should have a participant list at the top of the first post in it. Before replying to the post go to Steve's homepage or check recent posts on the newsgroup for the Combat Guide of EVERY person involved in the fight, including all the heros and the villain. Make sure you have easy access to the combat guides you may need while writing, a good option is to open a second browser window for review while posting. If the person has no combat guide out skip to number 2. 2) E-mail other people in the fight. Get access to the RL's e-mail address and ask them a few questions about the fight. If the bad guys RL has a specific outcome in mind he should tell it to you know. If you don't agree feel free to agrue with the person (even if it is a well-respected Vet). Planning out a fight before hand can lose some of the spontaniety which is fun in GRIT so only do it if the outcome of a fight MUST go one way or another. IF that is the case you should avoid the fight with and make a Duel occur instead, there will be less dissent that way. 3) Work with what other have posted. Once you've read all the relevant combats guides (concentrate mainly on Attitude) and feel you want to post always make sure you are replying to the most recent post you possibly can. If somebody else was faster and did something you wanted to do or made your plan obsolete then live with it. If there are multiple continuities in the fight then go with the one which has recieved the most replies, if both have equal number of replies then wait and see what the person running the villain chooses as the correct continuity or try your best to splice the two together. 4) Maintain continuity between posts. If someone in the last post broke his arm make sure you reflect this in your next post. Don't be afraid to have something happen in your pos that shifts the balance of the fight dramatically and don't feel it neccesary to rejuvenate the bad guy at the end of every post. The bad guys are NOT invicible and have powers limited to what the RL of the opponent says he has, don't add new powers yourself. Make sure that if someone has shifted the balance of power in the last post by either limiting, enchancing or crippling another combatant you should keep that in mind. 5) Make sure you use the other players characters. It doesn't make sense that any group (except a suicidal one) should all sit back while one person attacks the enemy for a few minutes. Keep track of the other heros and make sure you tell what they are doing while you post. You are not responsible for making them achieve great feats, but you should take into account what they would be doing. Blade for instance would always be attacking with big ki effects until literally rendered unconcious so keep these things in mind. This is hard, harder then it sounds actually but worhtwhile as people will like you more and be more inclined to reply to your messages and work with YOUR character if you work with theirs. 6) Don't powerplay. If your character is one of the weakest in the fight make sure you keep this in mind. Don't have your character outshining the better fighters on a regular basis. This doesn't mean your character can't do things or have an impact o the fight, just that they won't be the "star" neccesarily. If someone injuries or removes your character from the fight (KO's them, tosses them to thaiti or whatever) and they did so fairly (ie, the could reasonably do so) then don't worry too much. Any decent bad guy player wil give you achance to do something before you are removed. 7) Exploit your characters unique powers. This is the primary reason for building a unique character in GRIT, so that even if you ARE weak compared to other fighters you can still have a dramatic impact on the fight. By figuring out what YOUR character can do and the other player's character's can't do (or at least can't do as well) you can then base a plan around exploiting that special advantage your character has to offer. This can be hard to do when there are so many multi-skilled character at high levels... but that is an effect of character design not fight scene writing which is a whole post unto itself. 8) Don't be afraid to end the fight. E-mail the bad guys player and ask first but if you come up with a neat, entertaining and unique way of ending the fiht then go ahead and propose it! Nobody ever said you couldn't. 9) Employ neat strategies. The best way to play a fight scene is to figure out a neat combo, team-up attack or tactic that all (or most) of the heros can use. If you figure out a neat tactic then go ahead an post it. For best effect to make your character important if they have no unique powers have them propose it to the others. 10) Play to the audience. People are reading the thread, try to be entertaining. The Melee battle is where there are more than two fighters on each side and that there might be multiple sides. This is even harder to write than a team-up battle but follow the advice above for team-ups. Things are much more complicated in team-up fights as they require keepign track of that much more people. When Faceless minions are involved simply keep a running tally of how many are left and what their current tactic is. That should be about it for now. E-mail or Post any questions or possible revisions. ------------------- Epsilon *Editor's note: Time Lady provided the following two additions:* Two small additions... 11. If you're totally clueless when it comes to combat (like me), talk to the one in the battle who knows what they're doing, make sure they have your char's combat stats, tell them what your plans are, and let them write the combat. Otherwise, write it as "the combat happened, this is the result." It's easier than listening to others complain about how badly you wrote the combat scene, got things OOC, etc. 12. In a multiplayer battle, if your char is comparitively weak, use them to distract the opponent so the big guns can have a better chance of getting their shot in. -- _____ /\_____/\ ____ < Time Lady / \----/ ^ >-< ^ \ / \> - sailrgal@swbell.net _/__ \_ \ \___---___/< Meow|< - Visit the Mystic Manor Homepage (____)___)--\____)--(___) \____/> http://members.tripod.com/~MysticManor