NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Have you ever entered a duel or other sort of combat with another's character, only to have it devolve into a pissing contest?

I have, and hope to remedy this with this system of character rating.

Since many of us have more than one character, individual 'power' will be split between them. 'Power' is used as a collective term for trainging, etc. that the character does to maintain their skills between RP's. Under this system, each nation will have 100 'power points' to split between their characters however they choose. This prevents a single nation from having several 'invincible' characters. The 'power point rating' determines the overall skill level of the character. This will roughly determine the victor in a certain combat without a pre-determined outcome.

Since most character arguments revolve around combat skills, I will tackle these first. If you have any comments, you are welcome to post them.

Combat Skills
Combat skills are divided between four sets.

Firearms (Anything shot or thrown)
Melee Weapons (Swords, knives, clubs)
Magic (Spells, both offensive and defensive)
Unarmed (Punches and kicks)

Again, each character will have 100 points to distribute between their skills. This number represents the percentage of time the character devotes to each individual skill. For example, in a gunfight, a character will a Firearms percentage of 90 would most likely win against a character with a skill of 50. This assumes that each character will fight with the same weapons against each other. This system prevents a single character from being a 'jack of all trades' who can shoot like Doc Holiday, fight like Bruce Lee, swing a sword like an old-school samurai, and cast spells like an anchient wizard.

Certain 'training' RP's could be done to raise skills above their current amounts, but only a single skill can be at 100 for purposes of keeping duels and such exciting. Points should probably be gained slowly, to keep up the realistic feel of trainging your character.

A good example of a possible training RP would be Mercenary Soldier's upcoming Merc Training thread, which would increase numerous skills. Again, this is just an example of how a popular thread could be used to effect with this system. All points should be used.



In closing, I'll make a mock character rating for a dual-character nation:

Bob
Power: 75
Firearms: 75
Melee: 10
Magic: 0
Unarmed: 15

Joe
Power: 25
Firearms: 35
Melee: 60
Magic: 5
Unarmed: 0

Again, comments are welcome and wanted.

Well if that doesn't push the popularity of the Shentavo Academy out of the "Insane" and into the "Ludicrous" range then I dunno what will.

Do you have to use all the points? Oooh! Suggestion! Tired of all the utterly flawless characters wandering around? How about you get an extra five ability points for every negative trait you pile on your character! Like I could get an extra ten points for RPing an overweight paranoid!

Actually that's probably a bad idea. You'll just get a never ending streem of Shentavo-a-likes claiming bucketfulls of points becuase, "She gets a moody when she's tired," and "Well he's three sixteeths demon so sometimes he can get angry if people aren't nice to him."

Actually that's probably a bad idea. You'll just get a never ending streem of Shentavo-a-likes claiming bucketfulls of points becuase, "She gets a moody when she's tired," and "Well he's three sixteeths demon so sometimes he can get angry if people aren't nice to him."

I might have missed something, but the figures you've given for your example characters don't add up to 100. I really like what you've done here, and I think it's a good idea, but that confuses me.

Other than that, Kudos!

Hmm, well I get into a bit of that problem with my other nation...A+H under your system, since I don't rp with only a few of my characters at once In concept. I agree in principle but I'd change the whole 'structure' a bit to deal with the fact I don't just use a few Uber characters but a wide assortment of people with varying backgrounds. I would allow each nation 20 'power' points but also estabish that each person gets 25 normal points. This represents the amount of time in the day that most people are actually productive 8 hours.

Tactics
Flying
Firearms
Melee Weapons
Unarmed
Vehicles
Education (including Magic)

Example a standard Alconian Marine would likely have

Tactics 2
Flying 0
Firearms 9
Melee Weapons 4
Unarmed 4
Vehicles 3
Education 3

Now the Landgravine who has several larger skills in various areas

Tactics 7
Flying 0
Firearms 3
Melee Weapons 6
Unarmed 3
Vehicles (includes armored) 8
Education 8

Now then I have used up half of my 'power' points on the Landgravine Hubris...Of course that Melee and unarmed is going down at the same time.
Similar 'concept but gives a baseline for run of the mill people to judge against the 'uber' characters. Yes the Landgravine is not that skilled in either Unarmed or firearms. Of course she likes to use swords, so she could likely take down the average marine with her weapon vs. Their weapon. I've sort of assumed that
1- knows enough to keep themselves out of basic trouble.
5- Proficent such that they would actually list the skill on a resume without question
10- expert in the feild...any higher and your getting into specialized individuals (The Landgravine is just very, very smart and has a good deal of time on her hands.)

edit: Kill double post

OOC: Again, the system is not perfect. It assumes that the nation has a few characters it RP's with on a regular basis. The time thing is a novel concept, but the 100 thing refers to the percentage of time, not the total hours, spent maintaining their skills.

In response to SBW's comment about backgroud:
Background will have no bearing in the system at this point. With the number of different races floating around in NS, it would be impossible for me to devise strengths and weakness for each. If I actually do manage to compile such a list, partial backgrounds will have no bearing, and will be ignored. It will be assumed that such traits are lost during conception.
This will be done for ease of calculations. I'll add race modifiers later on.

It's a good idea, and it looks quite useful, but I kind of doubt you can get everyone to agree on it.

How would it work with more than two characters involved in a fight?

I think a far easier system is to have the thread starter specify what is acceptable, and have people telegram to check if their character is suitable.

As the Rper who inspired this thread, I'd like to say that I agree with this method 100%, in theory. Of course it isn't perfected yet, but I like where this is going.

In 98% of CO threads, there will be one or more duels of characters. As of right now, I rp with 4 main characters. Many devolve into... god-mod shows. I could grow used to this. :wink:

Very promising. How about different character "classes" as well. Not in the RPG sense, but in that there would be "degrees" of character, with a peon only getting about 25 points, a semi-important character at 50, an important at 75, and a main character at 100 points. Then, there would be restriction, such as: you can only have up to three main characters at a time.

Bah, this adds confusion, but it would prevent the "my unnamed peon slays your 48 hours of developement character" thing from happening.