Advice/Help What is the proper way to counter an attack?

[Rathian Diablos]

So my friends and I have been having a debate on how to properly counter and attack and while I do see her point I kind of feel like the way she counters attacks breaks some of the rules of RP. However, that could be due to how I learned how to counter an attack. Now initially I did counter the way she explains but I was told when I did this that I GM'd or TM'd (God Modded or Time Modded)

So here is how I was told you were supposed to counter. First, you must dodge, block and or recover from all your opponent's attacks before making your own.

How my friend does it. Let's say your character attacks hers by sweeping her leg to trip her and then punches her in the face to make her fall back before elbowing her in the stomach into the ground. The way she counters is that she might do something like jump over your leg when you try to sweep her and kick you in the chest, therefore, she completely ignores your next two moves.

I have no problem doing like this with her when it's just me and her but I am unsure if she is allowed to do this in general RP.

 

[deer]

I haven't participated in a lot of roleplays that requires damage against another character or even say, monsters. However, I have seen a lot of roleplays and seen that usage of "dice". I am unsure how dice normally works since it's different for each GM and how they set it in their rules. But, I believe if you roll a certain number, that certain number can accordingly state your character's "fate" in a sense. So, if your character dodges, block, or counter, it would depend on the roll number of a dice - which I think is a lot better than a he said she said scenario.

At the same time, when doing attacks in roleplays, it is safe to say that you can't automatically write that your character's attack was able to hit your opponent. For me personally, I would think sweeping a character's leg would be a good "pause" and stop in a roleplay to see if you were able to hit said character (unless you discussed this already with the player that their character indeed was able to sweep their character's leg). Added the extra "punch", in my opinion, doesn't give the other player enough time to react in the said post because it sounds like an "auto-hit" to me in a sense.

Edited in because I forgot something: The counter-attack may cause a little bit of a spiff as well for ignoring the moves as well.

So, if I was a GM, I would only allow one hit / movement in a group roleplay. But, if it it was with a friend that I know and trust, I don't really mind the scenario at top, however, others in a group setting roleplay definitely would mind.

 

[Rathian Diablos]

I haven't participated in a lot of roleplays that requires damage against another character or even say monsters. However, I have seen a lot of roleplays and seen that usage of "dice". I am unsure how dice normally works since it's different for each GM and how they set it in their rules. But, I believe if you roll a certain number, that certain number can accordingly state your character's "fate" in a sense. So, if your character dodges, block, or counter, it would depend on the roll number of a dice - which I think is a lot better than he said she said scenario.

At the same time, when doing attacks in roleplays, it is safe to say that you can't automatically write that your character's attack was able to hit your opponent. For me personally, I would think sweeping a character's leg would be a good "pause" and stop in a roleplay to see if you were able to hit said character (unless you discussed this already with the player that their character indeed was able to sweep their character's leg). Added the extra "punch", in my opinion, doesn't give the other player enough time to react in the said post because it sounds like an "auto-hit" to me in a sense.

Edited in because I forgot something: The counter-attack may cause a little bit of a spiff as well for ignoring the moves as well.

So, if I was a GM, I would only allow one hit / movement in a group roleplay. But, if it it was with a friend that I know and trust, I don't really mind the scenario at top, however, others in a group setting roleplay definitely would mind.

Well to explain it's not really that the move automatically hits. It's more that these are attempts so not would be that I attempt to sweep your leg and if that succeeds I would then move on to attempt to punch you in the face and if that succeeds I would proceed to attempt to elbow you in the stomach.

Now most RP I participate in go off of a sort of honor system basically every player is expected to play fair, to dodge, taker hits so on and so forth being honest about what their characters can and can't do.

Now I will admit I was kind of confused when people told me I was cheating because as I explained these are supposed to be attempts and all the moves in succession are only supposed to happen if the move before them succeeds and even then that are attempted. So I wasn't really sure why I was required to counter all of them before making my move. However, what my friend does and what I used to do is basically. If you attempt to sweep her leg, she then will jump over your leg and attempt to kick you in the chest not that she will automatically kick you in the chest, but because she has dodged her first move she will ignore the next two moves since she dodged the first one. I was told that this was cheating and I wanted to see if this was true.

 

[Bone2pick]

How my friend does it. Let's say your character attacks hers by sweeping her leg to trip her and then punches her in the face to...

That's not gonna fly with most roleplayers. You can't assume your trip was successful. In freeform PVP you're restricted to attempting an attack and waiting for your opponent's reply to see if you were successful or not. If you were you can usually continue attacking. If you weren't then you'll likely have to react to their counter attack. But just like you, they can't string attacks together, because to do so would be to assume that anyone of them had landed. Which they have no way of knowing.

 

[Bone2pick]

Well to explain it's not really that the move automatically hits. It's more that these are attempts so not would be that I attempt to sweep your leg and if that succeeds I would then move on to attempt to punch you in the face and if that succeeds I would proceed to attempt to elbow you in the stomach.

That's getting ahead of yourself, and a good chunk of roleplayers won't appreciate that.

 

[Rathian Diablos]

That's getting ahead of yourself, and a good chunk of roleplayers won't appreciate that.

I get what you're saying but I kind of have a hard time believing that since this is pretty much how almost all the role players I RP with do it and told me that this is how I was supposed to do it. If they didn't appreciate it why would they then tell me that this is how I was supposed to do it? I'm not saying that it's correct but from experience it may only be a small minority because I haven't actually seen anyone who says doing it like this is wrong.

Again not saying it isn't wrong just saying.

 

[deer]

Rathian Diablos ; I definitely understand the attempt. But, I think in your example, it's mostly successful if it's a one x one type of roleplay because you have that mutual understanding, especially if your partner is someone you trust. However, in a group roleplay, everyone has their own "system" and idea and it ultimately comes down to what the GM says is proper and acceptable.

I get the honor system and would love using that in a group roleplay but some players roleplay attacks differently than others which can cause a lot of disagreement if there isn't a set common grounds. So, I think, it's safe to say that you were able to roleplay with like-minded individuals in ways of roleplaying attacks.

The way you roleplay attacks is how most roleplayers role-played in another site that I used to frequent, but on here, in some group roleplays, there are some who get very technical.

I feel like there's no really "wrong" or "right", just perspective and how people roleplay and what people are comfortable are doing.

 

[Tove]

Don't call hits, leave it open ended that's one way and really depends on the type of battle.

 

[cosowarrior]

Well to explain it's not really that the move automatically hits. It's more that these are attempts so not would be that I attempt to sweep your leg and if that succeeds I would then move on to attempt to punch you in the face and if that succeeds I would proceed to attempt to elbow you in the stomach.

I think if you were to do so much in succession, you'd have to make sure to be explicit in-text that these are attempts, or some partners may read it as auto-hits and consider it cheating (at least within the communities I'm used to).

For instance, the way you wrote the example here, it sounds like auto-hits. If I were in a real RP, I'd probably lighten the language to something like, "He swept his leg low, trying trip her in hopes that he could get in a punch to her face and an elbow to her stomach." It sounds clunkier (which demonstates the value of choosing only a couple of actions at a time), but it makes it clear that these are not GM attacks in which I've controlled her character's reactions.


To answer your question about how best to counter, in my opinion, it depends. Assuming the first counter is successful, I'd say you would only have to address the successive attacks if it is possible for the attacking character to make them without landing the first hit.

For instance, if I say my character jumps onto yours from above, wraps his leg around your character's neck, and proceeds to punch them in the head, then obviously you wouldn't have to counter the last two moves if your character successfully dodged the first. Missing the first attack makes my next two impossible. But if my character simply threw three punches, then you should dodge them all. In my opinion, it's kind of bad form for you to slip in an attack that cancels my other two punches after the first punch. That would feel a bit unfair, especially if it happens repeatedly.

 

[Idea]

There are two things that I would consider appropriate in this kind of situation. Given the comments and your description I am left a bit confused as to what actually was declared, so I'll try to give more overall advice.

1. The general rule of roleplay 101 is that you cannot declare that you have successfuly hit the opponent unless this has been priorly arranged or if it is physically impossible to have avoided the move (and even then, it's considered more polite to still leave the decision to the other player). There is no strict rule, however, nor general policy, that moves have to be done one by one or that people have to give you a chance to make moves before declaring their next intended move.

2. In many roleplays, especially group roleplays, there is a factor known as "fluid time". This essentially means that while things are happening in chronological order, it's acceptable for the amount of time in any given post to not have to correspond to that of any other post, and that going back and forth chronologically between posts (provided within any given post the chronological order is still foward except in case of flashback) is acceptable as well.


Hope this helps and happy RPing!