Combat and how to do it in RolePlay

As many of you already know, Deadwood sim has been featured in Second Life's Destination Guide. The admin team has been dealing with a lot of new folks who have no idea whatsoever on how to role play. We have had the run of people running around nude or so close to it doesnt matter, their noobie dangly bits exposed for God and everybody to see...well, you get the idea. So the admins in Deadwood have been talking about how can we help new folks get into the rp with a minimum of time and a maximum of useful information. Not so easy as it seems. But never let it be said that the Deadwood admins backed away from a challenge. I will be posting some ideas on how to roleplay combat in Deadwood. These ideas will be applicable to other rp sims.





Combat! How does it happen? What do I do so I can commit mayhem and not get warned or banned for it?



Entering into Combat / Giving combat warnings



Your character is sitting in the Cricket Saloon, when a man walks in. During the course of time, this stranger looks over at you and makes some comments about your dubious parentage. What do you do? Lets look at the wrong way first.



Leaning against the bar Jack Landar sips his whiskey, his eyes flitting from person to person noting each one. Joe Smith turns to Jack, "You bastard, I was talking to that whore first." Jack Landar slams his fist into Joe Smith's jaw knocking him unconcious.

Several problems with this, Jack did not give any combat warning, and he god modded Joe by not giving him a chance to react to the punch he threw.



A better way...



Leaning against the bar Jack Landar sips his whiskey. Joe Smith takes a spot at the bar and turns to Jack, "You bastard, I was talking to that whore first." Jack smirks, "Bastard am I? I am going to teach you what a bastard can do." Jack pulls his fist back and throws a punch towards Joe's jaw.

Here Jack gives the combat warning by what he says and what he does. He also gives Joe the opportunity to react to his punch.

The use of rp warnings should of course be applied to meter fighting as well.