... IC Hunt Rules:
Do the challenger and the host want to do an rp before their fight? If yes than they do one.
End of rules...
The answer is usually no for that RP though. Why go through the trouble of RPing anything when you can slap a few paragraphs into a few posts with some references to narutopedia and SLpedia and call yourself a boss? When it is done to determine the fate of the trophies that supposedly contribute to RP nobody bats an eye, but if someone makes a list of custom jutsu that is similar to a "veteran's" everyone loses their minds.
Make no mistake, I have been among the top to decry IC method and shun it like the red headed stepchild that has to take pills to keep the bipolar disorder from turning him into a serial killer that the method seems to be at times. But at the same time, the idea of "top" RPers proclaiming ourselves the best when we hardly roleplay competitively with each other on a front like this (the tailed beasts) anymore is self-defeating, not to mention reforming SL RP starts and ends with whatever is important to the RPers that run the place. The biju are the only place on SL where you can constructively modify how things are done around here.
People thought the biju rules would never get to a working, functional state. All that doubt and what resulted from sweat, blood, tears, and higher than usual power bills? An OOC system that is living, breathing, and, while still a work in progress, has a future that newcomers can get the rules on and not be lost as a cardinal in a savanna.
No one wants to lose, as Athos stated, hence why the odds of two RPers coming together to plan out an RP for the biju are pretty slim unless the two are close friends. These IC rules are not about those happy couples or triplets or however high amount it goes. It's about the ones who don't get along so nicely, who need structure and order just to get through a biju match of even this OOC system without trying to tear each other a part.
If we can figure out how to RP the biju fights again, collectively, then we can also figure out how to RP with each other, en masse, again without having to resort to ever-growing rules to keep each other honorable and on the Yoda path.
Because figuring out how to RP the biju fights again requires understanding, give, take, civil discussion, maybe even some politics. It requires a village to raise this red head stepchild that is the product of its parents' union. Of its village's continued existence.
I believe it is vital and necessary to make IC biju hunt rules for our sake. You can talk a big game about reforming SL RP, about including new people, about nerfs that remedy a symptom rather than a sickness, but if you want to make a real difference:
Figure out a way for two opposing forces of RPers who by nature do not like each other (hunters vs hunted, hosts/jinchurikii vs Akatsuki style hunters, etc.) to come together without setting off an explosive chain reaction. Solve that problem, and you will become a legend worthy of the sacred place here on SL where the big names rest in peace, where reverence and true awe illuminate like the entire light of the sun in a cardboard box. Give up on that problem, and your only calling to greatness can be taken away as easily as ten forum posts, as easily overlooked as a roach dining on the pizza under the refrigerator.
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Getting off my soap box a bit, addressing:
The option to flee is a great example. We'd either have to make it basically useless, like you have to wait 10 turns to run away and if you do the challenger doesn't go on a three month cool down, or else there would be no reason to try and win a fight. As a Jinchuriki why would I ever bother putting myself in harms way if I can just back off for X number of turns and then leave scott-free? It would basically just be the challenger has X turns to win or they lose. Because if the host can run then the host never needs to win they just need to not lose and that's way easier. "I go into my Kamui dimension for X turns and then I leave." That would be every fight because why would I do anything else if that assures me I keep my beast?
Is there a rule that you have to actually beat your challenger's character in an OOC match? Last I checked, if you can get a judge to rule in your favor that running and dodging/countering the whole match is considered a win after a certain point where both or one of the combatants feels like the fight is going in circles, then that's a win, no further questions.
Is that not just a lengthier flight sequence?
Check out my biju battle with Masane [
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8319.0.html ] if you need an example of what I am talking about. That fight could have gone two ways depending on who the initial judge was, and if she had had the desire to continue after what eventually became her surrender point. I did not beat her, I did not kill her, I just did whatever was in my power to keep from losing.
Another old one:
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8350.0.htmlThe battle was finished when the challenger conceded. Whether he was defeated or not would have been for a judge to determine, but no winner was declared based upon a final blow, a "kill" or "knock-out". It was determined by a concession, likely prompted by the conditions that the challenger found himself in. The following fights were determined by judge decisions, concessions, agreements between players, etc. that make the point that playing the objective -
not losing- is not so far removed from OOC fights either.
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8371.0.htmlhttp://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8543.0.htmlhttp://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8573.15.htmlhttp://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8874.0.htmlhttp://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8955.15.htmlIn OOC fights, since Ichirou vs Shadow (
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,8479.0.html) fleeing from fights has been formally frowned upon, and so the culture of the biju fighters tends not to consider it as an option. As the debate throughout went, if it's not in the rules or the preferences, then there is space for abuse.
Allowing escape once the battle phase opens up was an iffy to begin with, but going through all of this again, it is probably best not to be included. In which case, hosts would try to avoid the battle phase indefinitely. What do the host/jinchurikii have to keep the "trapped against RP logic" fine for them? Thoughts?