Levels, The Redblades and you.

[Drevan]

I'm rather interested in how you all deal with characters levels within RP. I think, probably for a lot of you, they don't matter, but with things like Mounts only coming with certain levels, as well as access to certain regions, they have to feature somewhere.

I know some people regard levels as a rough guide to a characters strength. This I suppose is fair. A level 30, no matter how "strong" or experienced his Orc is in combat, simply has no means to even hurt a level 80 in a duel, let alone beat him. Rargnasha has put together a topic about a combat rolling system based on predetermined character values, not levels, hich is interesting and can probably be adapted for use between players.

Either way, just wanted to get everyones thoughts on it.

[Regorn]

When I was RP'ing I simply based character strength on their status, experience and background
if it would come to a fight, I believe Regorn could kick down any new bloods
but if Krogon appears, I would be down faster then I could swallow Yolks
Me and Sadok however used to Duel some and we were quite even (Yes Sadok, I consider you my equal, feel offended?, disgusted?)

...oh, and how their RP gear looked, a bit unofficial

so, I did not really care that much about levels, if there was someone level above me and higher in rank, he could 99% of the odds beat me and the other way around

This however did not apply if a New blood could figure out Regorns greatest Weakness! (just poke him on his back, he be down in a second, old age is horrifying)

[Groshnakk]

My idea of this has always been "RP your char as a badass - If you can back it up in duels" Of course, there are classes that are better suited than others, but i still use this saying.

[Grogok]

I somehow have a hard time, picture you play Grosh less badass, should the tied turn and you started to get your ass kicked alot grosh

[Rargnasha]

In the Bloodied Blades rolling system, I did consider if people should be given bonuses depending on their IC 'Badassness'. However, I ended up scrapping the idea since alot of people would probaly end up deciding that they should have the hightest possible bonus, which would mean the encounters would need to be 'designed' to still provide a challenge, which in turn would kill off those who Roleplay their characters as more normal orcs.
In the end, what I went for was a system that has a set value of when you influence the <Monsters>, so that pretty much everyone has the same chance of inflicting wounds, the emotes can be carried out as the clumsy peon getting in an incredibly lucky strike, or the experienced veteran out-manuvering the monster and dealing a viscious blow.
However, for how people are influenced themselves, I decided to go with that people can decide how bad they're hit!
I'll use some examples with the first real event where I had this system planned, Thuesdays Wartraining in the Stonetalon mountains.

Here we had Karak (Who were incredibly unfortunant with his rolls) who took -alot- of beatings. At one point when he rolled bad, he decided that he took a blow to the skull that would have killed him, if he didn't have his chain coif on.

In our other example, the pack was figthing an Old one general (And we were pretty roughed up!). Since Rargnasha is a veteran and have fought plenty of such beings in his time in the war against the Twilights hammer, I decided to water down alot of the hits that it dealt to him.

Now, a bit more On Topic, about Levels and such.
Since RP-PvP is a big part of the Red Blades, I've always considered PvP provess to be equal to RP skill in combat in most cases.
An example that comes to mind would be, if everyone within the Red Blades are an awesome, unbeatable killing machine, how does it make sence if we lose some of our RP-PvP battles with say, the Dwarven Rifle Squad? And I'd say that it works to dampen down some of the power roleplay.

Anyhow, that's just my two cents!

[Sadok]

Level is a game mechanic, first and foremost.

It would be ridiculous to expect a level 30 to duel an 85 and treat the resulting curbstomp as IC. Thus if a fight breaks out between a level 30 and 85, I'd consider it best to have an emote duel (with rolls to prevent every hit being parried/blocked/dodged). Considering that much of our RP takes place in low-level zones, rolling systems like Rargnasha's can be a great way to inject some more challenge into RP-PvE.

That being said, I view PvP as the purest (and best) form of roleplaying a duel/battle. ORB have a longstanding RP-PvP tradition, and we traditionally perform very well in tournaments and WPvP (even if we could use a few more healers). I personally consider emote duels between two 85s to be a cheap (and considering their length, inefficient) way out of settling a dispute, and agree with Grosh's point that you should be able to back up your character's supposed strength with equivalent PvP prowess once you reach 85.

My two copper's worth, at least.

[Vashnarz]

I agree with both Grosh Rarg and Sadok

[Grogok]

I ofcourse see your points in all this xD and in some lenght you are right but when you consider how most of you guys are so Pro at PvP, those of us who aint, are then supposed to play whimpering orcs who barely know how to swing an axe?

[Okiba]

I ofcourse see your points in all this xD and in some lenght you are right but when you consider how most of you guys are so Pro at PvP, those of us who aint, are then supposed to play whimpering orcs who barely know how to swing an axe?

Well, i see your point. However, i'm not that good at pvp. I know i' have many notorious characters, But they gained their reputation through either being ruthless or cunning, Tactical and calculating. Krogon for example isnt feared not because of his frontal combat skills... odd for a Blademaster, no? He's feared because he could pop up anywhere, anytime, and slip a sharp blade inbetween your ribs when you least expct it, asleep, resting... or he may trick you, leed you into a trap. Its his cunning, that makes him dangerous in so many numerous ways. His personal favourite is luring his enemis into thinking their beating him in some way, then flipping the situation on its head by doing something completely unexpected.

Krogon was once being hunted by ildranor in grizzly hills... and had been grazed by a bullet, Bleeding he ran around the forest being chased, keeping a good Distance. Using this to his advantage he set a trap. Ildranor found the blood trail led to a mighty pine, and led up the trunk to barely visible heights among the foliage he couldnt aim into, So he climbed... when he reached the source of the blood, he found that krogon had left a log among the branches around his size, wearing his kilt... And sawed the branch. Ildranor hit every branch on the way down once it snapped under his weight. Thats prowess of a different kind though i suppose.

A characters prowess is really only as believable as you make it, Without peoples belief in that, its nada. Look at the gurubashi emperors, They've been woshiped as -Gods-, Not because of pvp skill, or emote skills... But by being able to manipulate people, to control their beliefs, and behaviour. Now -that- is power.

Otherwise i tend to rate 'power' by a combination of character factors, using a mixture of PVP prowess, Emotes, a little chance with rolls (i dislike using them and them alone, as too much is left to luck) and somewhat... image. It is understandably hard to rate someone on the food chain if your meeting them for the first time.

And i bloody well hate people who assume their characters are mighty, invincible, juggernaughts of killing prowess based on One of the aspects mentioned above alone, OR even worse... without any at all.

My 2 cents.

[Groshnakk]

The rolling system is insanely well for  people who will base anything on luck. Which is why (through hard training, and this is extremely ego-central point of view) i see PVP skills as the major factor in your characters "toughness" as you, in my eyes, have to strive your character to become the beast you are in PvP (this might come of as ultra-elitism but it works).
You can't ask a PvP'er to "Step down their game" because someone else isn't as good. That is why the PvP'er have practiced that much, and have spend so much time in exactly this aspect of game, to be the best.