No, stop that. In the real world, the overwhelming majority of fights end with one or both combatants running away or disabling the opponent so they can escape. Every martial art is about putting the enemy down long enough to make an escape, not a kill. Even in war, it's better to injure an opponent over killing them since they keep using the enemy's resources while in recovery.
However, in Altera every single fight seems like it has to end with someone dying. That absolutely isn't the case, and here's a few options to show how a fight can go, in no special order:
A) Kill Your Enemy
The most common option, it seems. In this situation, you and your enemy fight to a point where you're arguing over if you've killed them or not and poor Somnastra has to come settle it for you, or you've killed the enemy. Now what? They're out of a character for a few days and come back with OOC anger over it (which, to be fair, shouldn't affect RP). Your character is also now likely wanted for murder.
B) Disable, Disarm, Or Otherwise Handicap Your Enemy
This is a much easier option than killing. Just disarm or wound your enemy to discourage further action, and either of you can proceed to option C.
Disabling is a less irritating solution than a character dying. You get fighting experience, and your enemy gets to RP as being injured or crippled, which can be quite fun as well as lead to tons of development (@blargtheawesome can attest to this). This is something most people don't consider doing, but it's so easy to handle. Injury is less contested than getting killed, and someone with a broken leg would obviously be unable to pursue you.
C) Run Away
The easiest option of all of them. Just stop fighting and run away. Throw sand or dirt at your foe's eyes to distract them, or point and shout something about the lottery, a fine wench, or any other distraction and leave the fight. Unless the purpose of the fight is to kill (which is a decision a character should think on heavily, as murder isn't exactly light) then your enemy running away has accomplished the purpose of the fight easily. You won, they fled. Minimum fuss, and now you get intimidation cred and better street rep than "psychopathic killer".
I've "won" a fair few fights as Vorar by being too slow to actually pursue people. Walking away at a brisk pace is enough to stop fighting with Vorar, since he can't chase very well.
D) Backflip over a javelin, vanish into the shadow dimension, and appear behind them to snap their neck
Yeah, do this and you're getting banned for being an ass.
E) Lose
Good for RP as long as it isn't a killing fight: getting injured or crippled can add volumes of depth to your RP and character. They can also learn humility by their loss or find the motivation to start learning how to defend themselves. Of course, running away is easier, but losing can be fun.
E) Fight Unarmed
Drawing a weapon escalates conflict tremendously. When you bring weapons into play, you're saying that you're willing to kill to win, which is bad. Fighting unarmed and not immediately going to the maximum force possible is a much better prospect. This is also reflected in real life: where the police could shoot you down immediately, they instead use tear gas, tasers, etc to try and disable you and win with minimum possible conflict and damage. The same goes in IRL wars. We have nukes and hideously powerful weapons, but going directly to the highest degree of force is unfeasible and an incredibly poor choice for obvious reasons (retaliation of maximum force). In a fight, it's always better to start at low force and try to end it quickly instead of pulling a weapon. A weapon will also exhaust faster than other means of fighting, and that's bad. In real life, a fight can only go for a very short time before combatants get exhausted and can't keep fighting. Ever see MMA fighting? The fighters conserve energy instead of immediately going all out as one would in a real fight. When you fight, remember to escalate force reasonably. Don't go all out at first with a weapon, but build to it if you have to.
Discuss.
However, in Altera every single fight seems like it has to end with someone dying. That absolutely isn't the case, and here's a few options to show how a fight can go, in no special order:
A) Kill Your Enemy
The most common option, it seems. In this situation, you and your enemy fight to a point where you're arguing over if you've killed them or not and poor Somnastra has to come settle it for you, or you've killed the enemy. Now what? They're out of a character for a few days and come back with OOC anger over it (which, to be fair, shouldn't affect RP). Your character is also now likely wanted for murder.
B) Disable, Disarm, Or Otherwise Handicap Your Enemy
This is a much easier option than killing. Just disarm or wound your enemy to discourage further action, and either of you can proceed to option C.
Disabling is a less irritating solution than a character dying. You get fighting experience, and your enemy gets to RP as being injured or crippled, which can be quite fun as well as lead to tons of development (@blargtheawesome can attest to this). This is something most people don't consider doing, but it's so easy to handle. Injury is less contested than getting killed, and someone with a broken leg would obviously be unable to pursue you.
C) Run Away
The easiest option of all of them. Just stop fighting and run away. Throw sand or dirt at your foe's eyes to distract them, or point and shout something about the lottery, a fine wench, or any other distraction and leave the fight. Unless the purpose of the fight is to kill (which is a decision a character should think on heavily, as murder isn't exactly light) then your enemy running away has accomplished the purpose of the fight easily. You won, they fled. Minimum fuss, and now you get intimidation cred and better street rep than "psychopathic killer".
I've "won" a fair few fights as Vorar by being too slow to actually pursue people. Walking away at a brisk pace is enough to stop fighting with Vorar, since he can't chase very well.
D) Backflip over a javelin, vanish into the shadow dimension, and appear behind them to snap their neck
Yeah, do this and you're getting banned for being an ass.
E) Lose
Good for RP as long as it isn't a killing fight: getting injured or crippled can add volumes of depth to your RP and character. They can also learn humility by their loss or find the motivation to start learning how to defend themselves. Of course, running away is easier, but losing can be fun.
E) Fight Unarmed
Drawing a weapon escalates conflict tremendously. When you bring weapons into play, you're saying that you're willing to kill to win, which is bad. Fighting unarmed and not immediately going to the maximum force possible is a much better prospect. This is also reflected in real life: where the police could shoot you down immediately, they instead use tear gas, tasers, etc to try and disable you and win with minimum possible conflict and damage. The same goes in IRL wars. We have nukes and hideously powerful weapons, but going directly to the highest degree of force is unfeasible and an incredibly poor choice for obvious reasons (retaliation of maximum force). In a fight, it's always better to start at low force and try to end it quickly instead of pulling a weapon. A weapon will also exhaust faster than other means of fighting, and that's bad. In real life, a fight can only go for a very short time before combatants get exhausted and can't keep fighting. Ever see MMA fighting? The fighters conserve energy instead of immediately going all out as one would in a real fight. When you fight, remember to escalate force reasonably. Don't go all out at first with a weapon, but build to it if you have to.
Discuss.
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