Post by Lilim on Dec 19, 2019 5:32:33 GMT -5
Vit drain was a massive mistake. Whoever instituted that needs to be sad about themselves.
However my concern about that mechanic is we're kinda... creating HP for our characters. In a sense. And that's moving further towards Statsville.
Moreover, in this case, would other stats being lower make them weaker? What's to stop me from having 10% Strength and 30% the other four stats when I can hit just as hard that way?
Also Androids? We wanna prevent a mass exodus to Androids.
However my concern about that mechanic is we're kinda... creating HP for our characters. In a sense. And that's moving further towards Statsville.
Moreover, in this case, would other stats being lower make them weaker? What's to stop me from having 10% Strength and 30% the other four stats when I can hit just as hard that way?
Also Androids? We wanna prevent a mass exodus to Androids.
I was the one the started playing around with Vitality Drain as a mechanic, though I'm certain a few people tossed around the idea at some point. I wanted something that could actually make vitality important to a character build, and when I put it together, naturally, I got a lot of complaints from lower-level folks about it, because once again, we run into this discussion of RP vs stats.
If stats aren't supposed to be important, why are there very specific gains for one activity or another, a piece of equipment or another? Why do we have to double check math on updates every week if stats aren't important? There is a lot of effort that goes into that sort of thing, yet when the dice land and the hands are put on the table, suddenly there's a million complaints about statsville. Is it just a score? If it is, then absolutely none of them should matter.
The reason Vitality drain was a concept was because it didnt do anything otherwise. No one took it into account for damage or anything else, or at least they didn't used to. We have stamina drain which is effectively HP of a different type, yet people complain about when the drain should apply. Do you want battles to have consequences for your decisions in-battle or not? Do you want battles to be brutal or not?
Yes, this is an RP site, and the words you type need to matter, hence why the RP award rewards you with STATS, not some arbitrary damage bonus or damage reduction bonus. If the stats dont matter, why even award them if you win the RP award? Just give that person a gold star and the first to five wins?
I get some folks are going to argue the mix approach--basically stats should matter, but 'No HP' and 'RP is God', but that sort of approach is why we have so many issues the moment a serious fight occurs in the first place. The way its left so vague does give some folks hope, but it also makes it incredibly frustrating to determine what you can and cannot do. Being able to completely counter something through RP alone is going to make such a mockery of any system that could potentially exist that it just comes down to who can peer pressure the ref the most or turn it into a popularity contest. No objectivity in the system in the least.
The Vitality Drain concept isn't a mistake, and I will not stand being told to feel sad for myself for essentially spearheading it at the time that I did, because it's necessary. Otherwise, what's to stop someone from putting all their points into speed and stamina if there's no such thing as HP? There isn't. Having higher strength or toughness has no mechanic, it just exists in a vacuum that no one really looks at, as far as I'm aware. Even if Refs do take that into consideration, there's no site mechanic for it--they're just making up how it interacts with one another. This is the same situation with Vitality--it just exists and doesn't do anything without some form of underlying system.
Like, it just seems like the irritation with Vitality Drain stems from the fact that some people have not worked as hard on their stats and RP (outside of battle) as others and wish to negate that. I get the sentiment, you want anything to be possible in RP, but without a rule set and system in place, then we're just doing a series of one-up-manship constantly in battles. Stats and systems stabilize the narrative and playing field between two combatants that are trying to be competitive with one another, and I feel like the Vitality Drain concept is important enough to retain--we just need to make it consistent and fair.