Luria

[Shizzle]

Trust me, weirder things have happened than a blind person winning a sword fight. How about a deaf composer who became one of the most famous creators of classical music in the world?

Failing to compose won't exactly kill you, will it

[Indirik]

And said composer could still feel the music.

[Anaris]

Or, and hear me out on this, perhaps the skill factors in her skill with the sword along with her blindness, so that the fact she was blind brought her to a much lower sword skill than she normally would be. Note that this would be an IC explanation.

This, exactly.

The fact that she is blind is purely RP. The fact that she trained extra-hard in swordsmanship to overcome this is also purely RP. The game mechanics only recognize what her actual skill with the sword is, not "what it would be if she wasn't blind".

Thus, if she had 80% sword skill, then that would mean that she had trained to such an extent that she was as good without sight as someone else with 80% skill was with sight.

(Disclaimer: She didn't have 80% sword skill.)

[Chenier]

This, exactly.

The fact that she is blind is purely RP. The fact that she trained extra-hard in swordsmanship to overcome this is also purely RP. The game mechanics only recognize what her actual skill with the sword is, not "what it would be if she wasn't blind".

Thus, if she had 80% sword skill, then that would mean that she had trained to such an extent that she was as good without sight as someone else with 80% skill was with sight.

(Disclaimer: She didn't have 80% sword skill.)

The game has a training option. Had she used it all of her life, her swordfighting skill would be higher. Obviously, she did not spend any significant amount of time or resources on training, if her swordfighting skill is as low as has been claimed. The compensation claim would be the equivalent of stating that a region loves its lord because of all the time he spends with them dealing justice, when said character never once held a court, or, you know, claiming that that all of the bureaucrats of a realm have been dealt with without the realm ever, say, going into anarchy.

As for the composer comparison, it doesn't fit as others have said. There are different ways to see music, failing will not kill you, and, even more importantly, it is a solo operation without any deadline. I really can't see how beating someone with an oversized knife had anything to do with arts or how it could be compared in such a manner.

And indeed, as Penchant stated, I was running on the assumption that she was an ex-advy with a godly swordfighting skill %. But as Shizzle stated, that's irrelevant, as even with low sword skill that's still RPing a handicap that is contradicted by game mechanics. If she wanted to RP as blind, she should have at the very least avoided all uses of the swordfighting skill she could. Otherwise, it's just corny RP. Because she's trying to get everyone to RP on how badass the queen is, "she was blind but still stroke him down!", in total contradiction with game mechanics, while in reality she was dueling a character with exactly the same capacities as herself, and thus not doing anything truly badass. It'd be as if I RPed that I could levitate and fly, and that thus I should be worshiped, when obviously the game mechanics don't allow me to do so in any form.

[Solari]

Except... the game mechanics *do* allow for people to win duels. And blindness is not something that bends the laws of reality or puts an unfair burden upon other players. Skyndarbau accepted the duel. He knew the risk. Shizzle's said this. All parties involved seem fine with the facts of this case. So, what are you upset about, exactly? It would help if you could state your specific grievance. And then be prepared to defend your reasoning, politely. I think you'd find a lot of people willing to sort it out.

[Chenier]

Except... the game mechanics *do* allow for people to win duels. What are you upset about, exactly? It would help if you could state your specific grievance. And then be prepared to defend your reasoning, politely. I think you'd find a lot of people willing to sort it out.

My point is simply that I find her blindness to be poor RP because it contradicts game mechanics. Yes, game mechanics "allow for people to win duels", obviously. But in the formula that determines who wins, it considers strategy, luck, and skill. The only place that a handicap could fall into, here, is skill. Because you aren't blind one day and not the next, so the luck argument, if that's what you are trying to bring up, doesn't hold up. Strategy, on the other hand, would imply that everything else being equal, the odds should also be equal.

The only way that such a serious handicap could be RPed in harmony with game mechanics would be if someone was once a great swordsman, and then was tortured so much he became a bad one. Then RPing that the torture had rendered blind or the like would make sense.

I would frown just as much if someone from my own realms RPed something of the like. Really, my point was simply that it's not because it's well-written or part of a long series of narratives that the RP itself is good. RP quality does not derive from how many messages you write with the header of "roleplay", or how low said messages are, but from what the events and actions being described are and how they are in harmony with the environment that take place in. As such, I consider many people that have never written a single "RP" to be far better RPers than a great many people who have written such messages profusely. The praise for this low-grade RP was what prompted my reactions.

[Tandaros]

Trust me, weirder things have happened than a blind person winning a sword fight. How about a deaf composer who became one of the most famous creators of classical music in the world?

Game, set, match. There are bigger fish to fry than this episode, Chenier.

[Anaris]

My point is simply that I find her blindness to be poor RP because it contradicts game mechanics.

No, it doesn't.

Yes, game mechanics "allow for people to win duels", obviously. But in the formula that determines who wins, it considers strategy, luck, and skill. The only place that a handicap could fall into, here, is skill. Because you aren't blind one day and not the next, so the luck argument, if that's what you are trying to bring up, doesn't hold up. Strategy, on the other hand, would imply that everything else being equal, the odds should also be equal.

Her skill, accounting for her blindness, was better than Skyndarbau's, apparently.

Your fundamental argument here is just fatally flawed, Chénier.

There is absolutely no reason one cannot (or should not) roleplay as a blind character. If a blind character does something involving swordfighting skill, it is perfectly reasonable to claim that they were engaging in extra practice sessions specifically to compensate for their blindness.

Yes, there is an option to train your swordfighting skill at the Academy. Yes, this would mean roleplaying training your swordfighting skill in instances when you were not actually training it at the game-mechanic Academy. No, that isn't a problem.

You know why? Because it's a RP compensation for a RP problem. It doesn't claim that the person should be made better or worse at swordfighting; it doesn't demand manual adjustments to game-mechanic values to make the align with RP (unlike some people ). It's purely a RP way to explain why she can have X skill with the sword when RPed to be blind, even though in game-mechanic terms, she has only trained as much as a sighted person would need to to achieve that level of skill.

[GoldPanda]

... Maybe she's a Jedi... or Sith.

*runs away*

[cenrae]

Not that it matters much but I have no issue with her being blind and winning a duel. That said I did not see the rps of the duel. Main point of this game is to try and have fun with everyone which I an sure everyone agrees.

[Indirik]

IMHO, the only way I would have a problem with it is if Alice in some way tried to brag about how a blind girl could best a sighted, able-bodied man in a duel. So long as Alice doesn't try to make it seem like Skyndarbau is a clumsy oaf who can't handle a sword ("Oh look how pathetic he is, that a blind little girl bested him with a sword. How pitiful". etc., etc.) If both sides play it as the absurdly unlikely outcome that it turned out to be, then I don't see any big deal with it.

[Shizzle]

IMHO, the only way I would have a problem with it is if Alice in some way tried to brag about how a blind girl could best a sighted, able-bodied man in a duel. So long as Alice doesn't try to make it seem like Skyndarbau is a clumsy oaf who can't handle a sword ("Oh look how pathetic he is, that a blind little girl bested him with a sword. How pitiful". etc., etc.) If both sides play it as the absurdly unlikely outcome that it turned out to be, then I don't see any big deal with it.

Same.

Also, I would like to briefly express my appreciation for the complex that game BM really is. I think it's amazing these kind of issues come up on a regular basis.

[Vellos]

Couldn't we just start propagating a rumor that Alice is lying about being blind?

[Sypher]

Or maybe Skyn lost on purpose ? He's fighting the Queen of Luria, a realm known for being temperamental. He is probably thinking, if I harm their queen they are going to be extremely upset and take it out on Fissoa.

[Tandaros]

Or maybe Skyn lost on purpose ? He's fighting the Queen of Luria, a realm known for being temperamental. He is probably thinking, if I harm their queen they are going to be extremely upset and take it out on Fissoa.

That.... sounds nothing like Skyndarbau.