Chat Based Combat
David Artsmith - Narrative fighting is an online game where two or more people compete in a fictional battle, by describing what they would do to the other person. Usually the game is conducted using avatars, i.e. each person pretends to be control, or pretends to be, a fictional character of some sort. For instance, one person can claim to be a dragon, and the other can claim to be a knight.
This game is usually conducted in either a chat room, or in a forum, depending on the communication devices that are available. It is often associated with roleplaying combat systems, but differs in that there is neither a dice nor a random number generator associated with the outcopme.
While the game can be played with just two players, there is often a third person who acts as referee present. If a referee is not used it can lead to disputes between the two players. A referee ensures that an impartial third person is there to keep the fight moving forward.
A game of narrative combat begins when one of the two fighters is chosen to go first. The first player writes out his action, the movements of the character he is playing, in response to their virtual opponent. One ecample could be “my guy swings his sword at your head”.” The second player then has to type out what their defense is, i.e. “I raise my shield and block the fire.
The difference between a game with a ref and one without any administrative control is that the combat will continue indefinitely until someone decides to allow themselves to be harmed by the other, or until some other outcome is determined. This is more akin to play acting then actually fighting however, because the choice of who wins is decided mutually.
If there is a referee however, at the end of the second players defense, the referee can come up with an outcome based on both players text. For instance “the dragon breathes fire, but the knight blocks it with his shield, but the shield grows hot and he has to drop it.” In general the referee should award advantage to the player whose description was more creative and well written.
There are a variety of ways for the combat to finish. Some referees like to assign points, counting each hit as a lost point, until someone has no points left. Others like to let the fight happen naturally until someone’s actions kill the other. In either case it will be up to the ref to decide the winner based on the attacks and defenses that are suggested by the players.
The advantage of narrative combat is that it gets you writing in a directly competitive way. You have to be more creative than the other person, or you are going to lose. It’s like a writing exercise, that forces creativity out of you.
The conflict does not have to be limited to two people. You can have combat with several people, each taking their turns, although this can get rather complex. You can also have each person controlling multiple non player characters, or characters that they make up and direct. In this way you can actually have a narrative war between two armies.
Narrative combat is not a new invention. Thousands of kids have played the magic game, where they come up with spells and counter spells back and forth until someone pulls something so clever that the other cant counter it. However, when in written form it takes on a kind of literary life. It becomes a form of tandem creation in which two or more people build a story of conflict.