PVP And Conflict Resolution

Playing an Antagonist: Antagonism is a part of many great stories, and we encourage players to be one another’s antagonists in a respectful and measured way. Antagonism can come in many forms, from outright violence, to manipulation, to scheming. As a golden rule, building an antagonist up is a strong role play choice that we encourage on Thain – reacting to them as if they are dangerous, intimidating, or threatening makes more fun for your antagonist.

We encourage players to be willing to “choose to lose” to your antagonists when suitable or appropriate – conflict resolution should surround what makes the best long-term story for all characters in a scene. More often than not, defeating your antagonist through mechanical or physical strength makes a worse scene – it removes threats and danger that would have made a scene more interesting. Playing an antagonist, whether as a player event NPC (See: Player Eventing Guide) or as your own character antagonizing others, is difficult work, and should be done with the goal of making a more interesting story for others, not simply as a power fantasy or way of bullying other players.

/Duel: Thain has a custom dueling system called /duel that can be accessed by typing /duel and then the name of the player character that you want to duel: /duel Ath’ragnoon will challenge the character Ath’ragnoon to a duel. If Ath’ragnoon types /duelaccept, a duel begins. Both players get to take turns rolling D100+Character Level against the other’s D100+ Character level, and are able to narrate between the /duelattack commands that prompt these rolls. You can add dynamism to these encounters by taking a /duelpenalty based on specific choices that the other player makes during their combat narration, outside forces, or whether or not you want the encounter to tilt against you. You can also choose /duelskip to skip your attack, and /duelflee to flee the duel. See the /duel guide for full details on this system. 

Thain Duels are not obligate. Conflict resolution is encouraged to be made in this way when time and ability permit, but it may be difficult to resolve a conflict inside of another conflict – if an antagonist appears during another event, if the player being antagonized does not have a suitable amount of time to devote to the duel scene, or if the player surmises that the conflict does not benefit from being broadly random in outcome and should be decided by strength, they may decline /duel and instead offer PVP.

PVP: Offers of PVP are a final conflict resolution choice. If either player declines a PVP offer, they must leave the scene – they cannot continue to antagonize or verbally challenge the other player once they have declined the PVP offer. PVP is a difficult method of conflict resolution to manage feelings around – especially as many players do not consciously build for power or mechanical strength, and so it should be used and offered only when a scene might benefit from the dynamic action and interest or prompt resolution that it offers, and never to bully players out of a scene.

Players are also welcome to determine their method of conflict resolution between one another in any other number of ways – the Thain HUD has a built-in dice bag, and contested rolls, contested skill checks, and simple narrated actions are all also suitable methods of conflict resolution if they are agreed upon or dynamically used within a scene between two players.

Aftermath: As always when role playing conflict, we encourage players to be considerate of one another’s longterm goals. Role play where you capture a defeated player comes with the expectation that you will promptly follow up a scene that offers a character opportunity for escape – if the scene is not offered quickly enough, it is simply assumed the player escapes under their own power. Role play where you horribly maim, disfigure, or otherwise damage a player should be confined to scenes where you know that the defeated player appreciates this additional challenge. All conflict consequences should be mindful of their audience, timing, and more.

We ask that you always make an effort to reach out to a defeated opponent and make sure that they are still having fun, and to ask whether or not there is something you can do to help them with their character goals and story with this defeat. You are responsible for managing the consequences of any conflict you initiate on another player. This includes taking accountability for moments when a character is “forced out” from a scene by their refusal to consent to PVP, when reasonable.