Combat between players is a part of roleplaying that can be both extremely satisfying or extremely unsatisfying. True freedom to engage in conflict between characters that is not pre-plotted is something that is growing rarer and rarer these days. It isn’t the preference of a lot of roleplayers (and that’s okay). Rising Spirit, however, is a site that establishes an open environment for conflict between characters when they are outside of their villages.

A big part of why player verse player is often hailed as a toxic environment is because of the emotional attachments and bias we tend to form for our own characters. We generally want our own characters to succeed. These emotions are perfectly normal, because the characters we make are often a part of us whether we realize it or not. The emotional part of our brains have a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality. When a character dies it is possible to feel real grief.

So why engage with this content when your emotions are at stake? It is for the same reason that your favorite show leaves you on a cliff hanger at the end of an episode. High stakes riles us up and keeps us coming back. It avoids the feeling of stagnation so prevelant in more popular formats like slice of life.

To prevent toxicity from taking hold in us, we have to recognize and accept that we will have emotions and bias. Its okay that we do so long as we understand going in that we are going to have them and make efforts not to act on impulse. We also have to be able to forgive people when they slip up. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had times in my many years of playing in shonen roleplays that I have not handled every situation perfectly.

-Wait a few hours and reread a post a second time before responding if your initial response to it gave you a negative feeling. This gives you time to make sure that initial emotions aren't having an influence on your decision to dispute things or not. Avoid asking others for opinions during this time and give yourself time to process the information.

-Communicate with your opponent about what your character is good at and what they are good at. Try not to no-sell the other character's strengths. I'm not saying to predetermine anything but the thread is going to be more satisfying to you, your partner(s), and people reading the thread if there is some back and fourth in the thread. One of the things we look for when we are determining how highly weighted threads like these are for upgrades is how memorable it is. Would anyone be excited to read it in a manga or an anime?

-Limit your character's actions during each post of combat. One to two things is best. Don't forget about hand seals for ninjutsu which is going to be a lot slower than throwing a punch.

-Keep out of the peanut gallery on disputes and keep them private. If you and your partner(s) can't resolve it you should go to the staff with it. People tend to feel awkward about being put on the spot and may just echo back what they think you want to hear, and worse it can aggitate the person whose actions you are disputing. Our staff team will help settle it. However, please do try to work things out first, because if you can't that is generally a bad sign that the thread is going to have OOC drama attached to it.

-Grow from the loss. Not every battle is going to result in a character death. Exploring loss and pushing your character to get better is hallmark shonen and we love to see it. Nothing like a good vengance plot either. If you left room in your backstory for a sibling or something you could even potentially make them and transfer progress, and then you have an established villain that grew from organic play.

-Be a good winner too. Don't do a bunch of gloating OOC and practice humility. Consider alternatives to killing characters when it makes sense.