Arconans! Fear not! I have returned to lead from the throne of awesome-
kick
Okay, yeah, I'm back, and my humility has been ensured with a well-timed kick to the groin now, so I am once again ready to proudly serve the Clan with news, opinions, gossip, and vicious rumors on what Etah did at summer camp when he was a boy! I've also added, after everything, the first part of my new ACC guide (which, tentatively, will be called 'Below the belt', because I'll spend much time advocating the use of dirty tricks).
The news:
Since I last posted a report, we've won a GJW and gotten a new DGM, Combat Master, and Gaming Tribune. Since you guys have been hit to death on the GJW already (and it's kinda late for that anyway), I'll just tell you guys that I'm proud of you for being this awesome.
On the other topics: Our new DGM is Paladin, whom I know nothing about at all save what's on the history books. I haven't heard anything from him yet on any topic, but that's mostly the fate of useful henchmen anyway: they're too busy doing shit to hog the spotlight.
Speaking of henchmen, I'd like to place in a commendation for my own assistant, Etah. He's done well managing the House while I was gone. In fact, this has earned him an upgrade to Awesome Aedile, and increased responsibilities. From now on, Etah will be doing even more of the official medals, promotion, etc. stuff, while I focus on getting drunk and/or insulting random passersby.
Erinyes is the new Combat Master. This is much to my relief, since it means I didn't get the job. And that means I get to stick around with you guys a little longer. She did, however, make me her Magistrate, and I'm expecting great things from her.
Vardar's our new Gaming Tribune. Yeah, I know, Wolvie's probably going to shout at me for what I'll say next. :P Yeah, I know, he's been called Vartard for ages for lots of good reasons and even his own (former) Clan apparently hates his guts. Yeah, I know all this. However, I say we still give him the chance to show us what he's got in store. We granted the same courtesy to a Fiction Tribune who could not spell and a Combat Master who could not think. Credit where credit is due, Vardar can at the very least game, so let him try. :P
Hell, on that note: Tribunes and the Combat Master will, apparently, turn into official DC positions. Yeah, I know. :o Someone apparently had the temerity to think that the activities that are the lifeblood of the DJB actually require DC representation, and it somehow caught on. On the whole, I like the change of pace.
There's also some z0mgsecretstuff going on that's actually not very secret anymore. I am, of course, talking about our Shadesworn project. In short, this is our new and improved master/student program. More details to follow next week, when we've got some more details hammered out. :P
Events:
There's an SA competition for kids -er, for Journeymen, so get cracking! Other than that, nope. Etah's Oeuvre awesome competition finished and we'll work on something new, soon.
Shinys/Unlimited POWER! :
Awards and promotions will, from now on, be Etah's domain. So let me just say two things:
One, Etah is now a Krath Archpriest, which is something he's really been deserving of for quite some time. Congrats, dude!
Second, seals are slowly flowing in. If you haven't gotten them yet, be patient, they'll come in after a while. If you still don't have them when another week or so has passed, or you think the number of seals you got is wrong, throw me an email and I'll shout at Kir for a bit.
After which I'll probably be told to fuck off since he's working as fast as he can. :P
Conclusion/This week's Culture ship:
This week's Culture ship is, of course, the Size Doesn't Matter. Why? Because the name belonged to an 80 km ship and this report is longer than my- oh, wait. I heard the illustrious DC is going to crack down on crudeness, and far be it from me to offend them. ;)
And now, for a bit of ACC stuff:
Very little of this piecemeal 'Guide' will come out as a single, unified document, since I do not want to inflict yet another ridiculously long rant on the Clan. Instead, I'll throw out small bits of very practical advice in ACC battles. Each of these mini-guides will have their own theme discussing a tactic, posting style, sort of match or opponent, and as time and opportunity allow, I'll even try to get in comments from other people, who might have more skill at certain areas of posting. For now, though, you'll have to do with my own knowledge of the ACC, limited and opinionated though it may be. :P
You'll find that most of these guides will have examples from the last (ninth) Great Jedi War, and even more specifically my own battles. This is not to toot my own horn (I do that quite enough already), but mostly to give you various examples I've encountered, as well as why I've come to the sort of philosophy I have.
Also, a small disclaimer here: While I am fortunate enough to be a member of the ACC staff, these little diatribes of mine are not affiliated with the ACC. I am writing down opinions and advice, but this is not explicitly sanctioned by Erinyes. I mostly threw in this message because I don't want her getting shouted at for the stuff I wrote. Dash tells me that Tim is being a fucktard again, make it stop is already somewhat popular, and having Erinyes annoyed at me is likely to significantly reduce my personal half-life (currently hovering at about one month, or how long I usually hold positions of importance).
All right, with the introductory nonsense out of the way, it's time to go address tonight's subject: The Care and Feeding of Predicaments!
But Tim, what the fuck is a predicament?
Actually, good question. I have no clue why I named it like that, either. From my rather vague notes on the subject I suspect I was drunk, stoned, blue-balled or all of the above. What I mean when I use the word, however, is any situation where you end your post with something nasty about to go down, or having already gone down. This can be something like the complete destruction of your enemy's most useful weapon or them being grievously wounded and with you ending your post continuing to attack. In short: Predicaments are every situation where someone deliberately wrecks the 'balance' of a fight and then passes the ball to you saying 'your move'. It's like playing baseball with grenades, except there's only one pass and it's aimed straight at you.
In a runon, behavior like this would be rightly frowned upon, and get the quality police breathing down your neck (as if DJB males do not act creepy enough already). In the ACC, of course, this behavior is instead almost lauded: It's a useful tactic, especially when applied against an opponent who, for one reason or the other, has crippling weaknesses in the area you're attacking. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, these tactics do exist, and ignoring them will not make them go away. This chapter might be useful to, if nothing else, respond to an opponent who uses these tactics.
Why use predicaments?
If you didn't find out yourself, you're probably not a very experienced ACCer. To state the obvious, however: Predicaments, if done well, force your opponent to be creative. And while that sounds like a bad idea, it's actually not: There's really very few creative people in the ACC, and like every other problem the ACC has, these things get worse in the mass slaughter that is a GJW. By writing a predicament, you ensure that your opponent is forced to either stop and think about their battles -most of them won't- or try to wing it entirely, because their regular tactics don't work anymore. If nothing else, predicaments often restrict various ways of acting...which is also useful in breaking up scripted battles.
If your ploy works, your opponent will react wrongly: They'll write unrealistically to get themselves out of a bind, stop enjoying their writing and throw in uninspired drivel instead, or even timeout entirely.
There, of course, downsides to this trick. The first is that, since by definition a good predicament is hard to think your way out of, any opponent who does manage to 'fix' their problem can instantly expect lots of praise from the judge. In that case, the predicament is turned around, and you're suddenly fucked up because you handed your opponent an opportunity to shine.
So, when to use Predicaments, then? Again, two options. One is to use them against a weak opponent, or one who's simply unfamiliar with the ACC. If your opponent is a known god-moder, use this as well, since it forces the trait into the open where the judges can cast baleful glances at it. :P
If you have no clue how good your foe is, use this one as early as possible, too, since their reaction often say a lot about how skilled an ACCer really is and can be useful to 'probe' their abilities.
Types of predicaments:
Each predicament is, of course, unique (unless you're fighting Frosty), but there are some general themes to discuss. There is significant overlap, of course, and I've had it happened to me in some fights that I was Bound, Disarmed, AND Crippled all at once. For the record, however, here are the four variations on the theme:
Cripple:
Description: This tactic is simple, and involves anything that This is the most straight-up predicament, but perhaps also the most difficult to execute well. I know, what could possibly go wrong with hurting someone? Once you've ripped off a guy's arms and are punching him in the balls with his own fist, you're set, right? Right?
Well, no. For one, if the injury is sufficiently crippling, your opponent might just decide that you have been hurt beyond your capacity to fight and request to be given immediate victory. If the injury is not sufficiently crippling, your opponent will just use some combination of Force powers to -implausibly- kick your ass anyway. So, unless mixed with some other power (such as Fatigue or Incoming!), this is usually not that useful.
How to use it: Please. Weapons, Force powers, terrain. Anything that can hurt someone. If you have trouble finding ways to hurt someone, you're beyond my ability to help.
How to defend against it: Two seriously important Force Powers matter here: Control Pain and Heal. The former's use is obvious: You can make sure to spit in the face of your foe's presumption of your defeat and slaughter him anyway. Same with Heal, really. Unless you're an Elder or better, it probably won't help against a sufficiently fatal wound, but it's useful for allowing you to at least finish the battle.
Example: http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/acc/battle.asp?ID=6365
Tarax uses this in his first post of the above battle. My dislike of the tactics aside, this was actually pretty clever: I spent serious time considering just how to respond.
Fatigue:
Description: A variation on the previous, this involves wearing down an opponent over the course of a post and end their post leaving them weak and exhausted. This exhaustion can either be physical -if he's got a low CON stat- or in the Force -with a low FP stat. Either situation works and can often be done far more easily, and with less risk of the sort of backlash that'll instantly make you lose.
Again, this strategy works best when combined with another predicament, like Incoming!
How to use it: Physically, it's just a matter of writing a post and describing the duel as taking some time. In the Force, all you have to do is use your own Force powers to, er, Force the other guy to go crazy with his own power until, in his own post, nothing's left. Both of these are very easy to perform, and the Force version even has the advantage of being somewhat surreptitious, if your opponent isn't a very perceptive ACCer.
How to defend against it: Unless you're an Elder and have Feed on Dark Side, there's no cure except time and rest. Which, of course, renders this tactic exceptionally viable. One solution against just physical exhaustion, however, is to use Rage. It's a great power for ending battles, since you've got nothing left anyway.
Example: http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/acc/battle.asp?ID=6374
Alaris uses the tactic here on himself (see below). Again, this is one of the better applications of the tactic, combined as it is with Incoming!
Incoming!
Description: Leave your opponent with something fatal about to happen to him, basically a cliffhanger scenario except that, when done well, you're sawing at the other guy's fingers, bombing the rock, and filling his muscles with Force-induced weakness when your post ends. In essence, if your name is not Wile. E. Coyote, the other guy is doomed.
How to use it: Combine this with any of the other tactics. Smash a guy's saber and immediately slice at his dex 10 head with your dex 26 arms. Exhaust him and deplete his Force, then collapse the building you're in. Anything that catches your fancy, really.
How to defend against it: More than anything, this takes creativity, so no, I cannot help you. :P
Example: The previous Alaris battle is a good example, since I should have realistically ended it with me stabbing his neck, The End, credits roll. Since I can't do that I had to create something contrived, instead. Another more oblique example can be found in Eludajae's match against me at:
http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/acc/battle.asp?ID=6308
Eludajae's first post here fits the bill although it is not immediately obvious. However, she clearly stated her intentions, so I could not logically break her actions without also breaking continuity.
Binding:
Description: Take away your opponent's freedom to move or act. This takes many forms, from actually gluing them to the spot (my favorite method is glop grenades) to using the Force to weaken them or even using the Force to make your opponent stop using the Force (although the latter is almost exclusively an Elder or Obelisk tactic).
How to use it: Pick a method. As always, combining works even better.
How to defend yourself: Like Incoming! this is a wildly disparate group, so it really depends on what's used against you.
Example: I really like this method. I use it in my first post against Eludajae, above, as does she in her first post. Similarly, in me vs. Gobhainn, this was just about the first thing I did.
http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/acc/battle.asp?ID=6377
Note that in this case, the tactic was very effective: Gobhainn's response caught a lot of flak from the judge. Score one for low blows.
Disarm:
Description: Exactly what it says. Destroy or otherwise render useless one or more of your opponent's weapons. Lightsaber's are a perennial favorite, since just about every ACCer in the Brotherhood has more experience with saber fighting than any other dueling method.
How to use it: As always, this is best combined with something else, since there's really very little damage on its own other than remove some of your opponent's battle options.
How to defend against it: There's really no way to get back a destroyed weapon unless you do something very smart. The best 'response' would be prevention (actually, that's true for all of these predicaments, but I digress): Always carry a multitude of weapons. I had four weapon types on my person this GJW, and I still ran out in several battles.
Example: Again, Eludajae and me illustrate it well, when I take out one of her weapons (that burning whip thing of hers) in the first post. Another great example is Erinyes vs me:
http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/acc/battle.asp?ID=6413
Yeah, she took out my lightsaber in the first post. I felt fucked up for like two days when I realized I would have to somehow write a battle against an Elder and do it unarmed. :P
Well, that's it for the regular predicament types, and there's just two more permutations I want to add in:
First, the reverse predicament: Think of this as the exact same as a regular predicament but apply it to yourself. When you're facing an opponent significantly more powerful than you, this is likely to hinder them more than a regular predicament would. Alaris is a good example, here.
Second, the deathpost predicament: The same as a regular predicament, but directly before a deathpost so that the both of you have to respond to it. This is not a bad thing, but only if you can think of a way out of a problem, while being convinced your opponent cannot. In other words, if you think you're smarter than your opponent, use this tactic. :P
(As an aside, preventing this scenario is one of many reasons why the first poster has the advantage in a GJW 2+2 battle, since they'll be able to drop predicaments they do not, themselves, have to respond to).
Conclusion:
What, you want more? :P Yeah, I'm done here. This is longer than I thought it would be, but I hope you managed to plow through this regardless. Standard disclaimers apply, of course, and I'd like you all to remember one thing: Winning isn't everything. While I realize that I am writing this guide to help people, yes, win, it's not always important. On a casual ACC battles, you should be careful with this stuff, since some opponents might consider this an unsporting tactic. So like any tool, use this one with care.
Cya'll online,
-Tim
-Timeros
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