Originally Posted by
Sendra
<3 <3 <3
My dream is to once again be able to participate in RP-related, character- and story-related PvP.
But as you have observed, the more people care about the characters and story - what happens after the battle - the less they usually are interested in the prospect of PvP changing it in ways they have little control over.
I can understand that. That is why the fights I have arranged in the past have not been any kind of decisive "winner takes all" war-ending battle. I prefer them to be one skirmish among potentially many. Some conflict brews, comes to a climax with a skirmish (whether spontaneous on a PvP server or pre-arranged), you talk and yell and fight and cheer your victories and nurse your wounds (and wounded pride) and the story carries on - with the battle being but one feature of the entire story.
It really should not be that difficult - with the understanding that RPers are still in charge of their own ultimate consequences (with the exception of the actual outcome of the battle itself) - to find a couple of guilds or groups who can agree to some conflict and fight it out for good fun.
I mean - make up a relic that is important to your group, you want it, someone else wants it too (or else they just want to be sure you don't get it). Then fight over it. The winner gets the "relic", the loser doesn't. No one is perma-dead (unless they choose), ownership and leadership of cities doesn't change hands.
I learned late in my RP-PvP career one reason many RPers avoid PvP - and that is when the better PvPers think that by winning, they can RP total obliteration, humiliating defeat, confiscation of all property, and such over the losers.
No - in my book, it is just a fight that was won or lost. One battle. And even crushing defeat does not mean obliteration. I generally see each "death" of an RPer in an RP-PvP battle as either an injury, or the death of an anonymous soldier. It is up to each side and each RPer to decide how the defeat effected them.
At one point my guild had an ongoing RP thing of running low on wine and needing to get more. Our usual suppliers had dried up. Through the fun ongoing RP we ended up learning of a winery who was supplying the Nemedians. And we had some Nemedian friends who wanted an RP-PvP battle. So we had one. In Aquilonian End (the PvP version of Poitain). Such fun terrain for battles. And the villages were great fun for fighting in. We had a great time and the only thing permanently lost were some bottles of wine bought from NPC bartenders.