T-1 In Depth
Category: Resources

T1 or Type 1

Paragraph, turn-based fighting.

T1 is a type of fighting style generally used by people on forums. These people are generally the more advanced RP’ers. Average time to learn T1 can take anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on the time spent learning and perfecting the form. It is based off the idea that the paragraphs you use should appear to come out of a book using detailed descriptions so that the people watching can ‘see’ what is happening in chat to make Role Playing a more enjoyable experience.

T1 is probably the hardest way to role-play if you are not good at being descriptive. T1 is turn-based, so you must wait for your opponent to finish typing his/her attack. It is also paragraph fighting. In a T1 match, your opponent can strike you. You have the ability to reverse the attack or take the hit and come back with one of your own. In T1, you can only type one attack each paragraph. If you type more than one attack in a paragraph, you will be disqualified.

Example:

John: (paragraph) Attacks!

Tim: (paragraph) Defends/avoids/takes-the-hit, counter attacks.

John: (paragraph) Defends/avoids/takes-the-hit, counter attacks

T2 or Type 2

High-paced fighting style. 7 words to attack. 10 connect. 7 dodge. 12 counter-attack.

T2 was created by people who felt T1 was too long and took too much time to use. You have to have a minimum of 7 words for your attack. And the same for the outcome. To reverse you need the minimum of 10 words. And the same for the reverse outcome. It takes a minimum of 12 words to post a counter-attack. This style is rarely used in the modern era, as it was used on chat based sites with limited character limits.

Example:

As John jumps up, he ducks the attack and picks Tim up on his shoulders. (counter-attack)

John would attempt to toss him over. (attack)

John then slammed Tim's back very roughly onto the ground. (connect)

T3 or Type 3

T3 is probably the easiest and most 'noobish' way to role-play. Most commonly it is used when admins are out of character yet roleplaying actions despite as such. There are no rules, and logic does not apply. Most commonly this is one-lined, though many forms of “jousting” or “banter” end up being at least a semi paragraph. However, the key to T-3 is that it implements a no rules system.

T1 Subsets

T-1 RM : Realistic Melee

Exactly what is says on the tin. It is the use of melee-oriented combat with realistic limitations. Anything within the realms of realistic possibility for a human (referred to as peak human) is allowed.

T-1 UM : Unrealistic Melee

The most misunderstood and changed subcategory of T-1. Many different interpretations exist; however, it is still focused only melee combat. The difference is the level of performance that is allowed. If in doubt, anything that is possible in the animal kingdom (except flight) can generally be deemed as acceptable by most combatants. No chakra or qi, mana, psionics or otherwise are allowed but having things such as spikes on the body that are venomous are perfectly acceptable.

T-1 MP : Moderate Powers

Ah yes. The current most popular style of rp combat. This is where superpowers, magic and supernatural abilities are finally allowed in full swing. Except, it is heavily restricted. The use of all elements are not allowed, the restriction being mostly agreed to be three elements for any given fight. Nothing faster than the speed of lightning is allowed, (this includes attack speed, not just movement speed) and no output stronger than continent buster is allowed, even with charge turns. Though, some people will prefer to restrict this to country or even city level. This does not make it “moderate” or “low” powers, it merely mean that the individuals have their own ideas on how powerful they want to be fighting. This should not mater though, since MP rarely actually has output that exceeds destroying the immediate vicinity outside of trying to show off.

T-1 PC : Powered Characters

Once the go to format, this style has fallen out of favour in recent years. Far from the power slug of throwing planets at each other that people believe it to be, PC does not restrict what you are allowed to do so long as it is logical. It doesn’t allow faster than light for logical reasons, rather than rule restrictions. Things such as domains or spatial manipulation if done logically, are perfectly acceptable. Things such as time manipulation though, are still illegal due to their nature of accidentally modding. The same necessity of prepping and charging are required for output as is in MP, however logical reason can be given as to why this is bypassed. For example, you can’t destroy a city in a single turn. Yet, if you find a way to logically split an atom, it would be less logical to prep or charge a post for the required output. Basically, it still doesn’t allow godmodding, but shakes off the restrictions that MP has.

·         What you don’t write you don’t get. Forgetting to put information in your starter means you do not get it later. No, putting up your bio does not count as putting in the information. This means you have to write out all your powers in the starter, though you don’t have to break down what you’re capable of with each power. (ie a mage can state he has fire magic but does NOT have to mention he can cast a fireball or create a flame dragon) It is more like having your character suddenly turn out to be an android later in the fight despite never mentioning it or drawing a sword when you never even had a sheath with you, or suddenly having spatial magic after having wind qi the entire battle will be immediate grounds for disqualification.

·         The first poster cannot attack. They are, however, allowed to prepare an attack. If the person going second is to take damage as a direct result of the first poster’s starter, this is a disqualification. However, if they use their starter to attack in their next post, this is perfectly acceptable. While the person going second is advised not to attack, they are in fact allowed to do so.

·         The first poster may not in any way narrate their opponent coming to or being present in their starter. This falls under character control. The second person in turn may not alter the contents of where the original poster stated them to be, or change the battle location within the first post. Each person must get to the battle by their own means and cannot be impeded from or interrupted from reaching the battlefield.

·         It is the first poster’s responsibility to set the scene. This includes where you are, the rough time of day, what’s visible to anyone entering the scene (such as trees or skyscrapers, trash bins and street lights in a back alley, etcetera) and everything visually on their person. This includes what they look like, what they’re wearing (can be glossed over unless important such as describing armour. Nobody cares what colour your socks are) and what weapons you possess, as well as the character’s race. If it in not distinguishable from human, (such as a homunculus) they must still have their race stated. However, it would be metagaming for the other person to know this so you may state that it isn’t possible to know without actively investigating the race. The second poster has a responsibility to write the same, and where in the set scene their character is. If the scene has been set broadly with room for further addition, they may add to the scene as they desire.

Prep or charge turns change in effect from character to character, however there is a universal constant. While many have in the past used it as a measuring stick to take out a wide area of effect, realistically all it does is gives your attack, defence, counter or otherwise +1 buff. This means that outside of special circumstances, (and extremely well-articulated logic) a prepped or charged ability will always take priority in being more powerful than and often beating abilities that are not. While other factors do play a part, (holy fire can for example be seen as fire +1) this simple mechanic also means giving up your attack or defence for that turn. As a regular post will compose of both, you have to give up one or both of these in order to prep. Chained or stacked attacks on the other hand, act similarly but cannot be used with any form of defence. Defending oneself must come from running head-first through your opponent’s own onslaught. This is a high risk high reward subcategory that is extremely hard to pull off.

Interrupting works with picking appoint in the timeline of an opponent’s post, and performing actions if logical to do so, in this time frame. One cannot go back further in time than the point of the interruption, and everything up to that point is assumed to have happened. However, nothing further after the point of interruption can be assumed to have happened if it is logical to have stopped their momentum. For example.

-Joe sets up Seth with a left jab, then uses the momentum to swing his body into performing a Brazilian kick.

-Seth ducks over to the right of the jab, positioning his body to Joe’s left.

In this example, the Brazilian kick is impossible as the timeline has changed from the point of the jab being thrown. The timeline stops at this point and takes a new course of action revolving around the action that interrupted the original flow of time. Once a person commits to their attempts, it cannot be changed. However, they can react to new information in the timeline.

Logic always takes priority. “It’s magic, I ain’t gotta explain sh*t” just doesn’t fly in T-1 format. The better you explain your logic, the better. Out of character explanations of how your attacks function are not acceptable arguments, as what you do not write, you do not get. This goes for those who write cryptically as well. How your words are translated do not matter if it is not written properly. Hiding attacks behind metaphors is grounds for disqualification,

God-Modding

The act of “playing God”.  This does not mean your character cannot be a god or a god race. However, it cannot have any form of omni power, or anything deemed infinite. No unbreakable shields or being able to cut through anything. They cannot have a million powers, nor able o use or create paradoxes. Also, they cannot be automatically stronger than someone or something else because “lore”. The best boost one can gain will always be a default +1, and only if the explained logic makes this… Well, logical. Even the likes of a primordial magic from ancient times can only have a +1 advantage over regular magic.

Autoing

This is anything automatic from auto hitting, to auto dodging, to auto killing. In essence, this is the act of ignoring the policy of attempts or logic. Dodges must be explained how they dodged, and attacks must only ever be attempts. As for killing, they can only be the result of a logical conclusion, an opponent failing an attack that is logically fatal, a combatant making an error in their posts and creating a situation where they would die from their own action (such as sitting on a throne of antimatter) or a combatant giving up the match.

Character Control

Now more commonly referred to as puppeteering, this is any and all actions where you try to perform actions in which you are writing for your opponent’s characters. This is not to say that cause and effect do not take place, but writing for a character that is not yours is grounds for immediate disqualification. Some abilities such as time manipulation automatically fall under being illegal due to this rule, as well as most forms of telepathy as they require you to control the other person’s actions.

Metagaming

Any actions using information gained from outside of the rp itself. Such as a character knowing information from their opponent’s biography, or that was written but does not have a logical way of being known. (For example an invisible ghost exists but a character with no stated extraordinary senses or sight is suddenly aware that it exists) This also applies to breaking the fourth wall, as the admin literally has to be involved.