Ok, if it is in response to the character losing control that example makes more sense. And, I acknowledge that more text would probably be better context sake. However, this still raises the issue I mentioning earlier, there is a meta part to RP that requires you the player to step back from the character for a moment to analyze the flow of story and how you are sharing that story with other involved players.
In using attempts, you are not returning control back to the attacker as much as you are allowing the player a turn at inputting into the story. You might find that as you give people that opportunity, they may just write their response in such a way that you have clear room to do what you intend because they see where you are going.
But as Bonedaf said:
...it discourages me. Because what's the point of me being there? If another player player is going to tell me what happens to me or what I do, why don't they just play by themselves and make all that up?
If you cut the other player out of inputting into the story, you negate the need for them to keep trying and you will find they will take their metaphorical ball and go home. That is, they will stop RPing with you. Whether or not you can justify the sequence of actions becomes less important to considering whether or not the person is going to be inclined to keep sitting there watching you write their story without deciding to opt out.
I'm not sure what you want me to do; writing in a bunch of theoretical holes that the opponent is in no position to take advantage of is a waste of everyone's time and reading energy.
No, but the problem is that Kaerli appears to others to have no holes theoretical or otherwise so it seems it becomes rather tiresome to bother to look since it seems like a futile task.
Also: is there a reason an opportunity has to be presented on a silver platter to be taken? Do you folks just not see things that are not explicitly written out?
It's not that it is always inherently not seen, but it if it were that explicit to everyone else, no one would be having this conversation. However, consider that it is not a matter of whether or not it is on a silver platter. It's a matter of when participating in the RP becomes OOC work, and I don't mean effort I mean it is work. It is burdensome. Once it is work, it is not entertainment anymore and once people are not able to have fun they stop.
I admit that this aspect of detail oriented RP is what makes it fun for you, but you have to consider that you might end up draining more effort from people than they have allotted for their RPs. In an ideal world everyone could easily sustain the amount of effort needed for everyone else's RPs but we live in busy times and people have to budget their energies.
Moving out to more general things, I was wondering this: What keeps you from playing the same characters still? Why are we afraid to kill people off or retire our older characters to more minor roles when we play? Do we really have more development or plots these characters are involved in, or do we just kind of walk them around hunting for new RP to find?
I ask these because I have a few ideas/general direction I'd like to create my characters into --obviously it gets tweaked and changed slightly by other characters. But I'm wondering what will I do when I've played with them so much that they begin to fulfill these goals/develop into the character I want? I feel like I would get bored and have to put them on the backburner or find an end to their story. And then I create a new character. But I don't really see other players doing this and I wonder what keeps them from doing so?
Because given enough time and RPs the character becomes a person and not a plot device. They become growing and changing individuals that progress past initial goals. They develop new goals, they meet new people, and find new influences. They go places they hadn't intended to go. This idea of them reaching an end doesn't take into account the major changes that occur due to other characters and situations that you don't initially chose to put your characters in. You may have a goal but that doesn't mean you reach it in an orderly or linear fashion. As you interact with other stories, you will find that you are only writing one part of a much larger story and that as other people fill in the other parts, your characters will get entangled in them and pulled along.
Technically, I have some characters that are only just now getting to the way I had intended them to be from their creation, and that is only the beginning of their story. That has nothing to do with what else I can think to work them towards. For instance, you've meet Illysia. She is my absolute first character here and is 9 years old in terms of real life playing time. There is still a lot to do with her even though she achieved many of the goals I set her up with initially. Right now she has to try to recover from her ordeal in the DR and try to balance her sense of duty and obligation to provide for others. Providing for others has not only be a major driving point of her character but she actually achieved it a major way, setting up the Stonehead to serve others fulfilled that goal. But, due to other influences, even that which she has achieved is in question and she must work to travel a new path to her old goals.
Characters can grow for as long as you don't close the book on them.
