Writing the opening post to a spar (Originally posted 02-21-2004)

[Hikari no Tenshi]

I have heard a lot of people saying that they don’t like sparring because they don’t know how to write an opening post. It is a very common problem wherever you go, so I figured that I might as well help out in any way that I could. I will try to keep this simple to read, so I will be using a step by step format.

DO NOT POST HERE UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING I FORGOT TO MENTION OR NEED TO MENTION!

The first thing that any opening post needs is a location. If you don’t know where you are fighting, it is hard to react to the environment. The location can be divided into a panoramic view and a close-up view. The panoramic view is the large picture of the area you are fighting in. Is it a forest, prairie, old battlefield? What time of day or night is it, what is the weather like? Once you have established the general location, the next step is to establish your immediate surroundings. What environmental objects are important to get a full picture of your surroundings? You may be in a forest, but how much light is let through? How large are the trees, and how dense are they? Is the forest old, or new? If you are fighting in a town, what how many people are out in the street? What are the buildings like, what are they made of?

What not to do:

I am standing in a field waiting for my opponent.

“How much longer will this take?

I hope they are up to my challenge.

What is wrong with this: I see this mistake far too often. A one or two line location followed by a short speech and finally a quick thought. There is no description whatsoever in the location, so this could be anywhere at any time. The speech does not show much character creativity (refer to Hawk’s roleplaying guide if you need help there) and the thought is far too stereotypical. Far too many characters have the same problem of thinking they are supremely powerful and nobody can stand up to them.

A better location description would be something like this:

The full moon shines down on the barren landscape, creating eerie shadows that dance with the wind. The sky is clear for miles, and the stars shine in their full glory up in the sky. It was under this tranquil yet sinister sky that Arrath waited for his opponent. He stood in the center of a shallow crater nearly thirty feet in diameter but only a few feet deep. The crater around him was charred black from a magical fire cast many years past in that very spot. There he waited for a challenger to arrive.

As you can see, it is substantially longer and more descriptive. Most anyone that reads this will come up with the same basic picture in their heads where as the first one could have any mental picture associated with it. Not only do you show your opponent the arena; you also reveal a little bit of your character’s personality by choosing such an arena.

Your character description.

The next stage in writing a good entrance is to describe your character. In the example of what not to do, another crucial element is missing: your character. Just because you have a stat page and a description there does not mean that you don’t need to describe your character anymore. Your stat page is just a reference if people want to know a little more about your character. In describing your character, you don’t need to include every last detail. You need only include the ones that are pertinent to the fight. The most obvious details that should be included are how tall your fighter is, you don’t want to swing a sword at someone who you don’t know is a dwarf only to find that your sword hit nothing but air because of their carelessness. You should describe your character’s main features like hair, clothing, facial features, and scars that show on their body, and the like. Another important image is the build of your fighter. Is he muscular, ripped, bony, average? It is important to include all or most of the weapons you have available to your character. Does he use swords, a shield, daggers? It is important to include even secret weapons so you are not accused of cheating.

One example of a halfway decent character description could be like this:

Arrath’s short brown hair blew with the wind across his face. At seven feet tall and a fairly muscular build, he was an imposing character on the moonlit landscape. A single sword sheath hung from his waist and two daggers were concealed in the long sleeves of his red cloak. His skin showed many scars and he wore them with pride. His eyes were closed, focusing on the upcoming battle and the footsteps coming ever closer to him.

This could use some more work, but you can get the general idea. You should also avoid being over-descriptive when you write. Saying too little is better than reading through a paragraph just to describe someone’s eyes.

After you have the location and your character set you generally don’t have anything else to do but wait. In the event that you know who your opponent will be, you have one more thing to do.

When you are fighting a match that has been pre-arranged somehow and you know your opponent, you need to describe them as your character would see them, taking into effect lighting, time of day, and weather. This is an example of how to describe your opponent.

Arrath watched as Tralen made his way to the center of the crater. His cloak was pulled over his face, masking it from the light. His billowing robes concealed many things, which made Arrath uncomfortable. Tralen removed his hood to show a withered face and dry sockets where eyes should be. Arrath unsheathed his straight katana, the moonlight reflecting off of its polished blue blade, waiting for his opponent’s first move.

Notice that I did not include any thoughts or personalities of my opponent while describing him. I also left out any weapons he had because my character could not see them. The only action I made him take was a lowering of his hood, a fairly common practice when you start a match. Even though none of my examples have lines of speech or direct thoughts, it is easy to tell what he may be thinking at any given moment.

Thanks to Balan for this next piece.

Okay just another thing to add is an introduction does not have to be limited to setting and character. The way I start spars is by creating a situation in which the characters may start the fight of come to meet each other. Simply describing the setting(place, time, etc.) is a very good way to start and is what most people look for but you can go beyond that and take the extra step by actually creating a situation.

Here is an example I used when doing the intro spar for my character Oni Link:

As you finish your training for the day you begin your journey home. You have just finished training an interesting student and your mind wanders as you go along. The result of this begins to show as you realize you took a wrong turn and are heading down a road you've never seen before. You decide to be adventurous and continue exploring the new path. It goes over hills and through clusters of trees and bridges a few streams. The scenery is captivating and you believe the best is yet to come.

But all your happiness is gone as you reach the end of the path. It has led you to a battle field and the wake of destruction is enormous. Human, and Drow Warriors of all shapes and sizes are thrown about the field and you wonder why you can see no survivors and what causes this horrible mass of carnage. You find the other side of the battle and see the path continueing through a mountain pass. As you go along you see a large flat area to the side of the pass covered in short green and yellow grass with a small assortment of flowers. As you get closer you here music and you speed up. You finally reach the area and see a figure playing a small round flute as he looks towards the horizon.

The music enchants you and gets your curiousity for the tune seems almost sad yet very mysterious. The tune ends and the figure turns around. The first thing that surprises you is his lack of color in the eyes. The two blank white orbs seem to read and go through you yet you can barely explain it. He then speaks in a deep but almost young voice almost as mysterious as the eyes staring at you.

"You like that tune I just played on my ocarina? Its called Requiem of the Spirit."

I could have done better but you can get the basic idea. By creating a situation the spar starts out more interesting then simply describing the scene. Never forget that in Roleplaying it's not like a videogame where you simply appear and start fighting like going to different levels, characters have to (in general) come from somewhere and be going somewhere.

Again, thank you Balan for this wonderful piece that I overlooked.

As Ace pointed out, many times it is nice to show what happened to your character prior to waiting for your challenger. It adds realism to your setting if you can describe how your character happened to get in that spot.

Strider's legs were tired and heavy. He had been walking for miles before he reached this desolate area of baren waste. He was set forth on a personal journey to become one of the strongest fighters. Being in some pretty heavy fights before hand, Striders blade glistened with crimson red liquid sticking to the sides of the blade. Already he had fought close to five people, and already he had almost died five times.

That would realy be more of an example of PART of a post not the whole thing. You need to set up more than just your own scenario. Try to set up a scenario that you can loop together with any fighter such as:

The dark alleys were completely leading into no general direction. Strider was running out of fear of something that was chasing him. That fear caused him to run midlessly into the dark alley ways, and streets of the town. Something was following Strider but it was gone now. Still running, he runs into a person knocking him and the person to the ground.

If you have ceratin rules that you want to use during your match, a general practice is to put them in an OOC at the very bottom of your post. Rules generally cover whether healing is allowed, whether summons or pets are allowed, how long the battle will last (either a number of posts or until a certain day.)

You don’t have to have a speech or thought to have a good description, and some of the best intros I have read have no speech at all. All you need to write a good opening post is practice and a little skill.