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It recently came up in a thread and I feel like this is some small important detail, that's easy enough to fix.
So currently the SBA states that "The fighters will have absolutely no prior knowledge of each other. " The problem with that is, that it basically prevents a proper fight from happening.
Taken literally it means that the fighters have no knowledge where the opponent is or how to differentiate it from any random human or animal around them.
The fighters would essentially have to go on a random murder spree killing everything around them and hope that they eventually kill the right one.
This isn't how we ever assumed fights to happen, but it is time to put what we assume in writing to avoid ambiguity.
So what I suggest to say in regards to prior knowledge is the following: "The characters know the direction their opponent(s) start in. Furthermore, they get knowledge of the character's appearance, equivalent to the knowledge they could have gained if they would have been allowed to briefly observe the form opponent(s) starting in using their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It's assumed that they only get the information necessary to identify the opponent(s), so abilities like Information Analysis can not be used based on this knowledge. Negative effects of the observation, such as those caused by Madness Manipulation Type 3, are assumed to not apply for this knowledge either."
Let me explain why I choose this formulation. The part about knowing the starting direction of the opponent is simply so that they don't start running of in random directions and ultimately end up never finding each other. It reduces the chance of that happening a lot.
The second sentence is supposed to specify the idea of "knowing who the opponent is". As I explained above we generally want to have the characters be able to distinguish between things that aren't the opponent and those that are. However, the opponent should be allowed to use disguises and shapeshifting and stuff to evade identification. So we can't simply say they know who the opponent is.
Similarly, we can't say they just get to briefly meet each other, since some characters are able to gain knowledge of a characters entire history and skills with a single look.
Ideally, I would like to say something like they get a photo, but some characters are blind and stuff, so that doesn't really work either.
Hence I compromised to saying that they get information of all 5 senses.
And the last sentence simply covers that prior knowledge can't be used as an attack before the battle.
What do you think, everyone?
Edit: A good alternative proposal based on the discussion below could also be:
"The characters know the direction their opponent(s) start in. Furthermore, they get a description detailed enough to recognize the character in their starting form upon perceiving them. It's assumed that they only get the information necessary to identify the opponent(s), so none of their abilities may activate based on their description. Likewise, all negative effects of being given this knowledge don't apply until they get it again within the battle itself."
Which one do you prefer?
So currently the SBA states that "The fighters will have absolutely no prior knowledge of each other. " The problem with that is, that it basically prevents a proper fight from happening.
Taken literally it means that the fighters have no knowledge where the opponent is or how to differentiate it from any random human or animal around them.
The fighters would essentially have to go on a random murder spree killing everything around them and hope that they eventually kill the right one.
This isn't how we ever assumed fights to happen, but it is time to put what we assume in writing to avoid ambiguity.
So what I suggest to say in regards to prior knowledge is the following: "The characters know the direction their opponent(s) start in. Furthermore, they get knowledge of the character's appearance, equivalent to the knowledge they could have gained if they would have been allowed to briefly observe the form opponent(s) starting in using their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It's assumed that they only get the information necessary to identify the opponent(s), so abilities like Information Analysis can not be used based on this knowledge. Negative effects of the observation, such as those caused by Madness Manipulation Type 3, are assumed to not apply for this knowledge either."
Let me explain why I choose this formulation. The part about knowing the starting direction of the opponent is simply so that they don't start running of in random directions and ultimately end up never finding each other. It reduces the chance of that happening a lot.
The second sentence is supposed to specify the idea of "knowing who the opponent is". As I explained above we generally want to have the characters be able to distinguish between things that aren't the opponent and those that are. However, the opponent should be allowed to use disguises and shapeshifting and stuff to evade identification. So we can't simply say they know who the opponent is.
Similarly, we can't say they just get to briefly meet each other, since some characters are able to gain knowledge of a characters entire history and skills with a single look.
Ideally, I would like to say something like they get a photo, but some characters are blind and stuff, so that doesn't really work either.
Hence I compromised to saying that they get information of all 5 senses.
And the last sentence simply covers that prior knowledge can't be used as an attack before the battle.
What do you think, everyone?
Edit: A good alternative proposal based on the discussion below could also be:
"The characters know the direction their opponent(s) start in. Furthermore, they get a description detailed enough to recognize the character in their starting form upon perceiving them. It's assumed that they only get the information necessary to identify the opponent(s), so none of their abilities may activate based on their description. Likewise, all negative effects of being given this knowledge don't apply until they get it again within the battle itself."
Which one do you prefer?
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