Those in general that argue against it are people that would lose and advantage from it
If you believe that the flurry rule exists to punish skilled players and level the playing field, I believe you are mistaking the intent. One of the reasons the flurry rule is advantageous for a LARP with unrealistic combat using damage calls (such as Alliance) is that it allows players time to call their appropriate defenses and reactive abilities. If two combatants are swinging at each other at the same time, throwing out attacks whenever they can and never pausing to assess the fight, it becomes a chaotic jumble of "did I actually hit them, did they call a defense"?I believe that the flurry rule does make combat more even by slowing down those that are more skilled at boffer combat. I think this is a bad change, since we should incentivize player skill. If a player is better than another at boffer combat, then that should be clear in the outcome.
To put this into perspective, I gain an advantage from the flurry rule since I do not use any weapons and am solely a spellcaster. I am not arguing against this for my sake, I believe that this change will make the game less fun for other players.
Chiming in as another person who the flurry rule is apparently designed to help. I'm a new player (about a year) and could generously be called a mediocre boffer fighter. But I enjoy the physical challenge of fighting, and look forward to improving that skill on an OOG level. I think Flurry would take away a lot of that challenge.
As for Flurry's role in helping a new player to keep track of blows and call their defenses, I don't feel it's needed. In my experience players and staff were very courteous when I was starting out about not overwhelming me with blows faster than I could handle, as well as allowing me a moment where needed to remember what protectives applied to my situation, etc. (The mini-hold rule that our chapter uses was very helpful here.) And it took me just a few games to feel like I was more or less up to speed.
It sounds like if you're getting the time to call your defenses and keep track of blows, you're already using the flurry rule, and just not calling it by that name. Flurry is just basic common courtesy when applied to combat, from my experience. I have heard stories from national-level events of players swinging so hard and fast that they're barely pronouncing their damage numbers and effects -- THAT is the behavior that flurry is meant to squash.Chiming in as another person who the flurry rule is apparently designed to help. I'm a new player (about a year) and could generously be called a mediocre boffer fighter. But I enjoy the physical challenge of fighting, and look forward to improving that skill on an OOG level. I think Flurry would take away a lot of that challenge.
As for Flurry's role in helping a new player to keep track of blows and call their defenses, I don't feel it's needed. In my experience players and staff were very courteous when I was starting out about not overwhelming me with blows faster than I could handle, as well as allowing me a moment where needed to remember what protectives applied to my situation, etc. (The mini-hold rule that our chapter uses was very helpful here.) And it took me just a few games to feel like I was more or less up to speed.
It sounds like if you're getting the time to call your defenses and keep track of blows, you're already using the flurry rule, and just not calling it by that name. Flurry is just basic common courtesy when applied to combat, from my experience. I have heard stories from national-level events of players swinging so hard and fast that they're barely pronouncing their damage numbers and effects -- THAT is the behavior that flurry is meant to squash.
For more realistic combat, may I suggest joining a Ludus, or other re-enactment group? For upping your own boffer skills, try a spar. Luckily, we have the newly formed Jade Cloud Dojo here, and while I haven't made it out much, it is an incredible boon. ( Thanks to our Marshals, and some of our famous long time heroes for stepping up, bringing this to our game!
We're now 4 pages into this thread, and I've seen the same points thrown into the mix over and over, without any progress made:
What, really, is the goal here? I skimmed over the pages and pages of content, and the only ones arguing in favor of this are Calgary players...who've used it for years, from what we were told here. The rest of us have gone without it for much longer. Changing the entire game system to fit the views of one chapter seems very lopsided. If you enjoy having flurry, go ahead and keep LCOing it. I applaud you for improving your game as you see fit. Don't tell everyone else they HAVE to do something because one chapter likes it. This is definitely an "agree to disagree" topic, with one chapter very loudly pushing to change something most others don't think is broke (or shouldn't be fixed this way).
- Flurry is meant to slow down combat.
- Flurry is meant to give people time to call defenses.
- Flurry is meant to increase safety.
- Flurry is meant to help new players learn to fight.
- Flurry is required, because we said so (I hate putting it this way, but when people respond "you'll get used to it, it's fine" without explaining why we have to, this is really what they're saying).
For more realistic combat, may I suggest joining a Ludus, or other re-enactment group? For upping your own boffer skills, try a spar. Luckily, we have the newly formed Jade Cloud Dojo here, and while I haven't made it out much, it is an incredible boon. ( Thanks to our Marshals, and some of our famous long time heroes for stepping up, bringing this to our game!
Except a majority of the owners would have to be in favor of it to even be in the playtest rules. Don't say it's Calgary trying to change the Alliance system, because that's just not true.
Wow, a suggestion for adding a spar to your experience is somehow telling you to leave?