I personally believe that the art of the Furcadian roleplaying fight is slowly dying, but it's embers live on. Enough people come on with imagination, strategy, tolerance and interest to be adequate fighters. However, I believe that what may ring the death knoll for Furcadian RPing is the loss of the fighter spirit. And thus, I'd like to go into what the fighter spirit is.

It helps to have a model for framework when discussing RPing. I personally imagine a sort of fusion of a martial arts tournament and debate championship. In debate, first and second year debaters may win a few rounds with fellow first-and-second year debaters, yes, but then they are thrown to the wild dogs of competitive tournaments and are ripped to shreds. They suddenly learn the hard way what a Kritik is, what a Bush scenario means, what Agent Specification is. By the fourth year, they are carrying around 5 plastic cases, or "tubs", each containing 2 or 3 expando/accordion file folders with 26 slots, with each of those 26 slots containing 30-400 pages of evidence and prepared arguments. Even if they hate half of the arguments in their tubs, they are prepared to answer and defeat them.

How does that relate to Furcadia? I believe that most people right now are stuck in the first-and-second year debater mode. But I believe that a proper warrior psychology may help one win debate rounds and Furcadian roleplaying matches. Thus, I offer this point-by-point plan for a better warrior psychology, after which one is prepared to advance as a warrior. They are numbered in no particular relevant order.

1. SPAR. This is the one I want people to walk away with. Have friendly spars and practices with anyone and anything you can get your hand on. People on Furc have begun underestimate the value of a good practice fight.

Good spars do a number of things for you. First of all, they expand your horizons. Every additional battle allows you to see an slightly different concept, a slightly different strategy.

Second, they hone your own skills. Many people say, "I only fight to do [insert intent here.]" Okay, that may be true that you want to focus on that. But that's like the grand piano master saying "I won't practice until the day of the concert." Bands who do that don't last long. One has to be constantly in practice, honing one's skills, and being in the mode of whatever they're doing. If one were to play totally in character, one would add in slight penalties for not having fought in months.

Third, they move your battle plans from the world of theory to the world of actuality. If you have your entire plan for combat writtten on a piece of paper,

2. Expected the unexpected, and overestimate everything. In battles, one will have to face the fact that regardless of all the preparations and equipment and spells one may have purchased, they will actually have to fight a battle and experience Murphy's Law. "No battle plan survives battle", right? What you thought was your foolproof sword actually ends up being dead weight. So you need to be prepared to attempt to do something in battle. All strategies have weaknesses, some of which are so obvious that they're assumed.

Let's take an example. Let's say you're a tremendously good melee fighter, armed to the teeth with enchanted weapons, but you fight an enemy who can transform into a cloud or become intangible somehow. Well, none of your enchanted weapons have enough magic property to strike the ethereal enemy, so you're screwed, right? Wrong. Perhaps they only have a limited amount of energy or transformation time, and you can just outlast them by being chicken or possum. Perhaps their intangible body still can't see through a big rock. Now, perhaps you just won't be able to win the fight, because you don't have the proper equipment or abilities and you can't improvise something. That's okay, everyone has to take their licking eventually. Never underestimate the value of time.

That leads me to the second part. A lot of people think it's okay to rely on pure speed to dodge all opponent's attacks, or rely on pure endurance to avoid being pummeled to a bloody pulp. That's idiotic. Even if you think you're fast or strong enough, it's very messy. Always expect that an opponent's attack will override two of your immunities and moves faster than you. That means that you won't be surprised when your opponent tries to catch you by surprise.

3. Prepare strategies. You know you're going to see some joker who uses tremendous speed to dodge all your attacks and punch you before you've blinked. You know you're going to fight some rhino with too much testosterone who wants to use his massive muscles to ignore all your attacks and piledrive you. You know you're going to fight some coward who can strike at you from a distance. So prepare in advance.

If you're having trouble prepping out, just take a look at your comic books or video games or TV shows. Watch the ideas they have there. What would your character do vs. The Flash? Superman? Green Lantern? Chances are someone on Furc uses those same sort of strategies. So, for a speed demon, develop some sort of area-effect assault or something that strikes from a distance and almost instantly (a lightning bolt, telekinesis) or a homing item.

Also think about your continuity. So if you're playing in a vampire intensive continuity, get vampire killing abilities. Buy silver or wooden bullets. Invest in a garlic-scented jacket. Learn a Globe of Daylight spell. If you prepare for common archetypes, that lets you survive better if you also follow #1. It gives you a wide selection and allows you to fight in at least a mediocre fashion against all opponents.

4. Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy. Obviously, as a beginner you're going to want to invest in a new gun instead of a second barrier spell. But, as you get more advanced, consider stocking up on multiple versions of basically the same thing. Why?

First of all, they often have a cumulative effect. So if you combine a Dark Templar cloak with a Chi Zoshiki mind-controlled cloak, it means that your opponent won't see you and even if they make the Zoshiki save, you've blended in. Further, if you use multiple of the same thing, they might overlap for each other, meaning the inadequacies of one will be covered.

Second of all, if you lose one, you're okay. Think about it: do real-life armies bank all anti-tank strategies on bazookas and recoiless rifles? No, they also invest in tank-piercing tank shells, and Depleted Uranium bullets, and all sorts of other things. If you only have one projectile weapon and it breaks down in battle, you've just lost an entire avenue of attack. Abilities can be disabled, and magic and psionics often do not work on certain targets. So get a magical and a psionic version of the same basic ability, or get two different caliber guns.