[background=The Bounty Board forum has 187 topics. Now, some of those bounties have been captured or cancelled. Others are defunct for one reason or another; for example, a few were posted by governments that no longer exist. But there are still many valid bounties, and if you’re lucky, one of them could be you.[/size]
[background=Yes, I’m trying to frame this as an opportunity. A lot of people actively solicit bounties and take pride in them as proof of accomplishment. They welcome bounty hunters trying to track them down. I’m one of those people. I’m quite comfortable getting hunted; all kinds of fun things happen. [/size]
[background=There are any number of ways to get out of a bounty. The most popular is to whine about it until everyone who writes a bounty hunter is certain that you’d never allow yourself to be caught. Don’t do that. Another popular way is to actively avoid all public threads. Don’t do that either. You’re seriously missing out if you do. There’s not much that’s more fun than being a target for bounty hunters. [/size]
[background=I enjoy spontaneity. I hate, absolutely hate, pre-planned RPs. I also have issues with ‘we should do an RP with my character X and your character Y’ unless there’s a strong impetus for a story. Nothing says strong impetus like bounty hunting. Instantly, you have a pre-cooked reason to try and outwit each other, outfight each other, capture, escape. Some of the most entertaining and unforgettable RPs I’ve ever seen were battles of wits where my character had been captured. [/size]
[background=I know it’s often difficult to let your character be put in a position of vulnerability when you don’t know what’ll happen next. We just don’t like it on a visceral level. That’s human. But consider this: you have more fun when the stakes are high. One time, ten years ago, a cyborg Jedi character of mine woke up to find that someone had concealed a bomb in one of their implants -- and another device that measured brain activity related to Force use. Things got tense. I knew my character could die at any time, but I had a blast trying to outthink the other guy, and I’ve never forgotten how much I loved that thread. [/size]
[background=Or there was this other time. My Jedi Master had been captured by the Empire, and was being interrogated and tortured in a military prison. Now, I don’t recommend writing anything related to torture on Chaos: we have people as young as 13 here. This was another board and another time. But what matters is that the stakes were high, the odds were against me, and I derived pretty much infinite satisfaction out of suborning my interrogator and blasting my way out of prison covered in bandages.[/size]
[background=Give hunters a fair shake at you: join public threads, and don’t stop posting if someone takes a shot. Maybe you win, maybe you lose and get captured. Maybe you even get tossed in jail, get a trial, have some kind of a sentence passed. Have a blast with that. It’s a massively underexploited RP opportunity, and it’s so dang fun.[/size]
[background=Now, there’s a misconception that if a bounty’s been posted, how you engage with hunters is 100% your prerogative. If I write a bounty hunter (and I used to write one of the most objectively successful bounty hunters in board history), I’m going to look through public threads for people who have bounties. I’m going to see if it’s plausible for me to jump in, and then I’m going to do my due diligence. Surveillance, getting into position, setting up strategies, maybe calling in allies, plus the opening salvos of the battle of wits. Never show up and fire your weapon all in the first post; be classy. You’ll get a better response that way, meaning your quarry will be less likely to nope out of the thread. And if you’re really aiming for your quarry to engage with you, start with an attack that isn’t meant to be unavoidable. Start with something measured, from which they can take a measured hit if they like. Then just...play chess until someone wins or ragequits.[/size]
[background=One final thought. You’d be surprised how many people are OK with being defeated, captured, and turned in for the bounty. Over the years, my bounty hunters have snared and turned in quite a few people, some written by friends, some not. I very rarely had people just stop posting, or handwave their way out of the thread. It happens, don’t get me wrong, but there’s good fun to be had as a bounty hunter, and good fun to be had as a quarry too.[/size]
[background=Yes, I’m trying to frame this as an opportunity. A lot of people actively solicit bounties and take pride in them as proof of accomplishment. They welcome bounty hunters trying to track them down. I’m one of those people. I’m quite comfortable getting hunted; all kinds of fun things happen. [/size]
[background=There are any number of ways to get out of a bounty. The most popular is to whine about it until everyone who writes a bounty hunter is certain that you’d never allow yourself to be caught. Don’t do that. Another popular way is to actively avoid all public threads. Don’t do that either. You’re seriously missing out if you do. There’s not much that’s more fun than being a target for bounty hunters. [/size]
[background=I enjoy spontaneity. I hate, absolutely hate, pre-planned RPs. I also have issues with ‘we should do an RP with my character X and your character Y’ unless there’s a strong impetus for a story. Nothing says strong impetus like bounty hunting. Instantly, you have a pre-cooked reason to try and outwit each other, outfight each other, capture, escape. Some of the most entertaining and unforgettable RPs I’ve ever seen were battles of wits where my character had been captured. [/size]
[background=I know it’s often difficult to let your character be put in a position of vulnerability when you don’t know what’ll happen next. We just don’t like it on a visceral level. That’s human. But consider this: you have more fun when the stakes are high. One time, ten years ago, a cyborg Jedi character of mine woke up to find that someone had concealed a bomb in one of their implants -- and another device that measured brain activity related to Force use. Things got tense. I knew my character could die at any time, but I had a blast trying to outthink the other guy, and I’ve never forgotten how much I loved that thread. [/size]
[background=Or there was this other time. My Jedi Master had been captured by the Empire, and was being interrogated and tortured in a military prison. Now, I don’t recommend writing anything related to torture on Chaos: we have people as young as 13 here. This was another board and another time. But what matters is that the stakes were high, the odds were against me, and I derived pretty much infinite satisfaction out of suborning my interrogator and blasting my way out of prison covered in bandages.[/size]
[background=Give hunters a fair shake at you: join public threads, and don’t stop posting if someone takes a shot. Maybe you win, maybe you lose and get captured. Maybe you even get tossed in jail, get a trial, have some kind of a sentence passed. Have a blast with that. It’s a massively underexploited RP opportunity, and it’s so dang fun.[/size]
[background=Now, there’s a misconception that if a bounty’s been posted, how you engage with hunters is 100% your prerogative. If I write a bounty hunter (and I used to write one of the most objectively successful bounty hunters in board history), I’m going to look through public threads for people who have bounties. I’m going to see if it’s plausible for me to jump in, and then I’m going to do my due diligence. Surveillance, getting into position, setting up strategies, maybe calling in allies, plus the opening salvos of the battle of wits. Never show up and fire your weapon all in the first post; be classy. You’ll get a better response that way, meaning your quarry will be less likely to nope out of the thread. And if you’re really aiming for your quarry to engage with you, start with an attack that isn’t meant to be unavoidable. Start with something measured, from which they can take a measured hit if they like. Then just...play chess until someone wins or ragequits.[/size]
[background=One final thought. You’d be surprised how many people are OK with being defeated, captured, and turned in for the bounty. Over the years, my bounty hunters have snared and turned in quite a few people, some written by friends, some not. I very rarely had people just stop posting, or handwave their way out of the thread. It happens, don’t get me wrong, but there’s good fun to be had as a bounty hunter, and good fun to be had as a quarry too.[/size]
