An inquiry regarding bankai training

[Akiyamasan]

A little bit of discussion was brought up in the chatango box, and I thought "Hey, sounds like fun. Let's see what the rest of the board thinks about it."

So, I thought maybe we should allow non-captain characters to eventually achieve bankai via a training program. I figure after perhaps, 30 posts with said character, the option to train for bankai should become available. Judgeseraph suggested that we should have the character's squad captain initiate the test. I like that idea, a captain training his subordinates, y'know?

I suppose the tests themselves can vary in content, at the captain's own whim sounds like a very successful way to come about it. (I say this so we don't end up just doing whatever Ichigo did, since that is our only look into how bankai training is conducted.) I take it that we don't want characters IMMEDIATELY achieving bankai, so we'd have to discuss limits or something. I'd personally say something along the lines of. "The captain gives three trials. None of the trials are supposed to be easy. Once completed, the character has access to a bankai." Of course, since this is a discussion thread, that should be up for discussion.


So, whaddya think?

[jokerman369]

I have conflicting ideals regarding this topic. I believe it should be the Captain's choice as to if the Lieutenant has to go through multiple trial's. I believe it should be up to the Lieutenant. If the Lieutenant wants I believe they should be allowed to take the easy way that Ichigo used.

[Akiyamasan]

Jul 2, 2011 21:15:27 GMT -5 jokerman369 said:

I have conflicting ideals regarding this topic. I believe it should be the Captain's choice as to if the Lieutenant has to go through multiple trial's. I believe it should be up to the Lieutenant. If the Lieutenant wants I believe they should be allowed to take the easy way that Ichigo used.

I'm not necessarily indicating that lieutenants are the only ones who would be taking these tests. 3rd seats and such are also capable of having such a calling. (Ikkaku for example.)

I catch your drift, I suppose having the kind of trial being up to the player themselves would be a cash thing to consider. I also didn't MEAN to denote Ichigo's way as being a way that shouldn't/couldn't be done, I just meant that I felt we should try to be a bit more unique, so everyone doesn't end up doing just as such.

I also only said "Multiple trials" because I didn't want any players immediately just going "I slay my clone. GG, I have Bankai." As it would... defeat the purpose. Not trying to debunk anything you said, I'm just further explaining why I suggested what I did. Your ideas are perfectly fine and practical as well.

[Jachimaru]

The problem with the "Ichigo Method" is that Urahara invented it, and only he and Ichigo have used it. Considering neither exist in the RP, using that method would pretty much be impossible. Unless of course, we agree to say it was invented by Squad Twelve's Captain rather than Urahara, then it would be plausible. If we do it though, we'd have to go along with the "Three days or die" thing that comes with it. Meaning, whoever decides to go this route, needs to be able defeat their zanpakutou spirit within that time limit. So we'd have to keep a close eye on whoever's character it is that's trying to achieve Bankai. It'd be kinda hard to judge fairly who would be able to do such a thing within the "Three day" limit, but it's not a very bad idea if we can make it work somehow.

Also, to stick with normal Bleach "logic" or whatever you wanna call it, the Captain would really have no say into whether or not their Lieutenant should learn Bankai, as the only requirement is to have proper training with it (At least ten years) and that they materialize their zanpakutou spirit into the world. Anything that happens between materialization and mastering Bankai would technically be up to the RPer. Of course, all of this is if we stick strictly with what Bleach has shown us.

As for limits and such, I say 30-50 posts would be enough to say your character was able to materialize their zanpakutou spirit. (One or more of those posts would have to have been them trying to materialize their zanpakutou spirit as well.) With the training thing, whether it's done by a captain or not, I think should be the RPer's choice. However, regardless of their choice, their training threads would be modded by a staff member. The hard part is to determine what 10+ years would translate into if we make it post counts instead. (Assuming we aren't using the "Ichigo Method") I think quite a few training threads would be neccessary to master Bankai. (Somewhere between 3-10, but I'm leaning in the 5+ range.)

If we were to do the "Ichigo Method", I think we should increase the post requirements to 50+ or something quite a bit higher than the normal method, but reduce the number of training threads to around three. (One-ish for each day.)


To summarize my thoughts:

• Normal Method: 30-50 posts (Probably closer to 30), and ~5-10-ish training threads, with or without a captain.
  
• Ichigo Method: 50-70 posts (Basically, about 20 more than the normal method), and 3-ish training threads, with or without a captain.
  
• All training threads will be modded by a staff member. (Whether that staff is a captain or just modding is up to the RPer.)
  

[Captain Stelevein]

Hmm I see where everyone is going with this, but of course I have to agree with jachi. If we use the ichigo method how do we decern how many post make up a day, not to mention would we be going in real time or not. So here's my pitch, I suppose ten post make up a day, now let's say we go real time, that would mean each day they would have to post at least ten a day, in said thread they are working on their bankai in. If said number of post do not get completed withen 24 hours, I suggest the time limit should restart and thread should start over. With that said, they would have to continuously do the thread if they miss a day until the get 30 post done within three days.

[Knuckles - Kobushi Kyoumou]

That's harsh. Don't let that consume you, many people can't afford to post in a manner of twenty-four hours. How about three days.

[Akiyamasan]

I don't like the idea of a time limit. People learn things at different paces and all that. I honestly think your zanpakuto should give you a trial (Approved by a staff member, of course) And you should have to complete it, granting you the ability to USE Bankai. Now, in order to MASTER BANKAI, the player would probably have to train at their own pace, or get into numerous conflicts. Hmm.... just musing though.

[Jachimaru]

Alright, so here's what we've come up with so far, and correct me if I screw something up please. ><

• 30 posts or 3000 words within two weeks in order to master bankai.
  
• You must have at least 30 posts before attempting to materialize your zanpakutou spirit.
  
• After PMing a staff member, they will decide if you are ready to learn Bankai.
  
• Once allowed to train, the time limit will begin. The posts in the training thread must stay on topic with bankai training.
  
• Once the time limit is reached, or you finish early, a staff member will look over your thread and give you a pass or fail rating. If you fail, you can try again from the beginning after waiting two weeks.
  
• The Ichigo Method Differences
  
  • Your time limit is reduced to one week and you must reach 15 posts or 1500 words.
    
  • If you fail, you will end up in the fourth barracks and horribly injured. You must wait a month to retry the Bankai test.
    
  • This method is more dangerous and life-threatening. You will have near-death experiences. We will be paying very close attention to the content of the training thread/s you make.
    
  • Upon agreeing to use the Ichigo Method, you are agreeing to allow your character to die, should the situation arise in RP.
    
  
  

[Akiyamasan]

Two more things. First, since the most important part of any RP is the community, I want to make sure this proposal is something that can be agreed to by everyone. I know that we'll always get at least one person who'll try to resist change, but we worked so well in the discussions that I don't want to see nothing come of this. For the sake of the community, let's first try to get every member who frequents the RP to read these, and offer approval or disapproval of what we've come up with. It's not any fun to have rules that someone disagrees with, and let's try to avoid arguments over it, if at all possible. This website is small enough without alienating a few players.

The second thing being that we should now begin to open up discussions over other exponential growths in power, such as but not limited to Shikai (For shinigami members that don't come with one. To which we don't have any.... yet.)

My proposal for Shikai, in example is that the character must overcome a life threatening situation, and hear the voice of their zanpakuto. But... Yeah, better to leave it up to the community to carry a discussion about this kind of thing.

[Enjiiro Senboukun]

I talked to Joker over ps3 chat and I think that this needs to be said regarding Bankai training.

Instead of placing a restriction on peoples posts (like the two weeks for normal and one week for Ichigo's) I think we should either give them the option to be placed under a time restriction or have the opportunity to gain Bankai by merely meeting a certain number of posts (30-50, we should talk about this and decide if we will use the same number) The reason for this is not everybody can log 30 posts in two weeks as they might have real life problems to deal with. Yes, I understand that the method mentioned earlier may weed out the people who are and are not serious about the site, but some people just may not have the time required to make 30 posts in the given amount of time.

I think we should allow people to just be able to gain Bankai after a certain amount of posts without the time restriction placed upon them. Also if there are people out there that would like to challenge themselves with a time restriction on their posts then we should allow them to take that route and do so. Regardless of which method we choose to use (possibly both depending on which route they want to take) the staff members here are competent enough to monitor the posts made by the people that are completing the Bankai training, and as such there will be no BS.

Please let me know your thoughts on this post and correct me on any mistakes I may have made. That would be much appreciated. :]

[Akiyamasan]

Oh, we had either a certain number of posts in the time-frame, or a certain amount of words. In your post alone there are 280 words. In the longest post on this page, there are 750 words. The average word count in the Lazy Days topic is 350 words. The entire topic itself containing 4255 words, which is as if we had typed a 7 page word document. In the span of little more than two weeks. Reaching 3k words in two weeks, or reaching 1.5k words in a single week is an easy enough affair, no? Not knocking the idea, I fully agree that we shouldn't impose TOO harsh of a mindset in the whole thing, but... Just judging by the content of the the Role-playing posts that occur here in the first place, You are FAR more likely to FAAAAR exceed the word count before EVER reaching 30 posts.

[Jachimaru]

If we gave them the option, no one would want to have a two week limit forced on them. And then we'd have thousands of people with Bankai, and only a handful who would have actually deserved it. Also, even if we drop the time limit, there should still be one on the Ichigo Method regardless. If we're making changes, it should be to the normal method. Also, for those that have personal things in their lives that take away from their normal activity on the site (Excluding laziness), then I don't see why we can't just "pause" their time limit for them. And besides, If I were to make a bankai-less character and want them to learn bankai later, I'd already have the thread mostly planned out to make it easier. XP

My personal opinion though, is that it's fine as is. If you don't wanna put the time and effort into gaining bankai on your own, then you should've just made your character start with bankai. If we get rid of an time restrictions though, I say we change the 30 posts/3000 words to 50-60 posts/5000-6000 words. It needs to be challenging regardless of a time limit. And a 3000 word thread without a time limit isn't all that challenging.