Define "Rule of Cool"

[edtosivaree]

I want to know what the people of Yappa's think is the acceptable definition of "Rule of Cool"

Not only that, but is it a Spectrum. Is there an amount of RoC that is acceptable, or is anything that is remotely close to RoC bad no matter what.

As I started the thread, I figure it is only proper I give my personal definition of RoC

RoC in my honest opinion is doing something without thinking of /why/ you character does it. Doing something that does not enrich the roleplay or add a level of depth to your character that may not have been obtained without it.

For instance, I shall use Edto as an example using the bow idea I proposed. I will give two situations.

Edto has a bow because I like bows and think they are cool so I want to give her one. --- RoC

Edto has a bow because it was something that she used to do as a child. With swords being seen as a Symbol carried by Male Sangheili, her level of training with said weapon is quite limited. The bow, however, does not have such a stigma around it, and so she has the opportunity to achieve a level in Marksmanship that would compete with the Coveted SwordMaster title. She uses the bow as a Mental training, to hone her patience and discipline. --- Not RoC

There are things that on a surface value will always be taken as RoC. The trick is to give it Depth and Reason that pulls it out of that dreadful area. While they may not be practical combat wise ((Why does a shipmaster need a bow)) they do have social and character uses.

Anyone else have an opinion?

[SuperCommando]

Nice topic!

I like your definition and examples of Rule of Cool, although I'd expand it to include non character-specific aspects as well. Such as if you're writing a post about your character moving through a battlefield and including dramatic things in the background like aircraft crashing and Brutes with gravity hammers swatting humans like golf balls, maybe all during a moody thunderstorm. In other words, stuff that doesn't necessarily NEED to be happening for any particular narrative reason other then just to set an awesome tone.

I personally think that style (Rule of Cool included) is an important part of creating engaging fiction. The important thing is, as you said, is to make the coolness relevant. Otherwise your writing becomes amaturish and immature.

My Spartan character, Silas-009, is missing one eye and wears an eyepatch, which is fun and cool. But he didn't start that way. That eye was originally lost in a long, grueling player-verses-player battle and has become an important part of his history and identity.

In fact, since I'm so fond of that memory it's become a thing for me to randomly give other, unrelated characters in other stories of mine an eyepatch as a reference to Silas. Apart from sentimental value on my part, that's 100% Rule of Cool right there. And I'm okay with that.

[MrKill]

Now, I'll admit, if 'rule of cool' is a writing term I have not learned it. Going forward, keep in mind, I'm thinking rule of cool is just 'Hey, that's cool to have!' type of thing.




When it comes to armory proposals, it's not so much as 'rule of cool' as 'does it fit here' in both the Halo Universe and the website itself. When grading proposal staff members are imagining the bow on an official page at Halopedia or Halo Wiki; and if it feels out of place or like it doesn't belong, we typically deny the armory proposal and cite our reasons we are denying it; sure, it's not always clean and sometimes it doesn't make any sense for the user who had the proposal denied.

Now, 'rule of cool' does come in a little bit; but for canon proposals it doesn't mean all that much.

'Do we really need this' is another question asked, especially after we've concluded that a proposal doesn't really fit within this universe. I'm known, to quote an un-named source, 'to be a stickler for canon'. It's one of our goals here on Yappas, with this staff team, is to deliver as true of a Halo Universe as we can. We want to keep our stuff as close as canon as we possibly can because of that.

Of course, with each different administration, and different eras on the website. But for the most part, unless it really does feel like it fills a part of the Halo Universe, it is typically denied. A great example of a armory proposal that was approved because it could very well be an actual Halo Wiki topic is SpartanA120's ammunition list (which we've, with permission from him, adopted into our UNSC Info and are working on including every single cannon, small arm, rocket, etc used by the UNSC).

A bad example of a canon proposal that was approved because it was 'cool to have on the RP' would be numerous proposals in the 'formerly approved proposals'. Going through that section of the forum, a wave of embarrassment arises because some of them have no place, absolutely no place, in the Halo Universe; especially to proposals that take almost entirely from other universes.

[Spartan 999]

Rule of Cool for reference: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool

[MrKill]

Please keep it relevant. This topic is in the site discussions area. :/

[Spartan 999]

Kill, you said you didn't know what the Rule of Cool was as a writing reference. I put it up for you, and others who might not know. So yeah, I'd say it's relevant to the current discussion.

[MrKill]

Nov 23, 2015 18:43:44 GMT -6 Spartan 999 said:

Kill, you said you didn't know what the Rule of Cool was as a writing reference. I put it up for you, and others who might not know. So yeah, I'd say it's relevant to the current discussion.

Sorry, 999; I deleted Goody's post above after posting what I said. His original post was 'Rule of Goody because... I'm cool.' or something like that.

Apologies for the confusion. D:

[Huka]

To me, the Rule of Cool is either 'defining Bada**ery' when done right, unnecessary when done wrong, or just embarrassing when done really wrong (ex. unjustified OP, instant snowflake, etc.). It is similar playing a Pen-and-Paper game, the Rule is a hit or miss for me. 

By this time, Huka has replaced the latter part of this post about twithrice now because he've unknowingly rambled for a good portion before realizing that is not quite the subject.

For me, it is using the story and established character to a high point. Despite my deep disdain to do so - I'll use a personal experience for this that many know well, even if they haven't seen him on the field yet; Field Marshal Til Je'at Ze'at 'Muramai. That raspy-breathing commander is a result of years of character building since I started playing here and some lucky Shining Moments.

His first - as a mere eager minor during the last begotten Yappa era - was piercing and killing a big bio-electric blasting lizard Queen during a hunting intermission with Spartan999's Sorsa 'Xirsasai and Kart's Legra 'Adantee! Hanging with a Special Operator and a Major, what more can a new player -and young Sangheili - can ask for? This was my first full roleplaying experience from start to finish. My intention was getting a big skull trophy, the ending involved a near-death experience with charred lungs, ruined skin, a blind cataracted eye, and a very painful trip to the local Doctors. That is the price of trying to be cool and Til became all the wiser for it. Reward? A GM-bestowed energy dagger and rank up to Major (this was long before we regularized how ranks worked). That was my treasured Shining Moment, very proud of it even when others don't know what I'm talking about, and always love to see it with others...even with UNSC characters like Cabel's Captain Mark Sorelson had a good one with a giant alien grasshopper. 

Shining Moments are cool to me and it gives a certain development that is unique for everyone. Better yet, a simple way of explaining it is 'Take the Moment' with a good idea that isn't gamebreaking or hampers the flow.

    Help that one squad being overrun by Covie frontline!

    Use your handicap as an advantage.

    The Elephant that have been terrorizing the right flank has killed your immediate officer, take part in its destruction...

    A Jiralhanae is flown to an uncontrolled rage, you find bodies of Covenant and Human alike sprawled about; do you kill him or sate him from his bloodrage? 

Those kind of things is my prominent favorite thing to watch. It helps your character develop into an awe-inspiring individual with a ever-growing background, have new people and oldies want to associate with in some way, make you a better roleplayer (with a humility to match it even better, peps can get cocky sometimes - hence my dislike of unintentionally appearing to brag if any see it like that) and ease the stress on the staff trying to make every scenario. Now for me, that is cool.

If you don't want to read all of this - which I don't blame you - the very basis of this post ramble: Shining Moments are your thread RPing Critical Rolls and DM-allowed finishing moves to a situation. Understand your character, making him/her unique without having to tear far from canon and show that GROWTH! Save  a Unggoy, have a bolt shot your would-be killer's face one day. Narrowly kill a Sangheili and see him try to kill you at every mission until that fated showdown. Got your sword? Show that ameatur develop into a dervish of majestic skill over the years, or lose his weapon-hand/arm and stride the battlefield with that tattered, bloodied UNSC flag wrapped around as a constant memory to never be overconfident of a cornered Human. (...should soo make a character from that one.)

Earn that coolness and everything will roll into place by the Yappa in the Sky!


-Huka inspired ramble of the night, don't even know if he is still on topic. The Lurking Kill can devour it it if not.

[SuperCommando]

Oh my, somebody certainly had fun ranting about coolness...

[Spartan 999]

Nov 23, 2015 19:43:10 GMT -6 MrKill said:

Nov 23, 2015 18:43:44 GMT -6 Spartan 999 said:

Kill, you said you didn't know what the Rule of Cool was as a writing reference. I put it up for you, and others who might not know. So yeah, I'd say it's relevant to the current discussion.

Sorry, 999; I deleted Goody's post above after posting what I said. His original post was 'Rule of Goody because... I'm cool.' or something like that.

Apologies for the confusion. D:

Oh, I see. Whoops...

*slowly walks back out*

[Faclan]

To me at least I mostly agree with Edto and Kill - if its just something cool and doesn't have a purpose in the RP (this will be expanded on) then it probably doesn't need to be approved. But that doesn't mean it just needs to be denied and I still think a discussion about it could help clear up some of the issues people may have with it, and maybe with some edits or changes it could be something that could have use in the RP.

But I would like to expand on what I mean by 'purpose to the RP' however. It could be something that could be a useful addition to combat that fills a hole where before there wasn't anything. An example of this would be my Jiralhanae heavy 'Skewer' pistol - filling a hole for a heavy sidearm for officer use that the Jiralhanae since before then didn't have as they only had a SMG and a one handed shotgun. BUT, and this is a big but, I think there is another purpose that proposals could fill - and that is the case of a Historical Artifact. Mostly to help along 'older' (my Kig EWOK's, but not ONI bullets) weapons that people may want to bring into the modern Halo battlefield.

I will quote to something I wrote just for myself awhile ago before I made the 'To The Staff thread' where I was running through some ideas of things that I thought could be improved, but never posted the word doc's contents - at least not yet.

"It (proposals being denied) could be a simple misunderstanding, or the proposal needs to be expanded on some more, or it may not be an idea for general issue in a war. If it falls into that last category it may be considered a 'Historical Artifact'

These Historical Artifacts are items that will probably not be seen in the main RPs, but will instead be usable should you wish and understand their downsides (if your commander allows it). Instead what will most likely be the case is these will be moved into the Information board to help and show some history of the species that made them or more information on their clans."

For example I talked to Edto about the bow idea on Skype and said that while it probably wouldn't be a thing used now it probably would have been a thing in the Jellies past and especially for training purposes. I wagered that since being a Swordsman is not something ever Sangheili can do (especially for female Sangheili) there would need to be something else that the trainers used to train the youngsters about strength (heavy draw weight bow), finesse (accuracy and small adjustments make big consequences), endurance (hold a full draw for a long time), and technique (stances and how to efficiently draw/aim/loose quickly).

That's something that I think could help with some background information and proposals. Hope it made sense. But I agree with Edto and Kill.