Frequently Asked Questions...
Hello all, and welcome to the
Fight Club! Here, we play several games, most prominent of these being "You B'astard!" and the "You B'astard! Adventure", or better yet, "YB!" and "YBA". Yes, I know you probably have some questions, and I hope the following FAQ will help you finding the corresponding answers. If not, do not hesitate to open a thread and ask.
General Questions
Q: What is "You B'astard!" (YB)?
A: YB started as a simple game of randomly rolling silly sounding combat moves, just as in your favorite B-Movie kung-fu film. However, when its creator, Number47, brought the game online, the game quickly evolved into something bigger.
Now, it is a game of make-believe fights between two (or sometimes more) combatants. The fights are played out here, on this board. Now, it wouldn't be fun if you would have to write your own attack, because the better writer would most certainly win all the time. And it's all about fun, isn't it?
So, we used the basic notes for creating the moves and refined them, editing the combat styles as well as the method of generating them, and put them online into the Generator. You can find a link to it in this very thread. (For ease of reference: it is
here!)
With this problem out of the way, the fun could begin.
Q: How do I play YB?
A: Well, the fight itself is very easy. One fighter issues a challenge, and another fighter answers it. Then, each fighter goes to the Generator site, and hits the button "Insult" once. This causes the generator to spill out some random insult.
All fights begin with an insult round, unless specified otherwise.
You can write some flavor text to go with your insult, but you don't have to. The next thing to do is
wait for the judges. Somehow, the ancient judges of the land know when a fight is taking place, and they come to ... well, judge it. At first, they set the match (that is what the "Judges" button is for, see below), and then declare the winner of the insult round.
The winner of the insult round can determine the length of the match. At the moment, there are two possibilities: Two Flags, or Three Flags. In a two flag match, all you need to win is get two flags to your side; in a three flag match, you need three flags (Sounds simple? Fear not, it stays that way!)
When the length of the match is determined, both fighters attack by generating combat moves from the Generator. This is done by pressing the "Move" button. Each round, the judges will determine the better move and give
one flag to the winning fighter. However, in order to get one flag to your side, you must first get rid of the flags your opponent already has. So if you won the first round ("One flag to you!"), if you lost the second round, the flag you just won would be put back in the middle, and the match would be tied again ("All flags neutral!")
The process of generating moves continues until one fighter has managed to get the specified number of flags for winning. If this happens,
the judges declare the winner and post advancement.
Q: Can anybody play the game?
A: Yes. (Although at one time, we were considering to disallow geeks from playing. However, as it turned out, we were sabotaging our consumer base, so we left the game open for all.)
Q: How do I join?
A: That is easy. You just invent your own personal fighter. Name him any way you wish. Although many people use their user ID for their fighter (at least for the first one), there is no obligation to do so.
Your fighter will start out as a
White Belt, with a record of 0-0. You are probably prepared to follow some complicated guidelines for making up your fighter - however, there are none. Just name him, and if you want to, invent a little backstory, and you are ready to go.
Now, only two things remain: First, go to the
"YB Fighter Registration" and post your fighter there. You just need to post her name, nothing else, as you haven't fought anybody yet.
Second, you must look for a fight. Now, that doesn't mean to go to a biker bar or something similar. You need to find someone who is willing to fight you online. You've got two possibilities for doing this:
A) Post a Challenge. Start a new thread. Choose a title that represents your challenge. ("Challenge to White Belts." - "Open Challenge." - "Challenge to George.")
When someone accepts your challenge, edit your thread title so that it shows the fight that is happening within. ("Me vs. George.")
You might want to include the number of rounds in the title. When you are in need of a judge, it mis possible to proclaim that in the title, too. ("Me vs. George: Round 5. Judge needed!")
B) Answer a Challenge. Go to a thread where a fighter has issued a chellenge, and accept it by posting your acceptance. All the title editing will be done for you, then.
After the fight is over, please revisit the Fighter Registration and update the information there. post who you fought, and who won. Additionally, state your new rank (and your fight record, if you wish).
Q: You keep talking about flavor text. Why?
A: Although the generated moves are all you need for fighting and enjoying YB!, we found that most fighters tend to remain
In Character while fighting. That means that they adopted a certain persona to go with their fighter's name, much like role-playing games.
The habit of posting flavor text within a fight has led to In-Character-Threads, where the fighters meet and talk to each other, without actually fighting.
There have also been alliances, friendships, and feuds that evolved, and we even have had some fighters that fell in love with each other.
So, if you'd like to, we strongly encourage role-playing your fighter in addition to posting her moves.
Q: Is there a code of conduct?
A: There are a few suggestions when playing YB! First of all, the nature of the generator makes "fishing" - the multiple generation of moves to get a perfect attack - very easy. We trust in you not to. Fishing for moves is cheating, and will lead you to isolation in the game; nobody will fight you anymore.
The same goes for making two user IDs and fighting each other; or even judging one of your own fights.
It is also considered bad manners to fight in several official fights at once; if you are so encouraged to play, we suggest you make all but one fight unofficial.
One last thing: Even when posting flavor text, try not to interfere with your opponent too much, or assume what his character reacts like. Some players have very elaborate backstories and plans, and it wouldn't be nice if you'd somehow endanger these plans. If you really want to try something, please contact the player via chat or e-mail, and as permission.
That's all. Why aren't you fighting already? Oh, you still got some questions. Well, look no further.