I need help with a training arc.

[doravg]

So, the guild master in my story realized that his adventurers are a bunch of blundering children, and he forced them on a three-month remedial training with a battle evaluation after it. Whoever fails gets kicked out of the guild. So, how do I go about it? How do I keep the tension going? A lot of battle scenes for the training, back-to-back. Or have them mostly plan out formations and execute them after they are done planning?

 

[Lorelliad]

Half of said adventurers die when a dragon descends upon them

 

[Anon2024]

You could add heated rivalries between the children who want to prove they’re better than the others.

Those rivalries can be manufactured by the guild master telling them that it’s kill or be killed while the training is a mild form of win or lose your place in comparison.

Fatigue and exhaustion are good elements to use, as well as characters pushing themselves beyond their limits in training.

there are many more ideas those are just a few.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

You could add heated rivalries between the children who want to prove they’re better than the others.

this can very easily make the arc dogshit too. I absolutely hate when someone adds these third rate dumbass villains in their story to make the training arc seem more uhh action-packed i suppose. How about the gold master dropping them to a place where they will have to fight to survive as well? like an island or smth. But of course, this could be too big of a change to the plot and ultimately, it's your story.

 

[doravg]

You could add heated rivalries between the children who want to prove they’re better than the others.

Those rivalries can be manufactured by the guild master telling them that it’s kill or be killed while the training is a mild form of win or lose your place in comparison.

Fatigue and exhaustion are good elements to use, as well as characters pushing themselves beyond their limits in training.

there are many more ideas those are just a few.

The training's idea is to get them to go for vital spots, not to just hack mindlessly. At least, that is what I planned. But I have no idea how to make what is pulling one's punch on a couple of animated dummies interesting.

 

[WincumCestalot]

Rivalries, while also revealing what the kids are doing there. Why does the grandmaster think they're all spoiled? Are they really spoiled? Or is the grandmaster just out of touch? If he's out of touch, then there's lot of stupid things going to be thrown at them that 'they should be able to handle this much, at least'.
Maybe there's an instructor who works against them. Or helps them survive the grandmaster, but ends up extorting them to help get rid of the grandmaster. It's really just another setting for all sorts of other plots. Interweave whatever you want.
Oh, also, kinky ninja's who only want to steal the MC away for fun times. Those are always good.

What? You asked?

 

[doravg]

this can very easily make the arc dogshit too. I absolutely hate when someone adds these third rate dumbass villains in their story to make the training arc seem more uhh action-packed i suppose. How about the gold master dropping them to a place where they will have to fight to survive as well? like an island or smth. But of course, this could be too big of a change to the plot and ultimately, it's your story.

The point is for them to learn how to fight without getting hurt. They will be in a safe environment.

Rivalries, while also revealing what the kids are doing there. Why does the grandmaster think they're all spoiled? Are they really spoiled? Or is the grandmaster just out of touch? If he's out of touch, then there's lot of stupid things going to be thrown at them that 'they should be able to handle this much, at least'.
Maybe there's an instructor who works against them. Or helps them survive the grandmaster, but ends up extorting them to help get rid of the grandmaster. It's really just another setting for all sorts of other plots. Interweave whatever you want.
Oh, also, kinky ninja's who only want to steal the MC away for fun times. Those are always good.

What? You asked?

The problem with the adventurers is that when they fight, they give their all. Not caring that, after the first opponent, they would need to face another. The guild master wants them to either learn that is stupid, or get lost. Rivalries are going to be stamped as soon as they appear. The main proctor during the training is a no-nonsense SS ranked adventurer. Kid drama won't fly with him.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

The training's idea is to get them to go for vital spots, not to just hack mindlessly. At least, that is what I planned. But I have no idea how to make what is pulling one's punch on a couple of animated dummies interesting.

The point is for them to learn how to fight without getting hurt. They will be in a safe environment.

The problem with the adventurers is that when they fight, they give their all. Not caring that, after the first opponent, they would need to face another. The guild master wants them to either learn that is stupid, or get lost. Rivalries are going to be stamped as soon as they appear. The main proctor during the training is a no-nonsense SS ranked adventurer. Kid drama won't fly with him.

Add a competition with a prize in that case I suppose. Like whoever can do it fastest and best gets a prize the mc wants. But honestly, there isn't much you can do here.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

So, the guild master in my story realized that his adventurers are a bunch of blundering children, and he forced them on a three-month remedial training with a battle evaluation after it. Whoever fails gets kicked out of the guild. So, how do I go about it? How do I keep the tension going? A lot of battle scenes for the training, back-to-back. Or have them mostly plan out formations and execute them after they are done planning?

training montage

 

[Anon2024]

The training's idea is to get them to go for vital spots, not to just hack mindlessly. At least, that is what I planned. But I have no idea how to make what is pulling one's punch on a couple of animated dummies interesting.

Make the dummies difficult to figure out, like a puzzle that is hard to figure out.

special compartments, give them a manual that is difficult to read with many terms they don’t know yet

instructor threatens to fail them saying “if you miss you’d be dead on the battlefield” or something like that

writing from my phone so forgive my grammar.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

training montage

why not just do a time skip at that point

 

[doravg]

I read this:

Writing Training Arcs! | Wattpad Amino

My absolute favorite type of story arc. When done right. The group is training their powers and fig

aminoapps.com

And got a couple of ideas. I remembered those dual ninjutsu from Naruto. I can have my character train and create similar attacks. I mean, I do have a spell crafter former dungeon core in the platoon.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

Make them go through some sort of dungeon. And perhaps make it seem like they're in danger when they're really not. That will make it more fun. And add to that Anon's suggestion above and it's a pretty good training arc. Anyways gl

 

[Agentt]

You can do a time skip. You can have them race into the sun set. Make them do stupid things like till the fields with hands and break rocks. Chase boars and chickens.

 

[BearlyAlive]

From what you told us about the guild mates, the master should just drop them in some hazard area and tell them to survive on their own for X days/weeks, add some extra rules to get rid of whatever they're missing like "all must survive" for a bunch of edgy loners or teaming up people that hate their guts.

Those kind of "team building exercises" are pretty standard arcs for shounen mangas and also a pretty good chance for (forced) character growth

 

[Wysillesthal]

How much is a blunder? Are they all skinny or just average but don't have the experience?

I'd suggest and much prefer to see body training or workout to build strength and stamina after you mentioned the need to learn to hit vital spots and fight one enemy after another with the least effort possible. Give those adventurers the harshest training possible for the first month, or maybe a full workout at first and in-between for the next months to stay hardened. To train like crazy, and push themselves to the limit every single time. I emphasized the HARD work here because three months is little to nothing. No self-deception and self-enhancement, and just let their body do the talk.

Who are they fighting against, monsters? If so, they also need to learn a lot about characteristics and weak spots to strike, and does that mean the battle evaluation will be the children pitted against seized monsters or from the wilderness or is it just a strength evaluation?

If they fight using melee weapons, then mastering the very basics of it can help them without the need of learning more advanced stuff by building a strong foundation before placing the higher floor. Make the movement faster, the form sturdier, and the strike more accurate. Maybe this applies to magic too?

They may be reluctant, lazy, and can't put in so much effort but the more they do the things they don't want, the more they realize there's nothing more important than putting in the hard work. After all, they are betting their lives on becoming a bit stronger, so they can survive and not die easily.

TLDR; Workout → Master the basic → Set the mindset
Simple over fancy.

 

[Anon2024]

this can very easily make the arc dogshit too. I absolutely hate when someone adds these third rate dumbass villains in their story to make the training arc seem more uhh action-packed i suppose.

Now that I'm at a computer I can respond to this.

1. I hate the majority of training arcs in almost every show/movie/story. Most of the time training arcs are crap. It's usually the worst part of any story for me because it's like an info dump + teachers trying to show this or that + a bunch of other things that often make no real world sense and often doesn't come into play later in the story anyway because the author/writer whoever is in charge is going to be adding whatever they want. Also, the MC's almost never die in the training arc so it's safe no matter how tense they try to make it. It's cliched, overdone and 'meh' most of the time. Rivalries are a common trope to add tenseness, but it's also an easy one to implement if not gone overboard.

2. That said... training arcs are better when it's less tense and more philosophical. Why are they training and what is their goal? What kind of person are they supposed to become? What's the standard in order to stand with their peers?

I agree with @Wysillesthal

Workout -> Master the Basics -> Set the mindset.

There's not much need for anything else. A feel good training arc > Tense Training arc in my opinion.

 

[LORD_SHAXX]

So, the guild master in my story realized that his adventurers are a bunch of blundering children, and he forced them on a three-month remedial training with a battle evaluation after it. Whoever fails gets kicked out of the guild. So, how do I go about it? How do I keep the tension going? A lot of battle scenes for the training, back-to-back. Or have them mostly plan out formations and execute them after they are done planning?

You put on some 80's montage music.
I recommend push it to the limit or break the rules

 

[PeacefulMyst]

1. I hate the majority of training arcs in almost every show/movie/story. Most of the time training arcs are crap. It's usually the worst part of any story for me because it's like an info dump + teachers trying to show this or that + a bunch of other things that often make no real world sense and often doesn't come into play later in the story anyway because the author/writer whoever is in charge is going to be adding whatever they want. Also, the MC's almost never die in the training arc so it's safe no matter how tense they try to make it. It's cliched, overdone and 'meh' most of the time. Rivalries are a common trope to add tenseness, but it's also an easy one to implement if not gone overboard.

I agree with you. Training arcs suck as a whole

 

[Dudealien]

Gangbang