Open Combats are fights that happen spontaneously, with no prior warning, and can sometimes draw in others. These types of fights are geared for harmful intent and can have deadly or permanent consequences. No agreement between parties is necessary, however there must be realistic roleplay to encounter combat.
Open Combats are distinct from Raids and Roleplay Combat, as roleplayed in PTJ. These rules are the exact rules for Open Combat, and are the suggested rules for Raids and Roleplay Combat. For example, NPCs may not be used in Open Combat, but may be used in raids or roleplay.
Open Combat shall be judged on realism! Unrealistic actions will be invalidated by the judge. Actions which are not clearly enough described to verify realism will be invalidated. Actions which do not consider the realistic effect of cumulative wounds will be invalidated. Open Combat is likely to be brief and deadly.
The Room Controller (Kimba) is the supreme judge of combat and valid roleplay in this room. If you don't trust her integrity and judgment, don't come in the room. This has to do with understanding the complexities of the rules and the roleplay environment. It is simply not fair to the Members of PClaw, or any particular judge, to have another judge trying to learn these rules and this environment.
Combatants are encouraged to judge their own combat, and agree to the result. If the combatants cannot agree on the outcome, then the Room Controller will judge or appoint a single judge. If you want to fight the Room Controller, for real consequences, and have somebody else judge the combat, you need to make OOC arrangements in advance.
Since the results of combat may not be immediately known, for pragmatic reasons, there will be no engaging combatants after combat is concluded. While general first aid should be administered to combatants immediately after a fight, the aid of a Healer can only be rendered after judgment. There is no "limbo" period while waiting for judgment. Combatants will use their own judgment on how to realistically proceed with their roleplay, with the understanding that all the roleplay could be retroactively voided by the judgment.
There is no Whochat Hunting or Enter/Pounce allowed. At the Room Controller or Judge's discretion, any combat may be voided if there is a lack of realistic roleplay foundation to put the combatants in position to fight. This includes Gor-Phone help, and other kinds of late arrivals.
All combat is on foot. Mounts and NPC's may not take part in Open Combat.
The Room Controller can declare someone caged for combat incompetence to preserve the realism of roleplay.
Projectile weapons must be used realistically, considering all the actions needed to arm and fire the weapon, as well as a realistic firing stance, plus a reasonable rate of fire for the specific weapon. Crossbows may NOT be loaded and fired in the same combat round.
You must use the location pull downs in roleplay and combat. Once your location is established, you do not need to use the PD on every post. You may move from one location to an adjoining location during your turn, but you must use the PD that your movement ENDS in, NOT the one it starts in. This may be corrected with an ((OOC)) post as a PD mistake.
PTJ slaves may bear arms against non-Members.
TIME:
In Face-To-Face Combat, combat posts are limited to 2-3 seconds of virtual time passing between the start of the post and the end of the legal actions of the post, depending on the nature of the actions. This means that the actions you describe must be able to be performed realistically within 2-3 seconds. Only when opponents are at 20+ yards distance, may their actions take 3 seconds. Face-To-Face battles should not involve more than 2 seconds of virtual time passing per post. Anything that takes place outside the allotted time-frame will be considered not to have happened. In Running Combat, an additional amount of time for movement is allowed, but the actual attack portion of the post is still limited to 2 seconds.
In face-to-face combat, the default time limit is 8 minutes, but may be changed by agreement of the participants. In running combat, the time limit is 10 minutes.
In a crowded room, with 10 or more people posting during the course of a combat, the time limits are extended an additional 2 minutes. In the event of a long weapons post, the opponent may declare he gets 2 extra minutes to read it, and the time starts from this declaration being posted. If a post is highly confusing, the opponent may ask for clarification, and time starts after the clarification is given. With minor unclarities, such as failing to declare which hand a weapon is in, the opponent can presume the unclear information and declare it in his post.
If you run out of time you lose your entire post. ((OOC)) bracketed posts for clarification or time checks are out of roleplay and do not count as your turn. If your opponent times out, your time starts from the timestamp of when you ((notify)) the opponent that they have timed out. If someone claims Tech-Impairment or RTIntrusion, it must be honored, no matter how much roleplay has to be rolled back.
The purpose of the long time limit is too allow people to carefully read their opponent's post and to carefully write their own post, in order to maintain high-quality roleplay, as opposed to hack/slash combat where the loser is the first one to make a mistake. It is also to accommodate the fact that Jungle combat is more likely to include tactics and obstacles that are not found in arena combat or warfare. This does NOT mean that combat by these rules HAS to be slow. The long-time is available for when circumstances require it, but combatants can reply as quickly as they like.
PROHIBITED:
No Combat Incompetence: If you are not an experienced fighter, who has studied and understands these rules; you have no business attempting Open Combat in PTJ. The Judge can declare someone caged by Combat Incompetence to preserve the realism of roleplay. A roleplayer may ignore someone whose combat is clearly incompetent, or ignorant of these rules.
No Forceposting: Forceposting means to call your opponent's damage or movement. *Punches you in the nose* is not a forcepost because it calls neither damage nor opponent's movement. *Punches you, breaking your nose and knocking you on your ass* is a double forcepost, because it declares both damage and movement.
The forcepost element of an action will be considered to be the intent of the poster, and MUST be defended as such. "That's a forcepost!" is not an adequate defense.
No Backposting: Backposting means to ATTACK before your opponent’s last action has started, or to have a post that significantly changes the legal and completed actions of another. Backposted attacks will be ruled completely invalid. Like forceposters, backposters risk being declared Combat Incompetent.
Defenses that may seem like backposts are likely to be legal.
No Speedposting: Speedposting is defined as failure to wait for your opponent's response TO YOU(or time out) before posting again. You CANNOT post again simply because your opponent has posted to someone else, or to all. Speedposts will be ignored. Speedposters risk being declared Comabat Incompetent for multiple speedposts.
The exception is certain types of corrections for technical problems. Notifying of a missend to the wrong person on the PD, or a partial post, or technology/real-time impairment - is not speed posting and must be honored, even if roleplay has to be rolled back. These three exceptions are the only acceptable correction posts. No roleplay results will be determined by computer related or real-time issues.
WEAPONS:
All weapons must be declared before combat. No combat with weapons can occur until the attacker has posted a weapons/stance post and the attacked person has had 10 minutes to reply with a weapons/stance post. After 10 minutes, the attacker may assume that she was able to attack before weapons could be drawn in defense.
A person already engaged in combat need not redeclare weapons to opponents who join the battle. A person entering an ongoing combat needs to declare weapons to his initial opponent, AND in PM to all. There is no numerical weapon limit, but the weight and encumbrance of weapons will be factored in the judgment.
When fighting multiple opponents, as in a melee between Panther bands, only one weapons/stance post need be made, by each participant, before anyone starts combat. There will be no entering into ongoing combat after any opponent has made a second combat post. While it might happen, it is too hard to judge. With two or more moving combatants, someone entering the fray (or firing a projectile) would not be able to accurately choose their target.
Non-Gorean weapons or armor are forbidden. Poison weapons are not allowed, for pragmatic reasons. Fire cannot be used as a weapon in the Forest. Kurri weapons are not allowed, Kurri have enough of a size/strength advantage that they can make do with Gorean weapons in the spirit of sportsmanship, or no weapons at all. Gunpowder and explosive weapons are not allowed. Ninja weapons are not allowed. The only drugged weapons are capture darts, which cannot be used as projectiles, and capture scent on a cloth. Undefined arrows are field tips by default. There is no such thing as Taluna Weapons. Talunas may use any weapons that they can procure in roleplay.
Our bows are extremely accurate at 25 yards, very accurate at 35 yards and fairly accurate at 50 yards. Crossbows may NOT be loaded and fired in the same combat round.
Weapons are not left laying around the Lair to be picked up during spontaneous combat. As Panthers are often barefoot in the Lair, slaves conscientiously pick up rocks/stones and other objects, removing them from the Lair.
ARMOR:
Helmets are discouraged. Women don’t wear them, and since this is an equatorial environment, I don’t think metal helmets are realistic for anybody. Helmets are allowed, but discouraged. Apart from the helmet any other metal armor is prohibited, although metal jewelry may be used as protective clothing. Protective clothing or hardened, leather clothing is allowed. Any protective clothing must be declared in the weapons/stance post. Protective clothing is not a defense to an attack. Protective clothing can only help to minimize a defended blow. If a blow is fully accepted, the clothing is to be considered to provide no protection. Weapons slung on the body may be used in the same way as protective clothing, as may jewelry, such as metal armbands.
START OF COMBAT:
Time starts when the first attack is posted, even if the attack is harmless. The initial attacker only gets 2 actions, and gets an additional defense at the end.
END OF COMBAT:
Combat will be judged after 5 rounds, and if the result is inconclusive, will continue for another 3 rounds. After 8 rounds of inconclusive combat, invading forces will be considered captured from exhaustion. Essentially, a tie goes to the Home Team. This is realistic because the defenders have shorter supply lines, better support, know the territory, and are more likely to get reinforced.
Combatants who are judged disabled will be considered to have been captured or killed, the victor's option.
Combat may also end by mutual agreement or by flight. To flee combat requires at least two withdrawal posts, and must be roleplayed realistically.
Open Combat may be judged as incomplete, and the judge may rule that combat should continue with judged wounds in play - particularly in the case of an invalid withdrawls.
Open Combat may be judged live, with the judge declaring received wounds on a round by round basis. If the Room Controller is available, and not participating in the situation, then live judging will be done.
A player's participation in combat ends if she is disabled.
ACTIONS:
Actions will be limited to 3 actions per round, but may include combination actions. Combination actions are defined as any realistic and simultaneous movement/defense, movement/attack, movement/action, movement/speech or movement/adjustment. Two attacks can never be considered a combination in the same action, but must be counted as two actions, even if simultaneous. Moving away from a blow as a defense and moving around your opponents flank are 2 distinct actions.
This does not mean you get 3 actions per round. You get your allotted amount of virtual time to act, and cannot use more than 3 actions; but the actions end when the time runs out. Most combat turns should consist of defense, counter-attack and reset of weapons, although 2 attacks in a turn are possible, in combination. The best example of this is boxing, where boxers learn individual punches and combination punches. An uppercut takes as long to throw as a jab-jab or right-lead/left-hook combo. You are much more likely to fit a combination into the virtual time limit, and much less likely to fit in two separate attacks.
Speaking can be considered as your turn. It does not have to be. It is possible that someone is typing a dialog post and does not see a combat post until the dialog hits the Room. In this cases, the speaker shall be given a chance to reply properly to the combat post.
Separation: Because of the time pressure, actions MUST be clearly separated by a clear system of numbers, stars, dashes, etc. If your post is not clearly separated, the opponent is given 2 additional minutes to respond. Continued failure to separate, after a warning from an opponent, may be considered Combat Incompetence.
Deliberately dropping a weapon and arming another will be considered 1 action. Readjusting all armed weapons in defense will be considered 1 action. Adjusting your grip on a two-handed weapon and attacking with it, or adjusting grip and moving a two-handed weapon to a defensive position will be considered 1 combination action.
An outnumbered combatant may make a single post to several attackers, if she names the opponents clearly and reposts (using the back-key or c/p) the same post to each individual addressed in the post.
If you are fighting multiple opponents, you may ((declare)) that you are going to fight by the One Post Option Rule, as a reply to a given attack. If you declare the One Post Option rule, your turn and time begins when all opponents have moved. You reply to them in order. You have two options. You may either use your three actions to reply to all attacks, or you can have one action to respond to each, and one additional action. Your time limit is extended one minute per opponent.
DEFENSE
All attacks must be clearly accounted for. Be specific. Do not leave it for the opponent/judge to infer how your movement would have avoided the blow, state it clearly! Attacks may be accepted, accepted and minimized, or defended - or they land. Blows that are not clearly defended are considered to have landed as intended, if the intention was realistic. If the described intent of the blow is not realistic, it lands as it realistically would, not as described.
All defenses must be realistic, or the blow is considered to have landed as intended, within the context of realism. It is not always sufficient to make a blow miss its intended target, if the blow would continue from momentum and hit you somewhere else. The result of wounds and accepted attacks, as judged, must be realistically roleplayed until treated, even if you didn't declare that damage in roleplay. This means that a misdefended wound, even a minor one, can be fatal.
No single movement can fully defend 2 attacks, unless the attacks are simultaneous. It is assumed that the opponent is aiming at a spot on the body that they can hit when they attempt the blow. If you move away from one blow, your opponent is considered to have followed your movement to stay in position to deliver his second blow, else, you have backposted.
It is not sufficient to make an attack miss it's intended target, and consider that blow safely defended. You must declare what the blow actually hits (or how it misses), and the judge will determine what is more realistic, between the attempt and your defense.
By the time you hear an arrow, or the twang of a bow, it has hit you.
If a blow clearly could NOT hit it's intended target, the defender can declare what the blow actually hits, and the judge will determine what is more realistic.
EXAMPLE: *on a right lead relative to you, your sleen knife cannot reach my left bicep, ....*
If a blow is misdefended, the attacker may note what they think would have happened ((in brackets)) at the beginning of their combat post, so the opponent can reconsider the state of their wounds.
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