Combat: Rules of Engagement

Players and Monsters may call out how much damage they are swinging for when they attack. That damage call is the amount that is taken away from any HP on a successful hit. These numbers are kept intentionally low (Maxing out at 5 in the rarest of cases) to avoid mathematical confusion while fighting. Higher damage carries over past any exceeded Health, potentially severing a limb or killing with a torso wound. For example, a call of 3 damage against a PC’s Torso who has 2 HP, will reduce their HP to 0, and then also mortally wound that PC. By default, a PC’s damage call is 1.

Survivability may also be increased with Armor, which acts as a buffer that must be reduced to 0 before any Health is reduced. Armor has certain requirements that must be met before counting as Armor, and only covers where the physical Armor is on your body when hit, but is still pooled into one Armor Point system. An exposed leg is not protected and reduces Health, but an armored covered arm and torso both add and subtract from the same pool of Armor when either are hit.

Weapon Rules

  • All weapons and shields must be LARP-safe, ie. latex-covered foam or padded foam “boffer” weapons.

  • All weapons must be checked over by staff before every event to ensure weapons are in good condition and meet the safety requirements. As a rule of thumb, if a weapon or shield meets the requirements of similar systems (such as Kingdoms of Novitas or Hearthlight) then it passes.

  • Punching and kicking are strictly forbidden!

Hit Locations

  • Head shots are not allowed! Hitting other players in the head repeatedly will cause staff intervention and punitive action.

  • The Torso is considered to be the rectangle drawn from shoulder to shoulder and from hip to hip. Intentional groin shots are not allowed!

  • An Arm is considered to be from the shoulder to the wrist. A strike to the hand does not count if that hand is holding a weapon or shield: a hand on a sword is part of the sword.

  • A Leg is considered to be the hip to the ankle. A strike to the foot does not count.

  • Attacks that are intercepted by garb or weapons that are not being gripped in the hand are considered to have passed through and strike as if they were unimpeded.

Hit Points (HP) and Armor Points

  • Damage is taken first to Armor Points granted by Armor, then to Hit Points, then to the limbs & torso: Armor guards HP, and HP guards the limbs/torso.

  • Hit Points are attained via the Character sheet.

  • Armor Points are awarded to players upon Check-in an Inspection, based on the type and coverage of the armor worn.

Losing a Limb:

  • If a combatant's arm is hit, and the combatant has no remaining HP or Armor, the arm is considered lost. The combatant must immediately drop whatever gear they are holding in that hand, and place that arm behind their back: they may not pass gear from their lost arm to their remaining arm. Any subsequent strikes to a lost arm are considered strikes to the torso.

  • If a combatant’s leg is hit, and the combatant has no remaining HP or Armor, the leg is considered lost. The combatant must immediately kneel to the ground on the lost leg. A lost leg is immune to all further attacks. Otherwise kneeling in combat is not allowed.

In order to move around after losing a leg, a combatant may use their disabled leg’s knee to “walk” on, lunge using their non-disabled leg, crawl, or have other combatants “carry” them. Hopping around on an uninjured leg is forbidden. A combatant may carry another by placing a hand on their shoulder and counting out “Carrying you 1, carrying you 2…” for the duration, while limited to a walking pace.

Bleeding out

A PC is considered to be Bleeding Out if they lose 2 limbs, or if they sustain a hit in the torso (without any remaining Armor or HP).

Shields

Attacks, non-magical projectiles, and some spells are blocked by shields.

During check-in, a shield must be declared to be either Wooden or Iron. The shield should look appropriate to what it is designated as, so as to not cause confusion in a fight; a shield that clearly looks to be made of iron may be automatically designated as such by a GM.

Iron Shields:

  • Blocked damage types: Normal, Blunt, Dark, Lightning, Magic, Silver, Fire, Psychic

  • Blocked Status calls: Disease, Hamstring, Disarm, Blind, Charm, Confuse, Fear, Freeze, Poison, Shift, Silence, Sleep

  • An Iron Shield will be destroyed after 2 successful hits of Acid damage, regardless of the amount of called damage.

  • A player MAY NOT cast spells while holding an Iron shield.

Wooden Shields:

  • Blocked damage types: Normal, Blunt, Dark, Lightning, Magic, Silver

  • Blocked Status calls: Disease, Hamstring, Disarm (If not from a spell or spell bag)

  • Magical status effects from “Status” spell bags are not blocked. Status-inducing spells that strike a wooden shield are considered to have struck the arm holding the shield.

  • A Wooden Shield will be destroyed after 2 successful hits of Acid damage, or 2 successful hits of Fire damage, regardless of the amount of damage called.

Broken Shields:

The shield holder is required to keep track of the number of times their shield has been hit by relevant damage types. When broken, a shield must be discarded, as any subsequent hits are counted as hitting the player’s arm that holds the broken shield. Shields may be repaired with the Forging skill (wooden shields may also be repaired with magic).

  • The act of “Anvilling” is not permitted. Anvilling is defined as “laying a gripped weapon against a shield or body part in order to avoid taking damage to that shield or body part”. Holding a weapon close to a shield or body part to block is permitted, but if sufficient force is delivered through the block, the struck fighter will count the strike.

  • Rigid plastic safety equipment is permitted, but does not count as armor, and must be concealed under clothing or armor.

  • Do not intentionally use any part of the arm or leg to pin a striking surface against another body part, including an opponent’s body part.