Combat

The following are rules on combat, as it is expected to be a large part of the game. When fighting anyone, player or npc, even if it is for fun and without the intentions to harm, the following rules apply. 


1. You may not do anything out of your attributes. This means that you cannot run at an opponent while in armor that you do not have the strength to wear properly. 

2. Think and read things through carefully and with planning. If an opponent shoots an arrow at you, and then charges towards you with a sword, and you do not react to the arrow in your post, but only the charge with the sword, the arrow will hit your character by default, even if you had the dexterity to dodge it.

3. In combat, timelines are critical, as every post can have actions that occur within a matter of seconds. An example will be used to explain the timeline.
           -- A knight is attacked by a priest. The priest casts two spells, and then charges towards the knight. However, in the knights post, he throws a knife after the first spell, then the priest neither cast the second spell or charged the knight. Now, the priest must pick up his next post, and deal with things differently, as he was only able to cast one spell before the knight threw a knife. If the priest carries out his second spell, he will be hit, and therefore must address the knife thrown at him. After dealing with the knife, the priest may then proceed to cast the second spell he had intended, or end up changing his course of actions completely, and begin to circle the knight rather than make any sort of aggressive action.
--It is because of this constant change of actions that battles are very likely to drag out for a while, with the possibility of each action interrupting the others action. The more people involved, the more the timeline is expanded, with each player taking their turn in posting, and making their own actions while responding to others. It is for this reason that posting in order is critical.

4. While on combat, it is highly advised that you pay constant attention to the distances, and list your own. Do not simply state that you retreat a distance, but rather, state exactly how far it is that you back away, in either feet or meters. Not stating such may lead others to believe that you are closer or further than you truly are, and cause significant confusion. 

5. While it is possible to make topics with "no killing" in the title in parenthesis or in the description of the topic, it is possible for one to kill another in these topics. Adding such to the title stops anyone from killing with close to no reason. However, it is possible for someone to kill you or others in the topic, if you aggravate them or provoke them in such a way that their character feels compelled to. "Insanity" is not a valid reason for killing anyone in such topics, and their death will be denied if "insanity" was the cause. 

6. Combat is the only time that your character may die, however, just because you started a topic without the intention of combat, that does not mean it will not occur. Someone may be provoked into attacking, or they may simply enter the topic with the intention of combat if you do not place "private" or "invite only" in the topic or description. 

7. While it may be unfair, there are teams allowed in combat, as your character decides who they attack, and who they do not. If you enter a topic that has a group of friends in it, expect to be ganged up on if you attack. 

8. Mounts, for the most part, only provide speed in combat, although speed is important. While horses may kick or trample opponents, only a few mounts, such as the elephant, will be effective for attacking. However, remember that it is also possible for your mount to die in combat, and there is a possibility of crushing you or your legs if it falls while you are still mounted. 

9. As stated in the attribute rules, if your character falls unconscious, they will remain so for two of their post turns, however, if their third time to post while unconscious comes around, and they have not been healed to above 0 hit points, they will die.

10. Dual-wielding (having a weapon in each hand) differs from normal combat. The rules for this can be found in rule 15 of Rules on Weapons.

11. During combat, you generally only have one action per hand per post. This means that if you have a sword, and are holding it with two hands, you may only swing that sword once as an attack per post. However, if you have two weapons, one in each hand, this allows you to strike with both per post. Some weapons (such as the quaterstaff) are exceptions, and some spells or runes (such as blur) also make you attack faster, thus being exceptions from this rule as well.