Combat Confusion

Hi, guys!

So, one of the commonly confusing and oft off-putting aspects of larp is the combat system, especially when you're just getting started. Here I'll lay out some of the more popular skills that people use in combat so you can familiarize yourselves with them and hopefully have an easier go of it. If you know of something I missed, let me know either by replying below or sending me a message!

Lightest Touch

Yes, swinging like you mean it is cathartic and looks cool, but you're not actually trying to chop up your friends--at least in real life. Here at Knight Realms, we have a Lightest Touch system. What that means, is if you hit someone with your weapon like you're punching their shoulder for telling the cheesiest pun in the world, it counts, even if you're doing hundreds of points of damage. If someone is swinging too hard and you're having an all-too-easy time role-playing that your arms or legs are sore, or they're fighting too erratically and you're spending too much time hoping they don't hit you in the noggin, find a Rules Marshal (or find a New Player Marshal and we'll help you find one). We want to beat up and traumatize your characters, but we love our players!

Attacks

Critical Attack, which may be shortened to "Crit," as per the Rulebook It does double the character's base damage. If the character normally does 2 damage with a sword, they could call, "Crit, 4 damage!"

Puncture Armor, which may be shortened to "Puncture" when used Essentially Critical Attack, but does body damage, which bypasses armor.

Cleave, or more likely, "CLEAVE 100 BODY!" Flavor-wise this bisects you right down the middle. Since it does 'body' damage, it bypasses any armor someone is wearing. If William the Warrior has 10 body and 100 Armor Points and someone hits him with a Cleave, poor William is hitting the ground twice unless he calls a defense.

Incapacitate. Using this is equivalent to hitting someone with a caravan. 200 body. Unlike Crit and Puncture, there is no abbreviating this skill in combat. "Incap" is not valid.

Break Limb. Self-explanatory and understandably painful. Whichever limb is struck, is broken, meaning you have to hit someone in either arm or either leg in order for it to take effect.

Body Block -- 10 feet knockback, 5 second Daze. Daze means you can't do any action other than moving or defending. In the case of Body Block, it's that for 5 seconds. Other skills have a longer duration of Daze, like Itching Powder which lasts a minute.

Stunning Blow -- 5 second stun, must be delivered to the torso. If someone hits you in the arm or the leg and calls Stunning Blow, "No effect." If they do hit you in the torso with it, you can't do anything but slowly stagger about for that 5 second duration.

Defense

Deflect -- This is a skill that allows you to block a weapon attack (someone hitting you with a Cleave or any lower-list (Archer, Cavalier, Warrior, etc.) skill that's delivered with a weapon) regardless of whether you have a weapon in your hand. That means if you're out and about and someone hits you with a Waylay, you can call a Deflect. But your head will probably still hurt (though hopefully only in-game).

Dodge -- This works similarly to Deflect, but the flavor is you ducking/jumping/contorting out of the way of whatever is coming at you, whether it's a sword, a fireball, or an arrow. However, it does not work as a defense against Area of Effect skills--think explosions or other things that someone will describe as taking effect in a 10-foot, 50-foot, or X-foot radius.

Hide and Seek
Red band, magically invisible, man. They used a spell or a potion to make themselves invisible.
Headband's yellow? Naturally hidden fellow. They're using the darkness or the forest/nature to keep you from seeing them.

Clarify
A lot of times, people will announce the effect of a skill after hitting you with it, whether it's delivered by their weapon or a packet of bird seed. If they don't and you call Clarify, they need to describe what the skill does, otherwise it doesn't take effect. Here's an example:

"I weave the power of Warlockery to cast Vertigo!"

They toss the spell packet/spell rock/spacket at you and it hits you, but hang on, what does that spell do?

"Clarify?"

"Umm... shoot."

If you don't know what a skill does, ask for clarification by saying "Clarify." If they don't know what the skill does, say "No effect." It'll be a learning experience all around.

What's a skill or a couple of skills that left you scratching your head, calling a hold, or saying the word "Clarify" more times than you'd care to admit?

Something else that's important to add, because I've noticed a few people not realizing it lately-

You can only stack 5 damage runes and have + 5 to damage done in augments on you at a time. You can have more than that cast on you to up your strength for feats of strength, but you can only benefit from 5 extra damage

Cara Freeman wrote: Something else that's important to add, because I've noticed a few people not realizing it lately-

You can only stack 5 damage runes and have + 5 to damage done in augments on you at a time. You can have more than that cast on you to up your strength for feats of strength, but you can only benefit from 5 extra damage

Thanks for sharing!

For those playing at home, feats of strength (not to be confused with the Festivus tradition) would include the following:

Breaking out of a Subdue, assuming you have higher strength than the person doing the subduing
Escaping a Quick Bind if you have Strength +4 or greater. You can also be cut out if someone has a sharp weapon or if you have the skill Escape Restraints
Getting unstuck from Grasp with Roots (foot trapped by roots), Pin (a throwing knife is anchoring your foot to the ground! Ouch!), or other skills with the Condition (Pinned), Strength +2 or greater will free you, but will also hurt (5 direct body) when you escape.
Attempting to lift and move someone under the Condition (Imprisoned)--like if they're under the effects of Encase in Ice. Strength +6 or greater is required for this.

"Augments" are buffs that add damage to your swing, like Prowess, War Blade, Battle Cry, Fanfare of the Turning Tide--anything someone casts on you and says something like "+1 damage" or bonuses to Strength. Say for example Seamus used his Maker's Mark Battle Cry to grant everyone who heard his rousing call to arms, +4 damage for the duration of a battle. Nalick walks over, speaks the Enchantment verbals, and casts Grant Strength on you (+1 Strength when invoked). Boom, you're at the Augment cap.

If you were using a two-handed weapon, the Strength increase from Grant Strength would technically give +2 to your damage, making the total from your buffs +6, but anything over the cap of 5, doesn't count.