Guild of Darkness combat is self-policing and the players are primarily responsible for taking their hits and for taking reasonable care not to hurt one another. Players are required to pull their blows to reduce the force of impact. There are always people willing to help you learn to fight properly - please always ask if you are unsure.
Combat blows should not cause pain or bruising to your opponent. Stabbing with any weapon, even those described as “thrust safe”, is not allowed. Proximity effects and the rules dictating them are covered below, but note that striking anyone without a weapon safe phys-rep, is not allowed, even if the other party consents. Additionally, encircling an opponent with your arms to strike their back when standing in front of them, or body checking is not allowed.
Guild of Darkness encourages the use of heroic combat. Blows should be fully role-played, as should hits, and never move faster than it takes to call the damage of a weapon. You must complete the damage call for a weapon before striking your next blow.
Any player found by a Referee to be acting in a dangerous manner whilst in combat will be warned not to repeat their actions. Players who persistently behave dangerously in combat may be asked to leave the site and may be banned from the game as a whole.
For safety purposes, all players should avoid blows to the head if possible, but the head is still considered a viable location for blows. Blows to other delicate areas of the male and female anatomy should also be avoided.
There are three ranges for any ability. There is Proximity, Ranged and Mass.
PROXIMITY
Certain skills will require “proximity” range, such as some spells and medical skills.
You should always seek consent from the target before physically touching another person. If you or the targets have any concerns, you should opt for “hover hand”, keeping your hands approximately 1 foot away from the person. This way, it is obvious who you are targeting but you are not making physical contact with the person.
Do not physically touch the target if they are not comfortable with this.
Always seek consent every time, no matter your relationship with the target or whether prior consent has been given at any time. Consent is never assumed - it should always be willingly and preferably vocally given.
RANGED
All Ranged abilities have the same Range: 30ft. This includes guns, spells, banshee screams etc.
MASS
Mass Effect spells affect everyone either within a 30ft cone of the caster. You can raise your arms in the air towards the target area to indicate the direction of the spell. If you hold both hands above your head, the area of effect will be a circle originating from yourself. Once you have completed the verbal requirements and made the area indication, your target will take the effect.
All characters have six body locations. These are the head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg and right leg. Each body location has 1 hit, called a ‘Location Hit’ or LH, but the number of hits a location has can be increased through skills, magic, items and special powers.
Every time your character is hit on an armoured body location, you should deduct one ‘Armour Hit’, or AH, from that body location. If you are struck on an unarmoured body location, or on a body location covered by armour with no AH, you should deduct one hit from that body locational hits. If a body location is reduced to zero, it is rendered unusable.
UNUSABLE LOCATIONS
The following list describes what happens to your character once a body location is reduced to zero. All these effects should be role-played.
LEG LOCATION
You must drop to your knees or fall down immediately. You may stand but you cannot use the damaged leg. If both leg locations become unusable, you should drop safety to the ground. You cannot use your legs at all but can drag yourself around with your arms and call for help. Always be mindful of your surroundings when on the floor and call for a Referee if necessary surroundings when on the floor and call for a Referee if necessary
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ARM LOCATION
You must drop anything held or supported by that arm immediately and may not make any use of that arm. In situations where dropped items might be trampled, damaged or lost you do not have to drop the item, but you cannot use it with the useless arm.
HEAD OR TORSO LOCATION
Your character falls unconscious and you must drop (safely) to the ground.
UNCONSCIOUS
If you have been knocked unconscious, you cannot see or hear anything that is happening IC around you. Always be mindful of your surroundings OOC when on the floor and call for a Referee if necessary.
BLOCKING
If a blow from a weapon delivering a special attack is blocked, the special attack will affect the blocking weapon or other implement. Arrows and crossbow bolts must not be parried by a weapon. You can only perform a block with a weapon you have the skills to use and are holding.
COUP DE GRACE
When a character is unconscious, players or monsters may perform a ‘Coup de Grace’. They must call ‘Coup de Grace’ whilst striking the unconscious character. When a player is ‘Coup de Graced’, they begin their bleed count and are considered 'Bleeding'. ‘Coup de Graced’ can only be performed by melee weapons.
BLEED COUNT
A character enters their bleed count once they are ‘Coup de Graced’ by a monster or another player. They then have 5 minutes before they bleed out and are considered dead. Dead characters must report to Games Control. Anyone who observes them can tell they are Bleeding. Some types of healing will only work when they have been stabilised by stopping the Bleeding state.
CONDITIONS
Conditions are special effects applied to characters to represent unique situations that affect them. A player will receive the Condition Sheet from a Ref and must read it straight away. The Ref can answer any questions about the sheet the player may have. The effects of the Condition remain until they are removed.
You may have multiple Conditions at once.
MOVING PLAYERS
A character can move an unconscious or wounded character by placing one free hand on their shoulder and upper arm with consent (or appropriate hover hand), then directing the player safely around. You may move at a walking pace but take care never to pull or push other players. The player you are carrying must walk with you and you may never lift another player off the ground. Any damage or effects will cause them to drop the held character. Care must be given to only touch people in appropriate areas. Anyone touching other players in an inappropriate manner will be asked to leave the site.
If two people attempt to move the same person in different directions, their attempts cancel out and the unconscious player does not move and cannot be OC brute force pulled.
If the character who is being moved was Bleeding, with a Condition on them which a Doctor was stabilising, their Bleed Count will resume if they are moved.
IDENTIFYING WOUNDS
All characters can visually identify if a character has any location with damage or is dead. This identification takes 10 seconds and the character must state “Detect Wounds” to the target player. This is an OOC vocal and the target player must then state what damage they have taken to each location. If they are in their bleed count, they must state Bleeding followed by the damage they have taken.
Please note, this is only the number of LH they have lost and not what else may have occurred to them. Skills such as Doctor are needed to be able to identify Conditions, as well as any effects such as Disease (which can also be identified with the skill Detect Disease or via the Therian special skill Children of Nature), unless you have an appropriate lammie that allows you to do so without the skill.
RECOVERING
After a character has been rendered unconscious but no ‘Coup de Grace’ has been performed, after 5 minutes they may recover LH on their head and chest to +1 and no longer be considered unconscious.