Engagement Rules

Active Participants

Up to three characters are allowed to be on each side – referred to as active participants. Any extra characters split off into their own Engagement if the opposing side has excess as well. Events can augment these limitations as needed. For the sake of fairness, the majority of characters that are the same rank are established as the Engagement's Skill Rank average. Only a single character can be over this average on either side.

Characters that are not among the active participants in an Engagement, due to opting out or being a late arrival are considered backup. They too abide by the Engagement's Skill Rank average. To serve as backup, a character must have begun approaching in the first three rounds of combat, something that can be contested between aspiring backup characters via. Movement Speed comparison.
Characters with Tracker extend the rounds in which they can arrive by +1 per Tracker Tier above Mortal Grade / T1. Their Speed when comparing their arrival to other parties is treated as +5 per Tier they have as well.

Backup participants cannot involve themselves in combat until an active participant is rendered unable to fight, allowing the backup to take their place or remove them from combat.

Allotment

Entry into an Engagement permits a character to carry up to 6 items. These items are specified at the beginning of a combat situation if they are worn externally. Going over this limit penalizes Strength, Speed & Attack Speed by -2 per excess Item.
Consumables count as 0.1 on this count, and add to it per additional (3 pills = 0.3 in the slots).

Small items are generally more concealed (pills, poisons, knives, needles etc.), and as such can be mentioned as [???], unless they are successfully detected. A character with at least Tier Three Sight can pick up on these, provided the carrier does not have any Awareness Debuffs toward them or their item(s). Items that hold multiple of themselves as one mechanical object (i.e. throwing knives) count as ‘1’.


If at any point a character decides they no longer intend to court death, they may opt to flee a combat situation. Escaping combat is simple – if you are given two rounds to escape without pursuit or interruption, you are out. This is inclusive of opponents who are trying to, but can’t as a result of speed discrepancy. A character able to maintain a consistent Speed higher over their pursuer (based on the pursuer’s Rank) is able to keep escaping regardless of interruption or pursuit, C-Rank & below can be escaped from with merely +10, while B–Rank characters require +20 over, A-Rank characters require +30 over and so on.


The # of times two characters have been in the same Engagement as one another on opposing sides. It is the determining factor for what level of harm can be done during & after combat. Events generally state their Encounter level. This is a character-to-character basis, meaning that Decisive does not carry over to a character fighting someone for the first time.

Light Encounter

A preliminary bout. These are typically used to test the waters, or establish who is dominant between two different parties. Generally, no Lethal injuries are applied:

Major Injury: Applying a wound upon the participant(s) that lost.
Theft: Taking a Tier 3 or below possession of one of the defeated participants.

Decisive Encounter

Combatants of this level of encounter have established one another as a noteworthy threat. Rather than fighting for dominance, lasting injury or even crippling of any advantage an affiliate of one’s adversary may deal with in the wake of said adversary’s furthered defeat is what’s fought for here.

Lethal Injury: Inflicting a lasting wound upon the participant(s) that lost.
Grand Theft: Taking several possessions of Tier 3 or below quality from a defeated participant, or one possession of that level from each. Can alternatively take a Tier 4 possession from a defeated participant.
Temporary Capture: Capture of the downed participant. Another injury of the same level able to be imposed for Encounters of this type is able to be applied during this time, but death is not an option under any illegitimate, non-warranted circumstance.

Fated Encounter

“CANNOT ESCAPE FROM CROSSING FATE.”
A battle expected to be the last between two fighters. This is usually a deathmatch, in which any number of injuries can be inflicted or even death can be assured amid combat. When a Fated Encounter occurs between Player Characters, the above quote is globally announced. In the event death was not the outcome established during the Engagement, several options are available after:

Death: The most obvious potential outcome.
Deathly Lethal Injury: Inflicting a lasting wound upon the participant(s) that lost. Can alternatively inflict two Lethal wounds.
Identity Theft: Taking all of someone’s possessions.
Extended Capture: Capture that does not have a duration to it. The fate of the captured falls to the victor after this point.

Acquisition of a defeated participant as one’s reward. For Decisive Encounters, this capture lasts 2 OOC days before the participant can automatically escape the territory they’ve been taken to. During the Capture period, the character can be engaged again, but not killed or injured further if they don't horribly antagonize their adversary(ies). Fated Encounters allow capture to last as long as the captured remains incapable of escape, and enable further engagements with a character potentially leading up to further injury or death.

Determining the success of capture is based on both the captor & their target rolling a D100. If the captor’s roll exceeds their target’s by at least (35) Points, they will successfully capture them. Every Injury the target has reduces their own roll result by (5) Points, (10) if it’s Lethal.