Sample fight
Two men are to settle a duel. The two, the noble gentilhomme Mâlebleu and privateer monsieur des Brutes meet in an backalley of central Paris at dawn. They agree to fight to first blood. First blood or wound, is in game thermes the removal of an health die. Mâlebleu is a man with an normal constitution (2-4-4) and des Brutes is athletic (2-4-6). Mâlebleu have to inflict six levels of fatigue loss to des Brutes to remove his first health die. Des Brutes has to inflict only four levels of fatigue loss to remove the first health die of noble Mâlebleu.
As the two combatants enter in the duel they will constantly be manoeuvre in and out of each other's range, accelerating, slowing down, changing directions. Every step and blow of the fight is in this game not accounted for, the combat is abstracted down to a series of dice rolls. These rolls will be the resource the players use to attack or other actions during the fight. A player will roll as many dice as the combat skill level plus any bonus dice. Mâlebleu is an skilled fighter (combat skill 4) and des Brutes is an experienced fighter (combat skill 3). Mâlebleus base roll will be with (4) four dice and des Brutes base roll will be with (3) dice.
In addition to combat skill, both fighters will fight in a chosen and often different fighting style (school of fighting). Mâlebleu fight in the style of the acorn and des Brutes in the style of the crown. As long as they choose to fight in their own style (predetermine style of that character) they will have a bonus of (+1) one die. The fighting style will influence the phase of the fight and with this determine the turnorder. Every fighting style got certain timeslots they will act, that is determined by a sequence associated with the style. A player may act at a later timeslot for a bonus; as recovering fatigue loss or focus and gaining additional combat dice.
A turn of a duel could be played out as following. The players determine in which timeslot they would act and if anyone of the players want to act later (if possibe). They agrees to start at a distance of near, this is a noble starting position in an duel. Then both players roll all of their dice (combat skill + bonus) simultaneous. They choose one of their own dice as their combat value. If they want to increase the quality of the combat value, they look for dublettes or other combinations among the rolled dice and add bonuses if available. They may use dice combos as additional actions as well, instead of quality improvement of the combat value.
Mâlebleus player rolls five dice (4+1) and get the result 4-4-1-1-2. The player chooses to use a four as the combat value and adding another four to make a pair to gain a bonus of plus one. The pair of ones could either be used as an additional action or as an increase of the combat value, which the player chooses to do. The single two is in this case useless and is put aside. Mâlebleus combat result is six (4+1+1). Des Brutes player rolls four dice (3+1) and get the result 4-3-3-1.The player chooses to use a four as the combat value and adding the pair of threes as a plus one bonus. The single one is in this case useless and is put aside. Des Brutes combat result is five (4+1). Mâlebleu came on top in this first turn and may inflict a fatigue loss of the difference between the combat results minus the distance. Near is at a distance of one. Des Brutes is lucky. Mâlebleu inflicts (6-5-distance) no fatigue loss this time.
Mâlebleu realise that he has to manage distance to win and maybe try some additional actions. He can not rely on the luck of fortuna to outmanoeuvre des Brutes.
