Combat
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." -Plato
Combat
All weapons not listed in the respective faction pre-approval documents must be aesthetically approved by your faction's expedition leadership. All weapons will be reviewed for adequate safety before the event. Shield bashing is strictly forbidden. Shields should be utilized to block strikes only, and will not be used to strike fellow players.
Combat is designed to be as fast paced as possible while still utilizing called abilities and spells. When hitting your opponents you should be swinging at full speed, but only hitting them hard enough to convey a hit. Someone wearing no armor will require less force than someone wearing full plate, so swing accordingly. Drumroll hits will not be considered as a hit beyond first contact. NEVER hit an opponent with anything other than a larp safe weapon.
Playing To Lift
Outside of the hard and fast rules of combat covered above, there is a concept in LARP known as "playing to lift". This ethos entails a certain level of "hamming it up" for your fellow larpers, whether they're on your "side" in game or not. If someone hits you with a Conflagrate spell and it wipes out your hit points, play it up, act like you actually got lit on fire. If someone sneaks up on you and gets a couple solid hits, even if you're not necessarily dropped to zero hit points, give them a dramatic death for getting the drop on you. These are just a couple of examples, but there's a million ways to play to lift, and it's something we should all strive to do.
Weapons
Melee
Melee combat at Incursion will be done utilizing LARP safe weapons and shields from professional manufacturers, such as Epic Armoury, Calimacil, Nemesis, etc. No homemade, boffer, or custom weapons will be allowed.
As covered in the Weapons and Armor section of the Character Creation page, 1 handed weapons deal 1 point of damage, 2 handed weapons deal 2 points of damage, and enchanted melee weapons deal 3 points of damage.
Ranged
Ranged combat will be done utilizing bows of an appropriate type for your faction aesthetics. Maximum poundage for bows will be 30# @ 28inch draw, and crossbows will be equivalent at approx. 75# with a 12" power stroke. As mentioned in the Weapons and Armor section of the Character Creation page, bows and crossbows deal 3 points of damage.
Statuses
During combat you might be required to role play certain statuses such as the following.
Unconscious- While unconscious your character is unable to move, cast magic, or attack, they don’t hear any conversations had around them and cannot see anything that’s happening around them while in this state. If you've been magically put to sleep someone can cast dispel to awaken you, or you may be awakened if struck by a weapon. If you're unconscious because you've been dropped to zero hit points, you can be awakened by being healed. While unconscious another player might tap your shoulder and say "I'm carrying you" in this case you should stand up and walk along beside them, while they have their hand on your shoulder you're being carried, if they remove their hand you "fall" wherever they pulled their hand off of your shoulder.
Weakened- While weakened your character is unable to attack or cast spells, they can however still block and parry attacks.
Dead- Your character dies when they lose their last essence point. There is no permanent character death in Incursion. Due to some fell influence of the Silent Isle, those slain on the island awaken some time later fully intact at one of the many strange stone circles found throughout the island. If this is the first time your character has died, remove yourself from the battlefield and go find a member of game staff. If you've died previously, your character will be reconstituted at the Summoning Circle.
Encumbered- Typically you will only be encumbered if your character is "carrying" another unconscious character. While encumbered you can only use a single hand to wield a weapon or to cast spells, and must use the other hand to carry whatever it is that is encumbering you.
Spells & Abilities
Various spells and abilities may be used by and against you on the battlefield, below are some of the most likely to be encountered during combat.
Martial abilities
Shield Crush- If someone yells this and then their attack hits a shield that you're wielding, you should now treat that shield as if it doesn't exist, and treat all further attacks that hit it as if they had hit your arm/armor beneath the shield.
Flamestrike- If you're in combat, (or not in combat) and you see someone point at you and yell "flame strike" you just took 1 hit point of damage directly to your torso, bypassing your armor.
Heroic Charge- If one of your allies runs up to you and puts their hand on your shoulder and says "heroic charge" you have just been given an additional 2 hp to all of your hit zones for the next 5 minutes, or until they're used up.
Magic
(This list is not exhaustive, for more spells and information see the Magic page)
Compel Duel_ If someone points at you and yells compel duel you are now obliged to fight them to the death until one of you is rendered unconcious, someone casts dispel on you, someone besides the caster hits you, or someone casts another "compel" type spell on you.
Compel Bloodlust- If someone points at you and yells "compel bloodlust" you must attack whoever is nearest to you for the next minute, until you're rendered unconscious, or the condition is dispelled.
Statue- If someone points at you and calls "Statue" you are frozen in place for the next minute. You can't move, cast spells, attack, or speak. And no attacks against you, including called abilities affect you until it's been a minute, or until the condition is dispelled.
Withering Strike- If someone calls "withering strike" and hits you with a staff, or a dagger. You take 1 hit point of damage wherever you were hit, this bypasses all armor. and you'll be weakened.
Conflagrate- if someone calls "Conflagrate" and points at you, you take 3 hit points of damage to the torso bypassing your armor.
There are other spells and abilities that may affect you during combat, or in the midst of a battle, but knowing the correct reaction for the spells and abilities listed above, will allow combat to flow as seamlessly as possible and keep everyone immersed.
