Combat and Adventuring
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Initiative
When preparing for battle, all participants must enter into a randomised initiative order. This is done by the combat button on the HUD. When entering initiative, if the attacking side outnumbers the defending side by greater than a 2:1 ratio, the defending side may immediately flee combat before initiative. If they choose not to, then the battle proceeds as normal. If one side of a fight is outnumbered, that side will be guaranteed to have the first turn. Fights can not exceed 4 people on each side.
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Combat Etiquette
Try to keep posts short and to the point during combat, ideally taking no more than 5 minutes for a turn with posting time included. Pre-type what you can, and leave the multi-paragraphs of description for before or after the fight. Typically, best form is to mechanically do your turn first, and then post what your character is doing with the results of their action. Additionally, if all participants in a combat agree, each character can post an introductory post to the combat, you can go through combat without posting, and then each character can do a conclusion post at the end.
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Actions
During each of your turns, you get a Standard action, a Quick action, and any number of Free actions. By default, each character has access to two Standard actions (Attack and Flee), and no Quick or Free actions. Characters can get additional actions via Talents or Items, and may use consumables in combat with a Standard action.
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Conditions
In combat, certain effects can give a character a Condition. Conditions are all listed here, and each goes away once it has done its effect. Conditions can not stack with themselves (e.g. If you get Stunned twice, you only miss one turn.)
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Roused: Add â—¼ to your next roll.
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Protected: Add â—» to the next attack against you.
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Dismayed: Add ◻◻ to your next roll.
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Exposed: Add â—† to the next attack against you.
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Echo: At the end of your next turn, take 1 damage.
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Frightened: You may not attack other characters on your turn.
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Slowed: You may take either a Standard or a Quick action on your turn, but not both.
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Stunned: You may not take any actions on your turn.
Fighters in Waiting
Fighters in Waiting are any characters who:
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Are not in a combat initiative AND
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Intend to fight people within that initiative AND
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Were present when the combat started OR
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Are living in a personal rental that is within chat range OR
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Are members of a faction who own a faction node within chat range
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Fighters in Waiting can be changed at moderator discretion. At the end of combat, Fighters in Waiting may engage the victors. If they do, the victors may freely retreat without any rolls, keeping any loot they won in their combat but not bringing any prisoners with them. The victors may not heal before they are engaged, but may take any wounded allies with them if they retreat. NPC Guards who are prevented from joining an initiative order due to team cap count as Fighters in Waiting.
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Fleeing
On your turn, you may use your Standard action to attempt to flee from combat. If you do, you roll â—† for each ally (including yourself) and â—‡ for each opponent who is not Stunned left in the combat. Each character who is not Slowed upgrades their die to a ⬢ or ⬡. In addition, you add â—¼ for each consecutive turn you try to flee. (e.g. If you flee three turns in a row, you’ll add nothing on the first turn, â—¼ on the second, and ◼◼ on the third).
​Characters who are defeated may immediately make a single attempt to flee. If a character flees with one or more ▲, they can take a defeated ally with them, but that ally may still be looted (they are helpless and drop their sword, for example).
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Characters who attempt to flee from within a faction node must engage and either defeat or flee from the NPC guards along their exit path as well. In addition, any characters who are near NPC guards may join in to aid them, provided they were not in the previous combat that the character fled from. In order to flee, a character must have a reasonable route of escape. Once a character has successfully fled, they must ICly leave the scene.
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Wounds
Every time a character takes two or more damage, they gain a wound. Each wound reduces a character’s maximum HP by 1. Wounds can only be removed by seeking out of combat healing at an infirmary, or by using Potions of Recovery.
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Recovery
Characters can not recover HP or wounds without using consumables or getting medical attention at a designated location. A character can recover their full HP as often as they like with this method, but will only recover two wounds per day.
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Post-Combat
At the end of combat, all characters who were not defeated on the winning side may take either one item or up to 30 silver from one defeated opponent (including those who were dragged away by an ally, but not those who fled under their own power). Each character may only be looted in this fashion once per fight. (Ex. If Luke and Alice defeat Aurora in a 2v1, Aurora can only be looted once, and Luke and Alice have to decide amongst themselves who gets to loot her. If Aurora were to win instead, she could only loot either Luke or Alice, but she would get to pick which of the two she looted.) The victors of the fight may then decide what to do with those who lost but did not manage to flee (or get dragged away). If the victors decide to capture the defeated characters, they must stop and fight any NPC guards who would intervene on their path out of the area.
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Guards
Faction nodes will have guards, and if players wish to attack a node they must also defeat the guards along their path. When doing so, players may aid the guards, but fights are still limited to 4v4. Defenders may choose if the guards must be defeated before player combat, after player combat, or all in one fight.
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Stealth
Characters may try to sneak into places without being noticed. To do so, they must attempt a Sneak Challenge Check (or Group Check as appropriate). If a character succeeds on their Sneak check, they are considered to be not noticed for the duration of the scene, until they reveal themselves, or until they move to a different location, whichever comes first. Different locations can be as large as the next clearing of trees, or as small as the next room over. If a character fails their Sneak check inside (or in an attempt to enter) a faction node, they are considered an aggressor towards that faction and will not gain the auto-flee for being outnumbered by a large ratio. Stealth gains no combat advantages.
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NPC Enemies
Enemies have three options if they win the combat:
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Mercy: They let you go with no consequences. Common among wild animals and the like.
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Loot: They will take one of your items. Common among most intelligent enemies.
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Kill: They will kill your character. This is exclusively used for high level dungeon bosses.
When engaging an NPC, it will clearly state the consequences of losing in the dialogue menu. Pay attention to it or it may cost you! NPC enemies (including guards) can be bypassed by selecting the Bypass option. Bypassing enemies does not let you loot a Treasure node they are guarding, and if a group is attempting to bypass an enemy the entire group must roll. If you fail to bypass an enemy, you must engage it in combat.
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Dungeons
There are several dungeons on sim that characters can delve into. These are designed for a full group of 4 to tackle at different progression levels. When facing a dungeon, you must fight or bypass each enemy or group of enemies along your path. On your way out again you must bypass any enemies you bypassed to get in once more, but if any previously defeated enemies have respawned you can ignore them. While there is loot to be had in killing the enemies, the largest boon of completing a dungeon is harvesting the Treasure node at the end. Each character involved in the final fight may harvest the node, but each Treasure node may only be harvested by a given character once per week (i.e. You can harvest the node from two different dungeons, but not the same dungeon twice).
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Discovery​
Not everything is known. You can and perhaps will run into new effects, strange items, or other mechanics not explained on this site. These are intentional, things to discover as you explore Orcrest. However, you won't be blind - you'll be able to research new effects once you've run into them...so long as you've got a good head for Academia.
