4.6 -- Weapon Duels

Duels with weapons do not happen very often outside of tournament fields. Most combat is considered one on one, but is actually taking place within a large melee. These dueling rules are meant for use in any situation where the conditions are more controlled and consistent, and the opponents are fighting on pretty much equal ground. A Duel is supposed to show off superiority of skill, rather than who has the biggest sword.

The problem with using the normal combat rules for a Duel is that there is little of the strategy that comes with normal combats, which lies mostly in manipulating the environment to most benefit yourself and your companions. Also, in a Duel (especially among knights) the armor can make it hard to deal damage, and so a Duel ends up being a long series of dice rolls with little flavor.

Before the Duel

You will need to have handy the levels of your character's Weapon Skill, Shield Defense Skill, Strength, Dodge Skill and Armor Type, modified by injury or environment if appropriate.

Calculating Attack Points

You get Two Attack Points (AP) per level of your Weapon Skill, starting with Terrible (Thus, a Fair gives you 8, a Good gives you 10, etc).

Modify this number based on your Strength Attribute:

Superb: +3
Great: +2
Good: +1
Fair: +0
Mediocre: -1
Poor: -2
Terrible: -3

A zero or negative score means your character can perform no actions, and is unable to Duel with any effect.

Calculating Defense Points

You get two Defense Points (DP) per level of skill with Shield Defemse, starting with Terrible. DPs represent your ability to protect yourself from harm. Modify this number based on your Dodge Skill:

Superb: +3
Great: +2
Good: +1
Fair: +0
Mediocre: 0
Poor: -0
Terrible: -0

Starting the Duel and the Testing Rounds

As the Duel starts, opponents usually do a bit of circling and watching the other person, doing a few feints and tests. This is represented by deciding Initiative, which determines the right of first strike. This is calculated as per the normal combat rules.

Initiative = Agilty + 1 if Weapon Skill is higher than Agility + 1 if have reach in weapon
Roll off any ties until a victor appears.

The Duel Itself

Now come the rounds aimed at wounding one's opponent.

Take a FUDGE die per number of actions you wish to perform per round. You may have one per level of Agility/Weapon (Fair can have 4, Good has 5, etc). Keeping them hidden, assign the following values to each die:

Attack is shown with a plus.
Defense is shown with a minus.
Rest is shown with a blank. A Rest neither attacks nor defends, but allows you to gain back one Attack or Defense Point for each Rest, your choice.

The Use of Attack and Defense Points

Attacks: All Attacks must be paid for as soon as dice are revealed from the AP pool.
Defenses: Each opponent decides how many of their Defenses they are going to fund. They can pay for any, all, or none. Any not paid for have no further effect. These are paid for from the DP or by spending 2 APs.
Rests: A Rest costs nothing, and gives you back one AP or one DP, your choice during this step. It has no other effect and it does not block Attacks. You may do a Rest in any round, but keep in mind that you gain back points after Attacks and Defenses are paid for and resolved. There is no maximum to the APs or DPs you may accumulate through Resting, although Resting does prevent you from defending or attacking.

Resolving Attacks and Defenses

The opponent with Initiative calculates his damage value. This is done by comparing number of Attacks to number of Defenses. Once this value is had, roll 2dF and adjust the damage accordingly. A zero or negative result has no effect. A positive effect becomes Damage, and that value is changed into a Wound as per the normal rules.

Repeat this step for the other opponent. Due to the manner in which these Dueling rules work, there is no additional penalty for wounds.

Winning the Duel

A Duel is won based on the terms. Duels to first blood are won as soon as the opponent takes a wound at all, unless the wounded refuses to yield. A Duel is also over once any opponent yields for whatever reason, unless for some reason the opponent refuses to acknowledge the yield (a dishonorable thing to do, in most cases).

A Duel to the death continues until such time as one opponent is dead or Incapacitated enough that he cannot continue to fight.

FUDGE Points in Weapons Duels

FUDGE points, as usual, bend the rules a little bit. No other use of FUDGE Points is allowed in a Duel Arcane except the following:

1 FP: A +1 to the roll in the testing spells part of the Duel.
1 FP: Gain an extra action die for a round.
1 FP: Gain an extra Attack Point (lasts until used).
1 FP: Gain an extra Defense Point (lasts until used).
2 FP: Nullify a point of Damage.

During the Duel, there is a limit of using 2 FPs at any time for any one thing. (Thus you can buy 2 extra dice, and 2 extra OPs, but not 4 dice). Damage reduction is, as always, an exception to this rule and has no limit.

Fatigue and Duels

A Duel will drain a point of Fatigue from each opponent, or more if the Duel is extensively long.