One of the more exciting parts of live action role-playing is the battle. In Mid-Land, there are no dice or joystick buttons to work out the victor of a fight; players must face each other in real battle! Blows are exchanged and parried, missiles are dodged and thrown! Combat at Mid-Land is acting out with padded weapons called boffers. A boffer is a piece of plastic pipe covered with foam, and decorated to look like a medieval or fantasy weapon. Almost any type of weapon can be created from swords to axes. This is covered in detail in the chapter on weapon construction. Combat is very much a real life skill that requires practice on the part of the players. While there are skills and abilities that can artificially boost the combat abilities of a player (body points, armor, weapon proficiency) they will never compensate for a lack of skill. Players must always keep in mind that the Mid-Land system is VERY LETHAL and death is only ever one or two steps behind most characters! The best way for players to learn how to fight, without losing a half dozen characters, is to play non-player characters. Combat is governed by a strict set of rules which players must follow without question. Of all the rules in the game, the combat system is most important to understand fully. Violation of combat rules can lead to loss of fighting privileges or even suspension or expulsion from Mid-Land. Despite the high level of intensity, boffer fighting is very safe and injury is very uncommon and usually limited to minor bumps and bruises. Players are more likely to injure themselves running from a fight than participating in one.
Many players choose to play characters that avoid violence at any cost and given the lethal nature of the system this tactic is often a viable one. It is important to note however that there is no way for a player to officially remain out of combat, or non-combative during the course of the game. Simply participating in the game places a player at risk of getting caught up in combat and struck by weapons. It is perfectly legal for players to ambush each other without prior warning, strike from behind, and use similar "first strike" tactics. If for some reason a player feels in real life danger by participating in combat (medical condition, anxiety, etc.) they need to take steps to protect themselves while playing in the game. Protection might include always traveling with a group, wearing safety gear (kneepads, teeth guards), or simply practicing their powers of observation. The use of missile weapons and magic is a great way for players with concerns about combat to participate at a safe range with minimal risk of contact with enemy weapons. Players that have conditions that are easily aggravated by combat activities should never take skills that increase the time they will remain engaged in combat, such as body points. It is perfectly acceptable for players to simply give up when confronted with combat with the understanding this might mean a quick end to their character! Players with combat aggravated conditions are encouraged to communicate their concerns with the Game Masters and other players so that they can remain safe and still gain maximum enjoyment out of the game.
The following rules are the basic core rules of fighting in Mid-Land. All players are expected to know these rules and follow them to the letter! If any rule is misunderstood a Game Master should be consulted immediately! When in doubt, players should always rule in favor of safety. No battle is worth winning if someone must be hurt to do it.
There are very few rules governing how a player may swing with a weapon. They must avoid hitting invalid targets such as the head and must use as little power as required by the situation. Otherwise players are free to experiment with all sorts of swings and blocks. What constitutes a good hit is based on several factors. It is not required to throw powerful shots to score a hit, however the blow must deliver adequate force so that opponent can feel it. How an opponent is clothed or armored may have an effect on a player's force. It requires more force when hitting opponents in heavy armor than it does for people wearing normal clothing. Clear distinction between swings is required to avoid ultra-light blows, also known as Machine Gunning. Machine Gunning is a series of low power swings with a weapon that more closely resemble bouncing a weapon up and down on a foe as opposed to striking them. Machine gun attacks are not legal and count only as a single hit.
A blow must make physical contact with a player's body or immediate possessions. Immediate possessions include clothing, belt pouches, cloaks, armor, sheathed weapons, long belts, and so on. For example, a player may not ignore a shot if their cloak first stops it or if it hits a belt pouch. Players are on their honor to accept any such shots as if they had hit the nearest section of their body. For example, a shot stopped by a bloused shirt sleeve would hit the arm. A shield worn on the back or other part of the body does not block shots to that area. A shield not controlled by a player's arm is called a "passive shield" and does not grant the player protection.
Arrows and bolts only cause damage if the head of the weapon strikes the target. Thrown weapons cause damage if any part of the weapon hits the target including the handle. Any missile that first hits a solid object, such as the ground, before it hit its target will cause no damage. Hand weapons cause damage when any part of the weapon's padded blade hits the target. Weapons with Shafts, such as axes and pole arms, do not cause damage if the target is struck with the weapon's shaft. Swinging a weapon with excessive force with the intention of powering through an opponents attempt to parry is not permitted and is very dangerous! Just because the target of an attack is a weapon or shield is not an open invitation for careless use of power and using excessive force in this manner only breaks down the padding of the weapons involved. Striking, or feinting to strike an illegal target area (head, groin, etc.) in an attempt to force your opponent to drop their guard is not permitted. While a player's intention might be to pull back such "trick" shots, one or two unexpected moves can result in illegal contact and possible injury!
There are two ways to avoid a weapon, blocking and dodging. A dodge is simply the act of moving the body, or part of the body, out of the way of a shot and for the most part this is self-explanatory. When dodging arrows, players should step to the side only. Since arrows tend to travel in a downward arc from the bow, ducking will only place a player's head in a position where it is vulnerable to hits. A block, sometimes called a parry, is the act of stopping a shot with another weapon or shield. A block is only considered good if the attacking weapon makes no solid physical contact with the target's body. If, at any time, a weapon touches the target with adequate force it will cause damage. A player may not claim that a weapon was blocked simply because their own weapon made physical contact with their targets weapon. This is known as passive or tap blocking and is not legal. This is what makes the extended heads of axes and pole arms so dangerous. While the shaft is blocked, the weapon's head will often carry through and hit the target. It is possible to block a weapon with a bare hand, arm, or leg but doing so always causes damage to the blocking limb or area. However taking damage to a limb is sometimes deemed worth avoiding a lethal shot to the torso. It is important to note that catching an arrow causes damage even if the player catches the arrow on an unpadded section of the weapon. This rule is required to prevent players from breaking arrows in an attempt to catch them.
All weapons inflict a base damage of one point and a maximum of four points of damage. The number of hands used to wield a weapon or its size has no bearing on the weapons damage. A pole arm inflicts the same damage as a sword, a sword as much as a dagger. Abilities like weapon proficiency, spells, poisons, or magic objects are the only way to increase weapon damage. Each time a player HITS with a weapon they must call out the weapon's damage. Players should not call out damage each time the weapon is SWUNG because the opponent might confuse the damage call for a hit. When calling damage, the amount and type of damage is communicated. For example, a regular weapon would cause one point of damage. The player would call, "One-normal". If the same weapon was instead magical the call would be, "One-magic". When an opponent is hit, they will deduct this amount of damage from their armor or body points. The type of attack (magic, silver, magic fire) is called in the event an opponent is only harmed by special weapons. Trolls, for example, are only harmed by magical fire and will only accept damage proceeded with the call "magical fire". Damage is also called for spells and poison; spells cause magical damage, poisons cause normal damage. Any attack that hits a player will cause a minimum of one point of damage, even if the damage is not called. Players may not ignore weapon hits when no damage is called but likewise are not required to accept any additional damage if it is not called. It is not required that a player hit for the maximum damage they are capable of inflicting but must always hit for one point of damage. This is a perfectly legal tactic to fool an opponent into thinking a character is weaker than they actually are. It is illegal to call out a higher number of damage points than a character is capable of inflicting.
When a player is hit it is considered good form to alert their opponent that the hit was good. Most often simply calling "Good" does this. If the player is hit in an invalid target area they should inform their opponent by saying "Head" or "Weapon hand". If a shot was saved against or had no effect, the target must say "save" or "no effect" so the opponent is aware that their attacks are having no effect. This will also make it clear that an opponent is not cheating and ignoring shots. When a shot hits a target it must rely on its defenses such as armor to protect it from damage. Damage is deducted from a target in a certain order and every time a shot hits a target they must go through this order to determine what effect the shot had on their character. Some attacks will skip the order of defenses. For example, if a character takes a hit on an unarmored spot they may skip steps one and two. Characters will often not have every step of protection. Some characters do not have body points for example. In this case this step would be skipped over when determining damage. All damage goes through the following steps. Players may not skip over a step in order to preserve their armor or magical defense. A character's defenses are always involuntarily deducted in a preset order as indicated below.
1. Magical armor and defenses: The first defense an attack must bypass is a character's magical spell protection such as magic armor spells and anti-magic auras. Unlike physical armor, all spell protections cover the character's entire body. When a character's magical protection is expended, further damage goes to their physical armor, damage requirement, body points, and or wounds. This step only covers spell-generated defense and not physical armor with magical properties.
2. Physical armor points: Characters who chose to wear physical armor are granted armor points. Physical armor points are always the second thing a character loses when they get hit. If a character is not wearing armor, or is hit in an area not covered by their armor, the damage automatically goes to a character's damage requirement, body points, and or wounds. Each time a character is hit in an area covered by their armor they deduct the amount of damage from their armor points. When a character's armor points reach zero, the armor is useless and all further damage goes to their damage requirement, body points, and or wounds. Armor points automatically reset to their normal value in between events or can be repaired immediately with the spell Mend armor.
3. Damage requirement: Some creatures require certain types of damage in order to suffer damage. Ghouls, for example, are immune to all physical attacks other than those caused by silver. This is protective ability is called damage requirement. If an attack does not meet a creatures damage requirement it will have no effect. A creature's damage requirement has no effect on its physical or magical armor. Armor, which is always hit first, will still be damaged by the attack regardless of it source. Damage does not stop attacks that do not cause damage. A repel undead spell still repels a ghoul even though the attack does not involve silver.
4. Body points: Body points are a measure of how much damage a character can take before suffering serious wounds. Body points represent heightened physical training allowing the character to endure pain and minor injuries and increasing the amount of time they can spend in a fight. Most characters start with zero body points. If a character with no body points is hit by a damage causing attack they automatically suffer wounds when hit. Each time a character is hit in combat, and has no armor, they deduct the damage from their body points. When a character's body reach zero the next damage causing hit they receive a wound. If a shot inflicts so much damage that it reduces a character's body points to a negative value in a single shot a wound is automatically caused. For example, if a character with three body points is hit in the arm for four points of damage their arm will suffer a wound. A character's body points are considered to heal back to their normal between events or may be healed immediately with the Healing Hands spell.
5. Wounds: When a character who has no other form of protection is hit in combat they suffer a wound. Wounds represent serious injuries such as deep cuts, broken bones, and severed muscles. Wounds are broken into two types, limb and torso. Players are on their honor to role-play wounds to the best of their ability and should role-play wounds as if they were causing great pain. Players who have just had both legs wounded should not scuttle around on their knees as if nothing is wrong. Dead characters should gasp out final words and then act dead. Nothing ruins the atmosphere of the game quicker than a bunch of dead people who just stand up and slump around the battlefield.
Limb wounds are caused from hits to the arms from the point of the shoulder to the tip of the fingers and or the legs from the hip joint to the tips of the toes. A character cannot use a wounded limb to perform any actions and any objects held in the limb at the time of the wound are automatically dropped. It is illegal to block with a wounded limb and any further hits to a wounded limb are treated as if they had hit the torso. For example, a character receives a leg wound forcing them to one knee, moments later the same limb is hit again, transfers to the torso, and causes a torso wound. Excessive damage to a limb will never force the wound to transfer to the torso. For a wound to transfer to the torso through a wounded limb, the limb must be hit two separate times! Limb wounds are considered to heal completely in between events or may be immediately healed with the Restore limb spell.
Torso wounds render the character in a helpless state of near unconsciousness and a great deal of pain. Characters with Torso wounds must fall to the ground and may make no actions (move, drink potions, use magic objects) or use any non-automatic skills. Characters with torso wounds are allowed to cry out for help in a last desperate attempt to save their life. Characters that receive a torso wound have five minutes to seek healing or they will die. The skill First Aid can extend this time to ten minutes once per injured character. The spell Heal mortal wounds is required to fix a torso wound and prevents the character from passing away. Once dead, a characters only chance of salvation is to have a Resurrection spell cast on them. Torso wounds do not heal between events, as the character is dead.
Killing-blows are used to dispatch characters that are incapacitated or near death representing a throat slit or some similar instantly lethal attack. A player may killing-blow a character that is suffering from a torso wound, bound, faking death or unconscious. It is impossible to killing blow a character under the influence of Charm, Pin, Fear, or Stun. The killing-blow ignores all forms of protection the character may have including magical and physical armor. To deliver a killing blow the attacker must place a weapon on the victim's chest and loudly announce "KILLING BLOW". A weapon (boffer, spell or poison beanbag, etc.) is required to deliver a killing blow so an unarmed character is incapable to giving a killing blow. Only the chest is a legal spot for a killing-blow. It is impossible to deliver a killing-blow through a character's leg or similar appendage. Once the attack announces killing blow the victim instantly dies regardless of body points or other wounds. They cannot be healed with any life magic spells but may be raised with the spell resurrection. If the killing blow call is interrupted in any way, such as the victim admitting they are faking death or another players knocking the attackers weapon away, the killing blow is unsuccessful. The damage of the weapon has no bearing on a killing blow but creatures only harmed by special attacks require that a weapon that would normally effect them give the killing-blow. For example a silver weapon is required to killing-blow a Ghoul. It is possible to deliver a killing-blow with a spell or poison as long as the spell or poison inflicts physical points of damage. The spell must be cast as normal and will expend the required amount of power. A poison used to deliver a killing blow will be expended.
To cut down on the need to kill during the course of the game characters are allowed to inflict non-lethal damage rendering a target unconscious instead of dead. Blunt damage can be inflicted with hand held weapons like swords and axes. It is not required to use blunt weapons like clubs or staves to inflict non-lethal damage as it is assumed that the flat side of an edged weapon can be used to equal effect. Spells, missile weapons (including thrown weapons), and poisons (including weapons coated with blade poison) are incapable of inflicting blunt damage. When a player wishes to inflict blunt damage they must call out the damage of the attack followed by the word "BLUNT" so the target knows the attack is non-lethal. Blunt damage effects a target's defenses in the same manner as normal damage so it is still required to beat through a target's armor and so forth. The only difference between blunt damage and normal damage is that all lost body points and wounds recover after ten minutes. Life magic spells will heal this damage as normal, though waiting for the effects to wear off will conserve magical power. It is possible to inflict limb wounds with blunt damage and it assumed that the shot temporarily renders the area hit useless. Armor destroyed by blunt damage does not recover and must be repaired through normal means. Non-lethal damage cannot be inflicted on a target that is receiving lethal damage attacks at the same time. Everyone hitting the target must choose to inflict blunt damage or all damage is treated as lethal. Some creatures, like the undead, are immune to blunt damage and treat all blunt attacks as lethal damage.
Mid-Land is a fantasy game and with fantasy comes the natural suspension of disbelief. One such rule in favor of fantasy is known as the Heroic safety rule. Under the heroic safety rule it is not required that a player count self inflicted damage such as dropping weapons on their feet, smacking their own leg with a weapon due to a very bad swing, and so on. Mid-Land is dangerous enough to discount damage from such trivial sources. This rule does not protect other players from careless hits from friendly fire. For example, if the party's magic user hits a fellow party member with a beanbag that damage will count!
Shield turtles [also known in practice as "Turtling"] are people who hide behind a shield so large that they expose little or no legal target areas or hide behind a shield like it was a wall. It does not require a large shield to be a shield turtle! Shield turtles directly contradict the spirit and challenge of the game and are not permitted. A shield turtle can also cause a safety hazard when a player cannot see over a shield to swing safely, or opponents cannot see where they are striking the shield user. It is very common for shield turtles to get hit in the head when opponents are reaching around a large shield in a desperate attempt to hit a legal target area. Players found to be abusing shields will be asked to drop the shield or build a smaller shield more appropriate to their body size. Players suspected of being a shield turtles should be reported to a Game Master so the problem can be corrected.
