Fighting Rules

Looking for the Tier 2 fighting form? Click here!

If you are a challenger it is also your responsibility to notify the other player that they are being challenged. We will not tolerate players deliberately misleading others into losing.

Please note that in a siege or raid, fighting rules vary from what is listed here. See the siege and raid rules below for more information about these circumstances.

1. When challenged to a fight all challenged players are required to respond. The challenged character may attempt to deter the challenger by talking them down in their reply before officially starting the fight (or prevent the fight altogether). This can only be attempted in Round 0. After Round 1 is posted the player must respond, attempt to flee (in certain cases), or forfeit. If a challenge is completely ignored despite being informed of the challenge, this will automatically result in a forfeit.

2. A player's character should have an in-character basis in which to challenge another character, excluding pack challenges. If they refuse to accept your challenge or if you believe you are being challenged unfairly please contact an administrator to resolve the problem. Challenges should not have superficial reasons behind them. In the case that a player feels a fight is unfair, a staff vote will determine whether the fight will continue or not.  In addition, in a fight thread only characters related to the combating parties or with good reasons to arrive will be permitted there (the exception being official challenges in the Battlefield or Boneyard).

3. There is 3 day time limit to reply to all challenges. Default timers begin in the first post of the first round, except for death challenges and pack challenges where the timer begins with the first post. If you and the player you are fighting with agree to be flexible on your time limits please make sure you each state so in your posts. If flexibility is not stated in the fighting posts, we will disregard any claims of flexibility. Should a player not meet the time limit the fight will be defaulted in the favor of the player who last posted. Only the players involved should request for defaults when they apply. All requests from players not involved will be ignored and deleted. Defaults always apply on pack challenges and death matches.

4. If a character attempts to exit a thread a challenge can only be made if three days have not passed since the exit post. After three days the exit is considered successful and the character can not be challenged.

5. If you edit your post, you run the risk of immediate disqualification. You may not edit a post after round one no matter the type of challenge you are in. You may ONLY edit a fight post if you have the permission of a judge or admin if you are fixing coding or other small error. Any changes to the body of the fight post will result in immediate disqualification. Leave an OOC note at the bottom of your post stating which judge/staff gave permission and what was changed to avoid any confusion.

6. In a Tier 1 fight your post must OOCly state rounds, opponents, posted character's height/build, and type of fight in each post. If you do not have this information listed you run the chance of getting defaulted from the match. You may see other people add OOC notes listing attacks, defenses, and injuries, but these are not required. In fact, judges cannot look at them at all when judging. Only the rounds, opponents, posted character's height/build and type of fight are required to be stated OOCly.

Example:
BOB vs GARY for DOMINANCE
Round 1/2
Height 30"
Build Heavy

7. In a Tier 2 fight your post must include the Tier 2 form from your profile If you do not have this information listed in each post you run the chance of getting defaulted from the match. It's the responsibility of the player to list all bonuses and judges will not be responsible if any were mistakenly left out of the form at the time of the post. The form is also included here:

(character) vs (opponent) for (fight type)
Round 1/2
Size:
Build:
Offensive Accessory:
Defensive Accessory:
Companion 1: (battle/flying)
Companion 2: (battle/flying)
Fight Skill Level:
Specialty:

8. Rounds are determined by the challenged player. This means that if Bob challenged Gary for his freedom, Gary may determine the number of rounds in the match regardless of who actually starts the first round.

Dominance Challenges

1. Dominance challenges are considered a Tier 2 fight and are judged according to that system.

2.  Any character can challenge for dominance over another character. The loser may be punished for whatever action they committed in defiance of the other player so long as the punishment is not so severe it is considered a moderate to severe maim. Dominance challenges also include pack members which are challenging for higher tier ranks within their pack. Please note that not all alphas allow dominance challenges to determine rank.

3. Dominance challenges typically have 2 to 4 rounds per fight.

4. Dominance challenges are allowed to have more than 2 participants.

Spars, Disputes & Maiming Challenges

1. These challenges include practice fights and in-character disputes which become violent. Maim challenges are disputes that end with permanent physical maims to the losing character. In a maim challenge the maim that each player intends to afflict, in the event that they win, must be clearly outlined OOCly in the first round of the fight and may not be changed afterward. Example: BOB vs GARY for MAIM (blinding left eye)

2. For a maim challenge to succeed, the challenger must win the challenge and have made a viable attempt at maiming the opponent during the fight. So. If my wolf Bob challenges Gary and wishes to blind Gary, Bob must both win the challenge and have made some sort of attack to Bob's vision during the fight for the blindness to be accepted by the judges.

3. Spars, dispute and maim challenges typically have 2 to 4 rounds per fight.

4. Spars, dispute and maim challenges are allowed to have more than 2 participants.

5. MAJOR VS MINOR MAIMS - maims are divided into two portions. Minor maims are the relatively small maims such as scarring, removal/tearing of small appendages (such as ears, tails, toes), and breaking bones/tendon damage that results in only minor permanent damage. Major maims are maims that cause severe permanent damage to a character such as blinding, crippling, and castration. These two categories are judged separately. Please see an admin or judge if you are uncertain where a particular maim would fall.

6. Minor maims are judged as Tier 2 fights and judged by that system. Major maims are considered Tier 1 fights as they cause severe permanent changes in a character's future and are judged with that system - they may not be used in raids.

7. Unacceptable maims, unless agreed upon by both participants: Tongue removal, vocal cord removal/maimimg, womb removal, and nerve/brain damage.

Right to Mate Challenges

1. Right-to-mate challenges involve characters who want to forcibly claim a mate, whether or not that character already has a mate, or to impregnate another character. The challenger may have to fight the character they intend on claiming, or the mate of that character or both, depending on the circumstances. That being said, couples are allowed to fight together to defend their right to stay together. 

2. Right-to-mate challenges typically have 2 to 4 rounds per fight.

3. Right-to-mate challenges are allowed to have more than 2 participants.

Ownership & Freedom Challenges

1. Freedom/ownership challenges are considered a Tier 2 challenge and are judged by the dice roll system.

2. Characters who have a tier two or higher rank in a pack, or are the leader of a band, may challenge to have any character added to their pack whether they are currently in a pack or not. The challenger may have to fight the character they are attempting to claim, their mate, their parent (for a pup under a year), a tier two or higher member of that character's current pack (if not a loner) or the leader of the wolf's band, depending on the circumstances.

3. Claiming in the Battlefield or Boneyard: Any loner posting in the battlefield or the boneyard not participating in an official fight is at risk of being claimed immediately by any Tier 2 or higher pack wolf, or by leaders of bands. Another Tier 2 or higher pack wolf, or band leader, may dispute the claim as long as it is within three days of the initial claim post being made. If more than one Tier 2 or higher wolf, or band leader, disputes the claim, the claims are valid in the order they posted. So if Loner posts there and Wolf A makes a claim, then Wolf B posts to dispute the claim, and Wolf C disputes the claim as well, the fights would also go in that order. If Loner chooses to fight for their freedom they would fight Wolf A. The winner would fight Wolf B. The winner of that would fight Wolf C (the normal two week immunity to challenges for the winner would not apply in this case). If Loner chooses to submit, Wolf A would get the initial claim and would need to fight Wolf B, with the winner then fighting Wolf C.

4. Wolves who are claimed by packs or bands may challenge for their own freedom. The challenge must be made towards a Tier 2 or higher pack member of the pack they are unwillingly being held in, or the leader of the band. Characters who know the enslaved or claimed character may challenge for that character's freedom if they have a rank of Tier 2 or higher in their pack, or if they are the leader of a band.

5. Mates can also challenge for the freedom of one another, and parents can challenge for children under 1 year of age.

6. Ownership challenges are not allowed to have more than 2 participants.

7. You may not challenge to claim a primary alpha, or the leader of a band. Any other rank in a pack is eligible for an ownership challenge.

8. Concerning gaining a character's freedom: A character who has been force claimed must gain their freedom by challenge or being set free - setting the character inactive does not release them from their previous captive state. A character set inactive during their captivity may be reclaimed by their previous captor without the captor needing to force claim them again as long as the captor's player states that intention within three OOC days of the captive character's return to activity. In the event that a pack is dissolved or disbanded, all characters force claimed by the pack are freed along with the regular members, but a pack changing hands through IC means such as pack challenges or inheritance does not automatically give force claimed characters their freedom.

Death Matches

1. Death challenges are a Tier 1 fight and are judged using that system.

2. Death challenges can be made by any character and may occur between any two characters. Given the nature of death challenges, the challenger must have solid in-character reasoning behind their challenge before a death challenge is approved (unless you and another player agree on it!). If you feel your character is being challenged to the death unfairly, please contact an administrator immediately. Once a death challenge is started, neither player is allowed to back out.

3. The losing character of the death challenge can be killed by the winner. The winner of the death challenge receives a two week immunity in which they cannot be challenged to the death. 

4. Death challenges typically have 3 to 6 rounds per fight.

5. Death challenges may not have more than 2 participants. They are one-on-one fights.

6. There are no extensions allowed in death matches.

Pack Claims

1. When the alpha of a pack becomes inactive, that pack will immediately go to the heir or to another rank preciously specified in the pack's page. If there is no designated heir, or if the heir turns down the position, the pack will be dissolved. Please note: Secondary alphas are no longer considered "heirs" of the pack as they are an equal part of the alpha check.

2. When a pack is dissolved, the pack slot becomes open for claim to any char over 1 year old, provided they have 400 gems and 100 posts as well as the activity requirements outlined for pack challenges. The new claimed pack does not necessarily "take the place" of that older pack, but simply fills up a site slot. Please see guidebook page 04 entitled Packs and Alphas for detailed requirements before claiming.

3. Pack claims may have more than 2 participants, but each participant must be of a different party. This means that two wolves can't gang up on one wolf, but if three different wolves want to take the same territory they can fight each other at the same time.

4. Pack claims are managed on a first come, first served basis. Those who reply to the disbanding first may claim the pack. When a character claims a pack there is a one week waiting period in which the claim may be contested before the pack is actually given to the claiming character. If a claim is contested it is considered a pack challenge and follows the rules outlined for that challenge type. The only exception being that contested claims take place in the claim thread, in the territory being claimed. 

5. Those who successfully claim a pack, whether the claim was uncontested or they won a battle against the contestant, receive two weeks immunity in which the pack may not be challenged for. The loser may not challenge, claim or form a pack until two weeks have passed.

Pack Challenges

1. Pack challenges are Tier 1 fights so will follow that system.

2. Pack challenges must be made in the Battlefield where the challenger is to summon the alpha of the pack they intend to challenge for.

3. The challenger must have 400 gems and 100 posts in count, have been an active account for two months and have posted at least 20 times in the last month spread out over the entire month in a pattern of five posts per week. Please see guidebook page 04 entitled Packs and Alphas for detailed requirements before challenging.

4. The alpha then has 3 days in which to respond before the challenge is defaulted in the challenger's favor. The default timer starting at the date and time of the challenging post. Either the primary alpha or the secondary alpha may answer the challenge, it is to be decided by the players. There are no extensions in pack challenges.

5. Pack challenges typically have 3 to 6 rounds per fight with a minimum of 3 rounds. The alpha getting challenged is the one who determines rounds.

6. Pack challenges may not have more than 2 participants. They are one-on-one fights.

7. If the alpha wins, they remain in leadership of their pack. If the challenger wins they gain control of the pack and its members, and can change anything about the pack: it's name, the way it's run, it's alignment, and so on. An alpha can choose to let all members go, or keep them as prisoners, or anything else. When player wins a pack they should have their pack page set up within a week or will immediately be dissolved.

8. The winner of the fight receives two weeks immunity in which the pack may not be challenged for again. The loser of the fight may not challenge, claim or form a pack for two weeks. Please note that a pack challenge - whether successful or not - cannot be used as a reason for laying siege to that pack.

Attempt to Flee

Characters are allowed to attempt to flee an official fight. If successful, the fight is ended without consequence to the fleeing character. This is not allowed for pack challenges or death matches, nor can an alpha attempt to flee from a claim/freedom challenge for a pack member.

1. You can only attempt to leave a fight every OOC month. (If you are a master in the skills listed below, you get two flees a month.) To attempt to flee, you must fill out a form in the judging request before you reply. A tier one judge or staff member will then roll the dice to see if you are successful in your flee. If you are, you must post a reply to the fight with you leaving it. If you are not, you must fight. The three day default time will start from the time your flee results are posted.

2. When a request for a flee is posted, the timer for the fight is paused. It will resume as soon as the results of the flee are posted. However, if a flee request is not posted within the normal default time, it will not count.

3. There is a new gemstone store item, an extra die. You can only buy one per flee, but this will give you two chances to get the number you need to be successful. This item will only be 100 gems, and you must post a link in your request for a roll.

4. There will be no pestering judges or staff for another roll, or for your request to be put through. If you do, your request will be denied and still count as that flee for that month.

How this works:

Once your form is filled out, a tier one judge or a staff will roll the die, or dice if you purchase an extra one. (please link to your purchase in the gemstone store so it can be edited to say it was used) The number(s) that you need to get to be successful in a flee depends on your skill level in either fighting, hunting, or navigation (the more physical skills). Your highest skill is the one that will determine what number(s) you have to roll.

If your characters skills are both healing and intellect, you get the beginner roll. You must roll a one to escape, but you can still purchase an extra die to aid your luck.

Beginner : Must roll a one to escape.
Novice : Must roll a one or two to escape.
Intermediate : Must roll a one, two, or three to escape.
Advanced : Must roll a 1-4 to escape.
Expert : Must roll a 1-5 to escape.
Master : Must roll a 1-5 to escape, but get two free rolls a month.

Note: this is a new system and staff may add changes as needed.

Multiple Participant Challenges

1. Fights may have multiple opponents with a limit of 6 participants total and should have two rounds.

2. Fights must happen in the chronological order of posting. Let's say that A and B are having a fight and B was the last person to post. If C joins the fight at this point the posting order is now A, B, C thus A should be the next person to post.

3. If your character joins a fight which is in progress they can fight up until the last round that was established for the fight. For example: If A joins the fight with B and C when B and C are in their second round, A may post for one round because in one round that fight will be over. The round count for wolf's first post should be Round 2 of 2. Fights with multiple participants will be averaged together when judged and not totaled separately unless all participants started in the same round.

4. If participants all started in the same round they are given the option of doing a Last Man Standing fight, which would be dropping the lowest score in each round of judging instead of averaging scores. For instance, if A and B are fighting C, D, and E, they will complete two rounds and post the fight for judging. After scores are posted, the lowest scoring wolf (let's say, D) will be dropped from the fight. The fight will continue another round with A, B, C, and E as though the fight were not interrupted (all attacks from the last round must be answered and all damage continues to apply) with the next person's default time starting from the time the results were posted. The fight will be judged again after that one round, and the lowest score dropped until all characters from one side have been defeated. This method must be agreed on prior to being judged and can only be used if all participants joined in the same round, otherwise the scores must be averaged. (See also the section on sieges/raids for how this is effected by special circumstances.)

5. Maim fights with multiple participants: any wolf entering a maim fight may choose to do a maim in retaliation as long as all general maim fight rules are followed. The maim is determined by the type of judging - in an averaged fight, the highest score that is eligible to maim gets to complete their maim. In a Last Man Standing fight, the last wolf standing gets to preform their maim if eligible (or the highest scoring wolf with a maim attempt if more than one wolf on the winning side is still in the fight).

5. In the event of a default in an averaged fight, the character who defaults will receive a 0 score for that round and the fight will move on immediately after the default is posted without the defaulted character's continued participation. In Last Man Standing, both the defaulter AND the lowest score will be dropped out after that round. In a maim fight with multiple participants, the defaulted character may still be subject to a maim if the other team wins.

Siege Rules

A siege is a collaborative attack by one pack on another.

1. A siege will last 4 out-of-character weeks. A siege can happen at any time.  Players can only join the siege within the first two out-of-character weeks that follow the day the siege is posted.

2. The invading pack must have an in-character meeting informing their members and alliances of the intended siege. Any members or alliances who do not attend this meeting cannot attend the siege. Members may not attend this meeting after the siege has started.

3. The invading pack must hold the siege on the opposing pack's homeland.

4. A wolf cannot attend a siege if it has joined the participating pack less than 1 out-of-character week before the starting date of the siege thread. To join a pack, a full joining thread must be completed.

5. Only wolves age 1 year or older, or three seasons and older with an Advanced fighting skill, can participate in sieges.

6. Before participating in a siege be aware that your characters will be at risk for maims, claims or death.  You cannot ask for special treatment. If you do not want your wolf getting hurt do not join the siege.

7. Only wolves actively participating in the siege should be posted in the siege thread.

8. Once the siege is closed (either due to the two week joining period ending or to default) no new wolves may enter the siege thread for any reason.

9. No out-of-character to in-character. Your characters must be informed in-character of the siege to participate in it. It is natural to discuss strategy but your characters cannot see into the future or read other character's minds.

10. Please note that pack challenges or raids are not by themselves viable reasons to siege another pack.

Siege Victories & Losses

1. The winner of a siege is determined by the number of knock-outs that each pack takes during the siege (this includes dominance, maims, claims and deaths). The winning pack gains rights to the losing pack's land and they may choose to do one of three things:

- They may choose to disband the losing pack and put a new leader in place.

- They may choose to disband the losing pack and expand their own territory; either by choosing an additional territory near their own or by taking the current territory of the losing pack. The chosen territory then takes the same color as the winning pack.

- They may choose to seek an alternate deal with the losing pack's alpha and allow the pack to remain where it is and continue existing. The winning pack does not expand in this case.

The winner may only take 1 territory from the siege.

The losing alpha/s must wait 3 OOC weeks before they may claim, challenge or create a pack.

Alliances

1. For alliances of the attacked pack to arrive a character must be designated to inform their allies when the siege occurs. This character must enter the siege and exit it successfully, see exiting terms in the following paragraph. There is an out-of-character 2 hour wait after the exit before alliances may join the siege. The wolf designated as the messenger may re-enter the siege when the alliances do. There should be one messenger per pack ally that is trying to be contacted. You may not have multiple messengers going to the same ally. Other-species allies do not need to be contacted this way and may join the siege immediately.

Exiting the Siege

1. You can exit a siege at anytime as long as you are not currently in a fight. To exit you must post with your attempted exit and there is an 8 hour waiting period until your exit is official. If you are attacked within this 8 hour waiting period you must finish that fight and may attempt to exit again. Once you exit you may not return to the siege.

Fighting Rules in Sieges

1. Fights in a siege will be treated as dominance fights unless they are specified as a claim, maim, or death match.

2. Dominance and Maim fights should only have 2 rounds for judging ease. If you do not reply to a dominance or maim fight within 2 days of the last post you will be defaulted. Note that default timers are accelerated in the case of a siege.

Death Matches and Claims

1. The amount of rounds in claim or death match fights will be determined by the participating parties. There is a 3 day post limit in which claim and death matches must be replied to before a default occurs. In regards to death matches, please get all involved players to agree to it and/or have the death match approved by staff.

2. Only tier 1 and tier 2 members of a pack may initiate claim fights. Unlike outside of a siege, they do not need to challenge a Tier 1 or 2 ranked wolf in the opposing pack. The challenged wolf may defend the claim themselves.

3. Once claimed, a character must stop fighting and exit the siege.

Knock-Outs

1. Every character is allowed to fight until they are knocked-out with a limit of knocking-out up to five opponents, at which point they must exit the fight. Characters who reach this limit and exit the siege may not have their exit contested.

2. When your character is knocked-out you must stop fighting. It is not necessary to post an exit post as no one can attack you in your attempt to exit as you are no longer allowed to fight. If you default (meaning that you didn't post within the time limits of your fight), your character will be knocked-out without exception.

Other-Species

1. Other species are allowed to participate in a siege; however, they can only fight for dominance or maims. They are only allowed to knock-out up to three opponents, at which point they must exit the fight. Characters who reach this limit and exit the siege may not have their exit contested.

Multiple Opponents

1. Dominance and maim matches in sieges may have multiple participants, up to six participants total. Death matches and claims may only be 1vs1.

2. Multiple participant fights in sieges must be two rounds and each team will have their scores averaged together to determine the winning team. Last Man Standing is not an option in sieges.

3. In multiple participant dominance matches, the lowest score on the losing team is knocked out. In a maim, the highest eligible score on the winning team may complete their maim and the maimed wolf is knocked out of the siege - if none are eligible or no wolf on the winning team attempted a maim then the lowest score on the losing team is knocked out. The remaining wolves may disperse and find new matches. All members of the winning team will have a knockout added to their knockout count.

Raids

A raid is a small group of wolves affecting an attack on a pack for some form of resources.

1. Raids will take place on the defending pack's territory.

2. Raiders can be made up of either wolves from a single pack or band, or a group of rogues, but groups cannot be mixed between the pack/band and rogues and the defenders must be an officially recognized pack. Defenders must all be from the same pack - allies will not be permitted to participate in raids.

3. Group sizes will be limited to a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 raiders, and only the first 10 defenders to post will be permitted to participate.

4. All wolves including defenders must have been in their respective statuses (member of that pack or band, or a rogue) for 1 OOC week prior to the raid.

5. Only wolves 1 year old or older, or three seasons or older with an advanced fight skill, can participate in raids.

6. No one who cannot participate in the fights will be allowed to post in the raid. By posting in the thread a player agrees to any and all consequences from participating.

7. Raiders must all have posted in a completed IC meeting thread to participate. In that meeting it is required that the raiders state their intended resource (this can be something like water in a drought, or herbs that cannot be found elsewhere, the right to hold a single hunt in that pack's lands - run your idea past staff to double check that it would be allowed) and the raiding party must have a clear leader.

8. Each wolf is allowed to fight until they either are knocked out or reach their limit of knock-outs. Each wolf is allowed 2 knock outs before they are no longer allowed to continue and must leave - no one may contest them leaving since they are no longer allowed to fight.

9. There are no Tier 1 fights (DMs, pack challenges, major maims) allowed, but wolves can choose from minor maims, claims or dominance battles in the Tier 2 (dice roll) category. Unless it is specifically stated as a maim or claim, the fight is treated as a dominance battle.

10. Claims can only be initiated by a Tier 1 or 2 pack wolf but the challenge may be answered by the wolf being claimed, a Tier 1 or 2 wolf of their pack, or a mate.

11. The raid is over when there are no more wolves able to fight on one side. In the event that the defenders are the last wolves able to continue to fight, they will have driven off the raiders. If the raiders are the only ones left standing, they are able to claim the resource stated in the IC meeting and the raid is over.

12. In the event that there is no response to the raid from the defending pack within three days the raid is considered successful and the resource acquired. It is not required that the defending pack answer the raid and no penalty (past the winning pack's resource being acquired) will be taken for defaulting.

13. There must be 2 OOC weeks between all raids, starting from when the end of the raid is announced.

14. Multiple participant fights will follow the same rules outlined in the section for sieges.

Tier 2 Fighting Guide

So you’re ready to begin the first of your required two rounds (or more!) in your fight. What do you need to know?

Fighting has 4 rolled sections:

Attack Score (how well you know how to hurt people)
Defense Score (how well you can take a hit)
Agility Score (the ability to evade and move quickly)
Perception Score (knowledge of the terrain, observation skills)

A 100-sided die is rolled for each of those sections, giving you the base scores for each section. Character-specific bonuses can then be applied to each section as a percentage of the rolled score, and then each section (with their bonuses) is added together to give you your final score. This is for the entire fight, not per round, so don’t wait on the judges to decide a round before moving to the second one!

At the end of your first post of your two (or more) you need to post the filled-out form. Bonuses are locked in from the first post, so if you buy a battle accessory or gain skill between round 1 and round 2, it won’t count towards that particular fight.

The rules for Tier 2 fights go into more detail for what bonuses are currently available, but they include bonuses for Size, Build, Accessories, Companions, Mutations, Fighting Skill, and Specialties.

• Size and build are self-explanatory - they are your character’s height range and their build at the time of the fight beginning and different heights and builds give bonuses to different abilities.
• Accessories come in two types: Offensive Battle Accessories are used as weapons and give an attack bonus. Defensive Battle Accessories are used as armor and give a defense bonus. Both can be purchased in the gemstone store but must be approved by staff as being valid to be used in battle.
• Companions can be used in two ways in a fight: either through purchasing a large companion pass (or upgrading a small companion pass) to give your companion the ability to attack and give an attack bonus, or by having a flying companion of any size observing the battle and giving a perception bonus. More than one companion can be purchased to provide bonuses, but only one bonus can be applied per companion (so a large sized flying companion cannot give both an attack and a perception bonus).
• Mutations can also be used two ways in a fight. Though they need to be run by admin before being accepted (because some mutations are clearly only cosmetic in use) a mutation can be used either offensively or defensively in a fight, giving either an attack bonus or a defense bonus respectively. A character can have more than one mutation in use, but each mutation can only claim one bonus not both.
• The fighting skill gives a special bonus that is added at the very end as a percentage of the total of the four sections that varies depending on your character’s skill level.
• Specialties can be chosen when your character reaches master level in a skill. Some specialties give bonuses in fights, though when and where the bonus is applied depends on the specialty. When your character reaches master level in two skills, you have the option of choosing from a variety of cross-skill specialties that can give special fight bonuses based on the secondary skill.

There are some penalties that will take points away from your character's score. These include Moderate and Severe Disabilities and pups.

• Moderate Disabilities are physical disabilities that have a moderately adverse effect on your character's ability to fight. Examples include severe limps, partial blinding, and impairments of the jaw/teeth that impede their ability to use them. They do not include minor limps, superficial scarring, or minor amputations such as ears and tails.
• Severe Disabilities are physical disabilities that have a severely adverse effect on your character's ability to fight. Examples include complete blinding and missing limbs (not to include ears/tails) and severe spinal deformities.
• Pups are wolves under the age of one. Because they have not yet reached their full adult height, pups are penalized and do not receive any bonuses related to height.

So when you post your first round (and again on subsequent rounds) you will fill out (or copy and paste from your character’s profile) this form:

(character) vs (opponent) for (fight type)
Round x/x
Age: (Only include: over 1 year, under 1 year, or under 6 months as applicable)
Size:
Build:
Offensive Accessory:
Defensive Accessory:
Companion 1: (specify whether battle or flying)
Companion 2: (specify whether battle/flying)
Mutation: (attack/defense)
Disability: (Moderate/severe)
Fight Skill Level:
Specialty:

The first, second, third, and fourth lines remains the same from the other system. We will need your character’s name, their opponent’s name, the type of fight, and the rounds. Remember, if it’s a maim you need to specify what the maim is to be for, and remember also that only minor maims are Tier 2 fights, so things like scarring, tail docking, ear cropping, minor tendon damage/broken bones that don't permanently cripple in a major way. We require a minimum of 2 rounds for judged fights, and the rounds are to be decided by the challenged player. The size portion has changed a little, since we are looking for the size range rather than the exact height (though if you want to add your character’s height as well it certainly makes things easier to picture your character and their opponent together!)

For the new information, you will post a link to the accessory purchase with a brief description of what it is (for instance: spiked collar in the defensive accessory slot. If you don’t have one, just leave it blank. Do the same for the two companions (if you only have one, or none, leave them blank - if you have more, add more slots as needed) but also specify if it’s a battle companion or a flying companion, since remember - the bonuses are different! If your companion is a large bird, you can choose whether they will count as a battle companion or flying companion here. If your character has a mutation pass, you can add a brief description of it in that slot and specify if it's a defensive or offensive mutation. You can add more slots for more than one mutation, or leave it blank. If your character has any moderate or severe physical disabilities that affect their ability to fight, they would be marked under disabilities. You can add more slots for more than one disability, or leave it blank if they don't have any that qualify. If your character doesn’t have a fight skill or a specialty, leave those blank as well, otherwise fill in the fight skill rank there (not the exact number! Just the rank) and the applicable specialty.

So everything’s good with your form and you’ve finished your fight. What now? Well, now the judge who picks up your fight will go to the appropriate public discord channel (eventually, they will use an autoroller with an automatic log) to roll your fight. They will roll four 100-sided dice in the discord for the first character to give them a base score for each of the sections for that character. They will then add the bonus modifiers. Once that character’s score is added up and posted, they will move on to the second character. Once a results are decided, they will return to the site to post the winner in the thread.


Skip this section if math makes your head go woozy and you don’t want to know the details

Let’s look in more detail at what the judges will be doing, and eventually the autoroller will be doing for the judges. We will say this character is medium in height, with a light build, a spiked collar, a jaguar and a sparrow, with an intermediate fight skill. So he would get a 5% bonus to attack for his height, a 5% bonus to agility for his build, a 10% bonus to defense for his accessory, a 10% bonus to attack for his battle companion, a 10% bonus to perception for his flying companion, and a 10% bonus to the overall score for his fight skill.

Here’s how that would look before rolling.

Attack: x +.05x + .10x
Defense: y + .10y
Agility: z + .05z
Perception: n + .10n
Total: (x+.05x+.10x) + (y + .10y) + (z + .10z) + (n + .05n) = Subtotal (q)
q +.10q = Total Score

Woof, that’s a mouthful. Ok, so let’s break out our dice and calculators and see what we get. Let’s assume we roll a 51, a 79, a 96, and a 31. We take those numbers and multiply each bonus percentage by the appropriate base number to get the bonuses, then add them together to get the section’s total.

Attack: 51 + 2.55 + 5.1 = 58.65
Defense: 79 + 7.9 = 86.9
Agility: 96 + 4.8 = 100.8
Perception: 31 + 3.1 = 34.1

Cool, we have our section totals. Now, we add them all together to get the subtotal.

58.65 + 86.9 + 100.8 + 34.1 = 280.45

If the character didn’t have a fight skill modifier, we could stop here and that would be his score. But he does, so let’s take that score and multiply it by his bonus percentage, which is 10%, then add that together. If he had any disability penalties we would do the same thing, except that we would subtract it instead. Since he doesn't, we will move on without doing that.

280.45 + (280.45 x .03) = 308.495

Wow, that’s a bit of a strange number isn’t it? We won’t go past two decimal points for the final number, so let’s do a bit of rounding. To keep things fair and consistent, we will always follow this rule for rounding: if the third decimal place is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 we will round the second number down and if the third decimal place is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 we will round it up. So let’s apply that to this number and get the new total.

308.50

Great! We would then proceed to do the same thing to the second (or third, or fourth) character(s) to get their total scores. Once we have a score for every character involved, we can see who has the highest score!

Remember: in the event of a melee, the scores of each wolf on a team are averaged together, and then compared to the average of the other side to determine the winning team. In a melee maim, the winning team’s highest scoring character gets to perform their maim.

Tier 2 Bonus Guide

What provides fight bonuses/penalties:
Age, Size, Build, Accessories, Companions, Mutations, Fighting Skill, Specialties

Age
Under 1 year: 15% penalty to total score
Under 6 months: 30% penalty to total score

Size
Extra-small = 10% Bonus score to Agility
Small = 5% Bonus score to Agility
Medium = 5% Bonus score to Attack
Large = 5% Bonus score to Defense
Extra Large = 5% Bonus score to Defense
Dire wolf = 10% Bonus score to Attack

Build
Emaciated = -5% Penalty to Defense score
Obese = -5% Penalty to Agility score
Light = 5% Bonus score to Agility
Medium = 5% Bonus score to Attack
Heavy = 5% Bonus score to Defense

Accessories
Battle Accessories come in two types: Offensive and Defensive. Only 1 of each can be purchased per character. All items are subject to admin approval (i.e. no full suits of armor, etc. Must be realistic within the context of our roleplay.)
Offensive Battle Accessory = 10% Bonus score to Attack
Defensive Battle Accessory = 10% Bonus score to Defense

Companions
Companions can be used in battle if they are a large companion or a battle pass has been purchased to upgrade a small companion. Alternatively, a flying companion of any size can be used for a perception bonus instead of an attack bonus for that companion. Only two companions may be purchased, though a third may be obtained through site events or specialties.
Companions = 10% attack bonus per large/battle companion
Or
Flying companions = 10% perception bonus per flying companion

Mutations
Mutations earned via site rewards or donations may be used in battle with prior admin approval (to judge whether a mutation would be useful or merely cosmetic). Some mutations may be used offensively and add to the attack score. Others may be used purely for protection, and add to the defense score. More than one mutation may be used, but each mutation can only be claimed for one bonus each.
Offensive Mutation = 10% attack bonus per offense-based mutation
Defensive Mutation = 10% defense bonus per defense-based mutation

Skills
Leveling the Fighting skill gives an overall Bonus to the total score in any given fight.
Intermediate = 10% Total fight score
Advanced = 15% Total fight score
Expert = 20% Total fight score
Master = 25% Total fight score

Specialties
Mastering a skill allows you to pick a Specialty from any within that Skill category. Some include fight bonuses, some for fighting overall, and some for more specific circumstances. Mastering more than one skill allows you to choose from a variety of cross-skill specialties that draw from both skills to provide greater bonuses.

Penalties
Some traits require penalties to a character's score since they adversely affect their ability to fight.
Pups = no height bonus
Moderate Disabilities = -15% penalty to total fight score
Severe Disabilities = -30% penalty to total fight score

Tier 1 Fighting Guide

When entering a fight there are many things to consider, but in terms of what the judges look for, there are 5 basic categories you need to worry about. Clarity, Power-Playing, Defenses, Attacks and Injuries. This guide provides a definition for each category and addresses common issues within the categories so that players can learn how to maximize their points and know what to avoid when they have a character in a fight.

1. The single most important thing to keep in mind when your character is in a fight is to remember that the fight is in-character and that rude behavior out-of-character will not be tolerated by staff. Fights add intrigue to Ardent. You will win some, and you will lose some, but never take a fight personally.

2. The second most important thing to understand is that though our judges may vary slightly in style or severity our judges know how to tell the difference between victor and loser. Unless the scores were very close or you feel the judge was biased, please do not request a re-judge and please do not complain. You should never take a judging verdict personally. If you strongly believe that bias influenced the result of your fight you may request a re-judge, however, you must list wherever you believe points were unfairly deducted in each round and category. Judgments are final and judges are under no obligation to answer questions about the results of the judging. If you feel the judgment is unfair, you may bring it to the attention of staff, but harassment of judges will not be tolerated.

3. Please note that once a judge is assigned to your fight you cannot change your mind about whether you want that judge to judge your fight or not. So be clear in whom you may not want to judge your fight when you post a judgement request.

4. Please note, once you post your official fight (starting from round 1) you are unable to make edits to your post, else you risk being defaulted. If you made a coding error, or something small, you must first ask your opponent if they are okay with you editing the post to fix the error. Secondly, it is best to ask either a Tier 1 judge, or a staff member to oversee the edit. And be sure to leave an OOC note at the end of your post stating that you got approval from both a judge/staff member and your opponent.

Clarity

Clarity is one of the most important aspects when a fight is judged. If a post is clearly written it can prevent points being taken away for lacking defenses, ineffective attacks and power-playing. If you take your time to read through your reply before posting, it you can improve your attacks and defenses, improve the realism of your post, and re-think phrases in your post that may seem close to power-playing. A single proof-read can improve your post from good to well-thought out.

What needs to be clear?

1. You should be clear about what your character is doing in his/her defenses and attacks, his/her position and his/her movements. Remember if your character is head on with another character, his/her left is on the opposite side of the other character. Also remember to use names, especially when your opponent is the same sex as your character.

2. You do not need to be extremely specific, in fact being too specific can lead to power-playing, but you need to be clear and concise. For example: "A attacked B." is much less clear than "A attacked B's leg." yet you can further improve this statement by writing "A attacked the middle of B's right foreleg." If your statement is extremely broad you, as in "A attacked B anywhere on his body" then you should expect to lose points for lack of clarity.


What if I am confused?

1. If you are confused you must talk to your opponent. If for some reason you cannot reach them then you should contact an upper level judge. Never, ever assume anything about your opponent's post if you are confused about. And never draw conclusions from talking to anyone who is not your opponent or a judge. Any comments in your posts that state "I was confused.", "I assumed this.", or "I was told by so and so to do this" will be ignored and you will have points taken away if your post is found to break Power-Playing rules.

Power-Playing

There is often a lot of confusion regarding what is considered power-playing and what is not considered power-playing. The severity of points taken away depends on how severe the infraction, but there are a couple of basic power-playing types to avoid.

Attempted

The phrase "attempted" has become rather over used in fighting posts. It is necessary to note that regardless of how many times you use this phrase in your thread you can STILL power play. Please do not sass judges by underlining the word in your fighting threads. In fact, over use of this phrase often leads to power-playing.

Assumptions

Try not to assume anything about the other character. If you have trouble understanding your opponent's post do your best to contact that player. Do not ask other players for their interpretations nor rely on your own interpretations if you are confused.

Nested Attacks ("if this, then that")

Although it is good to give the other player the option to react to an attack, repeatedly using statements such as "If A's paw hits B's ear, then A will bite his face." can easily lead to power-playing and confusion. Let's say that the other player's first move lands differently than intended, you are now conflicted with whether or not you should ignore the following move. Please be clear and simple in your attacks and use a variety of phrases to describe them.

Multiple Attacks

Multiple attacks are good to use in your fighting posts and this note is not meant to discourage them. However when a player uses too many consecutive attacks in their post it makes it difficult for the other player to react to all of them especially if these attacks are nested, as discussed above. Multiple attacks in a post can often be unrealistic within the time period they are made. They can also cause confusion for the other player. When incorporating multiple attacks in your post think 'complexity' and not 'multiplicity'. Using the same body part twice in the same post is generally too much. For instance, you should not use jaws twice, the same paw twice, etc.

Common Power-Plays

1. These include landing complete attacks on the other player without allowing them a response, using unrealistic or overly powerful attacks, completely ignoring or dodging another player's attacks, impossible attacks/defenses, and assuming god-like characteristics for one's characters.

2. Another common power play is when a player does not assume damage for all of the attacks their opponent made in their last post. You must acknowledge damage for any attacks made in your opponent's most recent fighting post.

3. Something players should keep in mind is if their character constantly gets in fights, they will have unhealed wounds from old fights. These should be acknowledged in any future fights.

4. Another power play that often happens is when a character is stated as this: "A prepared and then closed the distance between himself and B". That assumes B did not move, which is an unfair power play. Make sure to give your opponent the room to react.

Defenses

Of all the other categories this is the one players lose the least amount of their points in. The defenses that judges look for are the ones a player uses to defend and to prepare their character in regards to impending attacks. However, defenses must be appropriate to your character's positioning and possible with whatever your character is doing, so they will be specific to each situation. Defensive actions should realistically accomplish the stated goal - a listed defense will not be valid if it would not actually work in the manner that was claimed.

Dodging Attacks

You can dodge attacks within reason, but it has to be realistic and the majority of attacks should result in damage.

Attacks

This is the category that makes the difference between the winner and loser in a fight. Consequently it is rather difficult to get a perfect attack score. Of course categories that commonly have large point losses such as Power-Playing and Clarity have a large impact in fights, but point loss in these categories can be avoided. In the attack category the experience and intuition of the player is the only source of points.

Realism

1. The realism of an attack is important. When you are making an attack ask yourself whether or a not the attack is possible or efficient given the physicality of a wolf. Remember that the most dangerous part of a wolf is their jaws, that their limbs are for the most part stiff and less mobile, and that their claws are not as sharp as other species. Also make sure to ask yourself what is realistic in response to what is happening to your character and the time span you have in which to react.

Complexity vs. Multiplicity

This subject was briefly brought up earlier in the power-playing section. You will always get more points for a complex and concise attack move than for multiple, small attack moves. Using too many attack moves, as you must know already, can easily lead to confusion and power-playing. For example, "A bumped B with his chest while attempting to bite his face." is a better attack than "A attempted to bite B's face, then attempted to bite his neck, then attempted to kick him."

Injuries

The amount of points deducted for injuries are always round-based. Any damage your character takes in Round 2 will be deducted from your Round 2 judgement, this deduction does not carry on into your third round but any damage your character takes in Round 3 will be deducted from their Round 3 judgement. No points are deducted from either player in the first round. The amount of points deducted will vary depending on the severity of the injury. Note that bite wounds and attacks made to vulnerable areas will always result in more points being deducted.

Assuming Damage

1. It is your responsibility to respond to your opponent's attacks. You choose where they land exactly and what extent of damage that attack has done. A good idea is to simply classify damage as "light, moderate, or severe". Specifying functionality (i.e. if a leg could still bare weight or not) of the area is also good, as it helps gauge exactly what the wolf is still capable of.

2. Please be realistic with landings and extent of damage to avoid power-playing on your part. If you fail to acknowledge an attack from your opponent, your opponent is then allowed to assume where the attack that you ignored landed and the extent of damage that attack caused.

3. When countering attacks your opponent's attack should land within reason of where that attack was intended to hit. For example "A aimed for B's right forelimb." should result in damage somewhere on that limb. If you have attacks land in a dramatically different place than where they were intended you will lose points. Also make sure not to dramatically change the positioning of the fight in one post.

4. If your character made an attack in your last round that was not acknowledged by your opponent in their consecutive reply, then you may assume where that attack landed and the damage caused by the attack. However, please do not assume an unrealistic or unfair amount of damage to avoid power-playing.

Tier 1 Judging Guide

As this system is in beta, we would like to stress that points, wording, and categories may change, be deleted, or added. Staff will seek to always announce any changes made but it is also your responsibility to check for changes before beginning a battle.

Point System

Writing Section
Deductions should be for overall issues, not individual deductions, with two possible points per category per round


Power Play


Attempts:
Did they fail to attempt all attacks and movements related to their opponent?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Godmoding:
Did they take no damage from an attack that landed or assume damage on their opponent?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


If/Than Statements:
Did they make attacks or movements that would depend on the previous attack or movement succeeding?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Too Much Movement:
Did they make too many movements for their opponent to realistically have time to respond to?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Realism:
Did they make moves or attacks that are not realistically possible for a wolf to make or are physics-defying?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1, for major issues -2




Clarity


Attacks:
Are there issues understanding how or where they are attacking?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Positioning/Distance:
Are there issues understanding where they are at or are moving to?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Directions:
Are there issues with directions being mixed up?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


Movements/Dodges:
Are there issues understanding their movements or how they are dodging?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2


General Clarity:
Are there issues with sentences and legibility that interfere with reading the post?


No: full points awarded
Yes: for minor issues in the post -1 overall, for major issues -2




Attack
Up to 10 points


Minor attacks: +1
Major attacks: +2
Maim attempt: additional +1




Defense


+1 for each realistic, post-specific defense up to 5




Injuries
List all injuries even in the first round. Do not deduct first round. Begin with 10 points.


Minor injuries: -1
Moderate injuries: -2
Severe injuries and maims; -3


Character Status Section


Size
Beta without this
Build:


Height:




Experience
12 possible points


+1 point per rank for each assigned skill




Health
Start with 5 points


Loners: -1 point
Unhealed illness/injury related to official site events: -1 for minor, -2 for major
Unhealed injuries from previous fights: -1 for minor, -2 for major

Important note: OOC notes are not taken into account for points. We only count what is directly written in the post, so if Bob writes 4 defenses in his post, but lists 10 in his OOC notes, Bob still only gets 4 points for his defenses. The only note required to be OOCly stated in a fight post who/what is involved in the fight (NAME vs NAME for REASON), height/build of the player's character, and the rounds.