Combat and Injury

As the framing of ‘scenes’ suggests, the goal of any fight in this game is for it to look impressive and cinematic. The weapons of the 41st millennium are brutal and weighty, and we want to show this. To this end, we want players to react to every blow in a fight, in an overt and dramatic fashion.

Dramatic Melee

To deal Endurance damage, melee blows should be large, obviously telegraphed, and accompanied by a war cry or a damage call – like a computer game character using a ‘special attack’. Quick and rapid attacks do stagger and stun a character, and should be reacted to, but they leave superficial bruises and cuts rather than causing mechanical injury. Even when making rapid attacks, you should not strike someone any faster than once per second, and you should not ‘drumroll’ (rapidly strike the same area repeatedly).

Universal Combat Rules

In the game there are two distinct areas of combat Melee combat, which is based around striking your opponent with LARP-safe weaponry. And Ranged combat which is entirely based around calls.

Where calls are used in both Melee and Ranged combat they may only be used once every three seconds – all calls, apart from Blam (which represents the most basic ranged attack), represent dramatic and decisive actions, they tend to be more limited in the number that appear in a combat, so when they do its supposed to be significant, its rare for NPCs to have calls more significant than ‘Blam’ unless they are intended to be dangerous threats or important characters.

If your call is not reacted to (this usually happens because it wasn’t heard) and it is a limited-use call, then you retain that use of it as if you hadn’t made the call. In a melee characters can ‘parry’ calls with melee weapons (or shields if they have the Aegis Training trait) this is considered a reaction and thusly the call is spent, the call Sunder can be parried but destroys the parrying weapon/shield unless that weapon is a Power Weapon, or a Relic.

The rules later will refer to a process of Brutalizing an opponent, this is the act of attacking a wounded individual on the ground to leave them bloodied and bleeding out it is done by the most dangerous and intelligent NPCs only in normal circumstances NPCs will not be briefed to Brutalize PCs. This is also only relevant for harming PCs; most NPCs will simply die when they become wounded and not need you to worry about keeping them down unless they have a specific nature that causes them to rise from what would be mortal wounds to a human.

Ranged Combat Rules

Ranged combat is ‘calls-based’ in this game, what we mean by that is Ranged calls should be prefixed with the name or an identifying description of the target – so "Ben, Rend!" or "Blue Hat, Blam!" This isn't required in melee – the blow hits whoever it hits.

At night, torches are not viable targets – don’t call “Red lamp, Blam!” etc – but when you’re the one with the torch, do take care not to point it directly at your opponents to avoid dazzling them.

Blam is the universal ranged call, all firearms physreps can always call Blam . For most common firearms this represents their weaker power compared to the more fantastic weapons in the universe, but for more powerful weapons this represents them firing at ‘low power’ or simply the shot only doing grazing damage to the target because it’s not hitting their center of mass. Where a firearm is used to only call Blam in a scene it does not expend Ammunition and a firearm does not need Ammunition to call Blam.

While in previous iterations of the rules it was required to carry a simple ‘backup’ weapon such as a Laspistol to make use of ‘unlimited Blam’, this iteration of the rules does not include that requirement.

The DuD Game Team recognize the financial investment in buying special props as is required by the more powerful firearms wargear traits mean players might not be able to afford multiple weapons props as such whatever narrative convenience for your prop that is appropriate to explain this is up to you.

To make any other call you must have Ammunition remaining, if you run out of Ammunition you may not make any other call with a firearm prop. This means that props designed to function with the Purifying Weapons or Heavy Weapons traits will cease to function when you run out of ammo as those weapons specifically cannot call Blam, and you should be aware of this when purchasing those traits.

Firearms have Ranges, these determined by their size:

• A Pistol (small prop, wielded in one hand) have a range of Five Meters and cannot be used to make calls at targets outside of that.

• Larger weapons (must be wielded in two hands unless specific traits apply) have a range of ‘hearing’ i.e. they can affect any opponent who can hear them.

In the rare specific circumstance where a ref makes themselves available to ‘relay’ a very long distance shot a weapon must have a scope and has a range equal to that of the firers ability to make out their target to describe them accurately.

No thrown weapons besides Grenades can be used at DUD. This ensures that if people see a thrown physrep, they know that it is a grenade and are more able to react appropriately.

Cover (Ranged Combat)

The benefits of taking cover only apply against calls made by a ranged weapon, also notably unless a character has a rule that says otherwise they do not apply against the call Burn or Sunder. To count as Cover, something must be a solid object that cannot be seen through, which covers most of your body. It does not need to be subjectively ‘hard enough to stop bullets’; soft items can still prevent you being hit, simply by meaning the enemy can’t quite be sure where to aim. The Traits Adept Mortis, Vigilator and Aegis Training provide alternatives to using hard cover to gain this benefit.

Cover protects you from the first two ranged attacks made against you from the other side of it, after which you must move to a new piece of cover to ‘refresh’ this protection. Characters with Traits such as Adept Mortis, Vigilator and Aegis Training must take five long steps instead to refresh their unique forms of cover.

Combat Safety

• All weapons intended to be used in melee must be LARP safe. This means they have been tested by a member of the Game Team and conform to our safety standards.

• Ranged weapons do not need to be LARP safe. However, if converted from firing props/airsoft/nerf weaponry they must be unloaded and made safe so they cannot fire and no ammunition for them may be brought to DuD games. If you fail to follow this you can be excluded from the event.

• Where you are using a ranged weapon and enter Melee you are responsible for making your weapon safe this means if you are not using a LARP-safe prop you must move your weapon out of the way even if this involves you hindering your ability to react to an opponent. Accidents happen, but we do recommend that players planning to engage heavily in close-ranged combat consider carrying weapons that are easy to make safe, or physreps that are safer for those around them to collide with (these do not need to follow ‘LARP-safe’ construction rules unless you want them for striking an opponent, but weapons constructed from softer materials are inherently safer at close quarters).

• All blows in Melee must be pulled. For anyone not used to LARP combat, pulling a blow is the act of slowing the weapon before it strikes the target, so that it hits with a minimal tap. Sometimes people will misjudge this – it happens – but you should always be trying your best to pull every blow, and slow down or back off from a fight if you begin to find it difficult.

• Blows to the head are discouraged, as we believe they are less safe than other elements of combat. You should avoid them – but if they occur by accident, treat blows to the head as if they are striking the body (including the effect of any armour worn).

• The use of hands and grappling in melee is specifically restricted to controlled situations where both parties have exchanged enthusiastic consent immediately prior to engaging in this roleplay. This should never occur in a situation where there is a mass combat occurring around the individuals, nor in an enclosed space where there is a danger of their physical roleplay leading to injury to themselves or accidentally striking those who have not consented to participate.