Callowmass

Important Safety Stuff

First things first, the important safety rules. These are as follows:

No stabbing
No punching, kicking or grappling. Unarmed attacks should be made lightly and with the palm of the hand.
Pull your blows
Do not attempt to block or parry arrows
Be aware of your surroundings. Weapons are LARP safe, Trees aren't.
If somebody calls Man Down or Time Stop, stop what you're doing immediately.
Use only weapons that have been cleared as LARP safe.
Use only weapons you are competent to use. In the case of bows, this implies actually having been cleared as competent to use them. In the case of weapons, you need to have the strength to properly draw your blows.
At all times behave responsibly

In addition, we LARP on common land, and occasionally members of the general public will show up. Should this happen, stop what you're doing and allow them to pass. At all times be polite, remember you are ambassadors for the society.

Blows to the head are legal in Callowmass but are considered impolite. Try to refrain from whacking each other on the head unless it is unavoidable.

Basic Concepts

Combat in Callowmass is run real time. Fights your characters get involved in are resolved by you and the other players actually having at each other with swords.

The body of a character is divided up into five locations. Two arms, two legs and the torso (including head). Each location has three hits. When struck on a location you will take damage depending on the weapon you are struck with. You lose a number of hits equal to the amount of damage you have taken. Damage can be either lethal or non-lethal. Furthermore, many attacks have special effects, which are represented by calls. As you run out of hits, bad things happen to your character.

Calls and States

At the heart of making LARP combat not-boring is the concept of calls. A call tells you what the effect of being hit is. The effect of a call is always the same, whether it comes from a physical blow, a spell, or monster special ability or whatever. In addition, some calls put your character in states.

Damage Calls

The simplest calls are the Damage Calls. These tell you how much damage you take from a hit. By convention, these calls go as follows:

Single: One point of damage. Average for unarmed attacks and daggers
Double: Two points of damage. Average for swords.
Triple: Three points of damage. Average for two handed weapons.
Quad: Four points of damage. A shedload.
...and so on

There is no upper limit on the amount of damage you can call on a single blow.

Defensive Calls

Defensive calls are used to stop your character getting hit. The two major ones are Dodge and Parry.

Dodge: A Dodge represents your character getting out of the way of an incoming attack. You may call Dodge to nullify the effects of any one hit. Dodges are gained from skills. A character may not Dodge Swift or Direct attacks. A character may not Dodge while prone or distracted. A character may not Dodge if one of their legs has been reduced to 0 or fewer hits.
Parry: A Parry represents your character deflecting a blow through superior skill-at-arms. You may call Parry to nullify any one hit. Parries are gained from skills. A character may not Parry Global or Direct attacks. A character may not parry arrows. A character may not Parry while distracted.
Luck: Luck represents just that. You may call Luck to nullify any one hit. A character has a pool of Luck they gain at the start of the adventure, which may be used for a variety of reasons. Direct attacks may not be avoided through Luck.
Nullify: Nullify is a catch all call, nullifying an effect stops that effect from working. Nullification can come from many sources, all special cases.

Attack Calls

Attack calls are far more numerous than defensive calls. A character can only ever apply up to two attack calls to a single attack. These calls may originate from skills, inherant properties of weapons, spells or many other sources.

Swift: Swift attacks cannot be Dodged or Parried
Through: Through attacks are not reduced or converted by armour.
Mighty: Mighty attacks cause the target to fall prone. A Parry will nullify a Mighty attack, but it will cause the target to become distracted for three seconds. A target also becomes distracted if they block a Mighty attack by normal means.
Critical: A Critical attack immediately reduces the location struck to -1 hits, regardless of armour.
Direct: Direct damage cannot be Dodged, Parried or nullified by Luck. Direct damage is not reduced or converted by armour. This sort of damage is usually magical in origin, but not always.
Global: A Global hit strikes every location on the target simultaneously. Global hits may not be Parried. Against monsters with global hit points, Global hits do 5x normal damage.
Lucky: Lucky attacks cannot be nullified by any means. They may still be reduced so as to cause 0 damage, however. A character must expend a point of Luck to make a lucky attack.
Trip: Trip attacks must strike the legs of their target. If the attack is not nullified, the target must fall prone.
Disarm: On striking an opponent's weapon, a call of Disarm will force them to drop that weapon. A call of Disarm may be nullified by Luck or by a second Disarm
Lethal/Nonlethal: These calls are only used if the damage caused by an attack is nonstandard or ambiguous. In general all weapons and spells do lethal damage, unarmed combat does nonlethal damage. A call of Lethal or Nonlethal should only be made if this is not the case.

States

A character may find themselves in a number of states in the course of the game.

Distracted: A Distracted character may not Dodge, Parry or use any skill that requires finesse or concentration. A Distracted character may cast spells only as Wild Magic. A Distracted character must roleplay their distraction, appropriate to its cause.
Prone: Prone characters are physically lying down. While prone, a character may not Dodge, since they may not fight as effectively, they also strike for one less point of damage until they stand up.
Incapacitated: An incapacitated character can do nothing except speak in a faltering manner. They may also be able to drag themselves, with difficulty, along the ground.

Injury, Healing, and Death

Ultimately, this is what this sort of LARP is all about. You go out, you injure people, and then you get healed or you die. You get injured when you take hits that you do not somehow nullify. You need to keep track of how many hits you have taken to each location, and what sort of damage they are (lethal or non-lethal, note that it is very rare for both sorts of damage to be present in the same encounter).

Injury

So long as you have at least one hit remaining on a location, you may continue to act normally. When a location is reduced to 0 hits it becomes useless. This has slightly different meanings depending on the location in question.

Leg: You must either drop to one knee, or drag that leg behind you, limp (whichever you feel more comfortable with). While a leg is useless you may not Dodge
Arm: That arm must fall limp. You cannot use that arm to weild weapons. If you switch a single handed weapon to your off hand, then see the notes on offhand weapons, below.
Torso: You collapse to the ground, incapacitated.

In addition, there are other effects if you have a location reduced to -1 or fewer hits by lethal damage.

Limb: If a limb is reduced to -1 or -2 hits by lethal damage, the pain is such that the owner is Distracted until the damage is converted or healed. If it is reduced to -3 or -4 hits, the limb is crippled. If it is reduced to -5 or below, it is severed
Torso: If the torso is reduced to -1 to -2 by lethal damage, the character is in serious risk of death. They have 60 seconds before they are beyond hope. If a character is reduced to -3 or below then they are killed. However you should see the section on luck below.

Healing

Healing may take place through magic (rare), alchemical potions (slightly less rare) or the skills of a healer (common). Rules for magic an alchemical potions are discussed elsewhere on this site. Rules for mundane healing are repeated in the appropriate skill descriptions, but are included here as well.

Healing may take place at any time, but since it requires the healer's full attention, it is not usually practical in combat. Lethal damage may not be healed by mundane means. Rather it must be converted to nonlethal damage and then healed.

Lethal damage may be converted in a number of ways

Immediately, by armour (see below)
Retroactively, by luck (see below)
With time, by skilled healing

It is the skilled healing that interests us now. Converting a level of lethal damage into nonlethal damage requires either the Staunch Bleeding skill and fifteen seconds, or the Surgery skill and five minutes. The Staunch Bleeding skill may only convert a single level of damage per location.

Once converted to nonlethal damage, damage can be healed using the Bind Wounds skill at the rate of one level of damage every 15 seconds. This requires one unit of appropriate healing supplies, purchased IC and phys repped OOC. Nonlethal damage will also just go away with time, at the rate of one level per encounter (from any one location), and/or at the rate of one level per location per night of bedrest. Lethal damage will not heal naturally, indeed a character with unattended lethal damage will eventually suffer complications and die.

Death, and how to avoid it

When a character is reduced to -1 or below on the torso, by lethal damage, they have 60 seconds before they become beyond hope. If the character is to survive, they must be raised above -1 hits, or have sufficient amounts of damage converted that they are no longer below 0 on lethal damage (ie, they must have no more lethal damage than they have base hits on the torso).

If a character is not healed in this time, they may spend a point of Luck to get an additional 60 seconds (repeating as nessecary), if they cannot, or choose not to, then they are considered beyond hope.

A character who is beyond hope is basically dead, they are holding on just long enough to have their One Last Gasp. Every character gets One Last Gasp. It may be one of the following:

Make a speech: The character can gasp out some final last words, and then pop their clogs.
Cast a spell: If the character still has an assimilated spell, they may cast it, and then die.
Pronounce a Death Curse: You may pronounce a Death Curse, as per the skill. You then die.
Make an attack: You may make one attack, this attack will, powered by dramatic necessity, strike as a Lucky Critical. You will then drop dead.

A character making their One Last Gasp may, despite being incapacitated, stand usteadily on their feet, and walk with pained and faltering steps in order to get into a suitable position. If a character has not had a suitable Last Gasp by the end of the encounter, they pretty much have to go for the speech option.

Characters may also die as the result of numerous other effects - poisons, diseases, magic and so on. These effects are usually unique, so they are discussed when they arise.

No mechanics are provided for death arising from complications related to unattended lethal damage, since this is a complex matter, unlikely to be relevant on the timescale of an adventure. We leave it in the hands of GMs.

Luck

As you may have noticed, the combat system in Callowmass is actually quite deadly, particularly where leathal damage is concerned. Lethal damage sticks around, takes ages to get rid of, and is very, very nasty. Fortunately, help is at hand! All PCs have a pool of Luck, this may be spent in a variety of ways.

It may be spent to make Lucky attacks.
It may be spent to nullify incoming attacks and effects.
It may be spent to resist temptation (see section on Adventuring)
It may be spent for plot breaks (see section on Adventuring)
It may be spent to survive an instant kill (from, say, being reduced to -3 on the torso). Luck spent in this way leaves you instead dying, with the usual 60 seconds grace.
Of most interest to us here, it may be spent to convert damage.

At the end of an encounter, and only at the end, a character may spend a point of Luck to retroactively convert all lethal damage they suffered during that encounter into non-lethal damage. It "isn't as bad as it looks". This is, of course, horribly unrealistic, and leads to situations where characters are lying bleeding on the floor one minute, and walking about with only a few bruises the next. This is a fine genre convention which we proudly and wholeheartedly support. Haystacks can help you survive really long falls as well.

Weapons and Armour

Without weapons and armour, this game would be, frankly, a bit pointless. There are a bewildering array of LRP weapons out there, and it would be quite impossible to categorise them all. Furthermore, since most of them work the exact same way anyway, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference.

Melee Weapons

Daggers: Daggers encompass everything from tiny little stilletto-type-things to sodding great longknives. By and large 18'' is the maximum sort of length a phys-rep can run to before you wind up in "sword" territory. Daggers have a base damage call of Single. Note that these are the only weapons that can be used with the Noble Art of Knives and the Silken Wind of Death (barring the use of the Steal Weapon skill)

Shortswords and Longswords: Longer than daggers, shorter than Bastard Swords. Game mechanically longswords and shortswords are identical, however for the purposes of the Weapon Specialisation and Defensive Specialisation skills, they count as different weapons. Longswords also cost more to buy (partially because, IC, they use more metal, and partially because OOC they have better reach). Phys-reps for these weapons are likely to be in the 24'' range for shortswords, and could be anything up to forty-something for a particularly aggregious longsword. Both longswords and shortswords have a base damage call of Double

Bastard Swords: Oh the joy of having a legitimate excuse to use the word "bastard". It's like being fifteen all over again. These are usually over 36'' long (so there is considerable overlap between a long longsword and a bastard sword. They also usually have a hilt designed to fit two hands. A bastard sword can either be wielded double handed (striking for Triples) or single handed (striking for Doubles). A character can only switch between single and double-handed use of the sword if they take Weapon Specialisation: Bastard Sword. A Bastard Sword cannot be used as an offhand weapon, and does not count as suitable for use with the Shining Dance of Swords, even if carried one-handed

Two Handed Swords and Greatswords: Apparently there's a difference, but I'm buggered if I know what it is. These are your really big swords, usually in excess of forty or so inches. They must be used in two hands, and strike for Triples as standard.

Staves: Perhaps the easiest weapons to properly define, they're the long straight shafts with no whackey bit at the end. Although they have reach, they ultimately aren't as dangerous as swords, as a result they only strike for Singles as standard.

Maces, Axes and All That Lot: Weapons with a haft and a bit on the end to whack people with. These are probably your broadest category of weapons, but frankly they're not as pretty as swords, so they get short shrift from me. They strike for Doubles as standard and are usually one handed.

Greataxes, Polearms and Stuff Like That: Not being Gary Gygax, I'm not about to rattle off a huge list of glaives, guisarmes, halberds and suchlike. It's got a long pole - probably 60'' or more - with a thwackey bit on the end. It does Triples as standard, and can be used with the Hafted Trip skill.

Ranged Weapons

Bows, Longbows, Crossbows: Again, you may be able to spot my biases as I lump all projectile weapons into one category. They shoot arrows. Arrows strike for Swift Doubles as standard. Arrows may also not be parried, either with the skill (because it's obviously silly), or physically with your weapon (because it's actually quite dangerous).

Throwing Daggers: These must be uncored, throw safe phys-reps. They strike for Singles as standard.

Frankly Silly Weapons

Frying Pans, Fish and Other Absurdities: There are all manner of LARP safe strangenesses in this world. Their stats are entirely at the discression of the GMs. In general, improvised weapons will strike for Singles. They are also likely to do nonlethal damage.

Armour

Callowmass deliberately downplays armour. It's just not entirely inkeeping with the whimsical feel I'm trying to create. Hence armour is incompatible with all styles of combat except for the Bloody Path of Steel. As a result armour does not have any categories like "light, medium, heavy". It's just armour. Plate, chain and the like are suitable phys reps.

Armour has the following effects:

All damage the wearer suffers is reduced by 1
Any Singles or Doubles striking the target are converted immediately to nonlethal damage.

Weapon and Armour Quality

Weapons and armour come in three possibile qualities. Shoddy, Standard or Master-Crafted.

Shoddy Weapons: Shoddy weapons are no use for serious fighting. A fighter using a shoddy weapon cannot make any of the following calls - Parry, Disarm, Through, or Swift (note that this does apply to Shoddy bows, they are deemed to be so inaccurate that their targets can effectively doge their fire). In addition, if a Mighty attack is made with a shoddy weapon, and the target parries (either with the call, or with their actual weapon), the weapon breaks. The same applies if a shoddy weapon is used to parry a Mighty attack.
Shoddy Armour: Shoddy armour provides no damage reduction.
Master Crafted Weapons: Master Crafted weapons are so well balanced that they provide their weilder with an extra Parry per encounter. Master crafted bows strike for Through damage. Master crafted throwing daggers count as Swift.
Master Crafted Armour: Master Crafted armour protects against all but the strongest blows. Triples are converted to nonlethal damage.

In addition, Master Crafted weapons and armour may also be ostentatious. Ostentatious weapons or armour grant +1 Luck to the user.

Special Cases and Fiddly Bits

Combat being a broad and complicated matter, there are all sorts of little twiddles that can come into play.

Carrying, Breaking and Losing Arrows

LRP arrows are, for obvious safety reasons, considerably chunkier than real ones. They're also really terribly expensive. As a result it seems unfair to limit the number of arrows an archer can carry IC to the number of arrows they have phys-reps for. On the other hand it is a little overgenerous to allow them to carry unlimited numbers of them. The rule, therefore, is this:

The number of arrows your character carries may be up to three times the number of phys-reps you are carrying.

Note that this means that there is a slim chance that you will fire all your phys-reps before you run out of IC arrows. On the other hand, chances are you'll be engaged in combat before that happens.

When collecting your arrows after a fight, you can be assumed to have "lost or broken" roughly half of the arrows you fired. Keep track of how many arrows you have total on your battleboard, or mentally. In various circumstances you may find that a greater proportion of your arrows are lost (if the fight takes place at midnight in a swamp, for example)

Backstabbing

Rather than provide a skill for this, I thought it would be sensible to just allow everybody to do it, but to let some people be better at it than others.

A character may backtab in only two sets of circumstnaces. Either the victim must in no way be expecting you to attack them, or they must be presenting no defence.

A character counts as "in no way expecting you to attack them" in the following circumstances:

They trust you, and believe you to be an ally.
They are deeply engaged in some other, non-combat activity, and have not acknowledged your presence.
They otherwise demonstrate, by word or action, that they consider you to be no threat to them

A character counts as "presenting no defence" if you are capable of holding your weapon against their body for three seconds without their attempting to knock it away.

Unarmed Combat

We said it at the top of the page, but we'll say it again. Do not punch, kick, grab or grapple anybody in a LRP setting. It isn't safe. Unarmed combat is dealt with by touching your target lightly with an open palm. Unarmed combat deals nonlethal singles as standard. An unarmed character cannot Parry unless they have a skill that specifically says otherwise.