Safety Reminders from Captain Safety

Traceroo

Traceroo

Rogue
Personal disclaimer: I R tiredz0r. I have no brain. If there are whole words left out of this, and parts make less sense than they should -- by about Thursday of this week, someone please poke me virtually and say, "Um, Trace, in that safety post, did you mean to say it was okay to set your weapon reps on fire before going into combat with them?" Until then, please bear with me!

Official Safety Marshal post:

Hi Kids!

Just going back over a couple of points about safety that came out of the hours-long Closing Ceremonies after the September event.
  • Spell Packets: Don't use rice. Don't use sharp things like corn kernels. Finch or parakeet seed is the smallest and most smooth (although more pricey).

  • Charging: When you run up on an opponent to get close to them, this puts that person in fear of being physically mowed down by your awesome force. That's unsafe, please don't do it.

  • Clapping Monkey: Ever see this creepy little dude who makes the cymbals clap together?

6a7699945e3117bd8c134ee037115fda.jpg
Monsters and wilderkin fighting with claws can often use a combat style that's like the clapping monkey, whacking away frenetically on both sides of a trapped opponent in the middle with their claws. Don't be that guy. Don't be the clapping monkey.​
  • Distance to target: Especially in doorway fights, make sure you're standing at least weapon's length away from your opponent. If you're so close that you can't comfortably extend your arm without hitting a dude in the face, it's time to back up. (Props to Derek Reed, and some new NPC (male, black wavy hair below shoulder length) whose name I'm trying to track down for courteously doing this right, and backing up!)

  • Short People: If you're under 5'10", you're probably at greater risk for charging people, doing the clapping monkey maneuver, and getting up in an opponent's grill. This is because your reach is shorter, and you want to compete, and get in there, and GET YOU SOME! I'm 5'7" (which, let's be clear, is above average height for adult women in the United States, and therefore is like... super-duper tall, srsly!) But really -- short people, quit charging! I get a lot of complaints about short people, and I don't want to have to start rounding you up in camps until you learn not to charge. I really do mean YOU. Yes, you. If you're under 5'10", just assume I mean YOU and stop charging.

  • Blocking CLARIFICATION: Got some questions after Closing Ceremonies in clarification. Yeah, you can totally use your weapons to block others' weapons - that's what our combat system is based on. You can still do that.

    Let's say Undead Nightilit (who fo' sho' spells her name that way, no doubt, being undead and all) sticks her polearm through the doorway of a fortress that you're trying to defend. You pre-emptively strike its polearm with your sword to engage the weapon physically, and try to tie-up the polearm so that Undead Nightilit can't strike further.

    This is a legit legal move!

    ...but it's also a **** move.

    **** moves are legal in our combat system -- But if you make a habit out of them, then nobody will like you. So, it's really up to you how frequently you want to make a habit out of doing that.

  • Don't be a ****: This is the golden rule of safety in our game. Have fun, help others have fun, don't be a meanie. Be cool about stuff, and if you're getting hot under the collar in combat, time to step out and go help bring water to your friends for a few minutes. There'll always be more combat later.

Love & Kisses,
Trace Moriarty
Alliance Denver Safety & Weapons Marshal, tired
 
Trace....
I don't understand "Let's say [person] sticks her polearm through the doorway of a fortress that you're trying to defend. You pre-emptively strike its polearm with your sword to engage the weapon physically, and try to tie-up the polearm so that [person] can't strike further."

I am having trouble envisioning the move you are talking bout. Can we haz klarfikashun?
 
My reading of that is: Slap weapon aside, force them to rethink moving in, etc...but not "trap" the weapon. I guess..."pre-emptive parry"? :)
 
Jim has the right of it -- I'm gonna keep whacking your weapon with my weapon so you never get a chance to actually strike at me. You never get the chance to even lift the weapon to try to hit me, so I'm not really blocking, per se, I'm just whacking your weapon out of the way to keep you busy.

This move was a question that came up at Closing Ceremonies, and which spawned some further questions.

T$
 
My problem was, someone I couldn't even see, and therefore couldn't legally attack, was trying to pin my weapon against the door frame. I stopped focusing so much on winning the fight, and more on trying to keep the weapon from getting damaged.
 
About charging, one is still allowed to get close enough to strike someone with a weapon, correct? With a polearm, if I am backing up, is someone with short swords is still allowed to run towards me in order to get into range? Or, does backing up with a polearm make me immune to someone with swords?
 
If someone is pinning your weapon to a doorframe, that's NOT ok. Pinning mid-air is one thing (cuz it's not really pinned), but they can't push it into something solid to hold it.

And yes, short swords can run up on you...the shorter reach is normally figured for charging and it's reach of arms, not reach of weapons.
 
You can totally pin a weapon even without a door... especially if it has angles and stuff like a polearm or an axe.
 
But that isn't "pinning" by the book. Trapping/pinning is about immobility.

Edit: Let's get a marshal to weigh in...I'd rather not have two non-marshals banter about what we think the rules say. ^_^
 
Pinning Weapons: “Pinning” refers to a fighting tactic where you trap your opponent’s weapon so that it is unusable. Although pinning weapons is a mainstay of many swashbuckling movies, it is dangerous in combat and as such there are many restrictions as to its use. Pinning of weapons can only be done with another weapon, and only in areas where it is possible for the victim to escape by backing up and getting away. You cannot pin the weapon of someone backed to a wall or in a corner, because that player becomes unable to defend himself or herself because the rules prohibit any
battle actions except through weapons; shoving or charging in order to escape is not allowed.

Turns out the people who wrote the rulebook have difficulty with the concepts of "can" and "may".
 
Wording issues in the rulebook? Say it ain't so!
 
Official Weapons Marshal response:

Nissa: I apologize if I were unclear in my use of your NPC as an example in my initial post. To my observation, you did nothing wrong in that encounter. I saw a number of attempts to engage and tie-up your weapon, and questions arose later that sounded as if they were based on that incident. If I gave the implication that you had done wrong there, I apologize. What I wished to address was the attempts by your opponents to tie-up your weapon so that you couldn't even swing.

Pinning rules: Pinning the polearm against the doorframe is an utter **** move, and therefore not cool... but allowable within the rules. Nissa, as holder of the polearm, could back up to disengage. If that were not possible because there were a mob of people behind her, or an opponent used real world brute strength to trap her weapon physrep, or whatever -- That act of pinning would be against the rules. Golden rule time! Don't make a habit out of pinning, and pressing the question here of what's too much. If you're having to ask the question, "Have I gone too far?" let's assume the answer is YES. Be a good sportsman, fight fair OOG, and give everyone a good fight. Don't be a ****.

Charging: You may run up TO an opponent to get within range -- such as in your example of the poor poor shortsword fighter who wants to take on the polearm master! Stop running when you're within range (counting both the reach of your arm, and the reach of your weapon). For all of the English majors engaged in this thread, I'll offer that a good rule here is to consider your prepositions. You may run up TO an opponent; do not run up ON them.

Trace Moriarty
Alliance Denver
Safety & Weapons Marshal
 
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