Combat is an enjoyable and rewarding experience in Solaris RPG. Whether it be a friendly duel or competition in the Arena of the Elites or a thrilling battle to the death somewhere in the wilderness, combat is like no other form of interaction could ever live up to. The Battle Basics Guide is meant to be an overview of what a battle should look like from the perspective of both the player and the character. It will only include the bare necessities of combat. For a more in-depth look at specific mechanics, see the Advanced Battle Guide. For a study into the mathematical equations that run combat, see the Battle Calculations Guide.

Why battle?
There are several reasons to battle. It gives more experience points per word than any of the other types of sessions. Questing sessions and training sessions are alright for a few credits and some experience, but many players find writing sessions by themselves to be boring and stale. Role play sessions provide an opportunity for a character to grow through scenarios and dialog and provide some reasonable points, but battles are filled with excitement, skill, and even chance; they’re not just casual chats at the tavern. It is hard to describe the feeling one gets playing a character in combat.

Solaris was originally a ‘paper and pencil’ RPG that was built solely around fighting. While the game has evolved for over a decade-and-a-half into what it is now, combat still plays an extraordinary role in the structure of the game play. All characters are required to choose their race and job class, favored forces, and allocate AP which are all for the purposes of battle. Even if your character is against it and is played to avoid it, most all characters will one day find themselves in combat, so it is vital that all players understand the basics.

What should I expect from a battle?
While normal RP sessions are pretty relaxed and almost even reminiscent of a free form, battles are much different. Battles give exceptional experience and can even result in gain or loss of credits, items, or life! Therefore, these rules have been put into place in order to ensure that these important events are fair to all involved. Players will likely be more particular about the details of posts so don’t be surprised if you are asked to reword a post or clarify some aspect that seems hazy to another combatant. In a role play session, it probably doesn’t matter if you are raising your left or right hand toward someone. In combat, it might.

The most important thing to remember in a battle setting is to be patient. Most players will try to pack more into a turn than they do in a regular role play session and they want every word to be perfect and every motion to be beautifully described, so posts might come less frequently than in a role play session. Also, especially when the character stakes are high, players might become desperate or sloppy in their execution of posts, so be kind and understanding when you need to ask for clarification as to what their character is doing, what ability they are employing, or what bonuses they are counting in order to give them extra perks that you do not understand.

What can I do when it's my turn?
While in an RP setting, most players will make posts back and forth in turn but this is not entirely necessary. However, combat strictly falls into a turn-based system where time must be given for all combatants to act in a structured order.

The basics of combat are simple: “reaction then action”.

The reaction half of a turn is just putting the period on the end of the sentence that your opponent started on his turn. Simply put, if he attacked you, then you have to react. If the attack hits, you need to describe what happens; maybe your character brushes it off or maybe he yelps in pain – maybe it hit something vital and he comes out of it with a limp. Alternatively, if the attack is avoided, then you must describe the acrobatic flip out of the way or the precise parry that knocked the attack away.

The action half of each turn involves making an attack of your own. There are some quick actions that can happen as well, including short movements, like a few steps, or yelling something unsportsmanlike to the opponent. In general, try not to bog down the post too much by trying to fit in a manifesto every time. Concise posting back and forth really keeps the flow of the game going and makes for a much better experience.

After your “reaction then action,” your opponent will have to react to your action then make one of his own. In such case, you will have to react to his action and so on and so on until the battle is complete. There are times where there might be breaks in the battle – characters might take a second to catch their breaths and hurl insults instead of energy – or a character might act in a way to “skip” his action in order to lull you into a false sense of security and pull off a more elaborate attack. If this happens, then you can just skip your reaction and get right to your next action, as there is nothing to react to.

Overall, what you can do in a turn in combat is not much different from what you can do in a normal RP session. Above all, though, is the golden rule of text-based playing that is true for role play sessions but ten times more important in battles: do not ‘auto’.

What the heck is an 'auto'?
While the explanation of what an auto is can be found many times throughout the rules, the Battle Guides might be the most important. The concept behind an auto is that it is an action that forces another player to act in a certain way. You cannot describe grabbing hold of someone and forcing them into a grapple. You cannot describe striking someone with a weapon and forcing them to take damage. You cannot describe reaching out your hand to cover someone’s mouth to force them into silence. ‘Punching someone in the face’ is different than ‘making an unarmed strike directed at someone’s face’.

Autos sometimes happen on accident so it is important not to get worked up if you think someone is intentionally autoing you. It is difficult to catch every single mistake within a post, just like a typo, and in fact, sometimes they are only that. Some perfectly legal actions can be transformed into an auto with a simple replaced preposition.

If you do let one slip in battle, just apologize or make a correction as though it were a typo. If you are at the receiving end of an auto then treat it like a legal attack. If you opponent describes punching you in the face, pretend that he instead described himself as punching toward your face and act as though it were any other attack. If you opponent continuously does this and is non-responsive when told that he is breaking the core rules of Solaris, then feel free to leave the session. The Staff does not give out credits, experience, items, or any satisfaction to cheaters. Don't feel like you are denying him points by getting out of there – he wouldn’t get anything anyway.

How do I make an attack?
Being able to attack well is an important skill on Solaris. Veteran players in a fight will act very differently to well executed and described actions. Some even feel that wonderful attacks bypass the need for stats to determine whether or not it hits. Good attacks hit. Bad attacks don’t.

EXAMPLE:
Dave: *Dave attacks Kenneth with his sword.*

This is an example of a bad attack. Dave must not have been playing very long or, at the very least, he hasn’t read the Battle Basics Guide. Think of all the ways you can attack with a sword; you can jab or poke, slash, or even come in with the pommel. And think of all the different types of swords. Sure you can look at Dave’s character page to see it, but he can describe how he is swinging his greatsword which would be much different than a cutlass. And do not forget all the areas of attack that Dave could seek. He could go for the head, the legs, the chest, the arms, etcetera. When it comes right down to it, Dave is not only making things for difficult for Kenneth, he is stripping himself of rewards. The experience gain for a battle (as well as any other session) is based on the length of the session and this prep doesn’t contain a lot of words. Let’s take a break and let Dave read the Battle Guide and come back to us.

EXAMPLE:
Dave: *Dave takes a half-step toward Kenneth to close some of the distance between them. With a grunt, he lifts his heavy greatsword off of the ground and pulls the bulk of metal over his own head in a devastating vertical blow meant to outright split Kenneth in twain.*

Now this is more like it! Not only does this post contain eight times the word count than that previous attempt, this attack is descriptive and easy to understand. It is important to write in this way in order that everyone else knows exactly what your character is doing. It is pretty easy to imagine what your character would do in a situation and to picture it in your mind, but if you cannot describe the actions well, no one else will be able to see what you see.

What actions can I make in a turn?
As described before, as the second half of your “reaction then action” schedule, you get your action. In general, you can make a basic attack or use an Action Ability. (There are other actions you can take that will be described as they arise.)

The most basic attacks that any character can take are unarmed strikes. Making an attack without a weapon is not limited to one’s fists. You can kick, karate chop, elbow, or lash out with any method you can think of. And you aren’t even limited to strikes; you can grapple, tackle, scratch and bite, etcetera. While unarmed strikes are often the least damaging, they can be the most creative and the least predictable.

Physical attacks like these can also be made with a weapon. In the last section, we already described the huge variety of attacks you can make, even with the same weapon. You can sweep the legs. You can go for a jab right to the chest. You can aim for the neck. Just like with unarmed strikes, try not to let yourself be constrained by the thoughts that there is only one way to swing a hammer or even shoot a bow.

And all that is just for physical attacks. Characters can also make force attacks where they summon energy or elemental magic in a ball and hurl it at their enemy. Making force attacks is very similar to making physical attacks; remember that detail is the key. Describe what the energy looks like and how its light creates shadows on the ground; maybe your character strikes a pose before he throws the attack or maybe he grimaces as he shows his opponent the power he controls.

EXAMPLE:
Kenneth: *A ball of brilliant blue pure water force appears above Kenneth’s palm as his fingers each twitch in sequence. He winds up his pitching arm and lets the force loose in a shot aimed dead center at Dave’s chest.*

Characters will gain a plethora of other abilities to use in battle from the Level Guide as they grow in level, from the Race Guide at the character’s creation depending on race, from the Job Class Guide at various points in a character’s development according to their job class, and from other sources as well. When using an Action Ability (or any ability, for that matter) instead of just a run-of-the-mill attack, be sure to mention the name of the ability you are using, because it is unlikely that your opponent will be immediately familiar with all of the perks your character has.

The most important abilities that you will gain are Special Abilities granted in the level guide. These can often be unique attacks or techniques that each player gets to make up for their character or even things that one can learn from dedicated training under a master. It is even more important to name and describe these abilities when used – it’s not like this is something your opponent has ever had to worry about before or has found on the site and has been anticipating learning himself.

What if I don’t want to make an unarmed attack but don’t have a weapon?
Well, maybe you’re fighting a wild animal with giant teeth and you are hesitant to kick it as you really like having a foot at the end of your leg. Or maybe you’ve been disarmed and you need something to parry your opponent’s blows away. Or maybe you’re foe is just too far and you want to just pick up a brick and chuck it at his head. This is where the idea of an improvised weapon comes in.

An improvised weapon is anything that you wish to use as a weapon that does not have an attack rating, meaning you could even consider your shield to be an improvised weapon if you so desired. These weapons count as having an attack value of zero, meaning that hitting with a weapon like this will deal only as much damage as an unarmed strike, but using one may be more useful than a normal punch in certain situations.

Now what was this about a “reaction”?
Now that you have a grasp on what you do with the second half of your prep, let’s look at the first half. Reactions are often times more difficult because not only do you have to make sure to give enough detail, you have to make sure you understand what you are reacting to. If you don’t understand another player’s description for his attack, then it is impossible to make a good reaction. He said that he jumped off the ground, kicked off a tree, and fired himself off like an arrow at you – maybe he forgot to mention if he drew a weapon or if he is just going for a tackle or maybe he forgot that you were in the middle of a beach. Whatever the issue is, make sure to resolve it before you try to react.

When an enemy makes an attack against your character, you have the option to attempt avoiding the attack. How to determine if you are successful depends on the roll of a dice, and more information regarding how to make this roll and how to determine the outcome is given in the Advanced Battle and Battle Calculation Guides. In general, the outcome will be dodge, parry, or take the hit.

How do I take a hit?
Being able to take a hit is undoubtedly the most difficult and most important parts of combat in Solaris. Just like making attacks, when taking hits a character must be very delicate and very descriptive. The player is required to imagine not only the attack, but the connection of the blow and the reprisal. The character’s reaction of pain or his waning constitution needs to be portrayed to all the other players.

EXAMPLE:
Dave: *The warrior jumps to the side, but he doesn’t quite make it out of the way and the magical force connects with his shoulder. He grits his teeth in pain as his torso twists at the waist in reaction to the blow.*

How do I dodge or parry an attack?
Again, with all playing within a combat situation, avoiding an attack needs to be descriptive enough that the other parties can see what you imagine. Whether it is by moving to the side to avoid an attack, using a perk or ability to nullify the strike, or deflecting an attack with a parry, avoiding means that a character prevents taking damage from the attack.

EXAMPLE:
Kenneth: *He quickly and instinctively turns to the side. Kenneth takes a step back hastily and watches the sword pass mere inches from the front of his face. He almost falls as he continues to stumble further back and nearly catches his heel on a fallen branch, but he manages to get a good five yards back.*

Distance is sometimes a concern, both to those who rely on melee attacks and those that want to keep their opponents further than arm’s length. It is often a good idea to mention distances between characters or even the distance between you and an important object or area (from a building, from the Elf Stone, from the shoreline, etc). These details can become pertinent to your or another’s reactions or actions.

When do I avoid an attack versus when do I take a hit?
There are two main ways to avoid an attack; dodging and parrying. In both of these cases, whether or not you get hit is determined by the roll of a die. There may be a few other ways to avoid an attack or even just avoid the damage caused by the attack, like job class capabilities, for example, but they will likely not be based on a roll.

Both physical and force attacks can be dodged. This is shown with a character ducking, jumping, or moving his body in a way to completely avoid the attack coming in contact with himself. All characters can dodge and almost all attacks or abilities will give you the opportunity to side-step or jump out of the way. There are extremely few exceptions (and this will be noted in the descriptions) and no character can create a Special Ability that makes this exception.

Only physical attacks can be parried - force attacks cannot simply be knocked aside by a blade. In order to parry, you must be wielding a weapon. Improvised weapons can work as well, but they must be the same size or larger than a dagger. This means that you cannot just pick up a rock and expect to knock blades aside, but if you grab a cooking pan or a large, sturdy stick, you may have more successful results. If it seems questionable, discuss it with your opponent before you try to use it in order to avoid confrontation. Blocking is a special form of parrying; it works identically, except that you must be wielding a shield in order to block. Improvised items cannot be declared as shields.

If you block or parry, you cannot use that shield or weapon until the end of your next turn, meaning that you cannot attack with the weapon or use either to block or parry again if you are assaulted from multiple fronts. If you fail to block or parry and will be struck by an attack, you may add flavor to your reaction by having the blow “graze off your weapon” and strike you in the side instead of your neck, where it was aimed – in this case, you take full damage as normal and your weapon is not considered to have parried so it can be used during your turn. This technique may be useful to avoid a situation where your character should be “instantly killed” by an attack.

How much damage will I take when I do end up getting hit?
The incoming damage depends on who is attacking and how he is attacking. A higher level character will usually be more specialized in his particular field of damage, be it physical, energy, or elemental. When he uses one of his signature strikes, you should expect taking some heat from it. However, most characters like to make sure that they aren’t one-trick ponies, so they might strike at you with a different type of attack, one that they are not quite as prone to using, which won’t pack quite as much of a punch, but might have been better in this situation.

How can I reduce incoming damage?
Every character has damage reductions, one for each of the three types of damage. As he focuses in a particular type of damage, he too will begin to see an increase in his resistance to that type of damage. Furthermore, if your character wishes to specialize in defenses even more, then he should consider obtaining and upgrading a piece of armor, which will further increase damage reduction values. All of this is described more fully in the Vital Stats Guide.

So could you explain again the idea of “reaction then action”?
Now that you understand the concepts of both reaction and action separately, we can now put them together in a battle prep. Combining the examples already shown, Dave and Kenneth can once again show us some good examples in play.

EXAMPLE:
Dave: *The warrior jumps to the side, but he doesn’t quite make it out of the way and the magical force connects with his shoulder. He grits his teeth in pain as his torso twists at the waist in reaction to the blow. Dave then rights himself and takes a half-step toward Kenneth to close some of the distance between them. With a grunt, he lifts his heavy greatsword off of the ground and pulls the bulk of metal over his own head in a devastating vertical blow meant to outright split Kenneth in twain.*

Kenneth: *He quickly and instinctively turns to the side. Kenneth takes a step back hastily and watches the sword pass mere inches from the front of his face. He almost falls as he continues to stumble further back and nearly catches his heel on a fallen branch, but he manages to get a good five yards back. A ball of brilliant blue pure water force appears above Kenneth’s palm as his fingers each twitch in sequence. He winds up his pitching arm and lets the force loose in a shot aimed dead center at Dave’s chest.*

In this example, the dodge roll that Kenneth made has been removed. Obviously, Kenneth had to use the knowledge he has gained by reading the Battle Calculations Guide to determine what he needed to roll in order to make that dodge, then he rolled and was successful.

The boards have a character limit when posting, so sometimes you might run out of room when taking a turn. The easiest way to deal with this is to indicate that the turn is not over and that you will be finishing in another post. This is usually done with a ‘c’ (standing for “continuation”) in parenthesis. The character limit is pretty substantial, so if you continuously run into this limit then you may need to pay more heed to the lengths of your posts. While bigger posts are usually more descriptive and desirable, too large of posts might indicate that you are trying to load too much into each action. This can make things difficult for other players to keep track of, so please play responsibly.

EXAMPLE:
Kenneth: *He quickly and instinctively turns to the side. Kenneth takes a step back hastily and watches the sword pass mere inches from the front of his face. He almost falls as he continues to stumble further back and nearly catches his heel on a fallen branch, but he manages to get a good five yards back. A ball of brilliant blue pure water force appears above Kenneth’s palm as his fingers each twitch in sequence.* (c)
Kenneth: *He winds up his pitching arm and lets the force loose in a shot aimed dead center at Dave’s chest.*

Congratulations; you now can successfully battle like a seasoned veteran!

What is the difference between a spar and a fight?
While sparring and fighting are both considered combat situations, spars are mostly for training and fights are to determine who lives and who dies. The most common location for sparring is in the Arena of the Elites located in Elyndrel. As described in the area description given on the Map page, the Arena will renew the life of those that fall within its walls, which is perfect for those who wish to battle without holding back any punches yet do not want to cause permanent damage. Sparring can happen anywhere; however, one must keep in mind that without the protection of the Arena, a killing blow is a killing blow.

Fights can happen anywhere and can happen for all sorts of reasons. Revenge, greed, pride, lust, rage, and desperation only begin the long list. In such a battle where one’s life is on the line, the adrenaline spikes and the BTMs are able to work inside the combatants at an alarming speed, reinforcing them and energizing them, which is why character receive so much experience for fighting.

What do I get for winning a spar?
In short, nothing. Experience gains from a spar are independent of outcome, meaning that there is no gain difference between winning and losing. Spars are for fun and for training, and mostly for little else. Wagers have been placed on sparring matches before, and likely will again, so betting on oneself might earn some money. There might be other events, such as competitions for fighters to prove their worth in combat, that could have prizes to win as well.

What do I get for winning a fight?
If you win a fight by beating down your opponent and leaving him to die or if you win a fight by scaring your opponent into fleeing the area, then you have won the fight and you are the victor! Also, in the first scenario, the winner of the fight is allowed to take some items from the loser as a token of their victory or as a sign of arrogance. Some items are protected from being taken at all such as runes and items with Family Curse, so be sure to check if this is the case before you start a fight just to steal an item.

What do I get for killing another player character?
You can also win a fight by slaying your opponent. You gain bonus experience (20% of the victim's total EXP) for killing, on top of the normal earned amount for a Battle Session. However, this only counts for killing other player characters within five levels of your character. Also, dead opponents won’t need their worldly possessions, so the winner may take items from the loser. Please refer to the Advanced Battle Guide for further information about death in the world of Solaris.

What happens when I lose a fight?
In short, if your opponent beats you in a fight, it is up to him what happens. You gain all experience gained from your word count, regardless of the outcome, but you are in danger of losing items and you may even die.

Did you say d-d-d-d-die?
Death is a serious but often times inevitable outcome of fighting. If you draw a weapon against another character (or refuse to draw your weapon as a defense against one who has against you) then you are risking your character’s life. And don’t think for a second that another player won’t kill yours because you are friends in real life or because you ask them not to; remember what it says in the Gameplay Guide about character knowledge. And even outside the case of two players fighting it out, not even members of the Staff can “forbid” you from having your character kill a storyline NPC. No one is safe from the clutches of death.

If a character dies, there are a few ways to come back. Several job classes have the ability to revive a fighter in combat, in which you will come back squeaky clean. These job classes can also revive you outside of the combat (in certain cases that must be preordained by the Staff) but that will carry an experience penalty when your character returns. The Advanced Battle Guide takes a closer look at death in Solaris

If you do not wish to die and are unable to defeat your opponent, then maybe it is time to put your tail between your hind legs and get the hell out of there.

How do I escape a battle?
Running from a fight usually takes multiple turns because it often takes multiple tries. Escaping counts as your action, so you can’t flee and throw attacks over your shoulder at the same time. Just like attacking and defending, when a character makes an escape attempt, he cannot just say that he runs out; this would be the equivalent of an ‘auto’ in battle. Therefore, the opponent will have a chance to try to cut your character off from escape, create barriers and coordinate attacks to stop the path of the escapee.

EXAMPLE:
Kenneth: *He runs to the side to avoid the weapon but runs his chest right into the fire attack, just as his opponent planned. Kenneth falls to his knees for a split second but shoots from this position like a runner at the blocks, taking into the air in a magnificent leap. He weaves through branches before he hits the ground running for safety several dozen yards from Dave.*

Don’t be surprised if Dave takes chase and maybe even tries a leap of his own in order to land in front of Kenneth. Maybe if he is carrying projectiles, such as throwing daggers, he will make some attacks during the race to try to slow Kenneth down. I mean, why wouldn’t he? Whether or not he catches him is determined by another roll of the dice, so this information can be found in the Advanced Battle Guide.

How do I deal with player abuse?
What happens if every action your opponent makes is an “auto”? What happens if no matter what you do your opponent uses out of character knowledge to know every single one of your character’s moves and personalities, despite the fact that your characters have never met? What happens if every time you enter the forest for a casual chat another character attacks you for no reason? All of these things, and more, can be counted as abuse.

The first thing you should do is try to talk to the other person in OOC chat or through IM trying to pacify the situation. Inform him that you don’t want to fight every single time you play and enjoy a peaceful role play every once in a while. Inform him that you are running because you don’t want to fight, not because you don’t want to fight him. Inform him that you feel that he is not following the rules. But whatever you do, try to do it with maturity and patience. If your opponent ignores your attempts at conversation or berates your concerns harshly, then the easiest way is to just leave.

EXAMPLE:
Dave: *leaves*

This is a kind of thing that will make players angry; whether you do this in the middle of a chat by the fountain or when a character charges out of the forest with spear in hand, just like every other time he comes online and you are trying to play. Actions like this will likely, and probably should, be made aware to the Staff. However, when it comes time for you to tell your side of the story, tell your side of the story.

Don’t be sheepish - copy-paste some of the stuff the harasser has said to give as evidence. Even if he denies saying these things, all of the chats (even the private messages) are recorded and archived automatically, so the truth will come out.

When the Staff has learned all of the events, they will come to a conclusion about how to settle the matter. The Staff may, at any time, reward an abused player experience he has been denied due to harassment; and they may also penalize the abuser. The Staff reserves the right to, for whatever reason, penalize a player through loss of experience, credits, items, etcetera to any or all of his characters and remove a player’s right to have a market class, play NPCs, have multiple characters, etcetera.