Combat Environment

A page detailing different IC environments and their role in Combat within Medieval Discord.

One of the largest shortcomings of MD's combat system is its inability to account for WHERE the combat is taking place and to incorporate that context into the fight itself. This is inevitable due to it being a 1v1 model. This was supposedly fixed by adding Summons to combat; the ability to call upon loyal subordinates who would fight with you. This mechanic ended up causing more problems than it fixed. However, VEA changes the game once more by removing Summons, and filling the hole it would leave behind. But it doesn't stop just there, it further expands upon this need to contextualize fights within the IC world by adding the concept of a Combat Environment.

To put it quite simply, the Combat Environment mechanic is meant to represent the surroundings around you during combat. Every channel has its own Combat Environment (visible in the channel topic) that modifies combat in its own way, depending on who is fighting there and how. The CE is made up of two factors:

• The Physical Surroundings (Geography, Buildings)

  • Outside (Beyond the City walls)

  • Urban (Within the City streets)

  • Indoors (In a building's communal space)

  • Cramped (In a single room)

• The Population (NPC Presence)

  • Barren (No people or very few)

  • Crowded (People in every direction)

  • Guarded (Under guard by the City Watch)

Environment	Attack Roll EM	Defense Roll EM	Dodge Roll EM	Run Roll EM
Outside	+1	0	+2	+2
Urban	0	+1	0	+1
Indoors	-1	0	-1	0
Cramped	-2	-1	-4	-2
Barren	+1	0	0	+2
Crowded	-1	0	-2	-2
Guarded	-4	+2	0	-4

Fighting in Guarded areas means that there is a number of Watch members present at the scene. This makes combat more difficult and adds a background roll to the Combat Instance where every attack increases the likelihood of both combatants getting arrested by NPC Watchmen. (Watch members and Majesty will not be arrested if the roll succeeds)

-Every attack increases the chance of being arrested by 2%.

If a combat arrest is triggered, it will execute before the turn switches over to the next person. This means that if you attack someone and trigger the arrest, they will not get a chance to respond before you are both arrested.

Additionally, fighting in Guarded areas means most PC Watch members can have knowledge of the fight after it happens and will have a general description of what you looked like during the fight.