Legends of Belariath

Combat

Yielding

Yielding is designed to allow a character who is losing a fight badly to evade being killed and having the cost of a resurrection. It is not intended to allow players to make a sequence of silly attacks at minimal cost when they are obviously outclassed. Consequently it is not possible to rely on the yield rule to get you out of trouble if you keep looking for it.

During combat, when it is your turn to attack, you may instead offer to yield. Subject to the exceptions below, this must be accepted by the attacker providing you pay him/her weregild of 20Mh in compensation. A paladin, being more spiritually inclined, must accept a valid yield without financial compensation.

The rules below may over-ride your ability to yield and apply to all character types.

Initiating Attacks

Anyone can find themselves attacking an opponent who far outclasses them, without realising until it is too late. In fact is is rather poor roleplaying form to check an opponent's levels before interacting with them. That is why the option to yield exists. But when you have done it once, the sensible character does not attack that stronger person again. They steer clear and speak politely, or try to avoid being noticed. Unfortunately, since not all character behave sensibly, we need to have a rule to discourage repeat attacks.

  • The first time character A attacks character B, either actively or passively, and is forced to yield, character B has to accept a simple yield
  • A passive attack is defined as giving OOC consent to combat by reason of your character's actions or words (see implicit OOC consent in the Rules)
  • Following this defeat, if character A again initiates combat with character B, either actively or passively, character B is not obliged to accept a basic yield. Note that this only applies if character A initiates both combats.
  • If these criteria are met, character B can:
    • refuse to accept a yield so combat continues to death
    • accept the yield as standard
    • demand different terms to accept the yield. Examples may be demanding higher weregild, demanding a service from character A, etc.
  • Character A may refuse to pay the demanded price, or may try to negotiate.
  • If no agreement is made, combat continues to death

OOC

In the case of dispute, logs must be presented to an Op who will rule on the terms of a yield, either accepting the argument of character A, or character B, or making a compromise decision. Their decision is not subject to argument. Involving the Ops when the case is clear will result in your character losing substantial EXP.

Any demand for weregild in the form of transferring ownership of a slave or enslaving the defeated character requires free OOC consent of the person to be collared.

Demanding too much for a yield is self-defeating as the loser is just going to pay the resurrection fee and your character gains nothing.

Attacking a character who is mated or enslaved may carry consequences beyond the norm but anything which is likely to change the expectations of a yield should be explained prior to any combat.