Single combat covers any physical confrontation that takes place on sim — duels, brawls, ambushes, assassination attempts, skirmishes, and anything else where steel is drawn between player characters or against NPC enemies. All combat is resolved through your HUD using dice rolls modified by your character's stats, feats, armor, and defects.
This page will walk you through how a fight actually works, from the moment blades are drawn to the moment someone goes down.
A few things to establish before any combat scene begins:
Sparring vs. Live Combat. If both players agree the scene is a sparring match or friendly practice bout, the HUD can be set to sparring mode. Damage in sparring mode does not reduce your actual HP. If there is any ambiguity, assume the fight is live — sparring mode requires explicit OOC agreement from both parties.
Godmodding. You may never auto-hit another player. Every attack must be rolled, and your opponent always has the opportunity to roll defense. Writing that your attack connects before the roll is resolved is godmodding and is a rules violation.
NPC Guards. You may roleplay up to two NPC guards, each with one hit point. Roll a flat d20 for their attack or defense. Guards exist to buy time or summon the City Watch — not to fight your battles for you.
Before your first fight, familiarize yourself with the following values on your character sheet. Your HUD displays all of these.
Hit Points (HP) — How much damage you can take before going down. Reaching zero HP means your character is defeated and incapacitated and unable to continue fighting or flee. What happens next is determined by roleplay.
System Shock (SS) — Your threshold for absorbing particularly brutal hits. Certain high-damage outcomes will check against your System Shock. If damage exceeds it in a single blow, additional consequences may apply.
Armor Class (AC) — Your base defense value, calculated from your armor, shield, and relevant stats. Your opponent rolls against this when attacking you.
Initiative Bonus — Added to your d20 initiative roll at the start of combat to determine turn order.
Attack Modifiers — Shown separately for Strength-based weapons (axes, swords, polearms, spears, bludgeons, maces, unarmed) and Dexterity-based weapons (bows, crossbows, fencing blades, knives, thrown weapons). Your HUD applies the correct modifier automatically based on your weapon selection.
Weapon Class — Each weapon has a class (Common, Castle-Forged, etc) that determines its damage die. Common weapons deal 1d6 + Degrees of Success. Castle-Forged deal 1d8 + DoS. Valyrian deal 1d10 + DoS. Ranged weapons use 1d4 + DoS at common quality.
1. Roll Initiative. At the start of combat, both players roll initiative through the HUD. The result is d20 + your Initiative Bonus. Highest roll acts first. On a tie, roll again.
2. The Acting Player Attacks. Select your weapon from the HUD's weapon menu. The HUD rolls your attack: d20 + your relevant attack modifier for that weapon type. Your opponent's AC is the target number. If your roll meets or exceeds their AC, the attack hits.
3. Degrees of Success. The margin by which your attack exceeds your opponent's AC determines your Degrees of Success (DoS), which is added directly to your damage roll. A razor-thin hit deals less than a decisive one.
4. Roll Damage. On a hit, the HUD rolls damage based on your weapon class plus your DoS. The result is subtracted from your opponent's HP.
5. Special Effects on a Natural 20. Certain martial feats trigger additional effects when you roll a natural 20. Sword Fighter III, Axe Fighter III, Brawler III, and their equivalents can cause automatic maximum damage and force a mandatory defect (Maimed, Crippled, Marked/Disfigured, or Unconscious depending on weapon type) unless another effect prevents it. These are listed on the Feats page.
6. The Defender's Turn. Roles reverse. The defender becomes the attacker and the sequence repeats.
7. Continue Until Someone Goes Down. Combat continues round by round until one character reaches zero HP, yields, flees, or is otherwise removed from the fight. Roleplay each round — the dice tell you what happened mechanically, but you write what it looks like.
Reaching zero HP means your character is incapacitated — collapsed, unconscious, or too badly wounded to continue fighting or to flee. It does not automatically mean death.
What happens next is up to the victor. They may choose to leave your character where they fell, giving others the opportunity to intervene and render aid before the wounds prove fatal. They may choose to finish it. Both are valid outcomes, and the decision is theirs to make. This is Westeros. People die. Players who put their characters in harm's way accept that risk going in.
If your character is defeated and survives the encounter, recovery begins. See the healing rules for recovery rates and what it takes to get back on your feet.
Armor and shields have durability ratings that degrade with use. Common gear has a durability of 20, with crafted tiers ranging up to 35. When durability reaches zero, the item no longer provides its AC bonus and must be repaired by a crafter before it functions again. Track your armor's condition — walking into a fight in damaged gear is a decision with real consequences.
The HUD handles the numbers. You handle the story. A roll tells you whether your sword connected and how hard — it doesn't tell you how your character moved, what they said, how they're breathing, or what the moment felt like. Write all of that. The best combat scenes on this sim will be the ones where the dice outcomes are woven seamlessly into the narrative rather than just announced.
ICA = ICC. If your character picks a fight, loses, and faces consequences, those consequences are real. Plan accordingly.