Combat on Valucre between two characters is performed by a method called T1. Although the specifics have been modified over the years to compensate for logic and comprehension, the founding ideas remain the same.
The first rule of T1 is simple: Since our normal role-play is play-by-post, T1 follows the same pattern. If you've ever heard of the combat method Turn Based Logic, it's essentially the same thing. Each player takes a turn posting a combat-oriented post, either defensive or offensive. If done correctly, it should not appear too differently than normal role-playing. The name and separation is merely the result of people or instances that just deal with fighting.
In order to defeat your opponent, you must trap them in a situation that they cannot escape from. If the situation results in them taking a fatal hit, they obviously lose and will shortly die. If it results in a loss of consciousness, they obviously cannot continue. Perhaps the situation merely injures them, causing them to personally withdraw. This also results in a victory. These things can be done by many different ways, but the primary are as follows.
1. Set up a series of moves that cause your opponent to react a certain way. By planning ahead, you can force your opponent in a direction that allows you to hit successfully.
2. Make a literal trap that your opponent falls into.
3. Taking advantage of an opponents careless motions.
You'll notice that my phrasing makes it dependent for mistakes to happen on behalf of one player in order for hits to land. This brings me to the second rule of T1: Do not auto. An auto refers to automatically forcing a hit on your opponent. They must accept the hit in order to be valid. If you think your opponent has no logical choice but to accept a move, discuss it with them. If you have any further issues, see the thread on judging.
Now, with the turn-based method of combat, there may be some interesting occurrences. The most note worthy of such is what are known as interrupts. Say, for instance, your opponent takes several minutes talking, then runs in a wide arc to appear behind you, and then tries to stab you in the back. What would make more sense, you not reacting at all to your enemies actions until the moment where your post begins, or being able to interpret your opponents motions as they happen, reacting accordingly? The obvious answer is the latter, and so your character may do an interrupt.
An interrupt happens when you act before the end of your opponents post. In the example given, if you threw a knife at your opponent in mid speech, before they even began running at you, you interrupted them. Obvious enough, right? So here's where it gets tricky. Sometimes people like to perform multiple interrupts, one after another, and even still this may be done by both parties! Very quickly a time paradox can form, where it becomes impossible to make any real sense out of anything that's going on. With that in mind, keep interrupts reasonable. Try not to engage in one interrupt after another. Use common sense and good judgment. If you think it may be a problem, it most likely is.
With that out of the way, let's move on to the third rule. Don't metagame. Some people call this powergaming, others consider it a part of god-modding. What does it mean? Occasionally your opponent will write something in his post that makes a characters action obvious to the reader, but your own character should be oblivious to what's going on. Despite that, your character reacts in a way that he should not have, only because you OOC know something. When you take OOC information and bring it IC without proper justification, that's metagaming. Your character must have a logical, consistent reason for every action he performs.
So remember, don't force a hit on your opponent, don't use information you shouldn't, use logic when it comes to time, but don't do so out of taste, and have fun! Also keep in mind that a battle may be a long process. You may do a lot of hard work just to land a grazing blow on someones arm. If your opponent is determined, that hardly means the fight is over!
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