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Hit Locations and Legal Strikes
A legal strike is one that is clearly and distinctly felt on the receivers body in an eligible hit location.
There are 5 hit locations on a persons body. They are the Torso, Legs, Arms, Hands, and Head & Neck. The head & neck are listed here only to point out that they are off limits to weapon strikes. Feigning as if to hit someone's head is also off limits.
A player can take a wound in their Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg, Left Leg, and Torso.
As long as a player is carrying a weapon hands are treated as being part of the weapon, so hits to the hands don't cause the player to take damage. You should indicate this to your opponent by announcing "hand". Empty hands are considered part of their respective arms and in this case a hit to the hand will cause the player to take damage.
A person's torso includes, shoulders, chest, stomach, sides, back, groin and buttocks. Although aiming for a persons groin is forbidden, accidental hits should be accepted as torso hits.
Any effect that takes place on the next hit, must be used when the next legal strike lands or they are wasted.
Melee strikes need to be heavy enough to be felt but not so heavy that they inflict real injuries. If a player feels that an attack connected but was significantly too light (such as grazing a cloak) they can call "Light" to indicate this and disregard taking the wound. This should not be abused for tactical advantage (that's cheating and will be dealt with accordingly). Likewise strikes represent attacks with real weapons, and no melee strike should be a series of repeated taps. Players should call "Too Fast" when this happens to indicate the rapid hits. Again this should not be abused for tactical advantage. When hit too hard a call of "Hard" can serve to notify the attacker of the hard swing. As a general rule hits should be just as hard as is needed for the player to feel the hit connected.
Ranged weapons hits should be taken regardless of how hard they hit.
Missile weapon hits only count if you are hit by the head of the missile. For this one rule javelins and great javelins count as missile weapons. Missile weapons may not be deflected by weapons however, doing so will cause you to take the hit in the arm of the hand holding the weapon.
Thrown weapon hits count no matter what part of the weapon strikes you. These weapons may be blocked or deflected by both shields and melee weapons.
Spells and some items use tag bags. If a tag bag makes contact with anything worn by a player it counts as hitting that player where ever that item makes contact with the player (so arm for a melee weapon, torso for a cloak). Tag bags never hit too light. Although tag bags should not be aimed at the head if they happen to hit a player's head the player should take the hit to their torso.
Players will never inflict damage on themselves with their own weapons, this does not prevent "friendly fire" however.
Related Rules
Taking Hits in Armor
It is the responsibility of those wearing armor to learn when a legal hit takes place even if the armor prevents them from feeling it.
| Source of Call | Description | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Light Blows | If blows are significantly too light, players within reason can ignore the hit | 'Light'
|
| Fast Blows | If blows are too rapid, players within reason can ignore the hit | 'Too Fast'
|
| Hard Blows | If an opponent is hitting too hard they need to know it | 'Hard'
|
| Hand | An opponent hits your hand which is holding a weapon so you don't take the hit. | 'Hand' |
Next Legal Hit
Any effect that takes place on the next hit, must be used when the next legal strike lands or they are wasted.
Categories: Combat Rules | Key Terminology | No Effect Calls | Combat Calls
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