A Basic Guide to Melee

Lexicon of Terms

Throughout this guide I will be using several terms which some of you may not be familiar with and so I have attempted to list and explain them all for you below:

OOC- This is when the player of a character (you) is not currently In Character and Roleplaying.
IC- This is when the player of a character (you) is currently In Character and representing the actions of your character by posting small paragraphs of text.
Posting- This is when you, the player, are In Character and type a small paragraph of text (usually between 4-5 lines in length) to accurately represent what your character is currently doing in the scene.
Scene- This is usually determined by the creator of the thread or chat room that you are currently in. Often people will hint at the location the thread/room is in by typing something like ‘Old Forest’ in the name.
RP- This is simply an abbreviated version of the word ‘Roleplay’ which means to enter a thread or chat room, go ‘In Character’ and write posts about what your character is doing.
Auto- The auto or ‘forced hit’ as some call it is basically when you assume your weapon hits another character without them accepting the blow. This is illegal and generally frowned upon in Roleplay, so don’t do it!
Melee- Now regardless of the ‘dictionary’ definition of this, which means something along the lines of close combat fighting, melee online is considered to be any type of combat that involves you using a sword, axe, dagger, spear or other form of hand to hand weapon. Projectiles such as crossbows and blowdarts therefore do not fall into this category. (Note- Whilst some players/fighters may class unarmed combat under 'Melee' as well, these series of guides will only cover fighting with weapons, not 'Hand to Hand' . )

Introduction

Sometimes in RP, situations arise where talking just isn’t an option anymore and your only option is to enter into combat with another character. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, fights spurn rivalries, conflicts lead to wars, all of which help you further the storyline or ‘plot’ that you are involved within. That said however, don’t just run around looking to start fights because you will either end up dead, or disliked, generally it is a good habit to ask yourself a few questions before even considering the prospect of engaging someone in combat. The main question that you need to ask yourself is “does my character have a reason to fight ‘so and so’ , or can I really justify responding to ‘such and such’ with violence? This process is helpful in eliminating unnecessary brawls when your time could be better spent developing your characters personality for example.

To summarise- A Good reason to attack someone / enter into combat will be something along the lines of “ They stole from me”, “they have tried to harm me”, “we are at war with them etc”. A Bad reason to attack someone is something along the lines of “ I don’t like the look of them”, “ It’s my characters nature”, “ They were rude to me OOCly”.

Back to Basics

So for those of you who are new to Roleplay, and whose characters have never even got into a fight before, you may be wondering “well how the hell do I actually represent this?”, this my friends is what I am about to discuss.
Now in this example we will be using two stereotypical character races and some every day names. I will briefly detail the way in which you need to represent your characters actions in the different situations that can arise during a fight.

Attacking

Let us assume that, for this particular example, Jim the elf has unwittingly wondered into a cave currently occupied by Adam the Ogre. Adam the Ogre sees this as a violation of his territory and therefore becomes hostile, raising his club to try and attack the interloping elf. We show this in RP by writing something like the following:

<Jim the Elf> Leisurely strolling along the forest path, his sky blue eyes fall upon what appears to be a cave; intrigued by this dark hole in the hillside, Jim decides to explore it and gingerly steps into the darkness.

<Adam the Ogre> Grunts softly in his sleep, his dreams filled with delicious looking sheep that he chases around to catch for dinner, but unfortunately he is roused from his slumber by the footsteps of Jim the elf.

<Jim the Elf> Venturing deeper and deeper into the cave, he carefully treads across a patch of what appear to be sheep bones lying upon the mud-marred floor; trying not to make much noise in case there are any monsters lurking within the large cave.

<Adam the Ogre> Emerging from behind a big boulder wielding a club in his left hand, he charges towards Jim the elf with an angry expression upon his face, the elf had burst into his home, and now it would pay! Swinging the club in a downward arc, he attempted to hit the elf over the head with it and knock him out.

Here we can see that the two characters have been introduced, Adam the Ogre feels threatened by Jim's presence in his home and has attempted to hit the elf with his club. Some key things to remember when attacking someone is that firstly, you are only attempting to do it; never state that you have actually hit them until the other character has accepted the hit.

Secondly your description of the attack should be clear enough so that your opponent can understand what you are doing, for example “I throw a spear” is far too vague, you need to say where you are aiming at and things like that.

Dodging

The important thing to remember is that it is always up to the character that is being attacked what course of action they take. They can of course choose to simply accept the ‘hit’ but they do have a few other option as well, one of which is dodging.

In the example below we assume that Jim the Elf has chosen to dodge the attack and this is represented by:

<Jim the Elf> Spotting the enraged ogre charging towards him he readies himself for what could be a difficult fight, only to have the ogre's club speeding down towards his face moments later. Jim nimbly leaps to the side thus avoiding the descending club and leaving the ogre to swat at thin air.

Here we can see that Jim has stated that he has chosen to dodge the club and how he is trying to dodge the club too.

Countering

Generally countering is considered a mixture of dodging and then attacking in retaliation for the first attack. This is helpful if you feel confident that you can both avoid the attack that is aimed towards your character, and also put your character into a position where he will have an advantage by avoiding that attack. In the example below Jim chooses to Counter instead of just Dodge the club aimed at him by Adam.

<Jim the Elf> Spotting the enraged ogre charging towards him he readies himself for what could be a difficult fight only to have the ogres club speeding down towards his face moments later. Jim nimbly leaps to the side thus avoiding the descending club and leaving the ogre to swat at thin air. Now that the ogre is swinging down at nothing but air, however, Jim notices that the ogre's ribs are exposed and so thrusts his dagger towards them.

Accepting the Hit

Few people choose to take this course of action but once you have failed to dodge an attack that has been made upon your character you must take a suitable ‘hit’ from it. Now this hit can range from anything like being hit over the head and knocked out (as in our example), or even stabbed through the heart and dying.

Although people do not usually enjoy taking hits, cunning players find ways of taking hits that allow their characters to manoeuvre into a position where they will have an advantage over their assailant. An example of how to ‘properly’ represent taking a hit is shown below:

<Jim the Elf> Failing to react fast enough to avoid the club speeding for his skull, he feels a sickeningly hard blow strike the back of his head and gradually everything turns black, his world slipping away as he tumbles unexpectledly into unconsciousness.

Remember that if you do not want to get into a fight and are attacked by someone, the option of running away is always there. Discretion is, after all, the better part of valour :) .

This concludes part 1 of the Guide to Melee, stay tuned for more advanced techniques in the near future. Feel free to respond below with comments or questions.