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"Viscomte
Francois le mauvais cries aloud a challenge to you to meet
him in the field of Battle." If you are new to duelling,
you may feel a mixture of fear and confusion. Terms like "Field
of Battle" and "Challenge" are awfully intimidating to a young
Parisian. You may not even be acquainted with the person who
issued the challenge. First of all, take a deep breath. The
first time that someone challenges you it's natural to panic.
However, once you understand how the system works you'll be
able to live in Paris with a lot less fear and much more confidence.
A challenge
is the most honourable way of duelling someone in Paris. People
fight for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes a disagreement escalates
to the point of violence and one of the involved parties will
issue a challenge. The most common cause of a challenge is
the regiment-related challenge. Regimental enemies use challenges
as a means of gaining their regiment honour. Of course, there
are also less savory characters in Paris who will challenge
new citizens for sport. If you are a fairly new citizen in
Paris, speak to your mentor or a well-established citizen
to get advice for deciding on how you should handle a challenge.
When
someone challenges you, there are a few things you need to
establish. First of all, if you are unsure why someone challenged
you, find out if the person is one of your regimental enemies
before worrying that they have a personal vendetta against
you. For instance, say that you don't know Francois at all.
Type REGIMENT FRANCOIS. You then may find out that
he is in an enemy regiment. This is most likely the reason
he challenged you. In this case, talk to your colonel before
you accept or reject the challenge. You have two real-life
days to make a decision. If you reject, you will cost your
regiment a bit of honour and may lose some experience points,
but the costs are nothing compared to losing an accepted challenge.
Always speak to your Colonel if you aren't absolutely certain
about what action you should take.
Let's
imagine another scenario: Francois isn't in an enemy regiment.
You may wonder if he despises you for some unknown reason.
In this case, you could just send him a message and ask him
why he challenged you. At least you'll know. If he's a thug
it could be for no reason at all other than malice. Most older
Parisians will probably advise you to ignore these challenges
rather than fight rogues. Talk to someone you trust and then
make your decision.
If you
decide to decline the challenge, type REJECT CHALLENGE
FRANCOIS. You'll then lose some experience points and
honour: the amount varies depending on the relative amount
of skill between you and your opponent: if your number of
stars is within 5 stars of your opponent you'll lose experience
points and honour if you reject the challenge. If not, then
you'll lose nothing by rejecting. So, if you know the person
is much more powerful than you are, don't worry about rejecting
a challenge. It's actually better to reject than ignore a
challenge for the following reason: if you ignore a challenge,
after a short amount of time it is legal for the opponent
to hunt you down and kill you, as long as a judge or magistrate
doesn't see the fight.
If the
challenger is a regimental enemy you'll lose your regiment
some honour as well, but again, if the spread of stars is
larger than 5, you won't harm your regiment by losing them
honour.
If, on
the other hand, you hear that Francois is a weak fool and
you wish to take him on, just type ACCEPT CHALLENGE FROANCOIS
to proceed with the duel. You may then legally attack each
other as long as a judge or magistrate does not witness the
duel. At this point remember a few key things:
- Do
not accept a challenge until you are really ready to fight.
Have your potions ready, have your macros in place, and
most importantly, be mentally prepared for the duel. Good
duelling etiquette includes the practice of agreeing to
meet somewhere alone and hold your fight. Remember that
it is illegal to interfere in a challenge…i.e., don't start
slashing at an enemy if you see people duelling: if it's
a challenge and you get caught, expect to become a convict.
- Yes,
it's polite to agree on a time and place to meet and duel…however
there are times when a surprise attack is advantageous.
If you find that your opponent is standing somewhere alone,
catching him off guard, possibly without potion, is a really
good way to help yourself. After all, when someone makes
a challenge they should know that they need to be ready
to fight immediately. Make sure you acquaint yourself with
the laws of Paris regarding duelling. You may not duel in
L'ecole, the churches, the Louvre, or the Square. If you
duel just north or south of the square a guard may come
arrest the winner of the fight. Several Parisians have found
themselves locked in the stockade from doing this, so avoid
these areas!
To see
any open challenges that you have, type CHALLENGES.
To see other people's open challenges, you may type DUELS.
You may see who has challenged each other recently by typing
EVENTS.
If you're
worried that someone will challenge you over and over again
in one day, you may put that fear to rest. You may only challenge
someone once every two days. In addition, you may only make
a few challenges per day, depending on your stars in challenging.
If you have one star, you may challenge one person per day.
If you have five stars, the maximum in this ability, you may
challenge five people per day.
As long
as you initiate and accept challenges wisely, you should do
well in duelling. Be prepared, be mature, and be brave. Good
luck!
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