There are two types of combat used on this site. The two are Role Play Combat, and Standardized Combat, or RPC and SC for short.

RPC is basically you agree with the other character not to use a standardized system, and make things as loose as possible.

The advantage of these types of combat is that it allows your character to look and feel very cool and do things that normally would not be allowed in SC. In order to win in RPC the two characters must speak out of character with each other before the fight, and decide who is going to win the fight that way the thread does not get stuck in an endless cycle of "I dodge" and "I dodge" and "I dodge" etc.

The downside of using RPC is that on a quest, the narrator, or god running it, can just edit your post to make things that he needs to happen, happen. He can essentially turn your "My character jumped out of the way of the sword, feeling it graze my armor" into "Despite my character's greatest efforts, the sword was too well placed and I felt it sink into my stomach, drawing blood."

Standardized Combat or SC is a bit more complex, and can be hard to understand so I will endeavor to explain it simply here.

The advantage of SC is that it allows for the players to not have to prearrange fights to have winners and losers, but rather leaves it up to more of a skill and chance type of thing. Another strength of this is that you can use this when fighting in the Gladiatorial Arena for gear and money.

The downside of this is that it is confusing, and might feel a bit awkward to those of us who have not tabletop role played before. To rectify this, I give you all the choice of which ever system to use in your threads. If you are in a quest, the God holding the quest will say which type of combat is going to used before you join it.

Now since both have been explained in terms of strengths and weaknesses, I'll go a bit more in depth into the SC system.

When using the SC system, you get four actions and one reaction on a turn. A turn is defined as a set of 1 posts between all combatants. This means that Your turn is on your post and you cannot take anymore actions until your next post. Your four actions are defined as two attack actions, a move action and a swift action.

An attack action is an action you can use to attack an opponent with an ability or a weapon. Normally you can only use two attacks a turn but some abilities allow you to attack more than twice in a turn. You can also use an attack action to trigger a gift. (A gift is your demigod power) An attack action can be sacrificed for either another move action, or another reaction.

A move action is used to move in the post, such as chase after someone if they run from combat. People with no enhanced speed all move the same speed. People with enhanced speed move faster than normal people. You get one move action a turn. This action can also be sacrificed for another reaction.

A swift action is used for quick things like drawing a weapon or chugging a potion. You get one swift action a turn.

Talking is a free action and thus you can talk however much you want, also how you attack can be fun and described like normal RPC.

The reaction works on your next post. So say you have the first attack, you run up to the monster (move action), draw your sword (swift action), and swing your sword twice (2 attack actions). You've used up your turn. On the monster's turn he attacks you twice, moves away, and hisses. On your post, you can use your reaction to dodge an attack automatically, unless its an unblockable or undodgeable attack as defined in the Demigod Powers section.

At the end of everyone's post in an SC thread you sum up your actions taken this round in double brackets. ((2 attack, 1 move, 1 swift, 1 reaction)) or ((0 attack, 2 move, 1 swift, 1 reaction)). If you ever have a disagreement about if someone took more actions than normal, just ask a moderator or admin and they will be glad to review the post.