New Rule: Mettle
A Knight may find their journey perilous enough that they may suspect they, or their fellow Knights, are not up to the task.
And thus, their mettle must be tested.
When a Knight wishes to test the mettle of another Knight, have them each choose their approach and ferocity in secret.
One's Approach defines their style.
The approaches counter each other as follows:
Valor overpowers Haste
Haste overwhelms Guile
Guile outsmarts Valor
One's Ferocity defines how hard they exert themselves.
A Knight's Ferocity may be Refined, their movements knightly, techniques proper, as they would duel when they were still in the Order. This only costs them a single point of an Approach.
A Knight's Ferocity may be Savage, their movements bestial, tactics underhand, overcome with a primordial fury. This will cost them three points of an Approach. This also reverses the Approaches counters.
Savage Valor would overpower Refined Guile
Savage Haste would still overwhelm Savage Guile
Savage Haste would overwhelm Refined Haste
When the Knights Approaches and Ferocity are revealed, have the losing Knight narrate the first half of the duel.
Have them lead in with their initial victory, describing the duel between them, then pass their narration onto the victorious Knight when they lose the upper hand.
Have the victorious Knight describe how they rip victory from the jaws of defeat, and their triumph.
No matter the result, both Knights have tested each other's mettle, and may mark off their Quest.
thoughts
so like
ive been wanting to experiment with outright dictation advice in rules for a while
just straight up giving a structure to the convo because like, writing, or in this case narrating a fight scene, isn't intuitive. and this level of control, from my experience in dumbass ruleless fight RPs from days past, can get fuckin' beyond garbo.
but, i believe, having the dramatic irony of knowing who's going to win can make it waaaay better for both sides because then there's, implicitly, a goal for both.
loser gets to narrate their downfall
victor gets to narrate their triumph.
completely untested.
one of those things where I foresee a little delay in like, both sides (GM and player) looking at the rules, not knowing how to adjuticate a duel with the rules given, and accidentally doing something that might beef the Hunt [getting like a -1 HP might forreal be the difference]
maybe that's my minmax brain going too hard.
also like, is the wording confusing, can you parse what would happen if say, a Knight picks Savage Valor against a Refined Guile approach?
