Combat Rules

This document outlines the combat rules being used in TankLARP. They are designed to be simple to use and require fewer calls for the player. This keeps the immersion as high as it can be and rewards roleplay over stats.

Eye Protection

In the Battlefield and Skirmish areas as well as Encounters, eye protection is mandatory. The Nerf Rival Rounds are high velocity, reasonably heavy and will hurt an exposed eye. No Eye Protection, No Battlefield.
 

Hit Points

There are three levels of Hit Points (HP) in the game.

• No Armour = 2 HP physrep – a Uniform or Normal Clothing for your faction

• Light Armour = 4 HP physrep – Uniform coupled with leather armour or partial plates of metal, covering upper torso, arms or legs

• Heavy Armour = 6 HP physrep – Uniform with metal armour or heavy leather plates cover at least torso and two other locations

Examples of some components for armour:

• Light: Suede/Soft leather gauntlets, vambraces, lower greaves, elbow cops, half chestplate, leather bandolier, leather cap/hat

• Medium: Demi-gauntlets, thick leather chest armour, light helmet, thick leather greaves/vambraces/tassets, reinforced uniform

• Heavy: Chestplate: plate, scale, maille or lorica, pauldrons, half greaves, gauntlets, maille or scale skirt, helmet

​

For physical coverage on armour we have a simple system: be reasonable. Don't think a helmet and a front torso breastplate constitutes heavy armour.

A helmet helps but isn’t required – we don’t want to force people to wear one if they don’t want to.

We are happy to talk to any player who wants to wear armour to help them understand what is and isn’t acceptable as a physrep for their armour type and chosen faction.
 

Shields

Shields are a great defence and for the purposes of the game are invulnerable. If a shield is struck by
either a Nerf Rival round or weapon, the player carrying the shield ignores the Hit. Shields must not be used to strike an opponent.

If a player runs into your shield you can stand your ground, but no actively striking forward with it please.

To give an idea of size, a large shield may be no greater than the distance from the ground to the
player's waist whilst standing. No tower shields.
A normal shield may either be strapped to the arm or held in the hand. It may be no greater in
diameter than two feet, but may be any shape. You may also only ever carry one shield. The overall weight of the character equipment doesn’t give the person the ability to carry any more.

Tougher monsters may have tower shields instead of higher stats.

Your characters are designated as fast response troops, therefore all equipment is required to be of a size to fit into an APC at a moment's notice. Larger tower shields would be too unwieldy so would therefore not be issued to you.

 

Dual Wielding

You character class will give you a list of the items you may carry as that class. If you wish to dual wield any set of weapons then you are at liberty to do so. We don’t want to limit players from the hard skill of using a weapon in each hand. Pistol and sword, pistol and shield, twin pistols or swords. The only limits are if you are using a two-handed weapon, they require both of your hands to operate.
 

Damage / Wounds

There are no damage calls in TankLARP. A hit from either a melee weapon or Nerf Rival Blaster shot causes one point of damage. Each player may only make one strike per second. However they can take more than one point of damage from different sources per second. If five shots from Nerf Blasters hit you at the same time, you take five points of damage (ouch!).
The head is an area you can take damage from but is NOT a viable target. Please do not intentionally aim for the head of any player or crew member. If you are hit in the head, please take a point of damage.
Each player is responsible for their own Hit Point count. We will pull people aside if we believe they are intentionally going for headshots or not pulling blows sufficiently but understand accidents happen.

If a ref tells you to hit the dirt due to too many hits, please do so. Armour may make rival rounds difficult to notice. Please do not argue with a ref, we are not being malicious and no ref will show favouritism, we do this to make it a fair game for all.

​

IMPORTANT: Hits DO NOT regenerate once you return to base camp. Medics only carry enough to stop you bleeding out on a temporary pick-me-up. Once you return from combat, head to the Medical Triage Centre (MTC) to be seen to by surgeons.

 

Melee fighting

TankLARP has a theme of awesome roleplay over stats and "soft skills". We want to encourage playing well over winning, engrossing yourself in the action over coming out on top. As such, we heavily encourage proper fighting techniques and solid, simulated strikes with weapons. We will bring up anyone "drum-rolling" or repeatedly tapping using just the wrist movement . It isn't in the spirit of the game and is not fun to engage with. This system is the perfect opportunity , if you haven't already, to learn proper fighting techniques from others as drilling and combat practice is right at home in a military camp setting. All the major crew have upper level weapon training in one practice or another, do not hesitate to ask us to help, we would be very glad to run you through techniques.

​

When you are down to zero Hit Points (Out of Action)

If you are reduced to zero HP, you are Out of Action. Fall safely to the ground (or nearby safe-to-land area, be safe!) and roleplay being

Out of Action:

• You are unable to use skills, equipment, defend yourself or take any offensive action

• You may not reload any weapon

• You are not unconscious so can moan or cry out in pain. However, you cannot form complex sentences. Don’t think you can scream orders across the battlefield; you are either too busy rolling about in pain from your wounds or too busy trying to hold yourself together to really be coherent

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Becoming Incapacitated

You have ONE MINUTE before you are Incapacitated. If ANY Player reaches you before you are Incapacitated, places a free hand on your shoulder and calls “EVAC” in a clear, loud voice, you may get up and make your way back to the Safe Area, with one hand in the air to denote you are out of the fight. You may be physically recovered by a specific NPC when the EVAC is called, but are still out of the fight. You have been retrieved from the Combat Zone by Medical Personnel and will take no further action in the current combat.

You have been lucky; you have a very good chance that your wounds will be treated quickly and you will survive the battle. The Ref will give you a Token to
denote this has happened.

If you find yourself Incapacitated, you are not dead. However, the immediate medical attention you needed to ensure you have a good chance of survival has not arrived in time. If either a member of your faction reaches you and call EVAC as described above, or the battle ends with your faction victorious, you will make your way to the Safe Area with a hand in the air.

 

You will still need to return to TRIAGE and be seen by the Medical Staff but you will have a reduced chance of survival. You will either be given a

Token to denote this has happened or you will need to speak to the Game Ref prior to returning to the Medical Tent to obtain that Token.

​

The battle ends and you could not be saved

If the Enemy decide to pick you up, you will return with them and they will have the decision to revive you or let you die. The Attraxan Accord states that all
prisoners will be given fair treatment, including medical aid should it be required. However, there is a good chance that you may not get decent treatment and your wounds took so long to treat that you may die anyway. Or you might find that the enemy are not as stringent with the Accord as they should be.

The Game Ref will give you a Token which denotes this effect.

If your faction withdraw from the battle while you are Incapacitated, then the above applies. You will be at the mercy of your captors.

​

You are left behind during a skirmish with NPC factions

This will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the referee in charge of the Skirmish crew. Unless you are executed, return to GOD and await further instructions. Generally an Ambassador will go to your camp and negotiate for your ransom or release you. There may also be a sortie in which a rescue operation could be mounted. Again, this is entirely dependent on the mission and the enemy you were facing.

Execution and Hostages

There are no rules in TankLARP for executing any character during the skirmishes or battles. In the heat of the moment, the enemy fall and they are assumed to be dead. A Soldier doesn’t have time to make sure the opponent is truly dead – they are busy defending themselves or attacking the next standing enemy target who is probably trying to kill them.

It is also clear when an enemy soldier has taken enough punishment to be Out of Action. This does not stop the players making sure that the enemy character doesn’t get up again or is rescued by their team mates while they are Out of Action, should that be possible. A smart squad will cover the wounded enemies so they can’t be evacuated by their own team, or let the Enemy Field Medic pick them up.

If your faction win by, for example, sweeping the enemy from the field of battle and there are any Incapacitated enemy faction players still in the field, you may have the opportunity to have your Field Medic recover fallen enemies and take them as hostages. If you are not able to (or don’t want to) recover the wounded enemy in this manner, you can leave them to the Attraxan Field Medical Team, who will bring them back to the Medical Triage Centre (MTC).

 

Any Enemy fighter NPC or player fighter that is captured during an engagement is considered to be bartered for and released off-field. You will get additional resources, intel or rep for their capture. Capture Objective targets can be taken back to camp, searched and interrogated as normal.
 

That covers the battles and skirmishes. But what happens back at base camp with a hostage?

Perhaps you want to kill this character as they are evil!

They have been caught committing a capital crime and must be put to death!

They are a War Criminal – Beheading, please!

Executions are possible in this scenario.

 

The First Rule is that Execution is a consensual action. The player who is being Executed must agree that their character has Died. It’s a great roleplaying moment, so make the most of it!

The Second Rule is that if you want to make sure, get a Ref. If the character does not believe they have been executed, later gets to the MTC and is Recovered by Surgery and survives, then they are back in the game. If you execute the player by roleplaying cutting their head off with an axe (safely!!) or by firing squad and a Ref is present and takes the decision that your action was successful, then the character is Dead and the player will be informed.

The Last Rule is that it shouldn’t be a mechanical hacking session. We don’t expect you to stand there and take X number of seconds hacking someone to pieces, counting away while an imaginary timer runs out. We also don’t expect you to “quietly shiv someone in a corner and call that an execution” while in
Camp, the MTC, the Bar or the Restaurant. Executions should be a roleplaying experience and grandiose enough that anyone seeing it would be able to tell quite clearly what is happening, having a clear opportunity to stop you completing the action.

Five characters literally hacking an enemy to pieces in the camp for a minute or two so that there isn’t anything left, preparing a firing squad, offering a blindfold, “Read, Aim, FIRE!”. All perfectly reasonable, as long as the player involved believes that you did enough to stop them from living through that encounter. It’s their choice (Rule 1 above) Or if there is a Ref standing nearby watching the encounter and takes the Decision that “the
character has expired from the action.” (Rule 2 Above)

​

Medicine, Bandages, Blood and The Medical Triage Centre (MTC).

So you went out into the Glory of War, took a cut for your trouble and came back wrapped in bandages. How did that work out for you? In this section we cover what happens immediately after the battle when the injured characters return to the Medical Triage Centre (MTC).
Injured Characters (who have been given a Token to denote their level of Injury) are returned back by various means to the MTC for medical assistance. When they arrive it is up to the Medical Staff to decide how they are to be treated and, just as importantly, in what order they receive that treatment.

Head Surgeon, Matron, Doctors and Nurses, (Surgeons and Field Medics) all will be responsible for their own faction and to make sure that their patients have the best chance of survival.

Time is of the essence! The faster the wounded are treated the more likely they will survive their wounds and be able to get back to the fighting. TRIAGE is important; the more seriously wounded people will need to be seen first or they might die, but the less injured people still need to be treated or their wounds might fester or worsen as time goes on. It’s a tough job, but it’s what the Medical Staff get paid for.

To help the mechanics of Triage, each player that comes into the MTC will have a Coloured Token (Usually in the form of a bandage).
This will show how injured they are and are described below:

No Token. “What are you doing in here Soldier? You are Fine! Get back to the Front!” Anyone
without a token hasn’t been injured enough for treatment. They are fine, although might have
taken a HP loss. A few minutes back from the fight and a bit of care from any field medic and they will be back to normal on Full HP.

Green Token. “There, there, let’s have a look at you. Hmm, just a scratch but let me take a look.”
Around Two Minutes of Treatment and they Player will be ok. There might be a complication but
most likely they will be fine.
Orange Token. “Oh dear me, you Have been In the Wars, haven’t you!” Took a while to get treated,
this wound is more serious. Around Five Minutes of Medical Treatment required, hopefully they will
pull through.
Red Token. “Nurse, the Screens. Get me 5 Mill of Etheric Resin and the Scalpel….” The patient is
bleeding out or is terribly injured. Around ten minutes of Medical Attention is required and they
may not survive, or will come out of this with an injury that may need long term rehabilitation.
Black Token. Pull the covers over their face, they have gone. It was too late….. The patient has
expired. There was no hope for them, their wounds were too great.

​

The MTC Ref will determine how those injuries come out with a simple bead pull system and advise
the Medic or Surgeon what the outcome is, including what short or long term effect this has on the
player in question. This will enable a smoother roleplaying of the effects and the Medical Action.
We feel that this is far easier than trying to remember a bunch of numbers ticking away. The MTC
Ref will also assist with time and will reward good roleplaying. If you roleplay the Operation or
Treatment well, the timer may be a little shorter…..

​

There is something Important to Remember here.

If a wounded player is in the MTC and has not been seen for a while, they may find their injuries
worsen from lack of treatment. Gangrene might set in. The character might fall unconscious or
suffer uncontrolled blood loss. There may be complications. Should a character be deemed to have
been in the MTC too long without proper treatment, the MTC Ref may upgrade their condition to a
more serious injury. The MTC Ref will do this by roleplaying the situation, as well as changing the
Token currently being held by the player. Further complications may arise if that person is still not
seen by a member of the Medical Staff. This may result in the character Dying From Their Wounds
without Medical Attention. Such is the nature of War and TRIAGE.