Offical Gun Dueling.

[Tarne]

So I have had this idea floating around my noggin' for quite a while now, and I think now I have developed a good enough system in my head of what gun dueling in WoW would be like.

So here's the scenario: Two gentlemen/nobles have a growing altercation...and they've had enough, these two cannot possibly both exist at the same time! So they decide to have a Gentleman's duel!

So here's the basic idea...one duelist challenges the other.

The concept of seconds: Seconds are close friends or even paid mercenaries that will fill in for a duelist. This second is optional, and will personally inspect the duelist's firearm and can fight for them should they be unable to.

Step One: The challenger chooses the type of gun they will use.
Step Two: They arrange a date, time and place to have the duel. Should one man cower down or not show up without a second...bye bye honor.
Step Three: They meet and stand roughly 15-30 feet from each other...depending on the gun.


The duel itself: The man who was challenged fires the first shot. The shooters have only one bullet loaded in their guns at any given time, and have two options.
Option One: Shoot their bullet up in the air to say "Let bygones be bygones...no one needs to die here" and hope the other man does the same.
Option Two: Fire away!

Then it is the challenger's turn. If the challenger is still alive and standing he is entitled to his turn to fire. The same rules apply.


The battle mechanics: Alright this is how the rolling works. PLEASE NOTE: AGREEING TO A DUEL IS CONSENTING TO CHARACTER DEATH.

Here are the /roll rates:

85+: Chest or headshot, instant kill, victim dies there.
70-84: vital organ hit, seek immidiate healing...victim is defeated.
40-70: Hit on limb or body, damage not fatal, victim stands.
1-39: Bullet has missed.

Rules you should know:
1. There is only one bullet in the guns at any given time (more may be loaded later), challenger ALWAYS fires second.
2. There are no defence rolls, the outcome relies completely on the roll of the attacker.
3. In the duel there must be the following factors: A healer present, a referee (calls the shots and distributes the weaponry after inspecting. This can also be replaced by two respective seconds for the duelists.
4. The winner is still standing or untouched. The person with the least amount of damage is victorious, if both challengers are damaged but still alive, they can agree to loading a second bullet, or calling a draw.
5. If there is a suggestion to load a second bullet, it must be mutual between both parties.
6. The challenger decides on the gun choice.
7. Both players have consented to character death OOCly at the beginning of the duel.
8. If both players miss, it is considered a draw, or they may load a second bullet.
9. Should either of the duelists not be able to attend the set date...their second may step in for them to fight for them.
10. Duelists may elect a second to either fight for them, or take their place should they be ill or unable to attend.

That's about it! A CotH gentleman's duel! Tell me what you think or how it could be improved!

[Bovel]

I am bit of a hypocrite when it comes to death in RP, sometimes it is good and sometimes bad but in my opinion each deaths should increase RP. This said I think the only downside with your work is that it seems just by looking at it to be a high mortality rate. Personally I'd not want to even take a chance with this scheme unless I'd want my character to die in the duel in the first place.

I think this is a factor that could change to make it less lethal but still dangerous, based on my own knowledge of 18th century gun dueling. Duels at that day and age had little to nothing to do with killing of an enemy or annoyance, but a way for the rich to settle disputes. A good modern comparison are chicken races with cars.

The first choice would be what kind of duel, decided by the challenger the most common options being;
First Blood - the first one to bleed is the looser
Severe Injury - the duel ends when one party is wounded enough to not be able to continue
Gun dueling standard - each party shoot one shot at a time and the challenger always have the right to call the duel off after both parties have fired equal shots, it is usual that both sides fire a maximum of three shots cause anything more would be savage
And lastly of course death.

Choice of gun is less important in my opinion as long as both parties have equal firepower. And is not 15 out of 100 a rather high score of instakills and is that stats one would want for this? My opinion would be to make headshots or heartshots rare, to make those moments something to brag and gossip about.

[Piroska]

One duel constant in many cultures through the years has been the presence of a second. Each duelist would select a trusted individual to serve as their representative; these individuals would then somewhat amicably interact with one another to determine where the fight would occur, set the rules, and also serve as the duelist's replacement if he couldn't appear for any reason.

In the past (specifically, sword-dueling), the seconds would mark the area in which duelist fought and would continue the duel if one was unable to do so. In latter times, the seconds inspected the guns to make sure that the guns were similar enough to be considered fair.

You may want to consider adding the role of the second!

[Tarne]

SOme valid points...I think I'll actually increase the roll for instant death. I'll add in the second thing as well...but a little modified. Now there are some points I do disagree with Bovel, I guess it's personal, considering I openly allow character deaths of my characters at all times nowadays. This duel would be a noble's way to prove honor, and it would be a rare occasion...considering there is ALWAYS the posibility of death. I just wanted to add this in to twist things a little, it'll probably happen very seldomly if at all.

[Bovel]

Hmm, if you think of it like this. You introducing it into the CotH society would make it new and then often hardcore and rare so high chances of death would be expected. I imagine that when it becomes a trend and every noble do this out of habit if someone just as looks the wrong way at their daugther's dog that the procedure could change and so the rolltable.

With it this lethal it could be fun to arrange small events for any duel arranged.

[Tarne]

That's the idea!

[Azheron]

I think you should make the similar thing for those that don't care for dying. I mean, there are people that decline from RP that you could die in so easily.

[Tarne]

Don't really see how that could work...considering gun duels have traditionally been to the death. Besides it's like Bovep said, it would make duels momentous occasions.

[Bovel]

Well, with your idea making one system with less lethal outcome would ruin the original one cause the deadly outcome would seem unnecessary from an OOC perspective.

But that it is traditional that gun duels are to the death I cannot agree to cause most info I found is they only were if decided to be that way and the most common way of doing it is the max three bullet for each duellist. (Could mean death but with such a limitation on ammo it would seem that it is not the idea to have one party killed.)

[Tarne]

Well around the world there were different ways of doing it. For example when Aaron Burr killed Hamilton, they were using flintlocks each with a one bullet. Now had they have continued if they both missed is the question...not sure. But nonetheless more bullets are a good idea...just a limit of one bullet at any given time.

[Tarne]

Edited!

[Esper]

I like the idea of not coming up with a 'safe' dueling system - like stated before, it keeps it from becoming a commonplace event. And if two characters do consent to a duel, the news would spread like wildfire; just like I imagine it would in real life. I know I'd show up to see some shootin'

[Tarne]

My and Bovel's points exactly Esper...without the possibility of death it's just another brawl.

[LostStranger]

As a passing thought, Tarne, you mentioned that the challenged is to shoot first?

I believe there should be a roll to see who gets to fire first, seeing as how having the premier shot could easily mean life or death in a duel.

[Azheron]

I think that the challenger should get to shoot first, or then they shoot at the same time. I don't like the idea of rolling for it.