Conflict

In Silent Heaven, it's almost always best to deescalate violence than to start a fight. However, there are moments in your RP where a character may want something and feels like they must resort to the threat of violence to get it, be it a payment, service, apology, or anything else. The conflict system is a system where the characters in the conflict have a time to talk things out to come to a resolution, preventing things from escalating to violence. All conflict begins with one character BLOCKing another. It's expected that at least one pose or emote is done before this happens, where the player playing the aggressor details the lead-in to the blocking action, and it's encouraged that more roleplay happens prior. Your character must have a valid IC reason for initiating a conflict. Blocking involves positioning your character in a way to attempt to stop the character from exiting out a certain direction. For example, if Greg wants to block Jane from leaving out the eastern exit, Greg types: BLOCK JANE FROM EAST Blocking is an opportunity for both parties to talk things out IC in an effort not to escalate things to violence. When blocking another character, make sure it's clear what your character wants out of the situation and why they're willing to consider violence as an option. Ask yourself what it would take for your character to back down from the conflict and make sure that has been at least somewhat telegraphed to the character being blocked. While being blocked, the defender has five options with no time requirements: HIDE from the conflict (at 50% effectiveness of normal Stealth skill), SHOVE their way past the conflict, FLEE from the conflict in a direction not being blocked, ATTACK their aggressor, or GRAB their aggressor. Following the same example as above, here are examples of the five options Jane has: HIDE SHOVE EAST FLEE NORTH ATTACK GREG GRAB GREG A successful HIDE, SHOVE, or FLEE attempt ends the conflict, though either party may pursue the conflict, if desired. If a HIDE, SHOVE, or FLEE action fails, the defender is staggered, and the aggressor's time requirements to ATTACK or GRAB no longer apply. After 5 minutes from the time the conflict was initiated, the aggressor may ATTACK or GRAB the defender. Note that this is a time minimum, and that IC dialogue and actions may persist before action is taken. ATTACK JANE GRAB JANE The aggressor may also STOP at any time, ending the conflict without escalation. STOP This should be the goal of each character in a conflict. On occasion, though, a peaceful resolution may not be possible. VIOLENT CONFLICT A conflict that has escalated to an ATTACK is now a violent conflict. Combat begins. It's mostly played out automatically, and lasts about 3 to 6 minutes against evenly-matched opponents. The combat system itself is fairly straightfoward. Silent Heaven isn't a power fantasy; it's horror. There's no armor for your character to wear, and wounds take time to recover from. While there's some strategy in choosing the location used for combat, RPing is the focus, even if a scene has escalated to combat. During a violent conflict, each combatant and anyone else in the room may take any of these violent or protective actions: - ATTACK someone engaged in combat - GRAB someone engaged in combat to pull them away - FLEE if in combat - STOP attacking - THROW a weaponized toxin at someone - TARGET a specific part of the body - RELOAD a gun - PERFORM an act to create a diversion Combat ends when all characters STOP attacking, or when each opponent is knocked unconscious. When a conflict between PCs ends, it's good form to call for a medic character IC or take an unconscious PC to a medic to be treated to consciousness, reducing the downtime of the unconscious character's player. Combat doesn't always need to end in knocking someone unconscious. Use your best judgment to determine what's appropriate for the conflict, and always err on the side of doing less harm. Remember, you can STOP at any time. ADDITIONAL CONFLICT RULES Rules for GRAB: A failed GRAB staggers the grabber, and the intended target may take any action. A successful GRAB captures the target. The target may RESIST to drain their captor's energy, breaking free if the captor's energy is completely drained. The captor may DROP, THROW, or DETAIN the target. If dropped or thrown, the conflict is over. DROP JANE THROW JANE TO EAST DETAIN JANE To detain, the characters must be in a room with a cell. A detained target is immobilized. The captor or an ally of the captor must RP with their target for the entire duration of the capture, and they must RELEASE the captive at the end of the scene. Alternatively, an OOC conclusion or compromise may be made to fast-forward to the target's release. Ensuring each player's comfort is of utmost importance, so please reach out to staff if anything is bothering you. RELEASE JANE It's the choice of the player of the captured character to either RP or fast-forward, or, with the agreement of all parties, pause the scene and come back to it at a later time. Regardless of when the scene continues, a cell will automatically release any detained character after 1 hour. No matter what happens, a character may not be detained again for the same IC reason. For example, if your character has been interrogated once, they can't be captured and interrogated a second time, unless new relevant IC information has come to light. You and your allies aren't allowed to do repeated kidnappings, expecting the target to change their tune by wearing them down. The same goes for any conflict. You must have a new reason each time. Please contact staff if you feel uncomfortable or if you feel a rule is being violated. Rules for ESCORT: If a character is escorting someone who gets blocked, the defender rules apply to the escorter instead. Being escorted assumes a position of being protected, so the person being escorted cannot BLOCK or ATTACK for 15 minutes after being escorted. In other words, if the person being protected is attacked, then they'll retaliate as normal. They just can't initiate an ATTACK or BLOCK during the 15-minute time limit. See HELP ESCORT for more information. Rules for TRUST: Violent conflicts may be ICly consensual, such as for sparring or organized fights. For these cases, you may use the TRUST system to automatically allow another character to ATTACK your character without the BLOCK needed to initiate a conflict. TRUST JANE TO ATTACK The TRUST system can also enable the GRAB action to be an ICly consensual action. This is for when your character implicitly trusts someone to GRAB your character, for example, to save your character from harm, or to relocate your character as desired. When TRUSTed, a GRAB is automatically successful, and the trusted character gently picks up the other character. TRUST JANE TO GRAB See HELP TRUST for more information. Rules for unconsciousness: Any character may perform the following on an unconscious character: GRAB, DROP, DETAIN, and RELEASE. These actions perform exactly as described above in the section for GRAB rules, except GRAB is automatically successful. For a visual flowchart of physical conflicts, see https://silentheaven.org/static/website/images/conflict_flowchart.png For a visual flowchart of grabbing rules, see https://silentheaven.org/static/website/images/grab_flowchart.png For a quick reference of conflict commands, see HELP REFERENCE. Category: HELP 7 (Strife) < Previous - Panic | Next - Reference >