Roleplaying a "honorable" duel between orc and human

[BRC]

How ritualistic should the combat be?

Like, is this a question of "We are going to fight, we are going to hurt each other until one of us can no longer stop the other from taking what we want, and we just put some rules on it to stop disagreements from turning into bloodbaths"

Or is this a more general "We will determine which of us is the Strongest" situation, where actually hurting your opponent isn't the goal so much as it's a means to prove your strength.

If the latter, there may be some victory condition besides "Your opponent surrenders or is too hurt to keep fighting".

For example, there may be a win condition called "Skill and Courage".

This works best if you assume only blunt weapons are being used.

First, "Skill", the combatant must declare "Skill", and then gently touch their opponent's head or shoulders. A faint tap, to demonstrate that you COULD have struck them with more force, but chose not to.

After the touch is made, you must get out of arm's reach of your opponent, and declare "Courage". This means the fight stops, but you have not won yet, you have merely moved to a new form of Challenge.

When you shout 'Courage" you drop your weapon and must keep at least one foot planted firmly on the ground. Your opponent can then strike you (once again, this only really works if you're using blunt weapons), you can defend yourself, but you can't move your feet or attack back. After each blow, shout "Courage" again. If you are still standing after the third blow, you win , having proven yourself stronger. Usually this is done after beating your opponent a bit to make them more sluggish and less able to hit you.

Alternatively, pushing your opponent out of a ring, or getting them disarmed and on the ground may be acceptable ways to end a fight with honor intact for all involved.


Alternatively, barehanded fighting or wrestling may be the way to go. As the person above said, Orcs don't want to risk their best fighters in minor squabbles.