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Fresh sheets of parchment can be found posted upon the market boards of Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul'dah respectively. Each is thin, scribed brusquely in a bold, stiff hand. The characters appear in black, a public notice for all interested and can read: The Grindstone This event makes large use of /yell! Please have it enabled to make sure you catch everything it has to offer. The Grindstone is an open tournament for its fighters every Saturday. Any and all are invited to spectate, as the events will be free to the public. We request only that those who attend are respectful of our fighters. If you are not, you will be asked to leave. In order to participate in this event you need only be on location in Central Thanalan at Fesca's Wash. The winner's purse is supplied through twice-annual "Fight Auction" events. This event usually runs for about 4 hours every week. Be forewarned! RULES: (Revised 4/26/16) 1. No killing. The Grindstone is an open tournament for any and all who wish to participate, and while a pain-free experience is not guaranteed, no one should be afraid for their life. Should anyone accidentally or "accidentally" end the life of their opponent, they will be similarly executed. Additionally, the only combat that takes place at the Grindstone is arranged and watched over by an Overseer. Picking your own fight between rounds or with a spectator will be considered intent to kill, and you will be dealt with accordingly.* 2. No magic, no technology, no alchemy. While these methods see regular, expected use in widespread Eorzea, the Grindstone is a place to work on your technique and execution. Battlemages, technical gurus and those dabbling in poisons and subterfuge are encouraged to test those application in other events. 3. Ranged combatants armed with guns or bows are required to use any form of non-lethal ammunition. Throwing knives are permitted due to their lower velocity. 4. No livestock, no wildlife, no living weapons, armor or shields. 5. Everyone fights healthy. This means that if you show up sporting a previous injury, you will not be fighting. This means if you refuse healing between rounds, you will not be fighting. This means that if, post healing, you are still somehow injured despite the best efforts of the medics and healers on hand, you will not be fighting. OOC Guidelines 1a. Defenders determine damage. When you are hit, you get to decide exactly how much of your opponent's attack lands on you. This is important because no fight ends in one hit! If someone opens up with trying to break your back and make you humble, you're entirely free to escape the most severe consequences to continue the narrative of fighting someone. 1b. Don't oversell damage. There's always drama in combat but please don't try to force a gigantic moment by deciding someone's attack pierced your heart, or their blunt arrows or rubber bullets actually shot clean through your helmet and exploded your head. You can't make people break the first rule by claiming their innocent attack actually murdered you. 1c. Don't undersell damage. If someone lands a hit on you, don't do them a disservice by posting something about the attack doing zero to you. The Grindstone is primarily a writing exercise, so don't feel like you have to save face by refusing to budge on people hitting you. For one thing, it's fun to write ways out of a fight that doesn't go your way, and for a second thing, it's very unfun to fight someone who just decides they didn't lose or they're bored and just walk off. It takes two to Grindstone! 1d. Don't feel pressured to adhere to any of the previous two ideas! 2. Have fun. The whole point is to meet new people and try things you can't normally do in other situations! There's no safer place in Eorzea to get run through than the Grindstone! Time: Saturdays at 10 pm EST (Time Conversion) Location: Fesca's Wash in Central Thanalan. 20,25 The Mechanics and OOC The Grindstone is Balmung's premiere fighting tournament, having existed since the arrival of FFXIV:ARR. While the folks organizing the event have changed over the following years, the intent has been the same the entire time: Giving space for roleplayers to beat the piss out of each other without fear of death or dismemberment. ICly this means that, for all purposes, the combat is a step above simple sparring; People can and will be split open during matches. It is only thanks to a dedicated, volunteer team of healers that players can fight without worrying about surviving through metagaming. Participating in the Grindstone is easy: You show up between 9:30PM and 10:00PM EST at Fesca's Wash in Central Thanalan on a Saturday night and get in line with everyone else. There's usually some floating RP as early as 9PM (or 8PM if folks are feeling particularly froggy) but we begin properly at 10PM. We'll /yell for everyone to get in line, then after going over the rules, the Arbiter will pair everyone off with an opponent. Matches are one-off fights with those victorious moving ahead and fighting someone else in the next round. This repeats until only one person is left standing to become that week's champion. Combat is broken down into a few simple steps. 1) This event utilizes the /random feature! 2) Both opponents roll initiative. The highest roll wins and attacks first. 3) The attacking player writes their post in a custom emote using /em. After posting, they roll the die. 4) The defending player rolls their die to defend. If the defender rolls higher than the attack, they have successfully avoided damage. A lower roll means they have been struck. In the event of a tie, reroll both attack and defense. Regardless, after determining the result, the defender then posts their /emote to show the effect. 5) Switch roles and repeat. The defender is now on the offensive and the attacker is defending. 6) First person to win three contests wins the match. ICly, the third hit you take should be the one that causes you to pass out / be knocked out / surrender. Remember that it isn't "first to three" in character. We just fudge it so everyone just so happens to not be able or willing to go on after the third hit lands. OOCly: Roleplay starts around 8PM Eastern Standard Time in recent weeks. People want to fight! And talk about fighting! *Seriously, don't disrupt a scheduled event by going off on your own accord and picking a "real" fight. It's distracting to the event as a whole and it's disrespectful to those working to provide an environment for others who want to roleplay. Undermining the event will result in some ugly godmoding nonsense that really nobody wants to have to do. Rule revision: 10/14/17 _________