8 hours ago, Hida Jitenno said:

Rerolling it now that I'm home and... yes. Yes the finishing blow missed with all blank faces, save for one Void opportunity.

The other character then got a Finishing Blow... and missed. She was still Compromised, and all the dice rolled Strife faces, save for one success... against an opponent in Air Stance. SO... THIS IS GREAT.

If I'm correct, no more finishing blows, yes? They only happen the first time each character is compromised?

As written, yes.

"The first time each character’s strife exceeds their composure during a duel, their opponent may immediately perform a finishing blow."

If both parties miss their finishing blow (and are presumably therefore both compromised) then it's going to end up with an undignified slap-fest, or else back off long enough to take (rather a lot of) calming breaths.

Or unmask, of course. Finishing Blow =/= Unmasking, but nothing stops you doing the latter, which would drop your strife to zero and put you at a big advantage against a still-compromised opponent. Especially if the GM goes with the older version and lets you have the Enraged condition (increasing the severity of criticals caused to and by you by 2).

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Or unmask, of course. Finishing Blow =/= Unmasking, but nothing stops you doing the latter, which would drop your strife to zero and put you at a big advantage against a still-compromised opponent. Especially if the GM goes with the older version and lets you have the Enraged condition (increasing the severity of criticals caused to and by you by 2).

They were going for points, as it was a friendly match, and Unmasking is 2 menos puntos. (-2) So decided not to do that. The next turn went spectacular for the one who had been the previous loser, with 3 successes and 2 opportunities, no strife faces, and turned the tide. It was cool.

Thank you again everyone who helped me get my rules straight!