I have 2 players one a space wolf the other dark angel they have friendly rivalry and the dark angel has rolled as part of his background that he defeated a space wolf in ritual combat the players now want a re match so to speak , any ideas on how i run this ? the wolf is an assualt marine and the dark angel a devastator so i suspect if hand to hand it isnt going to be much of a fair fight and i doubt the watch commander would be keen on marines seriosuly injuring each other

Don't see wh it should be non lethal, just make it a Combat Knife Fight until one of the two yields, make it so they are only wearing ceremonial robes...

Santiago said:

Glad that Ultras don't participate: "We never yield, Proteus."

Alex

This could be done to "First Blood", whom ever draws first blood wins. This would be a down time (between missions) thing I would run it to the first point of critical damage taken, it can heal so why not. They may even get some cool scars out of it and a good change to roleplay.

Ben

Peachey said:

We did the same thing only a bit abstractly.

I had them take their WS and make a series of 10 rolls against it. They were to note the degrees of success or failure for each roll. At the end, they counted the total number of successes. They were IIRC within about 2 of each other which I declared a tie; neither was able to best their opponent. Worked out perfectly without bogging down the entire session.

The Watch Commander in my game has turned this into a bit of a training session.

Playing the Space Wolf in my game, when the Dark Angel has challenged me to a contest, I've done some interesting things.

A race up a sheer cliff-face with no ropes or safety gear. We have to go 30m up, and start off on even footing, so we can throw in unarmed slugs until one outpaces the other.

Other ideas: Fighting on an ice flow breaking off into a large, frozen sea, or swinging from thick jungle-like arboreous areas, with plenty of vines and hand-holds - the person that touches the ground first loses.

Be inventive with this. Use the environment to make everything more challenging and, if nothing else, more visually appealing. Combat is only one aspect to be challenged within, and acheiving a combat superiority in an environment that is more challenging makes the bragging rights more rewarding.

For my group's ritual dual, I call for an opposed WS test.

An interesting idea might be to allow them enter combat with a blade and a pistol. This removes a little of the assault marine's edge. Have the bolt pistols loaded with training rounds (impact damage) and run with power armor. It takes a very serious wound to kill a space marine, and they would be allowed to yield at any point.

A devastator marine would be able to focus his shots on disabling the assault marine by aiming for the legs or arms.

I set them against each other with no equipment. It took too long as it was too difficult to cause wounds, and when they did they tended to dodge or parry. One of the guys resorted to stunning, and the other guy used a fate point to avoid it. This ended up with the rest of the group getting bored.

In hindsight an opposed test or training exercise would have been better. If they must face off I would suggest using a combat blade or similar weapon just to make it easier to wound, and possibly not allowing the use of fate points to avoid anything other than long term effects of criticals.

If you were to use a training excercise the rest of the squad could take part, but whoever out of the Dark Angel or Space wolf performs better wins.

I would lean toward a best 3 out of 5 opposed WS test.

I would take weapons completely out of it, unarmed attacks would do little damage to a space marine, but it does inflict fatigue, which would eventually lead to someone being knocked out.

So they could do some boxing, grappling, MMA-style fighting.

ItsUncertainWho said:

This. Standing around watching two PCs fight is dull for everyone else.

You could do this like a sort of rivalry within a mission and not in a ritual combat. For instance when they have a mission against the nids the one who kills the most enemies is the winner. This will not get boring for the rest of the group and will get both marines in the spirit of rivalries.

Siranui said:

I am not too appreciative of players who can't stand it if they aren't part of the action for 5 or 10 minutes.

Alex

PopeJon said:

In the DA Codex (4e), the description of the honour duels fought between the Dark angels and the Space Wolves were described as "bloodless" so going with unarmed is likely to be the best bet, especially among SM that have less of a grudge issue.

Also, the original duel was unarmed. It ended when Russ was tossed through a table and was then knocked out. They should fight till one can not stand.

Peachey said:

Do it man, would love to see the Storm Warden & Space Wolf kick the crap out of each other because of a difference of *opinion/tactics/insults/brotherly love.

*as appropriate on a per scenario basis :-D