Here are a few pointers on filling out a Duelmasters turnsheet.
1. Choosing your weapons: The reason there are three lines for this (vs. light, vs. medium, and vs. heavy), is that some weapons are better against an opponent who is not wearing much armor, and some are better against an opponent who walks into the arena armored like a tank. Look on the inside back cover of your Red Book. There is a chart that gives the weight of armor and helmets. Add together the weight of the armor and the helmet, and that is the weight of armor that your opponent is wearing. For example, plate armor and a full helm add up to 18, which is the highest possible armor weight. Leather armor and a steel cap add up to four. Ringmail and a helm add up to nine. And so on. If you want your warrior to use two daggers against opponents wearing armor of weight eight or less, then on the first line you would write an 8 inside the parentheses, like this:
vs. Light ( 0, 8 ) ____dagger____ and ___dagger_____Then, if you want him to use, oh, a short sword and small shield against medium armors, you might write:
vs. Medium ( 9, 14 ) __shortsword__ and _small shield_And for anything heavier, you might choose a still heavier weapon:
vs. Heavy (15, + ) _broadsword___ and ______________You might not want to use an off-hand weapon or shield with your heavy weapon, because your warrior needs both hands on his broadsword for maximum force to chop through that platemail!
You don't have to make three different armor divisions. You can use the same weapon against everything, or you can make two divisions instead of three.
In case your warrior drops his weapon, or it gets broken, you might also want him to carry a backup on his belt. A shortsword is a fine backup weapon, because it only weighs 2 (won't slow your warrior down), and it almost never breaks. Weapons from the two-handed weapons list can't be carried as backups, because they are too big and awkward.
You should bear in mind that your warriors will be well-suited to some weapons and poorly-suited to others, depending on their style and their attributes. Most warriors are too small or too weak to use a maul, for example. A basher wouldn't want to use an epee because it isn't suited to his style, even if he happens to have the attributes for it. By reading your turn results, you will be able to tell which weapons your warriors use best.
Be sure to use weapons from the lists on the inside back cover of the red rule book. These are the only weapons our computer knows. These weapons are described in the rules supplement.
2. Bear in mind that the heavier the armor you put on a warrior, the more it will slow him down. If he is lumbering around in plate armor and a full helm, other warriors will get the jump on him most of the time. This is okay for certain styles, like bashers and total parries, but you wouldn't want to put most other styles in armor that heavy. Warriors like lungers, slashers, and strikers, who depend on speed, very often go out on the sands wearing no armor at all.
3. On the line for training, you need to write either one of your warrior's attributes, or "skills." If you write an attribute, say, "CN" (constitution), that means the warrior spent the last two weeks trying to raise his constitution. Maybe it will go up by one point, or maybe it won't. The first two raises on any given attribute are usually fairly easy. After that, you might have to try for many turns before the warrior raises that attribute another point.
If you write "SK" (skills), then he spends that time practicing and trying to be a better fighter. His arena fights are highly educational. If he has a good wit, he will learn plenty of skills. If he fights someone with more experience than he has, he will learn more. If the fight lasts three or four minutes, that is ideal for learning. He can't usually learn much during a fight that only lasts 30 seconds! Sometimes he'll have bad luck and not learn any skills, but normally a bright warrior will learn at least one or two. The skills keep adding up, and eventually he gets very, very good at what he does. In the long run, it is usually more efficient to train skills instead of attributes. By the way--there are six types of skills, but you really can't choose which ones you want your warrior to study. He just learns whatever he happens to learn.
4. The "wish to fight" lines are for challenges. Your warrior can't challenge anyone on his first turn. After that, he can challenge other warriors who are in his class or the next higher class. For example, an Initiate can challenge another Initiate, or a Challenger Initiate. You print the name of the warrior you want to challenge on the first part of the line, and then put his ID number after the "#" symbol. You can challenge two different warriors if you want. If someone has killed one of your warriors, then the other members of your team can bloodfeud the killer. To bloodfeud, you just circle your challenge--and, to make it extra clear, you can write "BF" beside it.
5. The boxes for "challenge strategy" or "if challenged strategy" can give your warrior a little more flexibility. You put his normal everyday strategy on the front. You challenge somebody, let's say a warrior you happen to know is a total parry. Check the "challenge strategy" box and then fill out the back side of the sheet, using a slower strategy that is more suitable for fighting a total parry, and maybe heavier weapons to get through his heavy armor. Then, if your challenge goes through, and your warrior gets to fight the total parry, he'll use his special strategy. Otherwise, he'll use his normal one.
Or, let's say one of your warriors has killed someone, and you think the dead guy's team is going to bloodfeud your warrior. If you want to use a special strategy against those guys, maybe one with a higher kill desire, then you check the "if challenged strategy" box and write your special strategy on the back.
6. The "wish to avoid" section lets you avoid two teams. You can only avoid teams, not individual warriors. Write the name of the team you want to avoid. On the same line, also write that team's ID number. Look on the front page of your current newsletter. Find that team in the rankings. The number in parentheses after the team name is that team's ID number. That's what you need.
I normally have a warrior avoid the last two teams he has fought. This is mainly so my warriors will mix around the arena and not accidentally keep fighting the same teams over and over again. If one of my warriors has killed someone, he won't avoid that team, because I don't run away from bloodfeuds. Incidentally, avoiding a team does not give you 100% protection against them. It helps, but once in a while their challenges will get through your avoids.
7. You need to write numbers in the minute-by-minute strategy section. For example, on the "offensive effort" line, I might fill in the boxes like this: 10, 9, 6, 6, 6, 5, 10. This means that in the first minute, my warrior will try to make a lot of attacks against the other warrior. If the fight lasts longer than one minute, he'll start to slow down and try to conserve his endurance. If he gets desperate (in serious trouble due to wounds or exhaustion), he'll start attacking all-out in an effort to end the fight quickly. This is a strategy for an offensive warrior, by the way; you wouldn't want to run most parry-types this way.
"Activity level" means how much your warrior moves around while he is fighting. Combined with a high offensive effort, a high activity level is good for an all-out fighter, like a lunger. Combined with a low offensive effort, a high activity effort will make your warrior dodge and riposte a lot. A high activity effort will tire out your warrior quickly.
"Kill desire" is how much your warrior wants to kill his opponent. A 10 kill desire means he's trying to murder the guy. A 1 kill desire means he's trying very hard not to kill him. My offensive types usually fight with a 6 kill desire, and my parry-types fight with a 2 or 3.
"Attack location" is what part of his opponent's body your warrior is trying to hit during that minute. "Protect location" is what part of his own body your warrior is trying hardest to protect. Look at the bottom of the inside back cover of the red book to find the abbreviations you need to use, like "LL" for "left leg" and "HE" for head. It's a good idea to keep attacking the same spot. My warriors often attack the legs, because that's a good way to win a fight without killing the other guy. For a kill, you could attack the head. My warriors normally defend their heads, because I don't want them to get killed.
8. Offensive and defensive tactics: You can get by without using these at all. Do not use both an offensive and defensive tactic in the same minute; it will totally confuse your warrior and almost certainly cause him to lose. For a description of the tactics and what they do, look in the rules supplement (let us know if you don't have one and we'll send you one).
A couple of tips: "decisiveness" will help your warrior get the jump on his opponent. For offensive styles, it is a good tactic to use in the first minute and in desperation. A total parry usually does best using the "parry" defensive tactic in all minutes, and a parry-riposte usually does best with the "riposte" tactic in all minutes. The "responsiveness" tactic ("S" on the "defensive tactic" line) doesn't seem to be good for much. The offensive tactics of "slash," "lunge," and "bash" will add force to the blows of slashers, lungers, and bashers. I often give my bashers the "bash" tactic when they are fighting parry-types, and are trying to smash through parries and through heavy armor.
the She-Puppy