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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6618462" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I've actually got a formalized dueling code for encounters between mutually hostile-but-not-mindlessly-hating parties, like githyanki and githzerai, or drow and githyanki, or duergar and yuan-ti. The idea is that there has to be a way of conducting limited exchanges without mutually annihilating each other--or else why wouldn't they have annihilated each other already? And it's both natural and game-appropriate for that method to be based off of single combat.The rules:* When you meet a hostile force, you offer &quot;kresim&quot; (life-price, like a bag of gold) and indicate who your champion is, usually not your leader but a second-in-command. The other party does the same.* The two champions fight until one of them is down or surrenders.* The loser's life now belongs to the winner, but if his life is spared, the winner takes kresim instead. (Conveniently explains why githyanki and drow carry around treasure per the DMG treasure tables.) Then the loser can be stabilized/revived as normal (healing or rest).* If one side decides that they can take the other side in open combat, ignore all the above and just launch an attack.This way, evil nations can defend their borders against other nations while gathering intelligence on each other's relative capabilities, and it doesn't cost them 100% of their population every year. It also lets good fighters gain status, which has secondary effects on society.My players are dimly aware of this convention since a githyanki offered them 'kresim' (the wizard dominated the githyanki champion and made him kill himself with a sword, which was awesome, unexpected, and quite intimidating--so the githyanki acted rather friendly afterwards) but they don't know all the details.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6618462, member: 6787650"] I've actually got a formalized dueling code for encounters between mutually hostile-but-not-mindlessly-hating parties, like githyanki and githzerai, or drow and githyanki, or duergar and yuan-ti. The idea is that there has to be a way of conducting limited exchanges [I]without[/I] mutually annihilating each other--or else why wouldn't they have annihilated each other already? And it's both natural and game-appropriate for that method to be based off of single combat. The rules: * When you meet a hostile force, you offer "kresim" (life-price, like a bag of gold) and indicate who your champion is, usually not your leader but a second-in-command. The other party does the same. * The two champions fight until one of them is down or surrenders. * The loser's life now belongs to the winner, but if his life is spared, the winner takes kresim instead. (Conveniently explains why githyanki and drow carry around treasure per the DMG treasure tables.) Then the loser can be stabilized/revived as normal (healing or rest). * If one side decides that they can take the other side in open combat, ignore all the above and just launch an attack. This way, evil nations can defend their borders against other nations while gathering intelligence on each other's relative capabilities, and it doesn't cost them 100% of their population every year. It also lets good fighters gain status, which has secondary effects on society. My players are dimly aware of this convention since a githyanki offered them 'kresim' (the wizard dominated the githyanki champion and made him kill himself with a sword, which was awesome, unexpected, and quite intimidating--so the githyanki acted rather friendly afterwards) but they don't know all the details. [/QUOTE]

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