22. Debating

Debates

1. A Debate can take place if there is cause between two characters. Some situations automatically give cause, such as meeting a member of an enemy Faction, refusing to stand down over a Court Companion, stealing another character's Court Companion, etc. These instances will be noted in the Vatican Observer and, if both parties agree, a Debate will take place at the start of the following month.

2. If a challenge is made when there is no automatic cause, a poll will be set up on the VaticanEnGarde mailing list website and all players will be notified by email. If more players vote that there is cause than there is not, then a Debate may be scheduled for the following month.

3. If a character is under half his Maximum Reputation, he may defer a Debate until he recovers to that threshold.

4. If one of the Debaters is away from Rome for 3 months or does not recover to half his Maximum Reputation within that time, the cause for the Debate will lapse.

5. There may only be one pending Debate between any two characters at any given time.

6. A character may Debate with more than one character in any given month, although not with more than one character at a time. The character's orders should make it clear which Debating orders apply to which opponent. In the event that a character has more than one Debate scheduled for a month, those Debates will be conducted in the order that they are listed in the previous month's Vatican Observer.

7. Recovery of Reputation occurs at the end of the month, not between Debates. Thus if a character is sufficiently wounded in one Debate, a subsequent Debate will be deferred if the deferral conditions are met prior to its commencement.

Debating

8. Debates consist of a number of Actions performed by each character, each Action being part of a set Routine. The Debating Tactics Table shows which Actions are involved in each Routine.

9. Once a Routine has been started, it will continue until its end unless a speaker Admits Defeat or is Humiliated.

10. At each step, the actions of the two speakers are compared. If both characters are performing offensive Actions, damage is inflicted simultaneously. The extent of the wound inflicted, i.e. the loss of Reputation, depends upon the Wit of the attacker and the Action being performed, as set out in the Inflicting Wounds Table.

11. The Debating Tactics Table shows the format in which Routines should be ordered. Routines may be combined to form sequences, such as "Bon mot - Bluster" which would be ordered as "X-X-S-B", or used alone, such as "Propose" which would be ordered as "X-L-X". Only Routines, not Actions, may be ordered, thus a Correction cannot occur in isolation. Debating orders should also include conditions for Admitting Defeat and Accepting an Admission of Defeat.

12. Orders can include 2 optional Routines. If the conditions for an optional Routine arise, the optional Routine will be inserted after the current Routine is completed. The conditions can include the opponent's Actions. Clever use of optional Routines can make the difference between winning and losing.

13. Any mistakes in orders, e.g. incorrectly writing a Routine, will be corrected by the GM insofar as is possible.

14. The following defaults apply to Debating orders unless a character's orders specifically state otherwise:

If Reputation under half Maximum Reputation, defer Debate until Reputation recovers to half Maximum Reputation.

Admit Defeat if under half Maximum Reputation or able to be Humiliated by one blow (HOB).

Accept opponent's Admission of Defeat.

15. Whenever damage would be inflicted, unless from a Shouted Insult, the chance of a wound is affected by the attacker's Eloquence, as shown in the Wounding an Opponent Table.

16. An attacking Action that is not effective does no damage as it does not wound. It is thus not considered a "touch".

Debating Etiquette

17. Debates may be to First Touch, Second Touch or Until Humiliation.

18. A Debate to First Touch or Second Touch signifies a Debate to the first or second wound (as applicable) inflicted upon a speaker, such wounded party being considered to have been Defeated at that point. Ridicule is not an effective routine for a Debate to First Touch.

19. Until Humiliation signifies that the speakers will continue until one of them loses all of his Reputation, without either necessarily Admitting Defeat or Accepting an Admission of Defeat by the other. Participating in a Debate Until Humiliation is only allowed for serious matters, not routine ones. If this form of Debate is agreed upon, a character may still choose to submit orders in which he would Accept an Admission of Defeat or himself Admit Defeat in certain circumstances. However, a character who does Admit Defeat in a Debate Until Humiliation automatically loses 1 SL.

20. All Debates shall be to First Touch unless both parties agree otherwise.

21. Ridicule is a legal manoeuvre in Debates but it is seen as the last resort of a desperate individual. Similarly, repeatedly Shouting Insults cannot but harm a character's standing. Accordingly, any speaker who employs Ridicule or repeatedly Shouts Insults suffers a penalty of 1 SP.

The Outcome of a Debate

22. A character Admits Defeat as soon as the conditions for Admitting Defeat are met, even if he is in the middle of a routine.

23. If the Admission of Defeat is accepted, wounds from any offensive Action by the opposing speaker are still applied before the Debate ends.

24. If the Admission of Defeat is refused, the Debate continues for another 2d6 further Actions before the arbiter manages to break it up. During that time, the speaker who Admitted Defeat carries on Debating, having resumed his involvement in the Debate from the start of the Routine following the Routine which was interrupted by his Admission of Defeat.

25. If an Admission of Defeat is refused but the Debate does not result in Humiliation of either party, the person who refused to accept the Admission of Defeat may be charged with Boorish Conduct. An NPC Inquisitor will bring the charge on a 4+ on 1d6 and may be influenced.

26. If an Admission of Defeat is refused and the Debate results in the Reputation of the speaker whose Admission of Defeat was rejected falling to 0 or less, the Humiliation Table is consulted and the character may escape with a lesser fate. If the outcome is that the character has been Humiliated, then the other character may be charged with Being Tedious. If the character was not actually Humiliated, he may be charged with Boorish Conduct. An NPC Inquisitor will bring the relevant charge on a 4+ on 1d6 and may be influenced.

27. If a speaker resort to Shouting, but then Admits Defeat, the other speaker may continue to Debate for 2d6 Actions, provided this is in his orders, without risk of being charged with Boorish Conduct or Being Tedious.

28. Ridicule is incapable of Humiliating an opponent. Thus if a character's Reputation is reduced to 0 or less by Ridicule, he is treated as being speechless with a Reputation of 0.

29. The SP Gains and Losses Table and the Eloquence Gains Table detail the possible SP and Eloquence results of a Debate.

Debating Tactics Table

Wounding an Opponent Table

Inflicting Wounds Table

Humiliation Table

Recovery of Reputation Table

SP Gains and Losses Table

Eloquence Gains Table