Joseki's Journeys: Fighter Practice

Joseki's Journeys 3. Fighter Practice

Tonight marked my third journey into the land of GCN Gor. I've come to find it to be an interesting mix of people. Some of the same people are there and I find it nice to be looked for. When I played on the Isle of Gor I saw always the same people and not many new faces. On GCN Gor I've seen quite a mix, both new and old. The new ones tend to be just as much fun as the old.

Well last night I finally got to try my hand at combat. I ran into Taima again she's been very nice to me. She and I talked over my last journey and I was surprised to find that she enjoyed it as much as I did. She had written me a very nice poem. Much better than the one I wrote her. She shared it with me and I like I said it was very good. We started discussing things and I mentioned that I was wishful of learning to fight. She talked with me about the rules and then asked a couple of friends to drop by and give me a fighting lesson.

Two very nice gentlemen showed up, Kas and Star. They both explained the rules to me again and I tried to pay very close attention to them. I really wish to be able to do this well. I did a little sparring with the gentlemen named Kas. Needless to say like every other form of fighting I've tried I got my butt kicked the first time out. He was a very good teacher though. I learned a lot and he was extremely nice about my inadequacies.

Combat became as follows; we each stated are relative size, weight, and the location and disposition of our weapons. My post looked something like this.

Joseki Ko stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs three hundred and fifty pounds. He has a shield strapped to his left arm and bears a short sword in his right hand. The sword is pointed at Kas gut. He stands in a T stance with his left foot forward of his right, pointing at Kas. The distance is 10 feet.

Now if you'll notice this is a very detailed post. The details are what got me. I didn't have my sword pointed at Kas to start and I didn't state what kind of sword I had. I'll make Kas post shorter here. He stood 10 feet from me with a loaded crossbow and stood 6 feet 9 inches. I'm given to understand that the person with the more aggressive stance gets to begin posting his actions first.

We all felt that Kas had a more aggressive post. Kas began his actions by moving forward to five feet and raising his crossbow. He fired one quarrel at my left hip and reloaded and fired another bolt at my right hip. He then stepped back to ten feet dropping his crossbow and whirling a bola above his head.

Now the interesting part about this is that you can make no definite posts. You either have to phrase it as an attempt or try. I thought this would be rather easy to beat. I tried to move forward and smash the crossbow from his hands. However I said I move forward five feet. His post had read moves to five feet. That means that when I closed with him he effectively didn't move so we were five feet apart when I tried to smash the bow from his hands. I have long arms but not that long. End result is that I took an arrow in both thighs.

I should mention that each fight requires a judge or judges. The judges look at the actions posted by each combatant and decide what actually happened. In my case they decided that I was down and bleeding, I believe I mentioned earlier that I took an arrow in both thighs. There may also be a medic present to bind wounds and keep you from dieing. Yes surprising as it sounds you can be killed on GCN Gor. If you are killed you are required to be offline for 14 days, and return as a different character. It's an honor system but it's enforced by the participants. I do find it interesting that there is a penalty for death.

Kas was called away then so our fight was not to continue but it was fun. I look forward to trying it again.