Armored Combat:Conventions - Acknowledgement of blows - Effects of blows

Effects of blows

1. An effective blow (aka "a good blow") is defined as a blow or strike which was delivered with effective technique for the particular type of weapon used, with proper orientation of the striking surface (e.g. the marked edge of a bladed weapon), and with sufficient force.
2. A blow from a handheld weapon that strikes you with an effective technique, proper orientation, and sufficient force must be considered effective, regardless of what it hits prior to striking you.
3. The effect of the blow depends on where it strikes you. The effects of blows to various legal target areas of the body are as follows:
   1. An effective blow to your head, neck or torso is judged fatal or totally disabling, rendering you incapable of further combat. Don't forget that the area between the neck and point of the shoulder is considered part of your torso and blows to this area are fatal.
   2. An effective swung blow to your face is considered fatal and is lighter than you'd consider for other portions of your head or body.
   3. An effective thrust to your face is considered fatal. Thrusts to the face should be a directed touch, and should be substantially lighter than thrusts to other parts of the body.
   4. An effective swung blow from any two-handed weapon, or a mass weapon which lands on your hip between bottom of the hip socket and the iliac crest, or strikes your shoulder inside the shoulder socket, is judged fatal or totally disabling.
   5. An effective swung blow from any other weapon which lands on your hip above the hip socket, or strikes your shoulder inside the shoulder socket disables the limb.
   6. An effective thrust to your hip or shoulder is not considered fatal, only wounding, regardless of the type of weapon delivering the blow.
   7. An effective blow to your leg above the knee will disable that leg. You must then fight kneeling, sitting, or standing on the foot of your uninjured leg. Kingdoms are allowed to make rules that limit the mobility of "legged" fighters.
   8. Any effective blow to your arm above the wrist disables that arm, so that it is useless to you, and you cannot use it to attack or defend.
4. If you are struck outside a legal target area, it does not count as an effective blow, unless you intentionally placed a part of your body that is not a legal target area in the path of an incoming blow.
5. If you block an effective blow with a wounded limb, that blow is counted as though the limb were not there.
6. You are not required to stop a combination when your opponent is wounded. Thus, if a blow to the limb of a combatant is followed immediately by a killing blow to the same combatant, the killing blow is counted as good.
7. A killing blow occurs instantaneously, so no new offensive action can be started. Blows begun before the killing blow can be completed. A killing blow started before receiving a killing blow is good and is known as a double kill. A blow started after receiving a killing blow should not be counted.
8. Sometimes an effective blow occurs at almost the same moment as an event that would cause the fight to be stopped (a "Hold" being called, the killing of the fighter throwing the blow, etc.). If an effective blow was begun before the event that would cause the bout to be halted, it should be accepted as good. If the blow was begun after the event that would cause the bout to be halted, it should not be accepted.
9. If your opponent drops their weapon at the moment that it strikes you, it is not an effective blow.