There are a wide variety of defensive abilities which may be used to stop or mitigate an attack in REFUGE LARP. These may be summed up as four types of defensive calls, each of which has many specific implementations. The source of the defense which is being called must be stated with any defensive verbal, for example “Weapon Shield” or “Resist.”
A given defense can only be used once by a creature against a single attack. Multiple defenses can be triggered by multiple people against a single attack in the right circumstances, such as a Bane effect being Reflected and then the original target expending a Spell Shield.
You must always call a verbal for your defensive abilities immediately when used, and IG, it is obvious to anyone watching which defense was used. You may not call a defense and then have your character pretend to be affected to fool your attackers. Only one defensive ability may be called against a single attack, even if you have multiple defensive abilities which might apply to the attack.
Guard: This type of defense is used to completely block a single attack. These denote expendable Skills, spells, or abilities.
Return: This type of defense is used to send an attack back at the original attacker, who will be automatically struck by the original attack; they may use any applicable defenses they have against the Returned attack as normal. If an attack is Returned, the original attacker is now the target, and the original target is now the attacker. A Return defense will instead act as a Guard defense against any attack originating from an inanimate object, such as by Ingested delivery or a trap.
Reduced: This type of defense indicates the attack was reduced in effectiveness in some way, such as taking a lower amount of damage or reducing the duration of an effect.
No Effect: This type of defense indicates the attack was completely ineffective. In general, if you’re Immune to part of an effect, you’re Immune to all of it. For example, a creature that is Immune to the Spell qualifier will call “No Effect” to “20 Spell Flame!,” but not “20 Elemental Flame!”
Defenses are classified as either Smart or Dumb in their description.
Smart defenses may be used at the discretion of the player against a specific attack, but may only be used when the character is conscious. Examples of Smart defenses are abilities such as Cloak and Resist Binding. Smart defenses other than Resist skills may be used before Dumb defenses, at player discretion.
Dumb defenses will go off against the first attack which they would activate against, even if the character is unconscious. Examples of Dumb defenses are Spell Shield and Weapon Shield.
Resist skills are special Smart defenses; they represent the innate defenses of a creature’s body, not the learned or applied defenses of skills, spells, and Magic Items. Resists may not be used until all applicable Dumb defenses are expended. Unlike most defenses, a Resist can be used against the Ingested delivery.
If a player doesn’t know what a defense does, they can ask a quick OOG question “What type of defense is that?” The person who used the defense can then reply whether it’s e.g. a Smart Guard, a Dumb Return, or whatever accurately describes what the defense does.
Repeated Calls: In general, any response which would be repeated over and over (such as “No Effect” or “Healed”) does not need to be repeated for every attack. It is imperative on the player making this call to ensure that players are aware of this (for example, if a new player enters an ongoing combat where the call has already been announced) or if the effect changes (for example, if a character’s ability to be healed from a specific effect disappears for some reason in the middle of a fight).