As we are a roleplay server first and foremost, buildup to mechanics is necessary and important to ensure everyone involved is aware of the circumstances of a fight, or is prepared to partake in one. There's two kinds of escalation that are important to remember: Roleplay and Mechanical escalation.
Roleplay escalation is the more complex facet - it's the buildup to a fight, emoting drawing blades, ordering an attack, giving a war cry, emoting charging someone; anything that is text-based but ultimately conveys the message that now is the time for combat.
The more straightforward aspect is mechanical escalation. If someone else engages in a form of mechanical escalation, you are permitted to likewise perform mechanical escalation in return - if someone does one of these, you are wholly permitted to begin fighting them. These include:
-Running away from an encounter
-Yelling for help
-Starting to cast a spell
-Beginning to draw/aim a bow, crossbow, or gun
-Pre-buffing, such as taking spice or drinking a potion
-Already being in a fight with someone you're intending to defend
-Grabbing someone else / attempting to move them
Engage with these in good faith. Do not take someone walking away from you without any form of attempted buildup or someone drinking a potion due to unrelated circumstances as justification to ambush them.
Certain circumstances that are time-sensitive permit you to expedite - but not wholly skip - buildup, such as having a standoff somewhere where backup is expected to arrive by circumstance, or engaging someplace where a passer-by might get involved and take sides. In such a scenario, either escalating to a fight faster or LOOCing to request the scene get moved elsewhere to play it out fully is permitted.
Unlike Nova proper, we do not have a CI toggle - instead, you're asked to use your best judgment in regards to jumping into fights.
Justification refers to your reasoning, in-character, to engage in a fight with someone. The most obvious and realistic is self-defence, as you're acting to protect yourself or someone else - but the nuance of why is just as important to the fight as the fight itself. A few more examples are - following orders from a superior, getting revenge against someone that wronged you, an IC argument leading up to the fight, or other similar reasons to risk life and limb - and to prevent you from arming up against something that, as of yet, doesn't require you do so.
A few questions you should ask yourself before jumping into mechanics:
1. Is it realistic that my character would jump to violence against another person in this instance?
2. Have you built up enough in both speech and mechanics that all parties are aware that the encounter is going to happen?
3. Are there enough people already fighting this threat, or is there someone else present to take care of it?
Antagonists, by nature, have inherent justification. Inherent justification is a role-based privilege to expedite, but not skip, the escalation process; if their motivation and goal is to raid, murder, and pillage the town and surrounding areas, they are permitted to skip the more complex 'why' of why a character is doing it, and instead focus solely on the escalation of it. A bandit can draw a sword and rob you without prior buildup or reasoning, whereas an adventurer would need to put more work into doing so.
A necessary circumstance of conflict, combat, and escalation is that not all scenarios require immediate roleplay in the moment to be done - instead, these scenarios require a buildup to happen beforehand that pays off in an encounter where involved parties are aware of the fact that mechanics will be engaged with; the intent in such a scenario is to have roleplay leading up to a preparation phase, before engaging immediately on next meeting. If the escalation is going to involve a significant amount of people, such as through raids, anyone involved must do their utmost to make sure as many people as possible are aware of it happening, through IC or LOOC channels. Examples include:
-Bandits giving an ultimatum: to put payment outside the town by next dawn, or else they will raid the town, and subsequently, the keep. Come the next dawn, as the ultimatum has been given, the bandits can ambush anyone leaving the town - or the guards can prepare themselves on the wall to fire at will at approaching bandits.
-The guards release a bandit prisoner to run back to their hideout, warning the bandits there of an inevitable guard raid. The bandits and guards are permitted to shoot on sight the instant they meet one another on the road, in ambush, or at the base itself.
-After an argument, a ranger threatens a warrior - that should they be seen by the inn south of town, they'll regret it - which is confirmed in LOOC. Should the warrior arrive at the inn, the ranger is fully permitted to ambush them through multi-z archery, or the warrior is permitted to turn the ambush on its head and jump the ranger, instead.
A reminder is in place that while preparation and waiting is a necessary part of delayed escalation, powergaming rules still apply; over-preparing on poisons, stat boosting equipment, or preparing uncounterable mechanics is considered bad faith, and will be subject to our powergaming rules.
It is not always feasible to abide by these rules in all scenarios, but certain forms of unbalanced, mechanical-focused escalation are permitted insofar as creating a much more tense, fast roleplay encounter, ideally centered on shifting the balance of power before an attack occurs towards the attacker. Remember - this is to be done in good faith, and while it does give a mechanical escalation, abuse of this rule to repeatedly 'win' fights will be treated as a rulebreak.
-If you wish to discreetly 'take down' someone, you are permitted to sneak up to them and abruptly grab them from behind, before engaging in some form of conversation, then either beginning an attack in earnest to attempt to kill them, or knocking them out with a blunt weapon. It is reminded that grabbing someone is seen as mechanical escalation, so they're free to break out immediately, but are not expected to begin attacking you back if you're currently in the middle of typing.
-Setting an ambush with traps is permitted so long as the trap isn't abandoned. You may lay a man trap or kneestinger, then leap out and confront the person as they're caught in them.
Ambush - and be ambushed - in good faith. LOOC is your friend, and while you might not necessarily be keen on getting assassinated from behind with little buildup, you're not permitted to punish someone reaching out to try and get confirmation from you in LOOC for revealing themselves in that way; this is considered abusing metaknowledge, and is deliberately acting in bad faith in response to a good faith handshake.