Magnus' Pugilism Rules

## Square Up Chump!

There comes a point in during the many drunken escapades of many adventures where the party comes contact with individuals looking for a scrap, a test of mettle, to put it bluntly a Brawl.

This brief document exist to make fun and quick bare knuckle beat downs to punctuate any Festival, Bar Fight, or even settle party disputes... the pugnacious possibilities are endless

## The Rules

The rules of a brawl are very simple and vary from venue to venue. Some fighting circles may have very strict rules; no armor, no biting, no gouging, no underhanded tactics. And for as many dens of honest fisticuffs there are scores more where the rules are lax. These are the types of gritty back alley slugfests that can leave PCs battered, bloodied, and at worst dead.

## The Venue

A boxing / brawling / fighting match takes place in a space wherein Spectators can congregate. Be it at a local temple to the gods of strength and Valor, a Local Tavern, or something is unassuming as a Dockside Warehouse. All of these are appropriate venues for brawls.

## The Match

The area of the fight normally occurs in a square or circle of roughly 10 to 15 ft, before meeting at the center for the fight the combatants can receive Buffs, inspirations as per normal and the time frame for buffs begin once the first punch is thrown. Initiative is then rolled (and rerolled every round)

## Brawl mechanics

Participants track their hardness in a brawl not in health points but in gumption. Gumption is determined by the characters Constitution modifier \* 2 to a minimum of one ***Example:*** Sinag the Barbarian has a constitution score of 20, therefore his modifier of + 5 x 2 which equates to 10 gumption.\*

#### **What the Hell is Gumption**

For the sake of a brawl, Gumption is a mathematical approximation how much of a bare knuckle, no holds bar, full force beating you can take before being knocked unconscious. When characters brawl they make unarmed attacks against their opponents AC.

With every successful hit the opponent's gumption score is reduced by one, when it reaches zero the combatant is teetering on the brink of consciousness. If they take any hits after being reduced to zero gumption they must make a constitution saving throw at a DC of 10 or be knocked unconscious. For every saving throw they pass the difficulty increases by 1. And if they are reduced to a a negative gumption score equal to their total, every subsequent saving throw following that point is then made at disadvantage. ***Example:*** Sinag has been fighting hard all night however his opponent be it through luck or underhanded tactics has beaten him like a drum but at every turn he is past his save to stay conscious putting him at a gumption score of -10. Not only is his DC to stay conscious at 20 the save is now made at disadvantage.

## Footnotes

* Barbarians while raging their overall Gumption is Doubled.
* Creatures with Resistances to non Magic weapons also have a Doubled Gumption

> ie.. say it with me "Heavy Weight Boxing champ is in truth a Ancient Blue Dragon in Disguise."
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* Creatures with Immunity to non-magical attacks takes no gumption damage with every hit

> ie.. if a PC is boxing a Iron Golem, they're in for a bad time.
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