Running a fight · Black Box

Players can run their own fights from the HUD. As staff you can watch every fight on the sim from the website, step into any of them, play the NPCs and get a fight moving again when it stalls. This guide covers Storytellers › Party control, NPC turns, staff-only fights and the chat commands for fixing a character’s numbers.

Who can run fights

Party control opens for Super Admins, Admins and anyone with the hud_npc_menu permission, shown on Staff › Access › Roles as Hud - Party NPC Invite. On a new sim the Storyteller and Game Master roles have it. The HUD’s Invite NPC button shows for Super Admins and hud_npc_menu holders only.

Tip: Wear your HUD in-world while you run a fight. What you do in Party control is announced in local chat by your own HUD, such as “Staff skipped Ana’s turn.” If you’re far away, or not wearing it, the fighters won’t hear it.

The fights board

Storytellers › Party control lists every fight going on, newest first. Each card shows the party number, its stage, Sparring if it is a sparring match, the game system, whose turn it is, and each team’s fighters with their HP. The leader has a star and NPCs are in italics. 1 prompt waiting (or more) means someone hasn’t answered yet. It turns red when that prompt is holding up the fight.

Leave Live (every 15s) on to keep it current, and press Open to run a fight.

Running one fight

The top of a fight’s page has Skip turn, Add NPC and End fight. Who’s in it lists each team in turn order with HP and Energy, chips such as Turn, Leader and Downed, and Played by: the player’s account, or an NPC’s controller.

Control	What it does
Skip turn	Ends the current turn and passes it on, as the HUD’s Skip does. If nobody has the turn, the top of the order gets it.
Add NPC	Adds an NPC that isn’t in a fight already, with who controls it and its team.
End fight	Ends it with the same clean-up as a win: downed characters take their wound, loot rights are handed out, NPCs heal to full and unanswered prompts are dropped. It can’t be undone.
Make leader	Gives the leader role to another player. The leader starts the fight and can skip and kick from the HUD.
Controller	Hands an NPC to another account, whose active character plays it.
To front row / To back row	Moves someone between rows, free, when the game system uses rows.
Remove	Takes someone out. On their turn, it passes on first. If their side is then empty, the fight ends.

Below that, Prompts waiting lists every question the fight is waiting on, with Cancel. Effects and cooldowns lists what’s counting down, with End now to stop one early.

Adding NPCs

Add NPCs before you press Start. Party control lets you add one later, but it doesn’t get a proper place in the turn order. Before the start, link each NPC’s titler: the prop’s owner touches it and picks Set NPC. Without a linked titler, an NPC can’t be moved or tracked on the map.

The map

Map shows everyone’s saved position, coloured by team. Pick someone, click where they should be, then press Place here (Place marker here for a player) and confirm.

An NPC’s prop walks there in-world. It needs an up-to-date NPC titler script. A worn titler can’t be moved this way, so walk the avatar there instead.
A player’s place in the fight moves and their HUD rezzes a marker showing where to stand. Their avatar isn’t moved. This works only after the start.
It’s a scene fix: no Energy is spent and nobody gets a reaction. A move under way is cancelled and a grapple is released.

If you switch it on: With Move From The Fight Map (map_move) on in the game system, an NPC’s controller can move it on its own turn from Main Menu › My Fight. Press Move, click a spot inside the ring, then Move here. It counts as a normal move and costs its Energy.

Playing an NPC

You control an NPC when you add it with yourself as Controlled by, invite it from the HUD’s Invite NPC, or someone hands it to you with Controller. You don’t have to be in the fight yourself.

On the NPC’s turn your HUD’s fight page reads Acting as: . Its abilities, items and Move act for the NPC, and End turn passes the turn. Main Menu › My Fight gives you the same buttons on the website, acting through your HUD, so keep it worn.

If the NPC carries a drone or turret and the game system uses Drones (drones) or Emplacements (emplacements), command them on its turn as a player would, with @drone control <name> or @deploy <name>. The NPC’s prop rezzes the token, so put token objects such as Drone Token in its contents. Drones and emplacements never get a turn of their own, and Skip turn passes over them. In Party control they’re marked Drone or Emplacement. You can’t give them a controller, but you can remove them or place them on the map.

Staff-only fights

If you switch on Staff-Run Fights Only (staff_fights_only, under Round Structure) in a game system, only Super Admins, Admins and hud_npc_menu holders can start a fight or invite anyone into one. Players are told to ask a storyteller, and still accept invites and fight as usual.

Near the players, press Invite on your HUD and invite the first player to Team 2. This makes a party with your character as leader on Team 1.
Invite the other players to Team 2, and your NPCs to Team 1 with Invite NPC. You control each NPC you invite.
Press Start, or Start (Surprise).
To keep your own character out of the turn order, remove it in Party control. A player becomes leader.

A fight takes its rules from the game system of the leader’s group when the party forms, or the sim’s default. Start it from a staff character in the right group, or in none.

Surprise, Scatter and sparring

These stages are Fight Stages on the game system.

Start (Surprise) appears when the Surprise Round is on. Only the character of whoever pressed it acts in it, for one turn: the leader’s own character, never an NPC. Surprise Initiator: Natural 22 (surprise_natural_22) and Surprise Initiator Skips Round 1 (surprise_skip_round_one) shape it.
In the Scatter Phase everyone gets one turn to prepare with scatter_energy Energy. Scatter: No Attacks (scatter_no_attacks, on by default) refuses attacks, damaging abilities and grapples until Round 1.
Skip turn in either stage moves the stage on as normal.

If Sparring Matches (sparring) is on, the leader marks the fight before the start and nobody is wounded. With sparring_no_loot there’s no looting, and with sparring_restore_hp HP goes back to where it started. Switching sparring off makes a marked fight a real one again.

Setting HP, Energy and Mana

Type these in local chat:

Command	Permission
`@admin targethp <amount or max> <name>`	Hud - Set Health (`hp_admin`), or Admin
`@admin targetenergy <amount or max> <name>`	Hud - Set Energy (`energy_admin`)
`@admin targetmana <amount or max> <name>`	Hud - Set Mana (`mana_admin`), or Admin

Super Admins can use all three. They change a player’s active character, mid-fight too, and the player is told on their HUD. Use their account name, not their display name. Part of a name picks the first account that matches, so type enough of it. HP 0 in a fight downs them. A value over the maximum is cut to it unless you hold the override, such as Hud - Max Hp Override (hp_max_override).

@admin removedebuffs <name> ends someone’s running debuffs and @admin removewounds <name> clears their wounds. Both need Hud - Remove wounds (wounds_admin).

Reading the fight log

A fighter’s HUD Fight page at full size shows WHAT HAPPENED: the newest lines the fight said in local chat, such as hits, misses, saves and effects, each marked with its round. Emotes aren’t in it. It keeps lines from fighters and the controllers of its NPCs, so your Party control announcements only appear if you’re one of them.

Party control’s changes are in Logs › Master log, as Turn Skipped by Staff, Fight Ended by Staff, Combat Effect Ended by Staff, Fight Position Set and NPC Added to Party.

Fixing a stuck fight

What you see	What to do
A prompt is Holding up the fight	Prompts don’t time out. Ask the player to answer, or press Cancel: the action carries on as if they declined. Skip turn is refused until it’s gone.
The turn sits with someone who walked off	Skip turn, or Remove them.
An NPC’s turn and nothing happens	Check Played by. Hand it to someone online with Controller, or play it yourself.
Start is refused	Teams 1 and 2 each need someone, and every NPC needs a controller.
An NPC won’t move on the map	Link its titler with Set NPC, or touch it and pick Reload Titler.
A fight is listed after everyone left	A started fight never ends on its own. Press End fight.