Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW
Or a portion of the social order that the law mostly leaves to see to their own affairs. Extrajudicial settlement of disputes among an elite class that is largely above the law.
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Doesn't even have to be an elite class; normal folks get into fistfights (and worse) over all manner of things, so there could be incentive to normalize resolving such disputes with duels to help calm things down a bit (being able to challenge someone to a duel might make the offended party less inclined to simply gun the offender down then and there).
I'm currently debating, thanks to this thread, if ranged duels might be a thing in Harpyias (melee duels using the previously-mentioned electro-vibrokatars I've decided are popular in some minor polities). The same technology used to make lethal blasters can also make less-lethal ones (in fact, the less-lethal ones came first, and the lethal variant is a more advanced design). Such weapons aren't entirely safe, of course - a likely dueling pistol would weigh 2 lb, have RoF 1, and deal 1d-2 cr with triple knockback, with a follow-up HT-1 affliction (causes the same knockdown/stunning effect as a Major Wound). If effectively being punched and getting shoved around by being struck is deemed too dangerous, the affliction has AD (5) against metal, so metal armor of some flavor could be worn for protection. These "ion blasters" (totally stolen from
Star Wars, but so are the blasters, honestly) are also extremely short-ranged, which would work just fine for a duel. Do note if such a weapon were instead a typical blaster, it would deal 9d burn with a 2d-1 cr ex follow-up, which would indeed be rather lethal.