Materials   

Setup A Ditch Battle is a battlegame without Class, without armor, projectiles, or (in theory) Role-playing. Its primary purpose is combat, and the practice thereof. Any melee weapon or shields may be used. By tradition, Red Weapons do not destroy shields in a Ditch Battle.*   

Rules

In a Ditch Battle, you split into two sides. It doesn't matter if you split them evenly, it will work itself out in time. You can do this with just a handful of people or you can do it with over a hundred.

The two sides fight, with dead people staying dead and moving out of the way. Once one side wins, the victorious side sends the first person on their team to die over to the losing side. And you repeat. In time the better side gets whittled down until they are much smaller and the tide turns.

Between rounds, if new people arrive, they are added to the losing side instead of having someone switch. Generally all new people enter the same side at the same time no matter how many new people are arriving.

If the losing side did not kill anyone, no one moves, they have to try harder next time.

It is not uncommon for a team to make its goal to get one guy they want first, so even if they lose they'll get the person they want.

Victory

Misc *The use of red weapons in ditch is the source of occasional controversy. A strict reading of the rulebook on the subject seems to show they are permitted. Great / red weapons with shield breaking weapons are a weapon category, not a class ability, and the rulebook only says that projectiles and bows are not used in ditch. However, by tradition, the vast majority of lands ditch without great weapons breaking shields in the core kingdoms, they have never, ever been used in ditches.   

Variations

• weapon restrictions (e.g., "Single Sword Ditch" is everyone uses only single swords),
  
• wounds (the losing side gets first wound if no one is killed),
  
• No-Leg Ditch battles,
  
•  Militia Battles, which add armor and projectiles.
  
• Melee Battle - like a ditch, but with armor & ranged and shield destruction.
• Trench Battle - like a ditch, but with eh'ers. In some areas, like a ditch without legs.
• axe ditch - like a ditch, but with one throwing axe in the middle that anyone can use
• Witch Battle - like a ditch, but with magic! each player can opt to not carry weapons and gain access to the verbals Wounding, Hold Person and finger of death, each of which may be used once only.
• Metcalf - in addition to ditchers, you need a duct tape mummy roughly man-sized with arms and legs and a head, in garb, with at least a dagger taped to his hand. This is Metcalf. Metcalf is placed on a team like anyone else. Metcalf dies like anyone else, two limbs or a torso. Metcalf switches sides just like a player if he dies first, instead of another player. Teams often kill Metcalf right off the bat if they think they are going to win. The ultimate goal is to get metcalf to be the sole person on his team, which can only be accomplished by winning until it is two (including metcalf), having the other person kill everyone else and then simo with the last opponent. 
• tri-ditch aka tritch - three way ditch. first death on winning team goes to first team to die, other team stays the same.
• tornado ditch - like tritch, except each team must target the one on the left. i.e. team A must go after B, B after C, and so on, and cannot attack or harm the other team until they have eliminated all of their targeted team. In northern hemisphere, targets must be arranged counter-clockwise, in southern clockwise.
• Hot Potato Ditch - like a ditch battle except someone from the winning team must start with the potato (a throwing object roughly potato sized). When lay on is called they have ten seconds to throw it (often everyone counts down as this goes on). Once thrown, anyone may pick it up. It does wounds as a normal throwing weapon, but again anyone who has it has ten seconds in which to throw it.
• Hot Potato Ditch: Variant 2 - like a ditch battle except someone from the winning team must start with the potato (a throwing object roughly potato sized). When lay on is called they have ten seconds to throw it OR DIE. You must target someone, then say "hot potato" and toss it nearby or at them. That person now has 10 seconds to pick up the potato and repeat the process OR DIE. If the potato kills someone, the original owner must get the potato in 10 seconds OR DIE.
• Mystery ditch - cloth strips (large enough to be headbands) of two colors are needed, and placed in a bag, they are drawn from at random and kept hidden (in pockert or balled in fist) and players are arranged in a relatively close area. when lay on is called these strips should immediately be revealed and placed on head, at which point those are the teams.
• Sluffin Ditch - like a normal ditch, except everyone starts with four levels of sectional invulnerability.
  

See also

• battlegame ditch
• 3 team variant
  

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