[Kefka]

The Final Challenge

Not all players relish in the battles with another of their kind. Maybe it seems inhumane, a break with the charm of the atmosphere, or a pointless gesture. What makes this an addictive game is more than that. In Avalon, the fight between players is a contest of wits. The faster you can innovate during combat, the more you understand what is going on around you, the more adept you are at avoiding or trapping your opponent... the greater you will be. Physical fighting is not mutually exclusive with the political system (which is equally complicated, but I have had no time to explain), the warfare system (another intricate aspect), the commodities and shops (a variegated topic yet again) or the exploration of the five thousand or more professionally written rooms.But those who rise to the thrill of contest quickly realise that there is a challenge of role-playing and a daunting competition of ability, alone worthwhile, in this perfectly balanced combat system that implacably contains seventy different herbs and poisons, thirty kinds of potions, hundreds of magical abilities in eleven manifestations, twenty kinds of traps and fifty demons, hundreds of defences, counterdefences, attacks and counterattacks, eighty curses and blessings, a whole slew of runes, Tolkein-like palantirs and a large serving of voodoo to make a pig's breakfast of the whole thing