Mysterious characters and dangerous traps are surely important elements of any role-playing game, but there is nothing to beat the thrill of clashing blades. It is not only that in a harsh world such as Aventuria combat to the end is often the last (though rarely the first or only one) possibility of settling a conflict, and that some ferocious monstrosities and creatures from beyond understand nothing but the language of cold steel – tactical planning, the changing fortunes of battle, a hero's immediate danger, and the possibility of grasping victory by combat prowess alone make combat situations a thrilling and important element of both role-playing sessions and rules sets.

Whenever combat erupts during an adventure, it is conducted in Combat Rounds. During any such round, each combatant may attack once and parry once.

The sequence of attacks is determined by Initiative.

Once it is your hero's turn, you may need to determine just who she will be attacking (providing she is faced with more than one enemy).

Next, you need to decide whether you want to make a normal attack or employ a Special Maneuver.

The attacker - either your hero or one of her enemies - now makes an attack roll. This roll takes on the form of a Test against the Attack Value the combatant has with her weapon. If this Test succeeds, the defender will try to parry, provided she has not already tried parrying another enemy's attack in the same Combat Round. Parrying is done by making a Test against the character's Parry Value. If the parry succeeds (or if the attack failed in the first place), the attack has no effect, and the next combatant gets her turn.

If the attack succeeds and the parry fails (or if the attack succeeds and the defender may no longer try to parry), however, the attacker has scored a hit, inflicting a certain amount of Hit Points as determined by weapon. The defender may subtract her Armor Rating from this amount of damage, while the remainder are subtracted directly from her Vitality as Damage Points. Combat now continues with the next character.

Initiative (INI): determines who gets to act when in combat. Each hero (and each enemy) has a Base Initiative Value, calculated from Courage, Intuition, and Agility. Armor Encumbrance is subtracted from Initiative. Using certain weapons or shields may also modify Initiative.

At the beginning of each battle, Initiative is determined by rolling a six-sided die and adding the result to the modified Base Initiative Value. The end result determines who gets to act when during this combat.

Attack Value (AT): This value tells you how good your hero is with the weapons she is using. Each hero has a Base Attack Value. It is calculated from Courage, Agility, and Strength.

Each weapon has been grouped with a particular Combat Talent. To use a weapon, you add the attack part of your TP in the respective Combat Talent to your Base Attack Value. Some weapons have Weapon Modifiers, further changing your hero's Attack Value. If your hero is using a shield, your Attack Value will be reduced accordingly.

Parry Value (PA): This value tells you how good your hero is a parrying an enemy's successful attack. Each hero has a Base Parry Value. It is calculated from Intuition, Agility, and Strength.

Each weapon has been grouped with a particular Combat Talent. To use any weapon, you add the parry part of your TP in the respective Combat Talent to your Base Parry Value. Some weapons have Weapon Modifiers, further changing your hero's Parry Value.

Using a shield, however, usually increases your Parry Value since shields directly modify Base Parry Value.

Improving Attack and Parry Values: The maximum value of any Combat Talent may not exceed the sum of either AG or ST (whichever is higher) +3. Thus, a hero with AG 12 and ST 15 may not advance any Combat Talent beyond a TP of 18. If TP in a particular Combat Talent is improved, you need to decide whether you increase AT or PA in this Talent. Hint: Should you ever reach this boundary and still want to increase your combat prowess, you need to advance the higher of the two Attribute Values first.

Hit Points: (HP): The damage inflicted on the defender. Hit Points are determined by the weapon used in the attack.

Armor Rating (AR): AR absorbs damage; it is determined by the type of armor worn. AR is subtracted from the amount of HP scored by the attacker. The resulting difference are known as Damage Points (DP).

Damage Points (DP): Hit Points minus Armor Rating. This is the actual amount of points subtracted from your Vitality once you've been hit.

Encumbrance (EC): How movement and agility are impeded by the type of armor worn; this is directly determined by the armor.

Effective Encumbrance (EEC): This tells you how EC actually effects your hero, depending on the Combat Talent the weapon you are wielding has been assigned to. Employing a "fast" weapon (such as an epée or a dagger) is more impeded by high EC than using a "slow" weapon (such as a two-handed sword).

Ranged Combat (RC): The Attack Value of a ranged weapon is calculated on the basis of a Ranged Combat Base Attack Value (determined by Intuition, Dexterity, and Agility) and Talent Prowess with the respective ranged weapon. TDE Browser adventures only allow you to make use of the Throwing Knives Talent.

Unarmed Combat: Whenever your hero doesn't have access to a weapon, she will fight with her bare hands. To state it outright: this is a very dangerous course of action, which you should try to avoid in all but the most dire of circumstances. Take special care to select an active weapon for your hero after trading! Since unarmed combat in a TDE Browser adventure is the exception rather than the rule, we needed to modify the standard TDE rules slightly: Your Unarmed Attack Value is your Base Attack Value minus 1; your Unarmed Parry Value is your Base Parry Value minus 2. There is no corresponding Talent (such as Brawling) that may be used or advanced. Encumbrance due to armor is not taken into account, which makes unarmed combat a bit easier for your hero, because otherwise AT and PA values were even lower. You hero does 1d+0 Hit Points in unarmed combat. These are real Hit Points here, doing real damage (instead of just modifying an opponent's Endurance or being halved). If your unarmed hero succeeds in an attack but your opponent manages to parry, your hero is wounded by the opponent's weapon and takes half the weapon's standard damage. (This also applies to monsters and creatures not actually using a weapon. There are no exceptions.) Your unarmed hero may still try to "parry." However, this is to be understood rather as a form of dodging, meaning your hero actually does not incure damage on a successful "parry."

There are lots of Special Combat Maneuvers in the full TDE rules. Since combat in a TDE Browser adventure is a lot less flexible, we had to restrict your combat options somewhat. Still, your hero may use up to three Special Combat Maneuvers. Differing from the original rules, each Archetype starts the game knowing one Special Maneuver, which he may employ from the very beginning. The rest, however, he will need to learn by spending Adventure Points. This also applies to the Special Combat Abilities listed below.

Once your hero is able to use a Special Combat Ability, he may do so without the usual restrictions you may know from playing the pen-and-paper version of TDE.

Feint: Using this maneuver, you pretend to strike at a certain part of your opponent's body, just to twist the weapon around at the last opportunity to strike somewhere else.

You may voluntarily impose a Difficulty Increase on your attack. This Increase is pre-set at 1 but you may change it to a higher value by using the keys on your cell phone and confirming the new Increase. If you still hit, you manage to put your opponent at a disadvantage, Decreasing his parry by the same amount.

Power Attack: If you succeed in this maneuver, you do more damage when you hit. You may voluntarily impose a Difficulty Increase on your attack. This Increase is pre-set at 1 but you may change it to a higher value by using the keys on your cell phone and confirming the new Increase. If you still hit and your opponent fails to parry, the Difficulty Increase you have imposed is added to the Hit Points you roll.

Hammerblow: With this maneuver, you attempt to incapacitate your opponent right here and now. Your hero needs to succeed in an Attack +8. If the defender fails his parry, the Hit Points you roll are trebled. If your hero also knows how to Power Attack, you may impose a Difficulty Increase on your attack, adding the additional Hit Points before trebling.

Off-Hand Fighting: This ability represent a hero's basic skill in using shields; it allows you to better coordinate left-hand and right-hand movements in combat in a meaningful way. This ability lets your hero add 1 additional point to her Parry Value when using a shield or a parrying weapon.

Shield Fighting  I: This ability lets your hero add 2 more points to her Parry Value when using a shield (this stacks with the bonus gained by Off-Hand Fighting I, giving a total of 3 points).

Shield Fighting II: This Ability represents advanced training with the shield, and provides your hero with an additional 2 points to add to her PAV when using a shield in combat (again, this bonus stack with those gained from Off-Hand Fighting I and Shield Fighting I, for a total of 5 points).

Armor Use I: Warriors and anvil dwarfs are seldom seem without chain mail. Whenever some is used to wearing the same type of armor day in, day out, this Ability allows you to reduce EC by 1 point for this typical type of armor. (Your hero needs to be wearing the same type of Armor the Archetype does.)

Armor Use II: Your hero has become so used to wearing armor that whatever armor the hero uses has its EC reduced by 1 point. This reduction does not stack with the specific EC reduction gained by Armor Use I.

Armor Use III: By the time of learning this ability, your hero has become so used to wearing armor that whatever armor the hero uses has its EC reduced by 2 points. This reduction does not stack with the specific EC reductions gained by Armor Use I or Armor Use II.