This section of the compendium is here to help guide new people into joining our little collective. So, with that goal in mind, let's look at some of the guidelines for dueling here.

Things to avoid:

God-moding - While nobody is really sure where the line is for this (everyone I've talked to has their own interpretation) it is generally accepted that taking total control of another's char is a bad thing. Excal defines the line as allowing himself limited control over other people's chars if a braindead trout could figure out they were gonna do that, and liberally giving them dialogue when it's conveniant unless that dialogue would be an important answer. Krono defines it as a blend of Excal's definition and Damage calling and All knowing. So your best bet is don't inflict massive crippling wounds, have your opponent stand around for minutes doing nothing but getting pounded, or have your char notice every little thing including what's 100 yards behind them, what their opponent's thinking, and what any spectators happen to see. Yes there is leeway and exceptions, but we're hoping you can figure out if a case is one of those on your own. A good example of a munchkin/god-moder, (aka what not to do) is Demi-holyman. The duel he's infamous for is located here. If you find yourself doing the same things as he did, I personally recommend you tell you parents to never let you online again. In the case that you're actually living on your own I recommend you take a sledge hammer to your modem. Oh yeah, and I suppose you could change your ways or something and become a good RPer, but I'm pessimistic.

Damage calling - Basically damage calling is tossing an attack at another PC and saying "it hit them did so and so damage" instead of giving them a chance to dodge the attack, or at least stating the damage taken by their character themself. When this happens it rapidly deteriorates into the equalivalent of "Bang! Your dead! No way! You missed me!" which isn't particularly fun at all. Or in worst case, "Umm like hell you just beheaded my char, MOD!"

All knowing - In a duel actions are a matter of what your character knows and can do. Sometimes people say stuff to add description, or so that you'll have an idea about what your actions would do. Some examples would be if someone's char thinks something, if someone makes a perfect clone of themself and specifies that it goes a certain way for you benefit, or if someone times travels for a few second to gain an advantage. In such cases remember that your char wouldn't realize such things and RP accordingly. They wouldn't know that they're opponent is going to cast slow next, or that the weaker clone is the one on the left or that a version of their opponent from two minutes in the future is about to interupt their spell casting.

Interfering - This one should be common sense, but some people lack that. Basically don't interfer in someone else's duel without permission. I don't care how they've wronged you or how interesting you think it will make the duel, don't get involved without permission. Doing so will likely get your posted deleted along with you being given a nice little warning.

Instant Death - Basically don't kill your opponent in one post. Don't expect spells like Doom to be successful, or doing something like beheading your opponent or blasting them to ashes to work. Best case they'll be nice and write they're way out of it. Worst case they call in a Mod.

Learning enemies skills - This one is somewhat of a gray area but in general a no-no. Learning spells used by your opponent and using them a couple posts later is frowned on. And if someone tells you that a skill or spell is unique to their char for some reason, accept it.

Inn by proxy - If your character has several different forms that they can switch between, you cannot have one form heal simply by switching to another form and then back.

Non-descriptive writing - People, detail is your friend. And while too much detail leads to long boring posts, too little simply confuses everyone else, and where's the fun in that?

Suggestions:

Post a description of your character at the start of the duel if you haven't dueled with them much. This helps keep down instances of stuff like "Wait a minute, I thought you character was a mage!" "No thats a different char."
Don't be afraid to use the edit post feature. If you've botched spelling in a post or messed up to the point where you have to recant, don't make another post, edit the existing one to fix things. At the very least edit it to nothing to avoid confusion.

Feel free to talk to other people out of character (OOC). Not all mistakes can be fixed IC, and even those that can can't necessarily be fixed well.

If you're having a dispute with your opponent and neither of you can come to an agreement feel free to call in a Mod. We'll render judgment one way or another, being it ruling something impossible, declaring someone guilty of God-Moding, executing a Munckin and closing the duel, or telling you to quit whining and just accept whatever.

Try not to make assumptions about your opponents character. If you need to know something it's better to ask them than to simply assume. This helps prevent stuff like "Umm, no my char isn't undead." "No, my char isn't wearing plate mail." "Umm, my character would never say or do something like that." "Umm, my char wouldn't be fazed by that, what the hell were you thinking?" This is particularly important in the case of spells/skills as it's really easy to misunderstand what something does, and what element it is. Example: "Ha, I'm immune to your fire spell! Umm, that was a darkness based spell not a fire based one. Oh, err, give me a sec to fix that..."

Don't ask your opponent OOC if they wish to concede the duel after one of your posts. Either they're char will be able to continue the fight, or they won't and the person will concede. Eithe r way it's unnecessary and all is does is annoy people. Also don't sit there telling them what generic RPG spells do and whether or not they can dodge an attack.

Similarly don't sit there making snide OOC comment's about someone predictability or originality. All it does is make you annoying. See a pattern here yet?

Don't assume that physics is on your side in something. A) Physics doesn't always matter especially in case of spells. B) It's very possible your reading something your opponent's done wrong, or your assuming something, in either case it's possible physics ain't on your side.

And that about sums it all up.

Links:
Newbie Board - A place to ask any questions that aren't covered here.
Compendium - Technically back. I figured it was about time I started adding these...