An important fact about combat in World of Balance: you're never going to win anything if you don't risk something.

That is to say, combat -- or conflict of any kind -- just plain doesn't happen if there isn't anything staked. Before any conflict in the game starts, everybody involved makes it clear what they're going to lose if they... well... lose.

So before combat is initiated, the participants have a choice.

They can decide peacefully between themselves what they want to be at stake (these things have to not be their Focuses, and have to be things that are theirs to lose -- you can't stake The Princess's Hand In Marriage if you're some random pigherd). This is called a Friendly. This doesn't necessarily mean that the people fighting each other aren't angry, just that their players don't want to risk Focuses on this fight.

If, however, the combatants can't agree on what's at stake, they need to start bidding Focuses. Here's how this works:

1. The bidding starts at 1. The person who started combat can choose one other person to drag into the combat, who is forced to either match his bid of 1 or raise the bid. He does not yet have the option of folding.
2. Bidding then goes clockwise round the table. Anybody who wants to get involved in the fight (and whose character can reasonably do so) has to match the current bid or raise it also.
3. Once everybody has had the chance to match or raise the current bid, the person who initiated combat gets his chance to match or raise. After that, the bid is fixed.
4. Everybody who got involved in the combat (including the person who started combat and the person dragged in now has a choice. They can match the final bid, or they can fold. If they fold, then they must discard Focuses with a total value equal to or greater than what they bidded. If they match the final mid, then they must declare what Focuses they are risking in the combat: the total value of these Focuses needs to be at least the final bid.

Everybody has one final Focus which they can wager when things get really dire: Their Life. Your Life is assumed to be valuable enough to match any stake (though you can only bid with it if you've not raised the stakes yourself; if you accidentally raise the stakes higher than you can afford to meet, then bidding has to start from scratch, and you probably deserve some dirty looks from your fellow players). Should you lose a combat in which you bid your life, your character is permanently dead and won't ever come back. The only silver lining is that if your character dies, the bad guy doesn't necessarily get your Focuses: the Black Materi-- uh, Stone That Destroys The Universe If It Falls Into The Wrong Hands is kept out of the hands of the enemy forever.

Think twice before wagering your Life. It's the last act of a desperate man down on his Focuses.

Example: Rufus initiates combat with Bert the Ogre, who has as a Level 1 Focus some gold that Rufus wants. Hubert the Ogre, sitting nearby, hears this and joins the combat too. Rufus's companions have no interest in getting involved in this, and stay out of the combat.

Combat was initiated by Rufus with Bert, so Bert gets first choice of Raising or Meeting the stakes. Bert has no other Focuses and doesn't want to risk his Life, so he Meets the stakes and they remain at 1.

Hubert, Bert's faithful ogre companion, decides to get involved too even though he has no Focuses. This means that he can't raise the Stakes himself, or he'd not be able to bet His Life. The stakes remain at 1.

Rufus's friends have no interest in getting involved, and tell him as much.

Rufus himself doesn't fancy taking on two ogres single-handed so he decides to raise the stakes in the hope of scaring Bert off. He raises the stakes to 3. The bidding round is now complete.

Bert bid 1. So he has the choice of either Folding or Meeting the stakes. He has no other Focuses, so he would have to bid his Life to stay in the fight. Bert instead abandons his Level 1 Focus, A Bag Of Gold and folds.

Hubert, however, has nothing to lose, and can meet the Stakes of 3 with His Life.

Rufus now has to meet the Stakes of 3; if he Folded, he'd lose 3 points' worth of Focuses anyway. He stakes his Level 1 Focus, his good looks and his level 2 Focus, his sword of finest steel. All combatants have now met the stakes of 3: if Rufus loses the fight, then Hubert will bash him ugly and break his sword (and get Bert's gold). If Hubert loses the fight, then Rufus gets the gold and kills Hubert.