It's like playing tennis, except you can't miss, only do better shots. I suppose you could miss if you really tried, but let's talk about the usual cases. The objective is to place your opponent in a potentially dangerous situation, fatal or liable to cause injury, brought about by the giant energy ball you lobbed at him or your twinkling sword swung at his neck. Naturally, this can be whatever your imagination decrees within the limits of a set character. You can be a little loose with this set character (everyone else is sure to be) until the elastc band holding credibility together snaps. So, if you can somehow imagine your character doing such things, you can conjure up giant golems to pound the foe into dust, make the sky fall on his head or set hungry panda bears on him, and infinite variations therein. The point of this end is that your final strike, your painful, death-causing strike, doesn't hit. Yes, that's what I said. That's because the other point is that your opponent has to make a response, and here's another crucial bit: everything you write is the gospel truth. It happens. So for that reason, you can't kill or inflict serious damage on the other guy, since if you did, it would be a very short fight, or more likely, your opponent will ignore you. He's the one who decides how your strike ended. Unfair? Well, yes, but there are a few rules at this end too, and you get to do the same next round. But his job is to escape your potentially dangerous situation using the skills determined by his set character. Sounds easy? Well there are a few provisos on this escape. If you fling an energy ball at him, for example, he can't just dodge it, as would seem obvious. He can't just dodge anything, in fact, because again this would make things too easy (this includes teleporting, naturally). He has to invoke whatever abilities he has to avoid or block your attack. So, ahem, he can actually dodge, but he has to be a bit fancy about it, though blocking is our preferred course of action (this can also be a counter: agressively shutting down your attack with his own abilities; shoving an enchanted ice-sword into your fireball perhaps). Once he's done this, he can fling his own crap back at you. This is the basic framework. Any permutations are possible within limits of character. Cheese and variant spellings (usually with a 'z') describes a transgression that gives the cheeser an advantage. Usually it involves the deadly strike making contact in the attacker's turn. If that should happen within a normal fight, it's probably best to point out the mistake of the transgressor and carry on as if the strike hadn't hit. In some fights though, the whole point is to injure in each round and fight on regardless. Sometimes combatans will kill or even obliterate each other in every single round and devise elaborate and often ridiculous methods of resurrecting (since even here, it's still no fun to simply dodge). The first instance is rare, the second almost extinct. Some fighters decided that cheese also included any kind of contact whatsoever, which shouldn't really be the case. It's a subjective matter, but as I see it if contact is non-damaging, even if it's a trip, throw, or something magical, it shouldn't count. Non-damaging contact could be used to support your final strike, as a set-up for it. Some fighters extend this to cover contact that, while damaging, isn't liable to cause serious or disabling injury, such as normal strikes with the fists or feet, a blunt weapon, or magic that results in impact. Almost always they are still used in a set-up to the final strike. The populace is probably split down the middle on whether or not this is cheese. I have also seen fighters suggesting contact in prelude to a final strike, but treating it as ambiguously as a final strike, so the result of each 'hit' is determined by the opponent including those prior to the final strike. These fighters squeeze themselves into the 'no contact' bracket. A few fighters permit injuring, but not overly disabling strikes in prelude to a final strike also. This can include slices or stabs with sharp and bladed weapons, serious strikes with blunt weapons, and even magical attacks. This is almost always called cheese, even by those who use it (especially by those who use it). It can be a lot of fun. Some fighters stick to one of these brackets; others switch to suit the situation. Whatever you might come across here, it's always a good idea not to complain about it if it doesn't quite suit you. Cheese is also using puppet shows. This is telling your opponent what he does or what happens to him in your turn. To the absolute purists this includes natural reactions, hence the 'no contact' stipulation; to other variant fighters natural reactions, such as the opponent falling when you make a trip, or sailing through the air if he is thrown, are perfectly acceptable, but in almost all cases anything beyond this isn't. Much as you'd like to make him quake in fear or run this way or that, you really shouldn't. Even if it doesn't benefit you in any way, such as having them dodge, it still isn't a good idea, since you're simply using it to follow whatever script you had planned. Remember dodging? In defence this is also cheese. It might be permissible if you did it in a particularly elaborate manner, but the lines are very fuzzy here. Teleporting or similar to avoid an attack is always cheese, however. Lastly for now, an area of cheese that gets very little notice is having a supremely powerful character (largely ignored because many people already have one). Think along mid-game Final Fantasy lines, not for inspiration, but for the level of power you should have. But if you find yourself pouring over an enemy's attack wondering how you can counter it in a way that wouldn't seem too easy, you're probably overpowered. Something that you might find happening in defence is acknowledging damage recieved. In fights where damage is freely given out, this is an inherent part of the action, but in non-contact fighting it can also occur. It is basically a sign of goodwill between participants, or recognition of a particularly good attack. Note that fighters will not bear the full brunt of a final strike in the normal course of things; they will produce a defence or an evasion that still results in some damage getting through, like just being grazed by that flaming sword strike as they tumble out of the way. Thus, dodging may well be permissible in this way if it isn't absolute. Courtesy of Mr. Cro Magnon