An Interesting Dilemma

One of the rounds in the tournament at Sentinel's Keep this last weekend brought up an interesting dilemma. In the round, each fighter was given a point for each wounding or killing blow they landed on their opponent, with a maximum of three points possible per fighter. After a fighter had earned the three points, they had the option of either continuing with the fight until someone was dead or withdrawing and calling the fight over. And that's where the dilemma comes in: if you've earned your three points and your opponent still has an offensive capability, do you withdraw, or do you go for the kill?

In the tournament in question, if you went for the kill, you couldn't earn any more points and risked the chance of your opponent earning more points by hitting or killing you, but your own points were safe whether you lived or not. And if you withdrew, you denied your opponent from earning any more points while again leaving your points safe. So what to do?

If you were thinking strategically, you'd withdraw and assure the smallest number of points for your opponent. But does that strategy fulfill the requirements of your honor? There's the rub. And like most questions of honor, I cannot answer it for you. All I can do is tell you what my choice was in the tournament: I chose option C. I made sure my third blow was a killing one so that I wasn't faced with the choice.

Sometimes the best way to keep your honor untarnished is to avoid situations that will force you to ask what honor demands of you.