engagement -- melee or ranged distance preference Separate from stance (aggressive / defensive / balanced) and from aim (where on the body a swing lands). Engagement is where you want to fight in the scrap: close steel, or open ground. How you play engagement -- show preference (and effective auto). engagement melee push inward each round engagement ranged open distance each round engagement auto clear manual; suggest from style / weapon approach / retreat <name> out of combat, same room (help approach) Bands (per foe pair): close → reach → far. A fight starts at the distance you already hold in the room, or at reach if you have not moved. Finesse (FIN) paces contested approach and retreat. When the band moves you see a plain [RANGE] room tell -- scrap distance, not a body target. Ranged fighters (guns, bows, Force Projection) want far / reach. Melee must close. When a gunfighter gives ground they still fire -- a retreating shot at reduced accuracy for that beat (casters keep casting clean). Stuck in close with a gun or cast hurts accuracy and damage until the band opens again. Weapons training softens both the point-blank and retreating-shot penalties as your gun/bow school ranks up; a master still feels a sliver of awkwardness, never a bonus. Equipping a firearm or bow suggests ranged when engagement is still auto (you can lock it with engagement ranged). Out of combat (same room) approach <name> -- walk up. Look shows you standing close. The next fight opens at close. retreat <name> -- hang back. Look shows them keeping their distance. The next fight opens at far. Walking out of the room clears it. See help approach. Instant closes (mid-fight) grapple -- spend stamina; yank the band one step inward. lunge -- spend more stamina; snap two steps and take an accuracy hit on your very next swing. yank -- telekinetic pull (God, Demon, or Force Projection); snaps two steps inward on mental cooldown. A landed close (grapple, lunge, yank, rush, or a Path shove / fling / maul) snaps the scrap to close range and leaves the foe off-balance for a beat -- they skip their next swing while surprised. Gunners and casters still fire on the move, but they cannot FIN-open away for one combat game tick after you close, so you get a follow-up swing at nose range before kiting resumes. Mental hurl still reaches at far range by design. See also: help approach