Combat, in a setting such as ours, is necessarily of interest to many. There are ways, in White Wolf face-to-face games, to run combats. These tend to rely heavily on dice (which we don't use) and abilities (which we don't use). So, we have taken the White Wolf rules and bent them in major ways to fit our goals, our atmosphere, our rules.
The most major difference, hardest for people to get used to, is that the players, ideally, determine the result between themselves, in combat. The players should discuss any drastic actions in pages, and decide the result based on what makes the best story. We are, after all, a storytelling MUSH, first and foremost.
Attacks should never be posed as successful attacks unless that was already decided: if you throw a knife at someone, you should never say the knife hit unless either IC or OOC you're told by the target that indeed it did/will hit.
If you and your opponent cannot agree on a result, you can call on any available wizard or another player with GM experience who is willing to arbitrate. In any of these cases, the decision of an arbitrator is held to be final, though an appeal can be made to the wizards in extreme case