New Martial Arts

[eruditus]

So I will be developing a lot of these. But I want to get a stronger basis for how it all works so I might fly them by you folk first :)

Here is one that the duelist in my campaign developed. The manuevers in italics are new and I think he did a great job. Any ideas about how this should be altered for game balance or one or two additions or subtraction? The idea is to depict a fighting style that uses a long thin sword and incorporates dance - practicing is done in cadence, often along with a certain style of music.

The Dance. (Ballet)

Martial moves and stances with normal effects.
May Block/Strike with sword.
Ob1 Lines and Curves: May stand in place while avoiding.
Ob2 Weapon Focus Sword : The Sword and the Dance now work in tandem. They FoRK each other in all cases. When one is higher than the other use the lower one as primary the higher one as assisting.
Ob3 Arcs and Thrust: Block/Push may split the dice between a strike and a push.
Ob3 Swift and Sure: Lower Add of sword by one or increase speed one step. Best Add is one and best speed is fast.
Ob4 Zanshin: MA FoRKs to steel and perception in cases of danger and combat.
Ob5 Space and Sensing: May Use MA for natural defense SPD. The MA is subject to martial stances.
Ob5 Time and Placement: May use MA instead of POW for attacks and natural defense.
Ob7 Rhythmic Breathe. May tandem change stance with all other martial moves.
Ob8 Effervesce. For a one-action prep can open end the following martial actions Counterstrike, Strike, block/strike, Feint.
0b9 Whirlwind.


As an additional maneuver for two fisted fighting add
Ob3 Cut and Thrust. May strike/strike the same or different targets. Die pool is split between two strikes.

[luke]

These are good! I like, I like.

However, you will really come to regret this if you allow it:
Ob3 Swift and Sure: Lower Add of sword by one or increase speed one step. Best Add is one and best speed is fast.

WAY too powerful for what it is. The way it reads, this maneuver should be Ob 8. Add is very delicate, reducing it on a whim is going to make the swordsman extremely deadly. (I have made this exact same mistake btw. I am still regretting it.)

Ob 3 Swift and Sure should allow the swordsman to increase Weapon Speed by one step once per Exchange.

Ob 6 SS might allow a permanent Weapon Speed reduction. This is still extremely powerful. I am cringing as I write it!

-abzu

[eruditus]

LOL

That is exactly the advice I was looking for.

I will make those very same adjustments -

Ob 3 - once per exchange, shift speed of weapon up one.
(there is an innate balance to this that I failed to mention. this style is done with a special sword called a "sharp" that is a fast weapon already :)

Ob 6 - increase speed of weapon by one permantly

Ob 8 - decrease Add by one permenantly

thanks

[Yagathai]

Eruditus threw together some stats for using a length of chain as a weapon. IIRC, it was :

Chain
Power +2 Add 3 Speed U

Now that seems pretty reasonable to me for a yahoo that picks up a length of chain, swings it over their head and tries to flog someone with it. But that's not very refined, is it?

As I develop my character in his game -- an educated aristocrat forced to consort with those he considers beneath him -- I find myself thinking of the fellow as acting like your stereotypical 'Victorian gentleman." With that in mind, I don't know that whacking someone pell-mell with a heavy chain is really his style -- I think that Sir Wilhelm (or "Dr. Willy," as he encourages his patients to call him) tries to be a bit more... elegant than that.

With that in mind, and based on the tradition of real-life styles with goofy names, like the "Biddle Formal Knife Fencing" technique, I present to you the following for feedback and ripping apart:


"Dr. Willy's Scientific Articulated Weapon Training"

Dr. Willy's style requires that practitioners be able to use a length of chain both hands, and thus they already need to be familiar with Two-Fisted Fighting.

I say chain, but theoretically the style can be applied to use with the whip, japanese kusarigama or similar articulated weapons.

This style allows access to the locking-block and counter-disarm manoeuvers. The maximum length of the chain weapon used with this style without penalty is dictated by the formula 10ft + 1ft per skill exponent (or 1.5 ft if the skill is shaded Grey, or 2ft if the skill is shaded White). That's right -- a character with a B9 in Dr. Willy's style can effectively use a 19 foot-long chain as a weapon. Sure, it seems a bit impractical, but I submit that a character with a B9 in any particular skill can do whatever the hell he wants within the confines of that skill.

Special Moves/Abilities:

OB 1 You Have Two Hands, Dolt!
Instead of treating his chain as one weapon with a speed of U, the beginning practitioner of Dr. Willy's art learns to treat each end of his chain in individual weapon with a speed of S. Furthermore, as per Two-Fisted Training rules, he may treat the length of chain that he's not attacking with as a 1D shield. Each end of the chain has an effective length of (total chain length - 2)/2.

OB 2 Practice, Practice, Practice.
Any appropriate weapon skill may be FoRKed into the MA, and vice-versa.

OB 3 This Is The Heart of the Matter - agg
This technique allows the user of Dr. Willy's style to use a fully articulated weapon (typically a chain or whip) to Lock an opponent without Getting Inside, typically by wrapping the weapon around one or more limbs or heads. Locking an opponent in this fashion allows subsequent use of the Pull manoeuver, which is identical to Push except that it cannot be avoided, and obviously the opponent can only be Pulled towards or lateral to your character. It also allows the Throwing-, Pushing-, or Pulling-Block manoeuver. Note, however, that opponents locked in this fashion can also Pull back. It takes an action to release this Lock.

OB 3 Once You Have Them, Take Them!
+2D to any Pull attempts. Also, a character may choose whether his opponent uses his Power or Speed to resist the Pull.

OB 4 If They're Fool Enough To Give You Their Blade...
+1D to all Disarming Attack attempts made with the chain, including counter-disarm (the +1D may only be applied to the disarm-portion of the counter-disarm). Another +1D if the disarm attempt is made from aggressive stance.

OB 5 Hey, What's That Over There?
A character may follow up Feint with a "This Is The Heart of the Matter" Lock instead of a Strike.

OB 5 That Hurts, Doesn't It? - agg
With an especially vicious flip of the wrist, the character may split his dice between a Strike and a "This Is The Heart of the Matter" Lock.

OB 6 Now That's A Funny Shade of Purple.
A character may apply a damaging Lock without first reducing the character to zero dice. Use the skill exponent in place of power to factor the IMS.

OB 6 Be Smarter And Faster.
A character amazes and confuses his opponent with a dazzling display of swiftly spinning steel. By foregoing use of his off-hand for the entire exchange, a character may Strike or "This Is The Heart of the Matter" Lock after a Feint even if the opponent didn't script a Block or Counterstrike (the Strike or Lock can still be Avoided, if an Avoid is scripted).

OB7 I Said Faster, You Monkey!
Permanently reduce the Speed of the character's weapon by one step, unless it's already Fast.

OB 8 A Good Flogging - agg
A character needs to spend an entire volley - at least one action - beginning the intricate pattern of whirling and spinning necessary to use this technique. After that one round, he move up to his volley jogging rate and perform a number of Strikes equal to his Speed rating at any target or targets within range, at his full skill dice. Alternatively, he may perform a number of Strikes equal to double his Speed rating, but at half of his applicable skill dice. The strikes all occur during one action. This technique is so taxing to both mind and body that it causes a Superficial wound to the character. It cannot be used again until after the Superficial wound has been completely healed.

[eruditus]

I'd like to have it on record that I had nothing to do with the naming conventions of anything in this post... including but not excluding "Dr. Willy."

Further development of the martial art will be forthcoming :)

[eruditus]

As I develop my character in his game -- an educated aristocrat forced to consort with those he considers beneath him -- I find myself thinking of the fellow as acting like your stereotypical 'Victorian gentleman." With that in mind, I don't know that whacking someone pell-mell with a heavy chain is really his style -- I think that Sir Wilhelm (or "Dr. Willy," as he encourages his patients to call him) tries to be a bit more... elegant than that.



Victorian is not quite appropriate considering the fantasy arabia/africa themes. Also, the aforementioned style developed by another player of mine was in the context of something his father taught him, and his father before that, and so on. Wilhelm does not have such precedent :)

Not that this is something to look forward to but it shouldn't be developed in the perspective of Wilhelm, rather someone older and wiser ;) I will look and see what we can come up with.

[Yagathai]

Obviously I'm not going to go totally Victorian with Sir Wilhelm. Rather, I'm using Victorian as a broad descriptor of a general attitude.

WRT your other point, I submit that one of those characters' forefathers had to have developed the style in the first place. Obviously Dr. Willy doesn't have all of this knowledge now, or even the knowledge that such progression in this style even exists, because until he invents it, it doesn't.

Rather, I'd like to see him develop it over time -- for now he'll start mucking around with two-fisted training and so forth, which naturally leads to the OBJ 1 manoeuver, and further practice leads to the OBJ 2 manoeuver and so forth and so on.

If that's not an option, no sweat. I'll just focus Sir Wilhelm's development in another direction.