New martial art form

[garhkal]

Over the past 2 weeks or so, i have been writing (and re-writing) up a new martial art form for some of my baddies to use which has at the highest level of the form a maneuver that causes str+4d (but has a TN of 40 or parry +25) to use it. Of the other forms, i am torn between making the 'lower' ones be parry, or parry + some number, and whether i should 'ladder the diff/parry + number, or whether they should be diff OR parry, not parry +.

EG. Handstand kick This maneuver has a base diff of 20, or opponents parry+10. If successful, not only does it cause Str+1d+1 damage, but it also imposes a -1d on their next attack due to knocking them off balance. If it missis by 10 or more, the user falls on his back.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[jmanski]

I've played around with the stuff in the SpecForce Handbook, but I've only added to it. I'm interested to see what you come up with.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

Style. Ray'kenshen
This stylized dancing based martial art developed from a ritual marriage dance on the backwater planet of Kenshen, outward of the Corporate sector. Over the years of their 'corporate oversight by the powers that be, it slowly developed into a fighting form. Though the lower ranked kicks, which are commonly used during the dancing, are not as damaging as normal special maneuver kicks, the higher ranked ones can put them to shame.

When initially learned (2 yrs of study) both the parry and brawl specialties are gained, but to learn you need at least 3d in dexterity and strength, to accomplish all the springs and swings. During your increasing of the skill, you must keep them within 1 pip of one another. Other than that it is considered akin to other special martial arts, in that for each D above base brawl/parry you gain, you can learn one special maneuver.

Base maneuvers.
Kick - Difficulty 5. Damage Strength+2.
Swing kick - Difficulty 10. Damage Strength +1d.
Kipup - Difficulty Not applicable (parry based maneuver). When learned is always in effect. Treated as instant stand.

Offensive.
L1. Hook kick. Difficulty 10. Strength +1d+1 damage. If hit is more than 10 over what was needed, opponent needs to make a dex check (10) or fall down from impact).

L2. High and low. This swinging kick can hit twice, but can also make the user fall over if missed. Difficulty is 13 if no parry is attempted. If opponent parries, the diff is their parry+3. If hit only succeeds by 1 or 2, only 1 hit connected. Damage is as for base kick, but is scored twice. If hit misses by more than 10, user falls over.

L2. Spinning kick. Same as the Rules of engagement kick, but damage is Strength+1d+2. If succeeds by more than 10 over what was needed, opponent is off balance for their 'counter attack' and takes a 5 point penalty.

L3. Twin kick. This standing jump plants both feet into the opponent's chest (or face, Drop kick style). Difficulty 15 or opponents parry +5. Damage Strength+2d. If misses by 10 or more user ends up on his butt.

L3. Hand stand kick. This kick starts as a sideways handstand, and is hard to defend against. As such it has a lower difficulty for it's rating, but also can hurt the user if incorrectly pulled off. Difficulty is 13, damage is Strength +1d+1, but if the to hit roll is 7 or less (or a 1 on the wild dice is rolled) the user twists his own arm for Strength+1d damage.

L4. Backflip kick. This starts out as a normal backflip used to get away from an opponent, but as the user's feet reach the high point he lashes out towards his opponent. It requires handstand kick and a min dex of 3d+1 to pull off. Difficulty is 20, or opponent's parry+5. Damage is strength+1d+2, and opponent's counter attack is hurt by a penalty of 1d. If a 10 or less is rolled, the user falls flat on his face for 3d damage.

L4. Stepping kick. This step into swing kick hits with a lot of force, but also requires a lot of space to pull of. Difficulty 20 or opponents parry +5. Damage Strength+2d+2. If hits by more than 10, opponent is knocked back 2d meters. If misses with a dice roll of 10 or less, user sprain's groin taking 3d+2 damage.

L5. Split kick. This jumping based kick has the user place himself between 2 opponents and then jump up into the splits. It hits both if pulled off. Difficulty 25 or highest parry +10. Damage Strength+1d+2 to both opponents, but if misses with a dice roll of 10 or less, falls while still in the splits for 4d+1 damage to himself.

L5. Spring board kick. Takes 2 actions to pull of as the user runs and then jumps into a spring board accrobatic like maneuver. As he 'pushes off' he launches himself at his opponent, striking with a good amount of force. Difficulty is 25 or opponents parry +10. Damage is Strength+3d. If the to hit roll misses with a die roll of 10 or less, falls flat and suffers the inability to parry for the round.

L6. Corckscrew kick. The user dances towards his opponent for 1 full round, building up momentum (he can parry in the build up round but cannot otherwise act). At the beginning of the following round, he launches himself into a sideways 'roll' called a cork screw, hitting his opponent in the face 3-4 times. Difficulty of 30 or opponent's parry +15. If hits does 3 damage rolls of strength +3d, Strength+2d, Strength+1d.
If it misses with a die roll of 10 or less, the user falls face first taking 5d damage to himself.

L7. Cartwheel springboard stomp. This most deadly maneuver is a full round attack, which does not allow the user to make any other actions, and as such is used only on daized or surprised opponents. He cartwheels into a springboard, and uses the momentum to gain height as he crashes down with his heel into the opponent's shoulder area. Difficulty is 35 or opponents parry +20. Damage is strength+4d. If misses with a roll of 10 or less, falls as with corkscrew kick and also gives opponents +2d on their next round's to hit rolls.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[garhkal]

Defensive special maneuvers.

L1. Weapon block. As ROE
L2. Ripost kick. As hard parry from ROE
L3. Pirouette. This allows the user to 'dance' around his opponent gaining his back. Difficulty of the opponents to hit +5. If successful user has gained the opponent's back, and as such gains +1d to his next 2 attacks.
L4. Cartwheel. This allows the user to cartwheel out of danger, forcing the opponent to spend actions to close in. Difficulty of opponents to hit roll+10. If successful the user must spend an action closing back in. It can be maintained, thereby forcing them to continue to spend actions to close in.
L5. Reflect. This hard to pull of maneuver forces the opponent's attack back on him. Difficulty is opponent's to hit +15, and if successful what ever attack the opponent was trying hits himself.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[jmanski]

Interesting stuff. I think you found good balance- it doesn't seem overpowered to me.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[KierlanVass]

Has something of a Capoeira feel to it. Cool!

[garhkal]

That is what i was going for... capoeria. The one martial art i would dearly love to be able to master, but with my upper body strength and balance being so shukky and lacking flexibility, i wont ever do.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[KierlanVass]

Not to take the topic off too far... but its really only practice and hardwork. It is definitely an art that one can master with time. Keep practicing!

[garhkal]

Well, been 5 years since this was commented on.. So for all you new folk.

What's your thoughts on this potential new martial art (similar to reb spec force martial arts as presented in rules of engagement)..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[cheshire]

It's funny that you resurrect this, because one of my backburner projects is revamping martial arts for Open D6. I've got clearance to scrub any Star Wars language from the Rules of Engagement and repackage it, adding a few additional styles. I see a few mechanics and maneuvers here I like. Perhaps we can work out a deal if it goes to print? Right now I don't have much but a few notes, but I particularly like the stepping kick's ability to drive back an opponent. There's little in the ROE to change the opponent's positioning or spacing.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Tupteq]

For me this MA is a bit too complicated. It may work for player very focused on this MA, but may be cumbersome if you don't have all these rules memorized. If you needed to study these quite long descriptions in the heat of combat, it could kill the mood and greatly slowdown game.

You introduced a parry modifier, which is the next value to remember. In my games I have something similar, but to simplify things I'm using the same value for attack and for parry. Instead of maneuver difficulty, I'm using maneuver modifier derived from difficulty: Very Easy becomes -5, Easy +0, Moderate +5 etc. Then I'm using this modifier for standard attack (difficulty = 10 + modifier) and parried attack (difficulty = parry roll + modifier).
Example: Flying Kick has difficulty Difficult (modifier +10), base difficulty is 10 + 10 = 20. If attacked character parried and rolled 15, new difficulty becomes 15 + 10 = 25.

I'm also using these rules for melee weapons (exact rules are a bit more complex, but I didn't want to describe details not important in this case).

[Esoomian]

I like the idea of a generic formula framework that can be applied to any martial art.

Something like take the additional damage you want to do in pips multiply it by two and add that to the difficulty.

So doing something that does strength + 1D damage adds +6 to the difficulty because three (pips) x two = six.

The difficulty is that much of what people want to do is difficult to 'formula-ize'

I'd be tempted to apply the same logic to most things and count any sort of advantage (instant stand or favourable positioning) as either a 1D or 2D damage bonus.
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[garhkal]

[cheshire]

[garhkal]

That would work. Alternately, have it where "Generic martial arts" exists as a specialty, which has 2 maneuvers.. Offense (punch/kicks, doing Str+1 or Str+2 damage) and defense (weapon block effectively). No other maneuvers taught or can be learned.
That is a pre-req to go into the Advance skill of martial arts where you just have a list of all sorts of special maneuvers, some with pre-reqs of other maneuvers (like force skills). Each full D in your (A) martial arts, gives you 1 spec maneuver you can learn.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!