Recreating Kisat Dur: The Dwarven Martial Art in Gurps

[Adronio]

Hello fellow gurpers. If you are just like me you probably know of a game called dwarf fortress. It's basically Gurps: The Game set in a fantasy universe, and is amazingly complex. The combat system is so robust that there's even been made a martial art (kisat dur) that can be used to great effect by the players. I was reading through gurps technical grappling when the most fantastic idea struck my mind: Recreating Kisat Dur in gurps using Gurps Martial Arts and Gurps Martial Arts Technical fighting, and to my surprise it fit just like a glove. So get ready because it's elf smashing time.

[Adronio]

Lets start of with the basics: Skills. Kisat Dur is a mixed martial art, using both a striking skill and a wrestling skill. Lets start of with striking skill:

Finding out what striking skill to use was quite easy. Kisat Dur puts alot of focus on punching, eschewing kicking in favor of the quicker and less easily countered punch. This makes boxing the ideal candidate. However, kisat dur also likes to use brutal attacks like eye gouging and biting the throat. Therefore the main striking skill will be boxing, with the secondary skill being brawling with a focus on the eye gouging technique.

Now to the wrestling skill. This was a little tougher. While we know that it certainly isn't judo, you never see kisat dur mentioning some kind of defensive throw, its quite the tough call between wrestling and sumo wrestling. Kisat dur does make use of hand and arm locks, however say, and I quote: "This is only effective when the defender can physically overpower the attacker-", suggesting that wrestling isn't the main skill considering it gives strong strength bonuses to a good wrestler when using such moves. Kisat Dur also severely dislikes ground combat, the only ground based move it teaches is one that gets the martial artist of the ground and his foe on it. There is also a third reason, that I'm going to talk about next. The main skill here being sumo wrestling, with wrestling being the secondary skill with a big focus on joint locks.

And at last we come to the most difficult, and interesting, part of kisat dur: Toradadom, or The Body Crush in English. There are three main techniques, but I'm going to be focusing on the actual combat ones: Korumid abod, (The Cave-in Stike) and Momguzumid, (Dragonfall). Lets start with the siple one first: The Cave-in Strike.

To do a cave-in start you start quite simply by either grabbing both your foes shield and weapon, or just simply grab him. This could either be two separate attacks or one all-out attack (double). You then do a standing broad jump to gain a bit of momentum and slam into your foe. This should in my opinion just be an all-out attack slam where you just have to roll jumping/dx skill before you attack. This should gain you some momentum for a slam, even though you were grappling. If you fail your jump roll the attack should still continue, but with the martial arts on the ground afterwards. This is were sumo wrestling really shine, adding damage directly to the slam based on the skill level and making even this low-velocity slam quite dangerous to the opponent, especially if you use the strong option for your all-out slam. After the slam happened there is still more to check, the grapples! If your slam moved and/or knocked down your opponents there could be a quick contest of strength between the two opponents for each item in dispute, with appropriate bonuses from cp and shock. If either combatant lets go off the item the other one just gets it. However, if the slam, (not any extra damage from hitting the ground or the wall) causes a stun the one stunned automatically loses the contest.

Now over to the pain train: Dragonfall. This monster of a move is difficult to pull off, but if you hit its lights out, maybe even for you. It's highly suggested to wear rigid chest armor, medium or even heavy plates, to minimize the risk of breaking your own ribcage. So how do you do it?

First you better start running, its suggested to run for at least 1 round before so you can get the full velocity bonus the next round as long as the target is somewhere in your reach. You then use an all-out attack (double), with one of the attacks being a slam. The other one is a grapple, possibly even a rapid-strike grapple. However, right before you reach your enemy, hopefully with a full sprints worth of momentum, do a broad jump. If you succeed you add the distance of the jump, (in yards/meters) to your velocity, and you also cause the slam to be consider a AoA (strong) attack, giving +2 or +1/d to the slam damage, whichever is better. If you fail the jump skip all of the next steps and make an AoA (strong) attack again the enemy, but without any extra jumping velocity. At the end of the slam you are also on the ground. If you have succeeded this far you now have come to the last part. You first make your grappling attack(s), (if you want to you could consider this attack a moving attack and max out its effective skill at 9), and then slam, with now a ****-ton of velocity plus the bonus damage from AoA (strong) AND sumo wrestling. That's alot of potential damage. You also get to try to take away any items you might have grappled in the same way as the cave-in strike would allow, only that now a stun is much more likely. Have fun sending people flying ;). However be careful around heights and pits, a missed/dodged hit could send YOU flying to your untimely demise.

[Adronio]

Now that you know the tools if your trade, that trade being slam dunkin' elf's, you have to know how to use them. So in this part I'm going to teach you how a true kisat dur-er fight, and show some cobat examples. So lets slam right in.

A kisat dur-er likes to fight defensively, observing his opponent, looking for any potential attack, and then parrying it. You can show this by using an all-out defense (determined) for a +2 to whatever parry or dodge you want, also block, if you want. Interestingly instead of normal parries a kisat dur-er often do a grabbing parry, with the +2 from the AoD cancelling out the -2 from the grabbing parry. Versus armed opponent a kisat dur-ER instead waits for his opponent to come into 1 yard/meter and then trigger a grapple again the weapon hand or arm. This means that with a little luck you'll achieve contact and can start grappling. Traditional techniques include a hand/arm lock against weaker opponents, eye-gouging, or crippling a hand in order to gain control of a weapon without wrestling. The martial artist also likes to strike, with almost purely focusing on the closed fist. Pretty much any strike that isn't a finishing move is a quick defensive strike, a defensive attack, trading power for the ability to counter the enemy more easily. If the martial artist is surrounded he likes to use cave-in strike to disarm and stun one opponent before moving onto the others, and if he has enough room and is skilled, and insane, enough he goes for dragonfall, sending his foe flying with a broken ribcage to boot.

Now to combat examples: Lets assume a master martial artist by the name of, oh, I don't know... Urist McAdronio. Quite the handsome dwarf, if I say so myself! He has superdwarven strength, (ST), Superdwarven Agility, (14DX) and Superdwarven toughness, (14HT). This gives 7 basic speed, and therefore 7 basic move. He also has -1SM for being a dwarf, however being a dwarf in dwarf fortress doesn't actually make you slower, so basic move stays what it is. He has several skills, including, but not limited to sex appeal 16 (HT+2), sumo wrestling 22 (DX+8), wrestling 14 (DX+0), Erotic Arts 18 (DX+4), Boxing 20 (DX+6), Jumping 16 (DX+2) and brawling 14 (DX+0). He also have improved The techniques joint lock and eye gouging have been improved to joint lock, wrestling +4 and eye gouging grappling, instead of grappling -5. He also is beautiful and has a magnificent beard.

Now to our enemies, who are Gob, Gub, and Gabba Goblin. They all have 8ST, 10DX and 9HT. They'd have the skills spear 10 (DX+0) and shield 10 (DX+0). He also has basic speed 4.75 and move 4, and his SM is -1.

First example:

Urist McAdronio the magnificent and Gob Goblin is in a fist-fight. Since McUrist clearly has the most basic speed he goes first, and decide to AoD, giving is sumo wrestling parry a +2. Gob, however is not so patient and goes for an AoA Telegraphic Attack at Urist face, for a total hit chance of 13. He rolls 9, and hits. Urist decide to parry with his sumo wrestler skill, using the technique grappling parry giving him -2 parry, however he AoD for a +2 to his party, and his opponent used a telegraphic attack. This gives a net +2 to his parry, or a 16 parry. He rolls 13, and since he did a grappling parry he gets to automatically grapple the hand and rolls for cp, he rolls a 5 on his cp roll, (1d6-1) and therefore gets a cp of 4 on Gobs arm. This gives gob a -2 to his ST and DX when using his right hand, and -1 ST and DX when using all other body parts. Now its Urists turn. Decides to go for a joint lock on Gobs wrist. He rolls vs his joint lock technique of 18 and gets a 8. Gob can't defend since he used an AoA last turn. Urist now gets to roll for cp again, getting another 2, for 6cp total. Noe its Gobs turn again, who is feeling the heat. He decides to try and free his hand, but since its in a lock he has to use the hand in question. Since Urist has 6cp on Gobs hand Gob rolls at minus 3 at this attack. He uses an break free grapple attack vs Urists hold, needs an 7 and sadly only rolls 9. Now back to Urist. He decides that its time to break gobs wrist. He uses a free action, spends 2 of his 6cp so that the max damage he can do is 4. They now do a quick contest of his trained strength when 1-handed in wrestling (7) vs the higher of gobs trained ST or HT -3 because of Urists cp of 6 before the attack was made. Urist rolls a lucky 6, while Gob only gets a 10. The difference is 4, meaning he does 4 crushing damage to gobs wrist. Since he only needs 3 to cripple the joint the last point of damage disappears. Gob now has only 5 HP left, has to roll vs HT to see if he's stunned and his Han is crippled. The fight is basically over.

[Adronio]

Second example:

Urist McAdronio is facing off two opponents this time, 1 from either side. What's worse is that they both are armed with spear and shield! He decides that its time to even the odds. He uses all out defense and moves 4 hexes to his target. He is now only 3 meters/yards away from his target Gub Goblin. Gub feels very confident in himself right now. An unarmed dwarf vs two armed goblins? No problem. He uses all out attack (determined), moving 2 meters forward so he is in range with his spear. He then stabs at Urists chest. He needs to roll 14 and rolls a 6. Urist parries using grappling parry, and needs 14 to parry, and gets a 13. Urist rolls for cp, gets 2, reducing Gubs grip cp by 2 down to 2, making the weapon unready. Well, ****. Then its the other goblins turn, and he is closing in fast. Now its turn 2 for Urist, and he is running out of time. He decides that its time to finish of Gub. He does an AoA (double) that also is telegraphic, since Gub can't capitalize on it, and steps into reach. First a grapple on Gubs small shield, and needs a 16 or lower since 17 - 18 is an automatic failure. He rolls an 8, and manages to get 3cp, reducing Gubs grip down to 1cp. Urist then continues with a slam, but first he rolls for jumping. He needs 16, and gets it. He manages to get 2 yards of jumping distance, meaning that together with the 1 yard and the 2 yard move of gub the velocity is 5. 14*5 is 70. 70/100 is 0.7, turning into 1d6-1. However with the damage bonus from his high wrestling this turns into 1d6+3. Gee golly. Then we apply Gubs damage to Urist. 8*5 is 40. 40/100 is 0.4 which translates to 1d6-2 damage.
Urist rolls 4 for 7 damage, while Gobi rolls a 3 for 1 damage. Guns automatically falls down and has to make a HT roll it be stunned. Since he took 4 shock anyway and he had less then 4 grip cp he loses control of both the spear and the shield no matter what the HT roll says. Guns rolls the dice, and unluckily manages to get a 15, so bad he's just knocked out. Then its gobbo's turn, and he decides that its time to get out of dodge. He turns around and starts booking it. He has wife and children to come back to! Not his own mind you.

Third example:

Urist is walking on a field when suddenly a goblin comes charging out of a forest, 50 meters away. Urist decides that he hasn't practiced his dragonfall maneuver enough, and gets ready to slam.

Urist Turn 1: Concentrate. (so he can get the full bonus from jumping).

Gabba turn 1 sprint 5 meters closer.

Distance between them is 45m.

Urist turn 2: Consentate.

Gabba turn 2 sprint 5 meters.

Distance now 40m.

Urist turn 3: Moves 7m towards Gabba.

Gabba turn 3: Sprints 5m

Distance now 28m.

Urist turn 4: Sprints 8m.

Gabba turn 4: Sprints 5m.

Distance 15m.

Urist turn 5: Sprints 8m.

Gabba turn 5: Sprints 5m.

Distance 2m.

Urist uses AoA doube thats also deceptive -8 to hit, meaning that gabba gets -4 to his defense rolls, sprints the last 2 meters, and rolls for jumping. He needs a 16 or lower, and gets a 9. That allows him to get 9!!! extra meters og movement. He then does a grapple vs Gabba's torso, needs a 14 og koser, and gets a 12, a hit. Gabba trues to defend With his shield, needing a 5 because of his block of 8 + 1DB and the deceptive attacks -4. He rolls a lucky 5, managing to block the grapple. Then its the slams turn. Urist needs a 14 to hit, and gets a 3! A critical hit. He automatically hit, and rolls on the critical hit table: He rolls an 18: TRIPLE DAMAGE! This is gonna hurt. Since it was a crit, gabba gets no chance to defend. Lets calculate the slam damage shall we? Gabba moved 5 meters last turn, plus Urist combined sprint and jump of 16! That's 21 velocity! So Urists damage to Gabba is 14*21=294. 294/100=2.94 which we round to 3. So 3d6 plus the AoA strong we got from the jump, and the strength bonus rom sumo wrestling, turns into 3d6+7. We roll a 3, 4 and 6, meaning that we get 20 basic damage. We triple that with the crit and we get 60! damage! That puts the goblin at -52HP. That's way below -HT*5.
Praise armok! However now we got to check what the goblin did to Urist. 8*21=168. 168/100=1.68 which rounds up to 2, meaning 2d6 damage. He rolls 3 and 6 for a combined 9 damage, Ouch. That means he has to roll a HT roll to see if he gets stunned. He rolls an 17! A critical failure! Urist is knocked out cold by his probably broken ribs. He's gonna lie there besides a VERY mushed corpse for about 10 mins before coming to his senses. Use protection kids.

[Adronio]

Sorry guys, but I have to sleep. It's like 5 am where I live. I promise to finish up the rest tomorrow.

[Adronio]

I'm back! Now only mostly sleep deprived! Praise Armok!

[Adronio]

Done, what do you guys think?

[Phantasm]

Seems very interesting. Can you put it all together in a style layout, ala the styles in Martial Arts?

[Adronio]

Probably, but I'm just about eating dinner. Will see to it soon.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Adronio

Lets start of with the basics: Skills. Kisat Dur is a mixed martial art, using both a striking skill and a wrestling skill. Lets start of with striking skill:

Finding out what striking skill to use was quite easy. Kisat Dur puts alot of focus on punching, eschewing kicking in favor of the quicker and less easily countered punch. This makes boxing the ideal candidate. However, kisat dur also likes to use brutal attacks like eye gouging and biting the throat. Therefore the main striking skill will be boxing, with the secondary skill being brawling with a focus on the eye gouging technique.

Brawling isn't necessary. Eye Gouging also defaults to Wrestling, which you already have, so, instead of forcing players to buy two striking skills, I'd simply give the style the Technique: Eye Gouging (Wrestling), and the Perk: Skill Adaptation (Bites with Boxing).

Originally Posted by Adronio

Now to the wrestling skill. This was a little tougher. While we know that it certainly isn't judo, you never see kisat dur mentioning some kind of defensive throw, its quite the tough call between wrestling and sumo wrestling. Kisat dur does make use of hand and arm locks, however say, and I quote: "This is only effective when the defender can physically overpower the attacker-", suggesting that wrestling isn't the main skill considering it gives strong strength bonuses to a good wrestler when using such moves. Kisat Dur also severely dislikes ground combat, the only ground based move it teaches is one that gets the martial artist of the ground and his foe on it. There is also a third reason, that I'm going to talk about next. The main skill here being sumo wrestling, with wrestling being the secondary skill with a big focus on joint locks.

Again, I'd suggest you look at whether two grappling skills is necessary or if you can get by with Skill Adaptation (Arm Locks with Sumo Wrestling) or simply assume that the locks in question really use Wrench Limb.