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Old 10-23-2014, 03:03 PM   #21
simply Nathan
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Old 10-23-2014, 05:55 PM   #22
Peter V. Dell'Orto
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Originally Posted by Adversary View Post
Along with ripping a phone book in half, there are other feats of grip strength that would fit: bending a coin or a nail, folding a cast-iron pan. Similar things done with bite strength, like gripping a horseshoe in your teeth while you bend it with your hands. Blowing up a soft plastic waterbottle like a balloon until it pops. Breaking a baseball bat over your knee.
This is mainly the kind of stuff I had in mind. Fits of raw ST that also depend on knowledge and technique, but don't rise to the level of an adventuring skill. Pretty much anything guys like John Brookfield might do, or other strongmen do to show that they are strong in a visually impressive way.
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Old 10-23-2014, 07:23 PM   #23
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

Stripping/breaking open a coconut with your teeth is pretty impressive. Seeing that one Hawaiian woman do it almost as fast as a trained dog is really "interesting".
Imagine her as a zombie. She really might "realistically" be able to bite through a skull.
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Old 10-24-2014, 02:02 AM   #24
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto View Post
This is mainly the kind of stuff I had in mind. Fits of raw ST that also depend on knowledge and technique, but don't rise to the level of an adventuring skill. Pretty much anything guys like John Brookfield might do, or other strongmen do to show that they are strong in a visually impressive way.
Hmm. The description in Martial Arts made me think the opposite - that the skill's repertoire is maybe 25% related to raw ST used 'smartly', with the other 75% falling onto other attributes, but too few examples given (yet nonetheless examples including stuff totally unrelated to ST, which made the skill name somewhat misleading).
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Old 10-25-2014, 03:16 PM   #25
Peter V. Dell'Orto
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Hmm. The description in Martial Arts made me think the opposite - that the skill's repertoire is maybe 25% related to raw ST used 'smartly', with the other 75% falling onto other attributes, but too few examples given (yet nonetheless examples including stuff totally unrelated to ST, which made the skill name somewhat misleading).
There are four examples, one for Will (coals), one DX (candle), and two ST (phone book, not flinching from a punch). All of which show off your "physical grit." That's 50% feats of strength that depend on knowledge and technique. If you get really picky, it lists 2 Will (coal, nails), one DX (candle), and four ST (phone book, lift with teeth, lift with body piecing, not flinch from punch). Possibly "not flinch" is Will. Even so, that's a lot less than 75% falling under non-ST attributes.

In general, though, it's a hobby skill. It represents knowledge and explicitly says it doesn't improve capabilities. You might know the trick to rolling up a frying pan or how to hold a nail to bend it without hurting your hands, but you still need to attributes to do it.

What else it covers is almost purely a GM call. Keep the above in mind - it's a hobby skill, it doesn't improve what you can do, and it's all about stunts that involve some physical grit and knowledge.
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Old 10-25-2014, 05:34 PM   #26
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Originally Posted by Dalillama View Post
Yup. A relatively thin pine or softwood board that's well braced is actually pretty easy to break, as long as you don't flinch or
And make sure that's White pine, not Yellow pine. My sister teaches kids martial arts and dad accidentally got the wrong kind once.
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Old 10-27-2014, 09:10 AM   #27
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto View Post
There are four examples, one for Will (coals), one DX (candle), and two ST (phone book, not flinching from a punch). All of which show off your "physical grit." That's 50% feats of strength that depend on knowledge and technique. If you get really picky, it lists 2 Will (coal, nails), one DX (candle), and four ST (phone book, lift with teeth, lift with body piecing, not flinch from punch). Possibly "not flinch" is Will. Even so, that's a lot less than 75% falling under non-ST attributes.

In general, though, it's a hobby skill. It represents knowledge and explicitly says it doesn't improve capabilities. You might know the trick to rolling up a frying pan or how to hold a nail to bend it without hurting your hands, but you still need to attributes to do it.

What else it covers is almost purely a GM call. Keep the above in mind - it's a hobby skill, it doesn't improve what you can do, and it's all about stunts that involve some physical grit and knowledge.
I would've thought not flinching would be HT-based, same as Knockdown & Stunning rolls.

Anyway, if HS:FoS is not quite what I'm looking for, what is the proper skill for a mostly HT- and Will-based assembly of tricks of grit, fortitude and toughness?
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Old 10-27-2014, 09:18 AM   #28
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
I would've thought not flinching would be HT-based, same as Knockdown & Stunning rolls.
Could be. Or Will. I figured ST is as valid as the others - learning to take a punch has a lot to do with muscles, not just not wincing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Anyway, if HS:FoS is not quite what I'm looking for, what is the proper skill for a mostly HT- and Will-based assembly of tricks of grit, fortitude and toughness?
Make something up if this doesn't fit. Or just float the skill's attribute, like it says to.
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Old 10-27-2014, 09:28 AM   #29
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

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Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto View Post
Make something up if this doesn't fit. Or just float the skill's attribute, like it says to.
Ah. I was starting to get vibes that you didn't approve of non-ST-oriented interpretations of the skill.

Either way, any more examples of what can be done with it, particularly HT-/Will-based and not ST- nor DX-?
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Old 11-02-2014, 11:03 PM   #30
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Default Re: [MA] Hobby Skill: Feats of Strength

I'll let you decide which attribute to float these to, but off the top of my head-

Shaolin Monk demonstrations:
- two-finger handstand
- dragging a log with the scrotum
- breaking bricks on the head
- beating with canes
- inverted human pyramid
- stiff-finger thrusting into sand or pebbles

Circus strong man:
- tossing a cannon ball up to catch on the back of the neck
- shooting a cannon ball into the stomach
- smashing a cinder block on the chest with a sledgehammer
- driving over the chest with a car
- hauling a truck with various parts of the body, e.g. teeth or the little finger

Others:
- catching a bullet with a small target held in the teeth
- catching a knife or arrow aimed at the performer

Googling "strong man acts" found these 2 cool websites-
http://listverse.com/2008/11/04/10-a...s-of-the-past/
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-histor...f-strength.php
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