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Old 12-04-2017, 06:21 PM   #11
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

Whle TK is one way to go it is not IMHO optimal.
Striking St (Power Modifier: Ki. -10%) lets you do extra damage, or you could go for Innate Attack with the Melee limitation.
They are super strong however as they have enhanced Lifting ST and endurance as well.
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Old 12-04-2017, 07:00 PM   #12
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

i'm not really set on doing things the official GURPS way - i'll probably take what's there (in GURPS Powers) and do a homebrew with that as inspiration. i'll post it up here of course - i'm not sure if i'll ever play it with my friends, but maybe someone else will be inspired by it.

maybe i won't have to do much homebrewing - the basic rules of GURPS are pretty good, so hoping that Powers is up to par. also i was just thinking about charisma being a good stat to have, a fifth attribute for GURPS; else, to implement it in some way other than as an attribute, but that's not really in line with this thread. GURPS has some charisma-related abilities you can choose, but i'm not sure if i like them.

now just occurring to me - i might have to keep my homebrew to myself, since the Powers content i'm assuming is copyrighted. oh well. i'll share what i can without breaking any rules. i can probably describe the general things i did without giving away details from the rule book.
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Old 12-04-2017, 10:35 PM   #13
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

Quote:
Originally Posted by gibberingmouther View Post
i'm not really set on doing things the official GURPS way - i'll probably take what's there (in GURPS Powers) and do a homebrew with that as inspiration. i'll post it up here of course - i'm not sure if i'll ever play it with my friends, but maybe someone else will be inspired by it.

now just occurring to me - i might have to keep my homebrew to myself, since the Powers content i'm assuming is copyrighted. oh well. i'll share what i can without breaking any rules. i can probably describe the general things i did without giving away details from the rule book.
One of the things I love about SJG is their online policy.
You should be able to post power writeups without explaining the mechanics,
So for example...
Ka Me Hami Ha
This is a powerful attack that takes time to set up. You have to charge up for 8 seconds before firing and it is obvious to anyone what your doing.
Statistics: Innate Attack (cr) 2d (PM, Ki; -10%; Takes Extra Time 4; -40%) [5/level]
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Old 12-06-2017, 10:14 PM   #14
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

still got some momentum!

the spirit body is a pseudoscientific/mystical construct that the ki powered character can use, as explained above through a sort of body-link telekinesis, to achieve durability, strength, and speed. he can also emit ki directly from it to do ki blasts. (this is a lot like super man and his eye lasers)

then i was thinking about kaioken and super saiyan, can't do without those two. they're almost the same thing, except kaioken is more draining and limited in terms of the magnitude of the multiplication. i envisioned ki energy as coming from the nucleus of the spirit, or something like that. like a computer has a total memory, this is the total ki reserve, and like a computer's bus constrains how much data can travel through it at once, so is the amount of ki that can be manifested at once limited by the user's power level.

both super saiyan and kaioken increase the total ki reserve and the energy-bus but they are draining on the person as well. kaioken actually damages the spirit body (though it will heal with time) which damages the person's body as well. super saiyan might just have a constant ki-energy drain cost.
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Old 12-07-2017, 09:22 AM   #15
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

One issue is that, while kaioken and Super Saiyan are canonically draining, I don't think this ever really shows up as a real effect in Dragon Ball (at least the manga covering from Goku meeting Bulma through the Buu saga, I've only seen bits and pieces of the anime, and that was only DBZ). It's really just fluff explaining why the characters aren't always super amped up, and why they delay before amping up - and isn't really even all that necessary, as the characters are almost all enamored with fighting, so you could easily explain them starting out at lower power with them not wanting to have the fight end too quickly.

Still, if you want them to be draining, building them as metatraits (increased ST, DX, and HT, possibly combined with ATR) with Costs FP would be appropriate. An initial cost of 2 FP, then 1 FP per minute thereafter (sustained Costs FP abilities cost half as much to maintain, hence the 2->1) would probably work. If you want kaioken to be less efficient, either a higher cost or even an additional HP cost may be appropriate.

And, yes, I strongly suggest making them metatraits rather than Alternate Forms. AF has some hangups that make things more complicated (a big one is that the FP cost will only affect the base [15]), and additionally is much more appropriate for cases where the transformation removes traits while adding them, while kaioken/Super Saiyan are really just bonuses across the board.

To make the transformation increase damage of ki blasts, make them either Innate Attacks with ST-Based (from Powers) or, as is my preference, make them Natural Weapons (from Pyramid #3/65). Simply the ST boost from powering up will increase the damage (and if using Natural Weapons, the range) without need to modify the attack any further. Optionally, you may want to maintain the Newtonian aspect of ki blasts from before Goku learned to fly. Having knockback apply to the character as well as the target is arguably a Feature (+0%) if it's always in effect, something like +10% or +20% if you can control if it comes into play or not (for the Kamehameha, I'd probably use +10%, allowing the character to avoid it if he takes an extra second to brace himself).

For the extreme resilience of DB characters, I suggest Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction (also in Powers). Personally, I'd build it as Armored Flesh, to allow for certain attacks like Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon to have Armor Divisor for more readily punching through it (for reference, while most ki blasts would be crushing, I'd probably build SBC as an impaling attack with AD (5) or higher, possibly even Ignores DR). Maybe go ahead and add a level of Hardened back in so that armor-piercing bullets are still ineffective.
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Old 12-07-2017, 03:35 PM   #16
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

okay, i've come far enough. i'm done trying to "sciencify" ki powers. i believe in spirits (for real), but we don't know what they're made of. God and spirits are very mysterious. i'm just going to go with "we don't know enough" for the rest of it; ki energy is something unknown.

i realized that TK over only your own "energy signature" doesn't by science make much sense, so i could change it back to just having TK, which would work, but i want to leave TK for psychics and magicians, not warriors (unless they're jedi, of course).

i might have more updates in the next two days maybe, then i need to study for my final.

i just, for reasons of personal taste, wanted to make superheroes that aren't blatantly pseudoscientific and inconsistent but make sense if you allow a couple assumptions. plus it's fun to do!

Last edited by gibberingmouther; 12-07-2017 at 03:39 PM.
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Old 12-08-2017, 01:13 PM   #17
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

okay, probably my last update for awhile. something i thought of while driving.

ki energy is stuff that we cannot sciencify, but it exists along with the spirit body as the base for ki abilities. when characters power up, that aura is ki energy. it's like wind kind of. when a hero does ki blasts, the ki energy suffuses the blast and allows telekinetic control over it. the actual blast, once again, is a controlled explosion (expanding gas) created by the release of pure energy from the spirit body.
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Old 12-17-2017, 09:02 PM   #18
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

okay i thought of a couple more things. the ki blast comes from the conversion of ki energy (which is like wind when it's outside the spirit body) to pure energy, creating an expansion of superheated gas controlled by ki or whatever mass it's introduced into.

since ki energy allows you telekinetic control over what it suffuses (for example, your body, leading to flight), you could direct it outside the usual aura and use it like force push. or you could take a piece of that energy and teleport it to explode someone (a fellow ki warrior could resist this, unless they're much weaker; this is like when Frieza blew up Krillin) or whatever else you might use that ki energy for.

i should probably do a write up summarizing all these things at some point ... i just graduated from community college, and have yet to find work to do for awhile before i finish my bachelor's (taking time off so i can finish my video game), so i have some time.
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Old 12-20-2017, 02:15 PM   #19
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

i made some updates at the giantitp forums thread, but i won't post them again here until i finish the writeup i've just started. let that be my Christmas present to GURPS forums! though i'm probably the only one who cares about it, lol.

is there any relevant GURPS materials related to karate or striking? i separated ki-enhanced lifting strength from ki-enhanced striking damage (which is mainly a function of speed and ki-enhanced durability of the striking limb). right now all i have is GURPS Basic Set and Campaigns, though i will be getting Powers and Supers for Christmas.
edit: specifically, is there anything for getting extra attacks since ki allows you to execute strikes faster?

Last edited by gibberingmouther; 12-20-2017 at 02:54 PM.
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Old 12-20-2017, 03:07 PM   #20
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Default Re: Dragon Ball Inspired "Ki" Hero

Quote:
Originally Posted by gibberingmouther View Post
.

is there any relevant GURPS materials related to karate or striking? i separated ki-enhanced lifting strength from ki-enhanced striking damage (which is mainly a function of speed and ki-enhanced durability of the striking limb). right now all i have is GURPS Basic Set and Campaigns, though i will be getting Powers and Supers for Christmas.
edit: specifically, is there anything for getting extra attacks since ki allows you to execute strikes faster?
Extra Attack, probably with the Multi-strike enhancement.
There are other books and Pyramid articles but most of it is built off Basic and Powers. Martial Arts adds depth and I would use the Styles rules to help differentiate charecters.
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My GURPS fan contribution and blog:
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My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items)
My GURPS Wiki entries
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