Mailanka's Musings -- GURPS Content Post

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

A lack of sleep or other confusion caused me to read Martini Arrs

Almost as good a pun as Marital Arts. :)

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

A lack of sleep or other confusion caused me to read Martini Arrs

So... mixed drinks and high seas piracy?

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

So... mixed drinks and high seas piracy?

And not to mention a .450 caliber single shot rifle . . . of high accuracy & reliability.

Or to describe an Old West cavalry musical comedy as a light horse opera . . .

[Mailanka]

The first (three) of the "new" martial arts, three forms of revised Force Swordsmanship.

[Kalzazz]

That was fun and I really like the called out signature moves. Makes me want to play a force sword user (or steal some of it for the fantasy mana sabre wielder I'm playing). Looking forward to seeing the sword and board stuff

Quick question - which I'm sure you've mentioned many times before, but are you allowing the Weapon Master damage bonus with Force Swords?


On the first style you mention Karate a few times which I suspect is less intentional

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Quick question - which I'm sure you've mentioned many times before, but are you allowing the Weapon Master damage bonus with Force Swords?

Of course!

On the first style you mention Karate a few times which I suspect is less intentional

Yeah, it went through a few edit passes. Originally I used Karate and I traded it out for Brawl (Karate remains as an optional skill), so read any sig moves that say Karate as Brawl.

[Mailanka]

More Force Swordsmanship! This time, dual wielding styles, and Force-Sword-And-Buckler (which doesn't really change the style so much as focus on signature moves)

[evileeyore]

Where are you drawing your Signature Moves from (rules wise)? Martial treats 'signature moves' as techniques that are simply taken to max, DF sort of does this with "Trademark Moves".

Ar these Sig Moves meant to be techniques that are trainable, or are these simply benes the Stylist gets for the style?

[Kalzazz]

I often times see Force Sword and Force Buckler in play used as a very mobile and aggressive style as people rely on the 3 DB awesomeness (combined with extremely light wait) to go wild with move and attacks and even committed attacks with a 'Trust the Shield' mentality

I wonder if that could work as a style?

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Where are you drawing your Signature Moves from (rules wise)? Martial treats 'signature moves' as techniques that are simply taken to max, DF sort of does this with "Trademark Moves".

Ar these Sig Moves meant to be techniques that are trainable, or are these simply benes the Stylist gets for the style?

Alright, here's the concept:

From Martial Arts page 126

Encourage “trademark moves.” Have each player work out a
few “standard operating procedures” in the form of an entire turn’s
worth of actions calculated in advance; e.g., “Committed Attack
(Strong) and Rapid Strike: thrust to the vitals at skill 13, then a
Deceptive swing to the torso for -2 defenses at skill 12.” These are
good “default” actions for the player who can’t make up his mind!

I seem to remember these being called Signature Moves, but in any case, I call them that to differentiate them from these:

Trademark Move†
A Trademark Move is a prescription for a full turn’s worth
of combat actions. Write down every detail when you buy it;
e.g., “All-Out Attack (Strong) using Broadsword, for 2d+3 cutting, thrown as a Rapid Strike with a chop to the neck, at skill
13, followed by a Deceptive slash at the torso giving -2
defenses, at skill 14.” Damage and attack rolls can improve
with ST, DX, and skill, but all weapons, maneuvers, combat
options, and hit locations remain fixed. In return for committing a point to such a specific move, you’re at +1 on all skill
rolls made to execute it exactly as written – no substitutions.
A Trademark Move must be distinctive – no “Attack with
Broadsword to torso.” The GM is free to forbid one that isn’t

That's from Power Ups 2: Perks, page 8.

The idea is this: A signature move is one turn's worth of actions, strictly defined. This does a few things. First of all, you can just use it. You don't have to think about it, you just do it. For example, say you're a Destructive Formist, with Force Sword-18, your Patience-Killing Stroke might look like this:

The Patience-Killing Stroke: The Destructive Form pushes its opponent to parry or to attack, or risk losing their ability to dodge. In Defensive Grip, make a deceptive defensive attack to the leg. Roll Force Sword (12) to hit. Deal 8d-8(5) burn damage to the leg. Parry at 14, 15 against frontal attacks. Setup: None, though typically if one’s opponent is defensive.

Now, what stops a Graceful Formist from doing this? Nothing! But styles and their techniques and perks tend to circle around a strategy. This attack benefits from precision attacks and defensive grip and is very focused on patiently destroying your opponent. Graceful Form is more about maintaining your mobility. You can see the same sort of thought process in the descriptions of martial arts. For example, my signature moves for Force Sword and Buckler come directly from the description, which says that it's slow, tends to evaluate, and use push to knock foes back. It's about describing the sort of philosophy and strategy.

But if we do want to encourage characters to take it, we allow the trademark move perk. Now, that perk specifies that players need to take exact values and use them precisely... but that's exactly how our signature moves already work! So, for a single point, you can get a "+1" to all uses of that specific move.

The idea behind a signature move is not that they are a technique or something "unique" to the style so much as a description of how that style fights, a short-hand for players, and an option for perks (sort of like a technique). It's also not something new. It's actually already there, in both Martial Arts and Perks, it's just not generally worked out in this much detail, but I found it exceptionally popular in CBR, so I ported it into Psi-Wars.