Describing the power abilities of The Last Airbender

[Mutant_Mouse]

Hi all.. I just recently got the gurps fantasy, thaumatology, magic, and powers books and started looking into how best to describe characters that approximate the abilities of those characters in this animation/soon to be released movie.

Anyone have a grasp of these rules enough to point me down the right rabbit hole?

If you look past that this was meant for a young teenage audience that this can be a interesting setting to explore.

[MagiMaster]

I've tried to do this myself. I think Powers is your best bet. There's not much in the Avatar universe that would fall under Thaumatology. Additionally, considering how integrated it is with the various bending styles, you should probably also get a copy of Martial Arts.

That said, most of what's done in the cartoon would fall under the Inate Attack advantage, with a few Bindings, Afflictions and levels of Control. Only firebenders seem to get Create. Airbenders get some movement abilities, waterbenders can get healing and earthbenders can get some better-than-average defensive abilities.

I think making a martial arts style or two (or just picking representative existing ones) and providing a power (as per Powers) would get you a long way towards making decent benders.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by MagiMaster

I think making a martial arts style or two (or just picking representative existing ones)

From Wiki:
Water: Tai Chi
Earth: Hung Gar
Fire: Northern Shaolin Kung Fu
Air: Ba Gua

Toph: Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis

I think most of these are in Martial Arts, though a few might be under different names. (It's been a couple of years since I asked on these forums. :-)

[Mutant_Mouse]

I would think that the Gurps Powers book be rather helpful in addition to the Martial arts book. In addition the animation seems to imply that in addition to being a martial art that there is some magical influence as well to invoke their powers. Either that or more in the style of secret techniques of a martial art.

[Mutant_Mouse]

That posting regarding the last air bender wiki in regards to martial arts that inspire the various aspects is a great foundation....

[Corlock Striker]

Originally Posted by MagiMaster

Only firebenders seem to get Create.

I have to disagree with you there. The only benders I wouldn't give create to, would be airbenders. Earthbenders and waterbenders would both get create with the transmutation only limitation. Firebenders would get standard create.

I recently stated up a earthbender for one of my players. I'll give you the abilities I used. Some of them I based off of what was in the Psionic Powers book.

Binding (Encasement in Earth) (Based on DX +20%; Chi -10%; Engulfing +60%; Enviornmental (Requires Earth) -20%; Only Damaged by Crushing or Cutting +20%)

Clinging (Attraction +25%; Chi -10%; Specific (Earth) -40%)

Extra Attack (Chi -10%)

Striking Strength (Chi -10%)

Control (Earth) (Based on DX +20%; Chi -10%; Collective +100%; Link (Create (Earth) (Powers can be used seperately)) +40%; Ranged +40%; Requires DX Roll -10%)

Create (Earth) (Based on DX +20%; Chi -10%; Link (Control (Earth) (Powers can be used seperately)) +40%; Requires DX Roll -10%; Transmutation Only -100%; Transmutation (Earth to Earth) +50%)

Detect (Earth (Common)) (Chi -10%)

Earth Armor (Built off of Damage Resistance and the TK Shield ability from Psionic Powers) (Chi -10%; Environmental (Requires Earth) -20%; Force Field +20%; Limited (Physical) -20%; Requires DX Roll -10%)

Earth Bullet (Built off of Piercing Innate Attack, and the TK Bullet Ability from Psionic Powers) (Based on DX +20%; Chi -10%; Environmental ( Pebbles or Equivalent Earth Made Items) (Common) -20%; Increased Range 1/2D Only (x50) +25%; Increased Range Max Only (x20) +20%; Partial Dice (-1/die) (Can't remember modifier value); Variable +5%)

Earth Grab (Built off of Telekinesis and the TK Grab Ability from Psionic Powers) (Based on DX +20%; Cannot Affect Self -20%; Cannot Punch -20%; Chi -10%; Environmental (Requires Earth) -20%; Increased Range (x2) +10%; Requires DX Roll -10%)

Sonar (Chi -10%; Extended Arc (360) +125%)

Tunneling (Chi -10%; Hands-Free +20%; Tunneling Move +2 10pts)

Vibration Sense (Chi -10%)

Also Included the template for Hung Gar Kung Fu - Tiger-Crane Style, which is the martial art that Earthbending was based on. The template includes:

Breath Control; Karate; Philosophy (Buddhism); Body Control; Immovable Stance; Power Blow

Aggressive Parry (Karate); Counterattack (Karate); Exotic Hand Strike; Hammer Fist; Jam; Stamp Kick

Iron Arms; Iron Hands; Iron Legs; Iron Neck

[Dalillama]

This thread has some pretty good builds.

[Johnny Angel]

Firebending seems to have some sort of link to the sun as well. During an eclipse, most firebenders can't use their abilities.


Also, there is a certain point when a bender moves beyond the normal abilities. Many of Uncle's firebending abilities are examples of this as well as Toph learning to bend metal.



anyway.... Powers is probably the book to look to.

It would be possible to run a campaign which was similar to Avatar using magic and having aspected magery, but I think Powers might have more of the feel you want.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Really, there's a couple of different ways to approach this, with different pros and cons. First, as others have said, Powers provides lots of tools for building this sort of thing. In general, if you're looking for the most accurate model of bending, tweaking the effects to exactly match the show, then Powers is the way to go. Secondly, Powers is also the most useful for providing benders that are balanced with non-benders; you can be fairly certain, with the Powers approach, that the benders are paying a fair price, point-wise, for their powers, and they'll have about the same relative powers as someone who's spent their points in skills (Boomerang, Axe/Mace, and Broadsword, for example :-) ).
The downside of the Powers approach is that it's harder. You'll need to select the advantags, apply appropriate modifiers, figure the final cost, and so on. This can take a while, and if you're not familiar with GURPS, a little overwhelming.

The other option is to use the magic books you've got. What I would suggest is to use a modified ritual magic system, with all the appropriate spells defaulting to one of four core Bending skills. You could tie it into the real-world martial arts styles listed above by capping your core ritual skill with some or all of the skills involved in the styles, which provides a good connection between physical combat skill and bending ability.
The benefits of this approach is that the abilites are pretty much pre-made: they're all spells from Magic. You'll still need to do some work deciding which spells fit into bending and which don't, but the effects themselves are basically filled out.
The cons here are that spells come with a lot of baggage, such as fixed duration, range, energy costs, and so forth, which are part of the balance. It might not feel right to you to have benders spending FP to power their effects all the time. Also, if a particular bending effect isn't covered by any of the existing spells, you'll need to create a new spell to cover it, and there aren't as many balancing guidelines to spells - it's more of an art than a science.

[Mutant_Mouse]

Having the discussion regarding this is great. I'm just chewing on the gurps powers rules they are complex. I'm glad that these forums are available to discuss topics liek thsi because its been rather hard to find people that understand the current gurps ruleset.