Sword-flicking as a skill; help me work this one out

[Ubiquitous]

There's a Perk for some kind of Sword move; you flick the blood off your sword and this is a free Intimidation action. Nothing about this is important other than the 'flick the blood off your sword'.

Say I stab Thug A, out of A B and C. In order to get a few seconds alone with C, and assuming my blade's coated with A, I think it'd be pretty boss if I flicked that blood into B's eyes so I can get busy with C.

What kind of skill would that be? DX-based and probably Very Hard (depending on weapon I'd imagine, it'd be interesting to see the same thing done with bullets and their exit-wound matter), but what'd the rules for it be? I can only claim seeing flicking swords to deblood them out of anime and Samurai flicks, so I'd say it's cinematic (unless someone, oh please tell me someone tried this in real life at some point), But if I grounded this in reality, how would I go about working out a system by which you could flick blood or poison or more gloriously flaming oil at someone/thing? I've seen a Kendo teacher remark about how your introduction to a sword-fight, using whatever Kendo rules follow, is to slash up to disembowel your opponent and then down to clean your sword, so maybe not totally cinematic, but still.

I kinda rambled here, I guess it's more of an idea for a skill than asking for help, but I think I stumbled on my own problem-solving; would it be fair to use the rules for liquid-splashing on face, but with a ST-based Range for the flick?

[Phoenix_Dragon]

Sounds like Liquids in the Face should work just fine. Doubt it's broad enough to be a full skill, but a technique seems perfect (Effectively a Targeted Attack (Sword-flick/Face)).

I doubt giving a ST-based range would make sense. The liquids themselves still aren't going to travel very far at all anyway. Too much air resistance compared to density.

[Ubiquitous]

Originally Posted by Phoenix_Dragon

Sounds like Liquids in the Face should work just fine. Doubt it's broad enough to be a full skill, but a technique seems perfect (Effectively a Targeted Attack (Sword-flick/Face)).

I doubt giving a ST-based range would make sense. The liquids themselves still aren't going to travel very far at all anyway. Too much air resistance compared to density.

I would have thought more velocity (Higher ST and all that) would have made it go farther. Not very much farther seeing how liquid makes for a poor projectile, but I guess I must be giving blood too much credit for being 'thicker than water' as it were, and holding together in air better.

[sgtcallistan]

Using blood-flicking offensively has been mentioned; but I think you may miss the point.

IMO, the samurai (cinematically and in comics) do this to signify that the fight is already over.
It signals that the enemy can now run, fall over, give up or attack wildly and be killed.

This could be a contest of will akin to a pre-battle staredown, and could be used by a merciful character who does not wish to slaughter every enemy, or sees no need to.

Such contests of will are mentioned in 3rd ed Japan, and I'm sure such a thing exists in 4th ed. too, though IDHMBWM.

Hope this is useful.

[Ubiquitous]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

Using blood-flicking offensively has been mentioned; but I think you may miss the point.

IMO, the samurai (cinematically and in comics) do this to signify that the fight is already over.
It signals that the enemy can now run, fall over, give up or attack wildly and be killed.

This could be a contest of will akin to a pre-battle staredown, and could be used by a merciful character who does not wish to slaughter every enemy, or sees no need to.

Such contests of will are mentioned in 3rd ed Japan, and I'm sure such a thing exists in 4th ed. too, though IDHMBWM.

Hope this is useful.

Errr...I'm a bit confused. What exactly do they do? I was thinking you meant flicking blood off their sword until I saw you list examples like attack wildly...

I wanted to use the blood flicking technique on it's face, not the specific intimidation/cleanliness ritual.

Unless I misunderstood you. COULD you rephrase that for me?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ubiquitous

Errr...I'm a bit confused. What exactly do they do? I was thinking you meant flicking blood off their sword until I saw you list examples like attack wildly...

I wanted to use the blood flicking technique on it's face, not the specific intimidation/cleanliness ritual.

The magic word everyone has forgotten is "chiburi". It is a Perk and a specific example of the "Shtick" Perk. Basically you're paying 1 cp for the ability to do something that looks cool but has no major game effect. It doesn't really take a full Turn though. I'd call it a Free Action.

There is the example of the "Dragon Man Flourish" From the Dragon Man Kung Fu fictional style. That's also listed as an example of Shtick but does give a +4 to Intimidation attempts on the Turn after you kill or knock someone down. I'd rule that it did take a Turn to perfom the flourish and do the Intimidation attempt.

Now, what you seem to have in mind would come under Dirty Tricks, MA P.76. The third paragraph of that box talks about throwing dirt/sand/beer in someone's eyes an forcing them to rol v. HT or be blinded for 1D-3 seconds.

You have to Aim for the Face at -5 but get a +3 for the wide splash of your attack. Dodge or Block but not Parry is possible.

As there is a big difference between a whole mugfull of beer and a few drops of blood flicked off a sword I would be much more strict. I'd call it a straight attack at the Eyes for -9 and no bonus. I'd be more generous on Active Defenses too, much easier to stop than a whole mug of beer..

So Chiburi to the Eyes is not likely to work often but I'd let you try it.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The magic word everyone has forgotten is "chiburi". It is a Perk and a specific example of the "Shtick" Perk. Basically you're paying 1 cp for the ability to do something that looks cool but has no major game effect. It doesn't really take a full Turn though. I'd call it a Free Action.

It does have a major game effect - it lets you use Intimidation as a free action and without speaking (with the prerequisite that you've just killed someone to death first).

This means that there are NO language or cultural penalties on the Intimidation check, and you don't have to spend several turns posturing and shouting, which tends to draw attention to oneself.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

There is the example of the "Dragon Man Flourish" From the Dragon Man Kung Fu fictional style. That's also listed as an example of Shtick but does give a +4 to Intimidation attempts on the Turn after you kill or knock someone down. I'd rule that it did take a Turn to perfom the flourish and do the Intimidation attempt.

Yes, that's the other format this sort of thing can take. It specifically DOES take a turn to perform the flourish. That's why it gets a +4 on the intimidation check - for the "free action" form, you're sacrificing the +4 (which is the +4 for showing that you're extremely violent, from the intimidation skill description) for the free action version. Normally this might be a -5 or -10 for time used, I presume the perk and the elaborate setup requirements are what's used to balance the difference out.

See also Power Ups 2: Perks, page 15

[CraigR]

Originally Posted by Bruno

It does have a major game effect - it lets you use Intimidation as a free action and without speaking (with the prerequisite that you've just killed someone to death first).

As opposed to killing them to minor inconvenience?

Since you are having to KILL someone for this to take effect, I'd say the perk is just to let your actions speak louder than your words.

Originally Posted by Pulp_Fiction

BOOM!!

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration??"

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by CraigR

As opposed to killing them to minor inconvenience?

Hey, this is an RPG - for some NPCs and monsters, killing them really is only a minor inconvenience.

Less (or possibly more) humorously, "Killing them to death" and similar statements seem to be local jargon/slang for "overkilling". Running someone through kills them. Cutting his head off or cleaving him in twain kills him to death.

EDIT: May come from video games where the level bosses get killed once, get back up tougher, get killed again, get back up HUGER and tougher, and then get killed "to death" for a real final death (sometimes only two phases, sometimes four phases). Similarly in some video games "loosing a life" just results in a fancy graphic sequence and then you promptly respawn. It's more like loosing hitpoints, but the terminoligy used is "killing". So there's dying, and then there's dying to death, where you're really really dead this time, because you're out of quarters.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Less (or possibly more) humorously, "Killing them to death" and similar statements seem to be local jargon/slang for "overkilling". Running someone through kills them. Cutting his head off or cleaving him in twain kills him to death.

I think it actually comes from the film Popeye(1980), at least that's were I got it from. It's one of the supporting characters signature lines, "He ought to be killed to death."