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Old 06-29-2012, 12:21 PM   #1
CousinX
 
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Default DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

I've been gradually putting together (with input from others, notably Gold & Appel Inc) some martial-arts styles for use in Dungeon Fantasy, converted from / inspired by the Forgotten Realms setting. I'd love any constructive feedback that people had on the builds, new traits, etc.

The intent of the styles is to be effective, i.e. provide appealing (but not game-breaking) power-ups for DF characters, while still being distinctive from one another, and having the right DF/FR "feel."

I've got several posted on a campaign website at Obsidian Portal (in more DF-appropriate format), but I'm thinking I'll post a few here, in official GURPS Martial-Arts Style format, and see if there seems to be any interest in discussing them.

Amnian Saber Fencing
Hand-and-a-Half
Waterfront Kickboxing
Way of the Broken Order
Whirling Dervish
Zhentish Rapier Fencing

Last edited by CousinX; 07-08-2012 at 01:14 PM.
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Old 06-29-2012, 12:23 PM   #2
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Default Amnian Saber Fencing

Amnian Saber Fencing
This style, common among sailors and pirates, makes use of the Amnian fencing saber, a light, curved blade good for slashing or stabbing. The style teaches use of a buckler in the off hand, primarily for defense, but expanded to includes offensive rushes and unbalancing pushes at greater levels of mastery. As a style, it relies less on long lunges and fancy footwork (space is limited on the deck of a ship) than on vertical (shipboard) mobility, and quick circular movements of the blade.

Skills: Climbing, Saber, Shield (Buckler).
Techniques: Attack from Above, Rope Up.
Cinematic Skills: Immovable Stance, Push (Buckler).
Cinematic Techniques: Advanced Remise, Dual-Weapon Fighting, Knife Rappelling, Remise.
Perks: Akimbo (Buckler & Saber), Naval Training, Off-Hand Weapon Training (Buckler), Pommel-Fist (Saber), Shoves and Tackles (Buckler), Technique Mastery (Attack from Above), Unique Technique (Remise).

Knife Rappelling (H) Climbing-3; cannot exceed Climbing.
By plunging a knife or sword edge-down into a sail, curtain, or tapestry (etc – the GM should be generous in determine where this ability can be used, but trees, stone walls, etc, are right out), you may “rappel” down the length of the material, slitting it as you fall. If you can rappel the whole way, you avoid all falling damage; otherwise, you only fall the distance from the bottom of the sail to the ground, and can use Acrobatics or other abilities normally to further reduce falling damage.

Remise (H) Fencing Skill-3; Cannot exceed base skill.
Prerequisites: Weapon Master.
Make a "Remise-elligible" All-Out or Committed Attack (i.e. take the technique penalty to your sword skill on the initial attack), and if you miss or the target defends, make an identical second attack at the same penalty. If (and only if) you've bought the technique up to full sword skill, you can elect to make a Remise on any failed All-Out or Committed Attack, as long as you didn't do anything that would prevent you making a Rapid Strike (e.g. Dual-Weapon Attack, already made a Rapid Strike, etc).

Advanced Remise (H) Remise-4; Cannot exceed Remise.
Prerequisites: Remise.
Same as Remise, but by taking the full penalty for Advanced Remise on your initial and follow-up attacks, you impose a penalty to the target's defenses as though you'd made a successful Counterattack, on the second attack only (which still only occurs if the first attack fails).

Perk - Pommel-Fist (Saber): Use Saber skill instead of Brawling when making a pummeling attack.

Last edited by CousinX; 07-08-2012 at 12:56 PM. Reason: Update Remise technique
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Old 06-29-2012, 12:28 PM   #3
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Default Waterfront Kickboxing

Waterfront Kickboxing
A unique form of fighting that evolved in dockside bars in up and down the Sword Coast, and pirate dives throughout the Inner Sea, this style has been honed by brawlers throughout the West. It contains a wide variety of kicks and other non-traditional moves, many learned by drunken sailors who picked a fight with the wrong visiting Kara-Turan monk.

Skills: Karate; Wrestling.
Techniques: Kicking, Neck Snap.
Cinematic Skills: Flying Leap, Power Blow.
Cinematic Techniques: Flying Jump Kick, Roll With Blow.
Perks: Drunken Fighting, Improvised Weapons, Iron Legs, Power Grappling, Sheer Speed, Technique Mastery (Kicking).

Notes: Intended as an alternate to the typical "Far Eastern" martial artist, this is Savate with the serial numbers filed off.

Martial Artist Lens: Waterfront Kickboxer (0 points)
Advantages: Reduce Chi Talent 2 (30) to Chi Talent 1 (15); add Combat Reflexes (15), and Style Familiarity (Waterfront Kickboxing) (1). • Spend only 19 points (instead of 20) on Chi abilities.
Disadvantages: Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals) (-10) as for a standard martial artist; choose the other -40 points in disadvantages from the swashbuckler’s list, instead of the martial artist’s.
Skills: Replace Judo (H) with Wrestling (A) of one level higher. • Add Carousing (H) HT (1)-12; Gambling (A) IQ-1 (1)-9; Scrounging (E) Per (1)-10; Seamanship (E) IQ (1)-10; and Streetwise (A) IQ-1 (1)-9 to the list of background skill options.
Special Abilities: Optionally, points in the martial artist template that are designated for Chi abilities, optional advantages, or special skills may be spent on Style Perks and Power-Ups from the Waterfront Kickboxing style instead.

Last edited by CousinX; 07-02-2012 at 08:55 PM. Reason: Added Lens.
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Old 06-29-2012, 12:32 PM   #4
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Default Hand-and-a-Half

Hand-and-a-Half
The bastard sword and longsword are popular weapons for their versatility – swung for powerful cutting attacks, thrust for far-reaching impaling damage, used easily in one hand with a shield, or doubled up for better damage and two-handed parrying. This style teaches the warrior to shift fluidly between different forms and grips, allowing him to seamlessly adapt his attack and defense to changing circumstances. Versions of the style also exist for the battle axe; simply substitute axes for swords throughout the style, and swap out Bind Weapon for Hook.

Skills: Broadsword, Two-Handed Sword. (Or, Axe/Mace, Two-Handed Axe/Mace.)
Techniques: Bind Weapon, Reverse Grip,
Cinematic Skills: Power Blow.
Cinematic Techniques: Dual-Weapon Defense (Sword Parry), Power Attack, Timed Defense (Sword Parry), Whirlwind Attack.
Perks: Grip Mastery (Hand-and-a-Half Sword), Pommel Fist (Hand-and-a-Half Sword), Sheer Muscle, Skill Adaptation (Bind Weapon uses Sword), Technique Mastery (Bind Weapon), Two as One (Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword).

Power Attack (H) Power Blow-5; Cannot exceed Power Blow.
Prerequisites: Weapon Master (Broadsword or Two-Handed Sword); Power Blow.
Roll against Power Attack and spend 1 FP (successful or not); if you succeed, instantly improve ST by half-again (x1.5) for your next attack or roll.

Perk - Sheer Muscle: You use ST rather than Will for the Power Blow skill. Requires Weapon Master (Broadsword or Two-Handed Sword).

Perk - Two as One (Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword): This perk merges the style's skills into a single body. Instead of improving two separate skills for a hand-and-a-half sword, you always use the higher of your Broadsword or Two-Handed Sword skills when wielding a bastard sword or longsword, regardless of grip or how many hands you have on the weapon. Any technique, perk, or other ability (including Enhanced Parry, Weapon Master, Imbuement skills, etc) that you have which applies to either skill, but could also be bought for the other, need only be purchased once to apply to both skills. This applies only to hand-and-a-half swords; you still use a normal broadsword with the Broadsword skill, and a greatsword with the Two-Handed Sword skill. Requires the Grip Mastery style perk; you must also have at least one point in both Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword skills.

Last edited by CousinX; 07-08-2012 at 12:31 PM. Reason: Updated Two-as-One perk.
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Old 06-29-2012, 12:33 PM   #5
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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Originally Posted by CousinX View Post
Remise (H) Saber; cannot exceed Saber+3.
Prerequisites: Weapon Master (Saber).
When making a Rapid Strike (see p. B370 and p. MA127) as an All-Out or Committed Attack, reduce the overall penalty for all attacks by -3.
This one I have misgivings about. In MA, there are basically two techniques to reduce the penalty for attacking multiple times in a second. The first is Dual Weapon Attack; the second is Combination. Your "Remise" technique is basically a Combination, but without any restrictions on number of attacks or hit locations, without the target's defense bonus for repeat attacks, and without the extra up-front cost. It seems overpowered (or at least too cheap) in comparison.
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Old 06-29-2012, 01:02 PM   #6
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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Originally Posted by vierasmarius View Post
This one I have misgivings about. In MA, there are basically two techniques to reduce the penalty for attacking multiple times in a second. The first is Dual Weapon Attack; the second is Combination. Your "Remise" technique is basically a Combination, but without any restrictions on number of attacks or hit locations, without the target's defense bonus for repeat attacks, and without the extra up-front cost. It seems overpowered (or at least too cheap) in comparison.
Yeah, this is one of the ones I'm still trying to suss out. Here's my thinking:

As a Power-Up, it costs 5 points (1 point for Unique Technique, plus 4 points to buy a Hard technique up to Default+3), and it's only usable on an All-Out or Committed Attack, which come with their own built-in drawbacks ... it can't be combined with a Dual-Weapon Attack, nor with any maneuver, power-up, or technique that's not specifically compatible with an All-Out or Committed Rapid Strike.

That seems more-or-less equivalent to a Dual-Weapon Attack, which is 6 points for the ability to make an extra attack, putting the defender at -1 without the Dual-Weapon Defense technique, and can be used on just about any maneuver that allows an attack -- so long as you don't try to combine it with a Rapid Strike.

That said, I'm definitely open to suggestions ... do you have any ideas on how to fix it?
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Old 06-29-2012, 01:42 PM   #7
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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That said, I'm definitely open to suggestions ... do you have any ideas on how to fix it?
Well, you could make it a Combo (or set of combos), restricting the attacks to pre-defined hit locations. Or you could give Extra Attack (Multistrike, one skill only, Committed/All-Out Only), which will give more freedom of targets, but be quite a bit more expensive. Of course, the typical way for Weapon Masters to get more attacks is just to boost weapon skill; 12 cp gives +3 skill levels, equivalent to an extra Rapid Strike plus the other benefits of high skill, and cheaper than Extra Attack too. Hmm... I suppose you could do something fancy and put a limit on the skill itself. Rapid Strike Only and Committed/All-Out Only together are probably around -50%, for 2 points per +1 skill, or 6 points for an extra Rapid Strike. So I guess it's not terribly different from your technique (though I didn't know about the Unusual Training perk you were charging at first).
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Old 06-29-2012, 02:13 PM   #8
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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Originally Posted by vierasmarius View Post
Well, you could make it a Combo (or set of combos), restricting the attacks to pre-defined hit locations. Or you could give Extra Attack (Multistrike, one skill only, Committed/All-Out Only), which will give more freedom of targets, but be quite a bit more expensive. Of course, the typical way for Weapon Masters to get more attacks is just to boost weapon skill; 12 cp gives +3 skill levels, equivalent to an extra Rapid Strike plus the other benefits of high skill, and cheaper than Extra Attack too. Hmm... I suppose you could do something fancy and put a limit on the skill itself. Rapid Strike Only and Committed/All-Out Only together are probably around -50%, for 2 points per +1 skill, or 6 points for an extra Rapid Strike. So I guess it's not terribly different from your technique (though I didn't know about the Unusual Training perk you were charging at first).
I should have stipulated that any new Technique (i.e. one that I made up, as opposed to pulled out of Martial Arts) will require a Unique Technique perk as part of the power-up.
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Old 06-30-2012, 05:44 AM   #9
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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Originally Posted by CousinX View Post
As a Power-Up, it costs 5 points (1 point for Unique Technique, plus 4 points to buy a Hard technique up to Default+3), and it's only usable on an All-Out or Committed Attack, which come with their own built-in drawbacks ... [snip]
It's worth noting that Martial Arts does not consider a Committed / All-Out Attack requirement to be a real reward-worthy drawback on a technique, just something that needs to be noted, if you go by the technique design rules. Committed and All-Out Attacks come with their own benefits that (supposedly, in some situations) balance the penalties.

Also, according to MA p 95, "The GM should be more lenient about which combat penalties a cinematic technique can remove, too. The only hard-and-fast rule is that no technique should make it possible to buy off the penalties for Rapid Strike or multiple parries (reducing those penalties is the territory of Trained by a Master and Weapon Master, which are far more expensive than any technique) [snip]," so by RAW that's a total no-go.

I'd go with an Extra Attack with the All-Out limitation, or a signature combo for the style instead.
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Old 06-30-2012, 11:58 AM   #10
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Default Re: DF: Forgotten Realms Martial-Arts Styles

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"[...] The only hard-and-fast rule is that no technique should make it possible to buy off the penalties for Rapid Strike [...]" so by RAW that's a total no-go.
Oops, yeah, there it is. Hmm. Extra Attack would need Multi-Strike, cancelling out the discount from One Skill Only and leaving it at 25 points ... and really, that's just giving the character another sword attack, not a "special move."

As a combo, it'd be something like "Saber thrust/torso + Saber thrust/torso," costing 6 points for a Weapon Master to buy off the -3 for the Rapid Strike. So, for an equal cost to Dual-Weapon Attack + Off-Hand Training, it has a lot less utility.

The technique it's trying model is where the fencer makes an attack, fails (i.e. misses or is parried), and then makes an immediate follow-up attack along the same line to exploit his momentum... so the combo has the opposite effect, making it harder to hit if you fail the first attack.

I think RAW Martial Arts isn't going to cut it here, though I think my original effort was a bit too lenient for a mere 5 points. Looking at Cleaving Strike [5/skill] from DF11 -- a special Rapid Strike with a few stipulations (must be an All-Out Attack, must use a swinging attack, must target different foes who are all in front of you, etc) -- I think this can be tuned in by cribbing a bit. The Unique Technique perk requirement, plus the fact that it's a cinematic technique, theoretically gives a little wiggle room as well.

So how about ... let's say for starters it still has to be an All-Out or Committed Attack; specify that it only adds a single attack, which must be identical to the original attack (a swing to the torso if you swung at the torso, a thrust to the vitals if you stabbed at the vitals, etc) -- and specifically, you can't use the additional attack on a different foe, only on the target of the first attack; and finally, you can only make the second attack if the first one failed (but not, of course, if it critically failed).

Thoughts?
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