Sumo in Martial Arts Styles

[Kromm]

That kind of pushing isn't really handled well by Sumo, though. What you want there is covered by Teamwork, specifically:

Brace a teammate in front of him and within a yard, adding 1/5 (round down) of his ST or HP, as applicable, to his ally's score when his friend resists a slam (p. B371), executes a shove (p. B372), or suffers knockback (p. B378). This is a free action.

Note that with up to three people behind you, and the Shoves with Weapons rule on p. 112 of Martial Arts, you can get some pretty scary shield presses going. If Alexander, Bedros, and Cleon, all with ST 12, brace Drusus, also ST 12, then Drusus has effective ST 18. Behind a DB 2 Argive shield, he's doing a 1d+3 shove. That's 8-18 for knockback, averaging 13 . . . enough to knock a ST 15 man back and perhaps down. If Drusus' opposite isn't braced, he falls and is overrun.

These rules aren't really meant for mass combat per se, of course, but for individual combat. However, they get the point across.

[Aneirin]

Sorry for resurrecting the threat but I do want to see more players use sumo as well. I was having a polish game to practice my rules knowledge and my little brother took a character and I suggested he take an unarmed skill, as he was making a character with a long reach weapon and not much armour I suggested he take sumo to push people out of the way.

It worked out alright. A lot of the enemies were raiders with knives or short swords and when they got close, he mainly used sumo to grab (he had enough skill that the lack of a strength bonus from wrestling was only a slight disadvantage) And he also didn't use damage for grabs, but mainly dragging people around and I decided to give him a strength bonus from sumo for that.

Ofcourse when he did lose his weapon and tried to out sumo a knife wielder he had difficulty! Mainly due to lucky DX rolls which meant he didn't fall over when he got shoved.

What I would like to make sumo better, is for it to give it's strength bonus, and give a penalty to DX rolls to stay up (i.e. Sumo at +1 gives a minus 1 to DX to resist falling down from a shove or slam, sumo at +2 gives a minus 2 to avoid falling over)

Kromm's suggestions in other ancient threads regarding letting sumo wrestlers take more HP also helps them to double damage in slams to get definate knockdowns, and weapon adaptation perks to use sumo skill with a reach 2 or 3 weapon across the chest to get even more damage is helpful (as well as using it to get a bonus to shoves, going from +2 to +3 with a reach 2 or +4 with a reach 3 or large shield according to martial arts (page 112, shove with a weapon does thrust-1 + reach or DB of shield) , with a strength 10 character that leads to 4-10 damage (doubled to 8-20 for shoving) averaging 13, and potentially enough to cause strength 10 characters to go back two yards (giving a very hefty DX penalty to stay up with the above house rules...which I think is realistic, a normal dude being pushed over by a trained sumo wrestler is not likely to be standing up!)

Or possibly a perk that lets sumo wrestlers base shove damage off of maximum HP to represent them knowing how to use their weight meaning they are more liekly to shove people back more than a yard.

[DouglasCole]

I hate to say it, but Technical Grappling recommends Sumo Wrestling as a great pairing with weapon fighting, especially with weapons that like Reach 1+. The shoving and basic grappling combo is a great match for many weapons.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I hate to say it, but Technical Grappling recommends Sumo Wrestling as a great pairing with weapon fighting, especially with weapons that like Reach 1+. The shoving and basic grappling combo is a great match for many weapons.

You still have a long way to go to compete in the "in the know author/playtester teasing" olympics. But good try, good try. ;)

[Gigermann]

American Football. 'Nuff said. ;)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

American Football. 'Nuff said. ;)

Contact: Defense attorney on retainer?

[jacobmuller]

I did a power armour martial art style but, as correctly noted by the forum, it was pretty daft although a nice idea.
I switched it around and made Sumo the key skill. It works better now:)
NUKE [4]
The title is a contrived play on words, Nahe – Ubung – Kunst - Erdrucken: close – exercise – art – crushing, suggesting an escalation in power from TNT, the law-enforcement style. NUKE is also included in the Olympic Games as a sport but it is a serious combat style for battlesuits.
All Guards personnel begin training in Nuke during Basic Training; drills that involve multiple armed attackers and “mob engagements” evoke the revered ancient art of McMap. Unarmed techniques taught are few and chosen for relative ease of use in battlesuits. The armed skills borrow heavily from historic fencing styles but have lost all finesse. The style is finished off with simple lessons in disarming and weapon retention. Advanced training progresses into grappling and ground-fighting tactics. Free Fall opens Nuke to use in microgravity, common aboard spaceships in combat.
• Skills: Sumo Wrestling; Battlesuit; Shortsword.
• Techniques: Disarming (Shortsword); Judo Throw (Sumo); Close Combat (Shortsword); Breakfall (Sumo); Ground Fighting (Sumo or Shortsword); Retain Weapon (Shortsword); TA (Shortsword Swing/Arm); TA (Shortsword Swing/Neck); Trip (Sumo).
• Perks: Suit Familiarity (Battlesuit); Sure-Footed (Uneven).
Optional Traits
• Advantages: Combat Reflexes; Fit or Very Fit; 3D Spatial Sense; Perfect Balance.
• Disadvantages: Bloodlust; Overconfidence.
• Skills: Free Fall; Fast-Draw (Shortsword); Tonfa; Acrobatics; Jumping; Shield; Sport (Shortsword Fighting).
• Techniques: Take Down (Sumo); Low-line Defence (Sumo); Sweep (Sumo or Shortsword); Back Strike (Shortsword); Counterattack (Shortsword); Feint (Shortsword); Reverse Grip (Shortsword).
• Perks: Quick-Sheathe (Shortsword).

[Ji ji]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

In the Martial Arts book, there is really only one style with the Sumo skill-- Sumo Wrestling. That makes sense, of course, as few real-world martial arts would include such techniques. Among characters, I'm sure that the Sumo skill is the least used of the six unarmed martial arts skills. (In my experience, the skills are used in the following order, from most popular to least popular: Brawling, Karate, Judo, Wrestling, Boxing, and Sumo.)

In my games, the order is brawling, wrestling, sumo wrestling, karate, and I don't remeber to have ever seen judo and boxing. Yet we use harsh realism for unarmed fighting, which nerf karate and judo.

[Aneirin]

Damn you technical grappling! Why dies every topic I make have the answer as twchnucal grappling :-)