V RESULTADOS Y DISCUSION
V.2 RESULTADOS EXPERIMENTALES
V.2.1 RESULTADOS EXPERIMENTALES REPORTADOS
The creation and development of martial arts characters often follows a definite series of steps or stages. You can think of this process as the “career path” of the martial artist character.
The first step on this path is one all players have to take: the creation of the character and the selection of an interesting martial arts style for the character to use. Often the selection of the style dictates other things about the character, such as his appearance, philosophy of life, and goals.
Unfortunately, this is as far as many character designers get — even though there are several more stages of development.
The second step along the path can happen when the character is first created, or it may take place sometime later, such as when the player rewrites or redefines the character after playing him a while. This is the establishment of a Hunted which involves the character’s martial art in some significant way. For example, the Hunted might be opposed to the character’s order or school, a practitioner of a corrupted or evil version of the PC’s style, or dedicated to some principle the PC opposes because of his style.
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At this point, the character starts to develop strong ties to his martial art. It’s no longer a just a means to an end (beating up bad guys). Instead, it becomes a Way of Life, something defining who he is outside of the combat arena.
The third step along the path takes place when the player (sometimes with the GM’s help) develops a very detailed view of the principles and aims of his martial art. He now begins to expand its base of maneuvers, manifest special powers associated with it, and so forth. The GM now becomes more involved with the character’s devel-opment as he thinks about the character’s role in the Martial World and begins to introduce more plotlines centered around the character, his style, his fellow practitioners, and his enemies.
Furthermore, the PC is now proficient enough to begin teaching students in earnest — NPCs seek him out for instruction, perhaps at the behest of the PC’s own sifu or sensei, perhaps on their own initiative (depending upon the character’s fame and reputation). These students may include former enemies whom the PC defeated, who now recognize his wisdom and seek to learn from him.
At step four, the character gradually develops into the main defender of his martial art — the champion his master sends for when the style or order is threatened, the main enemy of his master’s enemies, the renowned leader of the art recognized anywhere in the Martial World, and so forth. He may even be the last living practi-tioner of his art. This aspect of the character may eventually crystallize into a major, large-scale plotline where something threatens his style’s very existence, and only he can save it by relying on its virtues and strengths.
The fifth and final step along the martial artist’s career path is when the PC becomes the master of his art. Obviously, this won’t happen to all characters or in all campaigns. It may happen when the PC’s master dies, disappears, becomes One With The Universe, or otherwise becomes unavailable. Depending upon the feelings of the player and/or the GM, reaching the fifth step may signal that it’s time to retire the character and have him devote himself to preserving and promoting his art full-time.
The career path of the martial artist usually isn’t nearly as pronounced in other genres as it is in the comic book Superhero and Martial Arts genres. Other genres generally lack the opportuni-ties to focus on the martial artist and his world in the way Superhero and pure Martial Arts campaigns can. However, this is not to say the career path is totally absent — it simply detours a little, based on the strictures of the genre in question. For example, in a Fantasy game the GM might have created a race or tribe with its own martial art. As a result of long-standing oaths and customs, the best and brightest practitioners of this art go to the king of a nearby powerful nation to serve as his guards and protectors. In this situation, the martial artist PC’s career path might consist of going out into the world to gain enough experience with his tribe’s fighting style so he can return to the tribe, prove his worth, and become a member of the King’s Guard. Whether this requires him to be removed from play would depend on the GM and the player.
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SKIllS
T
his section reviews some special applica-tions of Skills for martial arts characters.Many additional Skills, such as Defense Maneuver and Penalty Skill Levels, aren’t mentioned here because they function normally for martial artists, but that doesn’t make them any less appropriate for this type of character or campaign.
For expanded rules for all Skills and related subjects, see The Ultimate Skill.
EVERymaN SKIllS
The Everyman Skill list for a Ninja Hero campaign (see Chapter Seven) usually depends on the game’s setting and time period. A game taking place in medieval China would use a Fantasy list, whereas one set in the modern day would use the Dark Champions list. (See The Ultimate Skill for these lists.) In some Martial Arts campaigns, where it seems that literally everyone has fighting skills, the Everyman Skill list might even include a few points’ worth of Martial Maneuvers (if so, this constitutes an exception to the normal rule that a character has to buy a minimum of 10 points’
worth of Martial Arts).
aCROBatICS
Acrobatics is a very appropriate skill for martial artist characters. It has several uses.
First, martial artists often use Acrobatics as the Required Skill Roll for various abilities (particu-larly some extra meters of Leaping or a few extra points of DCV).
bEing throWn
Second, as noted on 6E2 83, a character can use Acrobatics to resist being thrown by any Combat Maneuver that’s supposed to throw him to the ground. With a successful Acrobatics roll at a -3 penalty, the character keeps his feet and is not thrown down. This means he doesn’t suffer the DCV or “initiative” penalties for being thrown.
However, this doesn’t keep him from taking damage from the Throw maneuver. Some Throws are fist-strikes hard enough to take a character off his feet; others are leg-sweeps where some of the damage comes from the attacker’s blow to the backs of the character’s legs; the standard Grab and Throw slams a character hard onto the ground, even if he makes his Acrobatics roll and keeps his feet. Therefore, even if the character
succeeds with his Acrobatics roll at -3 and keeps his feet, the character takes full damage from the Throw maneuver.
Characters can also use Breakfall to avoid some effects of Throws (see 6E2 83 and APG 171).
However, a character cannot perform a Breakfall roll and an Acrobatics roll in the same Phase both to resist being thrown and to reduce the damage from being thrown — he can only use one of them against a given throw attack. However, the char-acter could make one Acrobatics or Breakfall roll to avoid some of the effects of the Throw, and then make a separate Breakfall roll to regain his feet instantly (without taking a Half Phase). The char-acter could make an additional Breakfall roll by half in the same Phase to overcome the effect that the attacker (the person who threw the character) automatically gets to act first (regardless of relative DEX) if he and the attacker have their next Phases in the same Segment.
bEing pronE
Third, a character who’s thrown or knocked down, one who isn’t able to keep his feet, can use Acrobatics another way. If he makes a half roll (e.g., if his roll is a 13, he must roll a 7 or under), he immediately gets his full DCV, even though he’s prone. If he fails his half roll, he suffers ordinary DCV modifier for being prone. But on his next Phase, he can try again.
The character doesn’t have to get to his feet to have his full DCV when using Acrobatics this way. He may prefer to remain prone. For example, perhaps he’s been injured so that one leg isn’t working right, thus keeping him from standing up
— he’ll have to stay down and use his Acrobatics to keep his DCV up. (Of course, he may suffer a penalty for trying to use Acrobatics with an injured leg; this depends on the GM.) running up WAlls
Fourth, characters can use Acrobatics to execute the common martial arts movie stunt of running a short distance up a wall and then back-flipping off to land behind a pursuing foe. To do this a character has to make a Half Move up to a wall (i.e., he has to Run at least 2m up to the wall) and make an Acrobatics roll. If the roll succeeds, he “runs” up the wall no more than 4m and then makes the flip, landing up to 4m away from the wall (his choice of where to land) and facing it.
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If the roll fails, he runs into the wall (but doesn’t hurt himself), fails to land properly after the flip, slips and falls while “running” up the wall, or the like. If it fails badly (by 4 or more), he could hurt himself (causing a DEX and OCV reduction for a few days due to a sprain, or suffering some dice of Normal Damage).
Alternately, a character doesn’t need to backflip off the wall at all — he can simply use Acrobatics to “run” up to 4m up a wall. (At the GM’s option, you can increase this by +1m for every 1 point by which the Acrobatics roll succeeds.) This allows him to get to low rooftops, high windows, overhangs, and the like. (The GM may require the character to make a DEX Roll to grab hold of these objects or “hit” his “target.”) However, if the character hasn’t reached a safe surface or some-thing he can grab hold of by the end of the “run,”
he falls to the ground.
aCtING
A character can use Acting to simulate a greater injury than he’s actually received. This may make his opponent overconfident and allow the character to make a Surprise Move attack. This requires a Skill Versus Skill Contest pitting the character’s Acting against the target’s PER Roll.
The GM decides, based on how clever he feels the ploy is and how likely the target is to believe it (the Overconfidence Psychological Complication usually comes into play here), what modifiers (if any) apply to the character’s Acting roll. If the ploy isn’t really clever, the target knows the character fakes injuries frequently, or the target makes his PER Roll by more than the character makes his Acting roll, the character gets no OCV bonus. (In fact, the GM may give the target an OCV bonus, since the Acting character probably has to reduce his mobility [and hence his DCV] to make a fake injury look convincing.)
If the character wins the Contest, the GM has to decide how much of a Surprise Move bonus to award him. This depends on how much he won the Contest by (usually a +1 bonus for every two full points by which he wins, with a minimum of +1 and a maximum of +3), how clever the GM judges the ploy to be, and so forth.
Characters can also use Acting to imitate some other character’s personal fighting style.
This ability doesn’t necessarily have much use in combat, but may crop up in other situations. For example, suppose a villain with Acting wants to frame a PC for a crime. He could disguise himself as the PC, then perform some heinous crime before witnesses who swear it was the hero — they didn’t just recognize his face, they recognized his moves. This requires a Skill Versus Skill Contest pitting the villain’s Acting Skill against the PER Rolls of onlookers familiar with the real person.
To do this, the actor must know at least two Martial Maneuvers in the same style as the person he’s mimicking. If the actor is a karateka and he’s trying to imitate a jujutsuka, and doesn’t have any Jujutsu maneuvers, he’s out of luck. A Knowledge Skill of the imitated character’s style can act as a Complementary Skill Roll.
aNalyZE
For martial artists, this Skill is most often bought as Analyze Style — the ability to assess an enemy’s fighting skills (i.e., his Martial Arts and related abilities). He may only use it after watching the enemy fight — he must observe his target fighting for at least one full Turn before he can make a Skill Roll. The information the character gains from an Analyze Style roll depends on how well he succeeds, as indicated in the accompa-nying table. A character with Analyze Style gets a +2 to his Skill Roll if his target possesses a Style Distinctive Feature.
Analyze Style also allows a martial artist to take advantage of an opponent’s consistency. Some characters tend to favor one or two attack maneu-vers, usually because they offer high damage capa-bilities or some advantageous combination of CV bonuses. In this situation, a character can make an Analyze Style roll to prepare himself for this favored attack. If he succeeds with the roll, he gets +2 DCV against that maneuver in this particular fight. (With the GM’s permission, characters can also use KS: [Specific Martial Art] this way.)
aNalyZE StylE
Makes Roll By Information Gained
0 (exactly) The character knows whether the target is a poor, medium, good, or master-level fighter.
1 or 2 The character knows how the target compares to the character in terms of fighting prowess (“I’m far superior to him,” “It would be a close thing but I think I’d win,” “It’s anybody’s guess who would win,” “He has the edge over me,” or “I don’t stand a chance.”)
3 or 4 The character knows certain Physical Limitations and Vulnerabili-ties possessed by the target (the GM decides which Limitations the Skill can detect; Lame would be, while 2x BODY from Poisons would not be, for example).
Half or better The character knows the location of the target’s open Gate (if target has the Iron Shirt ability on pages 154-55)