Martial Arts

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary" <geeman@SOFTHOME.NET>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 2:30 AM
Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] A request for help with my campaign. [9#700]


> I`ve been fiddling around with a BR-Oriental Adventures setting as
> part of a whole revamp of the way 3e handles martial arts, which
> interacts with many other changes to the skill system.

Do tell. I was reading a manual of arms from the 15th century, and
intermixed with all the swordplay were techniques for throwing opponants,
choke holds, kicking, and every kind of grappling.

Since I already plan to include a monk-based class (the brawler) in my
Rjurik campaign, I`d be interested in how your new martial arts system
works.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.

[geeman]

At 05:41 AM 6/7/2002 -0500, Kenneth Gauck wrote:

>>I`ve been fiddling around with a BR-Oriental Adventures setting as part
>>of a whole revamp of the way 3e handles martial arts, which interacts
>>with many other changes to the skill system.
>
>Do tell. I was reading a manual of arms from the 15th century, and
>intermixed with all the swordplay were techniques for throwing opponants,
>choke holds, kicking, and every kind of grappling.
>
>Since I already plan to include a monk-based class (the brawler) in my
>Rjurik campaign, I`d be interested in how your new martial arts system works.

Well, OK. I`m a bit hesitant to describe too much because whenever I
mention changes to the skill system (on any list, not just this one) people
act like I busted into their homes and scratched up all their Diana Ross
albums or something... but what the heck?

The whole thing is, unfortunately, far too long to put up on a mailing
list. The changes to the skill system include new skill descriptions for
all the skills and include ones that are meant to be used in any D20
system, so there are skills like Astrogation, Pilot and Computer Use. It
also uses BR specific changes like the Command, Intrigue, Leadership and
Research skills we`ve discussed on this list, but unlike the 2e BR
proficiencies, those skills are meant to be useful at the adventure level
of play, not just the realm level. There are several other changes; a
system of subskills and specialties, certain rank benefits for some skills,
as well as several changes to the way specific skills work, which meant
rewrites of all the 3e skills, I`m afraid. The overall system isn`t really
as complicated as all that, but it does make for a rather long document.

The martial arts section is very much like the 1e OA martial arts with
several important changes. For those who`ve never seen it, the 1e OA
martial arts system broke different martial arts styles up into "form" and
"method" which had a few numbers associated with them that one added up to
determine things like the AC Modifier and damage dice the martial artist
did in unarmed combat. For example, a martial art might have a "soft" form
and be based on a "push" method. Since the Soft form had an AC Mod. of 3
and the Push method had an AC Mod of 2, you would add up those two
modifiers and subtract them from 10 to get the AC of a martial artist who
learned that style by spending a proficiency slot. Damage dice, and # of
attacks were determined pretty much the same way.

1e OA martial arts "special maneuvers" were attached to the particular
martial art and chosen when the style was created by the DM. One learned
them by spending proficiency slots, and they tended to range pretty
dramatically in power. The "Feint" special ability, for instance, allowed
one to make a "to hit" roll against your opponent, and if that was
successful you got a +2 to hit on your next attack. (That special maneuver
always baffled me. You have to hit in order to get a bonus on your next
_attempt_ to hit....) The Iron Fist special maneuver, however, increased
your damage die to 1d10. The Eagle Claw maneuver allowed you to perform a
single attack per round, but at 3d10 damage.

The system of martial arts I`m using works much the same, but the modifiers
for AC bonus, # of attacks, damage dice and special abilities are tied to
skill ranks rather than being a set bonus. The modifiers are a bit
different from the 1e version, but in the above example (the Soft/Push
style) if one had a total AC Mod of 5 then for every 5 ranks of that
martial arts skill one would get a +1 bonus to AC. If the same style had a
total damage modifier of 4 then every 4 ranks in that style one would
increase one`s damage die/dice on a table included in the system that goes
d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, etc. up to 10d10 if someone managed to spend 80 or so
ranks on their martial arts skill somehow. (Actually, size does make a
difference in determining martial arts damage, so a storm giant that knew
Kung Fu would be pretty frightening.)

The 3e "monk" character class is replaced by a class very much like the
fighter, except s/he is the only class for whom martial arts is a class
skill, and instead of bonus feats the monk gets a +2 bonus to his/her
martial arts skill every other level. It`s also one of the few character
classes that gets Unarmed Combat as a special ability. There are no other
class abilities for the monk since the class now gets it`s special
abilities through its martial arts skill. At present, I`ve got a list of
about 75 martial arts special abilities, which are tied to the form and
method of the martial art, and most of them have prerequisites. Many of
them are the 3e Monk character class`s special abilities, or are similar to
feats (Blind Fighting, for instance, is a potential martial arts special
ability) but are tweaked a bit here and there to interact with skill
ranks. If one wanted, one could pretty much come up with a standard 3e
Monk using this system, but one could also come up with a much wider range
of martial artists and something in the neighborhood of 250 different types
of martial arts.

That`s the basic gist of it. There are ten or twelve martial arts written
up that range from Sumo to Tai Chi, though I generally give "fantasy" names
to them somehow to avoid any of the issues regarding translating real world
situations into D&D. (The martial arts have been rife with such
controversies as long as I can remember because it seems like every third
player has studied Shotokan for six months and is, therefore, an
expert.) I like background material, so I want write ups of all the
martial arts the players want to learn, and write them up for the ones they
are likely to come across used by NPCs. Here`s one of the ones that I`m
using for my BR-OA campaign:

Silk Kimono (Hard/Soft, Movement)
AC Modifier: 3
# Attack Modifier: 7
Damage Progression: 6
Special Ability: 5
Description: Practitioners learn to use the long silk folds of their
clothing to defend themselves. Weapons or limbs can be entangled by the
loops of clothe and the motion of a flowing gown can be used to confuse and
defeat an opponent. The generally superior reflexes, speed and flexibility
of women are also emphasized.
Philosophy: Practitioners seek to emulate the qualities of the silk
kimono; soft yet strong, flowing but resilient. It is also a secret
martial art, kept exclusively among the noblewomen to defend themselves,
their families and to further their own ends at court.
Appearance: Graceful, dance-like.
Background: Silk Kimono was developed secretly by Orisunni noblewomen
whose long, flowing clothing (and traditionally unarmed condition) inspired it.
Availability: Rare among noble women and practically unheard of among
any other group. Knowledge of the art is often kept within families and
clans, taught only from mother to daughter or aunt to niece. Men are
excluded for reasons of secrecy and also because their clothing is not as
suited to the special abilities of the style.
Weapons: None as such. The Silk Kimono practitioner, however, learns to
use the folds and sashes of her clothing to garrote an opponent and to
entangle his limbs or weapons. Clothe can also be wound tightly to be used
as an effective bludgeoning weapon.
Country: Japan.

Hope that`s of some use.
Gary

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.

[Birthright-L]

On Fri, 7 Jun 2002, Gary wrote:
> That`s the basic gist of it. There are ten or twelve martial arts written
> up that range from Sumo to Tai Chi, though I generally give "fantasy" names
> to them somehow to avoid any of the issues regarding translating real world
> situations into D&D. (The martial arts have been rife with such
> controversies as long as I can remember because it seems like every third
> player has studied Shotokan for six months and is, therefore, an
> expert.)

And everyone who has done a little bit of study /knows/ that their style
is the best; after all, didn`t their teacher tell them so? :)

> Silk Kimono (Hard/Soft, Movement)
> Description: Practitioners learn to use the long silk folds of their
> clothing to defend themselves. Weapons or limbs can be entangled by the
> loops of clothe and the motion of a flowing gown can be used to confuse and
> defeat an opponent. The generally superior reflexes, speed and flexibility
> of women are also emphasized.
> Country: Japan.

That`s interesting. The Country field has me wondering, now, is that a
real historical style? Are you going to be adding fantasy elements to
these styles you`re making? For instance, someone skilled in this style
might be able to form a long piece of silk into a piercing spear-type
weapon for a round or two.
--
Communication is possible only between equals.
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley@cis.ohio-state.edu

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.

[geeman]

Daniel McSorley wrote:

> > Country: Japan.
>
>That`s interesting. The Country field has me wondering, now, is that a
>real historical style?

Ah, no, it`s not based on any "real world" martial art, per se. (Though
several martial arts movies might get a nod.) The "country" section is
just for flavor. There`s no real gaming mechanic or issues involved in
that section, though I`ve considered limiting martial arts styles to
background feats. One of the things I didn`t describe among the changes to
the skill system was that there`s a set of feats that not only give a bonus
to skill checks (like Skill Focus) but also make the skill in question a
class skill from then on. Given that the version of the monk I use is the
only one with access to the martial arts as a class skill that can wind up
being pretty important. I`ve considered adding one or two special
background feats for humans that would give them access to particular
martial arts, but that`s stuff that is based more on the setting than the
martial arts system itself, so it`ll have to wait for another caffeine
laced session of REM deprivation to be described.

>Are you going to be adding fantasy elements to these styles you`re making?
>For instance, someone skilled in this style might be able to form a long
>piece of silk into a piercing spear-type weapon for a round or two. --

Yes, that`s the function of the martial arts special abilities. For taking
a certain number of ranks in a martial art (depending on the numbers
established by form and method) one gets special abilities. The Silk
Kimono style, for instance, has a special ability increment of 5, so for
every 5 ranks someone spends on that style they get a special
ability. Special abilities start out being weaker than feats (or are equal
to some of the weaker, lesser used feats) but some with higher
prerequisites wind up being pretty powerful. Advanced martial artists get
"mystical abilities" to levitate, pass through solid objects, etc. The
Silk Kimono style, for instance, can have access to special abilities like
Clothing Proficiency, which gives either a +1 to AC or allows the martial
artist to use her clothing as a garrote, Steel Clothe--which increases her
damage dice in "unarmed" combat, or several others.

In fact, the special abilities section was really kind of the point. I`ve
never been happy with the way all monks in D&D are carbon copies of one
another. 3e gives a bit more variety to this with access to feats, and
there has always been variation in ability scores, hit points, and
multiclassing options, but essentially monks were very much alike. There
are a number of ways to fix this kind of thing, certainly, but I got a big
kick out of the 1e OA martial arts system when it first came out, so I went
with something that would work kind of like that rather than create four or
six different types of monk character classes.

I`ve got a lot of special abilities written up, but I need to work on that
section. Special abilities are all tied to form and style. Iron Fist, for
instance, increases the damage die/dice that the martial artist does in
unarmed combat, and is only allowed to martial artists who know a style
based on the Hard form, the Attack or Strike methods. I need to go through
the list of special abilities and put them up on a spreadsheet so I can be
sure there are enough special abilities for every form and style. Several
of the special ability descriptions don`t have prereqs listed yet, and
there are still at least eight or ten abilities more I want to add just off
the top of my head, so the system needs work. My group has, however,
playtested it a bit in the past two sessions, and it seems to be working
better than I had hoped.

Gary

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.

[kgauck]

I don`t want to depart that much from the standard system just so a few
Rjurik warriors aren`t quite so helpless without a weapon.

What I`m thinking of goes a little like this.
Everyone can attack normally as per the standard rules.
Characters can take Improved Unarmed Strike, though Brawlers will get it as
a class feature like monks do.
A feat of this kind would grant three kinds of attacks. They`ll generally
be similar.
Some feats will inflict more damage (boxing), some will restrict the
movement of your opponant (wrestling). Stuff like that.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.

[geeman]

Kenneth Gauck wrote:

>I don`t want to depart that much from the standard system just so a few
>Rjurik warriors aren`t quite so helpless without a weapon.
>
>What I`m thinking of goes a little like this. Everyone can attack normally
>as per the standard rules. Characters can take Improved Unarmed Strike,
>though Brawlers will get it as a class feature like monks do. A feat of
>this kind would grant three kinds of attacks. They`ll generally be
>similar. Some feats will inflict more damage (boxing), some will restrict
>the movement of your opponant (wrestling). Stuff like that.

Yeah, if you`re not focusing on martial arts as a major aspect of the
campaign then a system like I described isn`t really necessary.

In addition to the above abilities of the Vos Brawler character class, I`d
suggest some sort of progressive AC bonus like that of the monk, and maybe
even a system of feats or class abilities that had different effects on
their unarmed damage or their ability to take damage. A set of increased
unarmed damage dice, and maybe even things like damage reduction or
increased an increased critical threat range. They could get flurry of
blows and/or the superior number of attacks of monks. Things along those
lines.

Gary

************************************************** **************************
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
with UNSUB BIRTHRIGHT-L in the body of the message.