Fantasy Hero Martial Arts Campaigns

[Steve]

I was wondering if anyone has ever been involved in a fantasy campaign which had a martial arts theme. I've been trying to find references on the web but haven't had much luck so far. Anyone have any suggestions or advice on setting up and running such a campaign?

[Susano]

I was wondering if anyone has ever been involved in a fantasy campaign which had a martial arts theme. I've been trying to find references on the web but haven't had much luck so far. Anyone have any suggestions or advice on setting up and running such a campaign?

Pick up NINJA HERO. In it, I state that just about any Hong Kong period martial arts movie is a fantasy film. Thus, it is perfect source material for a fantasy martial arts campaign.

[Lord Liaden]

I agree that Ninja HERO is an excellent source for this type of campaign. Until you can pick it up, though, I think you'll find a lot of help here:
http://www.geocities.com/rpatersonca...HeroIndex.html

[Steve]

I own Ninja Hero and love it, but I was looking for more details from other campaigns that have been done, to help me in fleshing out my own. For example, what if martial artists were the only ones able to do magic? Or sample schools and NPCs. That sort of thing.

[UltraRob]

I own Ninja Hero and love it, but I was looking for more details from other campaigns that have been done, to help me in fleshing out my own. For example, what if martial artists were the only ones able to do magic? Or sample schools and NPCs. That sort of thing.

I thought of this before, the idea that Martial Arts training and Mage Training are actually very similar, and martial arts training could be a natural part of mage training as a way of achieving physical and mental focus of the kind required to wield magic. Which, in most Chinese sources is the case, a powerful wizard is also a powerful martial artist.
Of course, this also makes magic using types double dangerous and possibly overpowered unless you balance them off carefully. You end up with characters that really are superheros, and who a pack of brigands won't be much of a threat to. (Unless the Brigand's boss is also a martial-mage.)
This is why I have the section on Ki powers in the page Lord Liaden kindly posted, to explain the difference between magic and Ki in an effort to keep martial artist types more balanced. Ki powers tend to be instant and more focus-based, whereas magic can take a lot of forms.
As for schools...We really should have a martial arts school making session on here and let everyone whip together and contribute a few schools. I know a few people already have, but it might be nice to put a bunch together for us all to use. I'll see what I can do to start it when I get time a little later today...

Rob

[Enforcer84]

And the Ultimate Martial Artist lists the powers that might apply to the various martial arts due to their legends. Kung Fu had the most, but Aikido includes Teleportation!
You could use these as a basis for your School Magics...

[UltraRob]

Here's 3 to start...

Martial Arts Styles/Schools

Note: Unless otherwise noted, these are all substyles of Gong Fu (Kung Fu) and as such are intended for a Chinese-based setting or one which includes a broad-based martial art style similar to Gong Fu.

As substyles, they are all structured based on the following concepts:
• Each style as 4-6 core moves, 2-4 master moves, and 1-3 advanced moves.
• In order to learn the intermediate moves, a character must first master the core moves, then master the intermediate moves in order to gain access to the advanced moves.


Styles:

4 Sisters Style (Slaver Style)
Developed by the 4 Sisters slave trading group of the Twin Lions Valley, this style was developed for controlling and handling slaves. Its primary focus is to disable the target and bind them while avoiding the target’s wild thrashing attacks. The Twin Lions Valley is an Amazonian society where woman are dominant and men are second class citizens, the 4 Sisters are the most ruthless of the valley’s slave trading groups who often hunt outside of the valley for better slaves from the local regions’ villages.

Core Moves:
Block (Defensive Block)
Dodge (Martial Dodge)
Throw (Defensive Throw)
Disarm (Takeaway)
Pin (Martial Grab)

Master Moves:
Incapacitate (Choke Hold)
Disarming Throw (Disarming Throw)
Bind (Grappling Block)

Advanced Moves:
Pressure Point Strike (Nerve Strike)
Weapon Bind (Weapon Bind)


Ring Dancer Style
Ring Dancer Style was developed by a family of traveling entertainers who specialized in using metal loops for their tricks. It was eventually refined into a combat form in order to deal with bandits who would ambush the family from time to time, and taught to other similar entertainers in the villages where the families would winter together. The style is mostly based around using the rings to block and bind attacks while the practitioner uses his or her legs to attack. This defensive style is intended to be used with thin metal loops which are normally simple metal rings about 50cm in diameter, however there are some who will sharpen portions of certain rings to use in certain kinds of lethal or dismembering attacks. At the advanced level, the practitioner is skilled at using the rings to make targets trip, or knock weapons out of their hands.

Core Moves:
WF: Metal Rings
Block (Defensive Block)
Disarm (Martial Disarm)
Weapon Lock (Weapon Bind)
Weapon Takeaway (Takeaway)
Snap Kick (Martial Strike)
Sweep Kick (Legsweep)

Master Moves:
Ring Twist (Joint Break)
Arm Pin (Grappling Block)
Ring Hook (Grappling Throw)

Advanced Moves:
Leg Loop (Trip, Ranged)
Wrist Blow (Ranged Disarm)
Stunning Loop (Defensive Shot, Ranged)


Final Style (Ultimate Style or Empty Hand Style)
Final Style is the result of two of the land’s greatest martial artists marrying, then retreating to a secluded place where the two obsessively spent their lives practicing and refining their martial techniques to create a “perfect” style. Their creation was a fluid technique which involved making the user a master of balanced Qi who could simply do and react without thought. It can only be taught to certain people, and they must be taught almost from the time they can walk, so this “style” is extremely rare. Also, because it is so sought after, a master of Final Style will rarely reveal their true style to others because if they were to do so, they would quickly find themselves hunted by those who wish to learn from them or see final style in action. (Challenge them to endless duels.) Masters of Final Style will generally mimic other conventional moves, but a highly skilled observer (makes Analyze Style roll by better than half) will notice that there is something downright odd about the way they fight.

Core Moves:
4 5pt HTH Combat Levels
4 Damage Classes

Master Moves:
6-10 5pt HTH Combat Levels
6-8 Damage Classes

Advanced Moves:
One with the Tao (Suppress versus Martial Arts Maneuvers, target’s moves are all rendered useless)
Combat Awareness (Desolidification, ½ END, Not through Solids, Requires a DEX Roll)

[UltraRob]

Black River Pole Fighting
The rivers of the land are filled with families of boatmen who run the ferries and barges that help to drive the land’s economy. They are the “truckers” of this land, and often whole families will live on their transport barges which they will use to navigate the rivers and canals which have been carved throughout the land. In one case, a former soldier married into a clan of boatmen and when he discovered the problems the boatmen had with pirates, he began to teach them to defend themselves using the techniques he had learned as a royal guard. These techniques were refined over time to become what is now called the Black River Style (there are other styles of Boatmen Martial Arts as well, this is simply one of them) and is based on the idea of boatmen using their dexterity and boating poles to defend themselves when set upon on the river.

Note: All moves of this style are intended for use with a thick bamboo pole, sometimes iron tipped.

Core Moves:
WF: Boating Pole
Block (Martial Block)
Basic Strike (Basic Strike)
Shove (Shove)
Sweep (Legsweep)
Poke (Fast Strike)

Master Moves:
Disarm (Martial Disarm)
Crane Stance Block (Defensive Block)
Anchored Feet (Root)

Advanced Moves:
Vaulting Strike (Charge)
Kneecapping (Takedown)


Wandering Poet Style Stickfighting
Wandering Poet Style was created by a traveling scholar to defend himself from bandits and other troublemakers who saw a wandering scholar as an easy mark. But, this poet had been raised in a monastery and he quickly decided to come up with a way to improvise using the bag of scrolls he carried to defend himself. The scrolls he carried were wooden dowels with paper wrapped around them, and if the dowels were made of hardwoods they provided a good means of defense and offense for the poor traveling poet. Eventually he taught this style of defense to many other scholars like himself, and it became part of the secret society to which he belonged.

Note: All moves of this style are intended to be used with one or two tightly wrapped scrolls using hardwood dowels as their cores.

Core Moves:
WF: Wooden Dowels/Scrolls.
Block (Martial Block)
Counterattack (Counterstrike)
Strike (Martial Strike)
Disarm (Martial Disarm)

Master Moves:
Rapid Attack (Fast Strike)
Shattering Hit (Joint Break)
Kneecapping (Takedown)
Low Blow (Nerve Strike)

Advanced Moves:
Double Head Hit (Offensive Strike)
Lover’s Leap (Flying Dodge)

[Susano]

I'd love to contribute, but I've already sent my schools and styles into Dave at Digital Hero.

[Nevenall]

UltraRob is Ultra cool, here is a style from my fantasy martial arts campaign

The Soft Blade Style
The style of the Hakana family, Soft Blade, makes a particular study of deception and trickery. Practitioners attempt to lure their opponents into all out attacks by offering up seemingly perfect openings which are not exactly what they seem.
The style has a reputation for devious tricks of all kinds and those who know of it approach its practitioners with great caution. With this in mind, those who wield the Soft Blade will sometimes seize upon the wariness of their opponents and attempt to simply finish them quickly without tricks.

Cost Manueuver Time OCV/DCV
3 Blade without Shadow ½ +0 -1
Strike, Weapon, +3 Lightning Reflexes with this maneuver only. This is included in the maneuver cost to make it a legal martial maneuver. Please check with your GM.
4 Empty Blade ½ +2 +2
Block, Abort
5 Open Blade Stroke ½ +1 -2
Strike, Weapon + 2 DC
4 Shadow Blade ½ +2 +0
Strike, Weapon + 2 DC, Must follow a block maneuver
3 Soft Blade Stroke ½ +2 -2
Strike, Weapon + 2 DC, Only in response to an aggressive attack by opponent. Like an Offensive strike.
5 Takeaway ½ +0 +0
Grab Weapon, +10 Str to take weapon
4 Void ½ -- +5
Dodge, Affects all attacks, Abort

Weapon Elements
Blades Free
Bare Hand +1 point

Skills
Acting *
Slight of Hand
Fast Draw
WF: Blades *
Two Weapon Combat
Defense Maneuver

[Nevenall]

Touch of Chi Stopping : 3d6 Entangle; Takes No Damage from Attacks (+1/2), vs Ego not Str (+1/4), Cannot be Escaped with Teleport (+1/4), No Range (-1/2), Gestures (Recognizable Chi hand motions; -1/4), No Barriers (-1/4), Susecptable (See Below; -1), RSR (Chi Focus; -1/2). EP 30, AP 60, CP 18.

With a touch the user of this power alters the flow of chi in the target's body and so paralyzes the victim.
The target can usually overcome the effect given time, but the chi flow can also be restored if the target is struck a rather sound blow, has his skin rubbed for a turn, or is touched by someone who succeeds in a Chinese Medicine roll.

[UltraRob]

I'd love to contribute, but I've already sent my schools and styles into Dave at Digital Hero.

No problem Susano, I can totally understand. Feel free to nitpick, okay?

Rob

[UltraRob]

Touch of Chi Stopping : 3d6 Entangle; Takes No Damage from Attacks (+1/2), vs Ego not Str (+1/4), Cannot be Escaped with Teleport (+1/4), No Range (-1/2), Gestures (Recognizable Chi hand motions; -1/4), No Barriers (-1/4), Susecptable (See Below; -1), RSR (Chi Focus; -1/2). EP 30, AP 60, CP 18.

With a touch the user of this power alters the flow of chi in the target's body and so paralyzes the victim.
The target can usually overcome the effect given time, but the chi flow can also be restored if the target is struck a rather sound blow, has his skin rubbed for a turn, or is touched by someone who succeeds in a Chinese Medicine roll.

Hey! I LIKE it! This one gets used a lot in the movies and stories, but I never did get around to designing a version of it for HERO. My only concern is that like the "Pressure Points" skill in GURPS (which does the same thing) it can accidently turn a game into PCs and NPCs dancing around trying to "pressure point" each other instead of using other moves because it can be a one-hit "kill". Why bother to use the sword when you can tap him for an instant takedown with no fuss or muss.

I'd probably add 1/2 DCV concentration or maybe 0 DCV so that when used it's a gamble, or give it a really hard skill roll. (But even then, PCs will just bump it up if they can afford it...)

Rob

[Nevenall]

I'd probably add 1/2 DCV concentration or maybe 0 DCV so that when used it's a gamble, or give it a really hard skill roll. (But even then, PCs will just bump it up if they can afford it...)

Rob

Thanks!
You know, I took the 1/2 DCV Concentration off. It was in the original write up.

[UltraRob]

Thanks!
You know, I took the 1/2 DCV Concentration off. It was in the original write up.

Isn't that how it always goes.

I've just had bad experiences with GURPS pressure points skill, and characters using "Mental Paralysis" built like this in HERO. Here comes my tough villian and...oh....look there he lies unable to move....oh well....that kinda killed the big fight didn't it?

In noncombat situations, this kind've power is cool for PCs to have, and villians too, but when the combat starts it can quickly become a GM nightmare unless there's some way for an NPC to defend against it, which technically there isn't other than avoiding being hit.

I also notice in the source materials only Masters will try to use this stuff in combat anyways, which can be explained by them slamming all their levels into DCV to counteract the 1/2 DCV for concentration so they can still stay hard to hit. A novice just ends up being a target due to their low levels.

Rob