Martial Art: Lunch Money

[AlHazred]

EDIT: Version 2 now up.
EDIT2: Version 3 now up. This is the final version.

I don't know how many are familiar with the Lunch Money card game. It's a vicious game that's supposed to reflect the murderous intent of preteen schoolgirls fighting in the yard over lunch money. It's a fun game, but the replay value isn't as high as I'd like. They made an expansion (Sticks and Stones, which I own) and a follow-up game (Beer Money, which I do not).

Anyway, my buddy and I were considering which board game to play yesterday, and came upon my Lunch Money cards. I idly speculated that you could turn the game into a decent Hero System martial art.

So, here it is (the prefab, that is). Keep in mind, it's designed for little girls (probably 5 STR average) fighting to unconsciousness over lunch money. It's not designed for any other sort of standard martial arts trope, though I dare say you could surprise the crap out of tough guy with a little girl NPC built with 50 points of maneuvers and powers...

[AlHazred]

Expect version 2 by the end of the day. I've got ideas for Time Out (+PRE, Only For Fear/Intimidation-Based Presence Attacks, Instant), Hippy (Trigger, Usable By Others), Imaginary Friend, Backlash, and a bunch of others I missed the first time around.

[yamamura]

Looks interesting, though I would say 3 to 5 STR would be more appropriate as 8 is human average. But that is just my opinion. Can't wait for the updated version! What point total were you thinking for this?

[AlHazred]

I was thinking 2 to 5 is "realistic" but if the little girls are going to be showing up in a game where they need Martial Arts, they can probably be assumed to be at least 5. In any case, as Lunch Money is about beating your opponents unconscious with little to no finesse, there's no lethal maneuvers and few that have special functions; mostly it's beat-downs over quarters during recess. If I were to run a Hero System campaign (or even just a few games of it at a Con), I'd give the characters anywhere from 50 to 75 points -- that puts them in the "Competent Normal" range or thereabouts, which is about right for combat-trained schoolgirls. Like I said, it'd be a nasty shock for, say, tough guy Dark Champions characters trying to question schoolgirls for info.

If you were to use this Martial Art, I highly recommend the players use the actual Lunch Money cards to duke it out; if you've got the card in hand you can use the Maneuver, but otherwise you're out of luck.

[Escafarc]

Disturbing....you are so repped

[Folded]

For those of you not familiar with the game (we play frequently in my group), it has some of the most disturbing text and pictures of any game I've ever played. Really creepy stuff, and worth having just for that reason. I'm definitely going to bring this writeup to my next session.

[AlHazred]

The artist used photos of his two daughters for the many of the images. Those are some creepy schoolgirls.

[Old Man]

For those of you not familiar with the game (we play frequently in my group), it has some of the most disturbing text and pictures of any game I've ever played. Really creepy stuff, and worth having just for that reason. I'm definitely going to bring this writeup to my next session.

Oh, definitely. To be honest, I've found that the concept and art direction exceeded the replay value, but it's still a great game to play now and then, such as when you're waiting for the last couple members of the campaign to show up.

edit: Great job on the martial art, by the way. I think it's funny that grab attacks are equally important in both Hero and Lunch Money.

[AlHazred]

Version 3 is now up. As far as I can tell, this is the final version -- I've included every card from Lunch Money and the Sticks & Stones expansion, except for two: "Abandonment" and "Humiliation."

• "Abandonment" forces your opponent to discard their entire hand and draw five new cards; due to the difference in game mechanics, this is difficult to reflect in Hero without outre Powers (PRE Attack? EDM to a dimension where the opponent has to come up with a different attack? Luck?)
• "Humiliation" counters any attack in the game, and allows you to make a free basic attack of your own; it requires you to describe the particularly humiliating circumstances under which you are able to overcome your opponent's attack. This is basically roleplaying, and will never be replaced with dice-rolling and game mechanics.

So, enjoy, and if you use the martial art in play or come up with your own version, please report back! I'd love to hear about it!

[AlHazred]

A couple of notes:

• The maneuvers on the cards comprise two main types: Basic Attacks ("Jab," "Uppercut," "Hail Mary") and Specials ("Powerplay," "Uppercut2"). I've tried to make all of the Basic Attacks into Martial Maneuvers while making all of the Specials into Special Abilities (Powers), but some of the Specials are pretty ordinary in Hero terms. Like Uppercut2, which drops your opponent; that's just a Maneuver with the Trip element. In any case, I would just ignore that part of the Lunch Money rules unless you're trying to adapt that game's mechanics to Hero. Which I would never recommend.
• I'm not happy with the "Imaginary Friend" power as written, but the card basically lets you make another free Basic Attack, i.e., any of the normal Martial Maneuvers that lack any special Elements. It's as close as I could get to the spirit of that card.
• "Grab" in Lunch Money doesn't prevent the victim from employing attacks; it just sets up certain kinds of combo cards. "Headlock" does prevent the victim from doing anything. With that in mind, I changed "Grab" to only Grab One Limb.
• "Faster" is one of two cards that got reinterpreted. It lets you use a single "Dodge" or "Block" card to avoid an unlimited number of attacks in one round. Since that's already built into the Dodge and Block maneuvers in Hero, I interpreted it differently.
• "Nuts" acts like a Weapon card in that you play it and then put it back in your hand, but it can't be Disarmed. I was tempted to make it a Killing damage maneuver, but that seemed out of keeping with the rest of the maneuvers, so I reinterpreted it as well.