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Ninja vs. UMA


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the description says

 

I dont own either book but the description for Ultimate Martial arts is "the Big Book Of Crunchy Martial arts to Hurt People Very Badly With" all martial arts and how to make martial arts and things like that. the descrption of Ninja Hero basically says "sudjestions on how to run various martial arts based settings" kung fu fight films, wire fu games, samurai epics, and other stuff involving settings.

 

at least thats what i got from the descriptions.

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In the simplist terms, UMA is a book which gives you information about Martial Arts packages. UMA expands upon the Martial Arts section in FREd and includes new maneuvers and rules to make your own maneuvers. Most of UMA is comprised of Martial Arts packages ranging from Aikido to Zipota (and covers some 150 different Martial Arts styles), but there is also archetype information and weapons breakdowns.

 

Ninja Hero is information for creating a Martial Arts campaign. It covers Martial Arts sub-genres (anime, realistic, wuxia, etc), discusses Martial Arts combat stunts (Aerial Fighting, etc), discusses how to make creating Martial Arts settings, and finally it gives you various Martial Arts campaign mini-settings (wuxia: Last Heroes In China, Video Game: King Of The Streetfighting Warriors, etc).

 

So basically UMA is a book telling you how to create Martial Arts skills and Ninja Hero is a book telling you how to create Martial Arts campaigns.

 

I hope that helps.

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I have both, and they complement each other very well.

 

UMA lists multiple martial arts, gives you the rules on how to design new maneuvers, lists a LOT of martial arts weapons. It also talks about designing powers and using powers frameworks form MA charaters and a few other things.

 

Ninja Hero talk mostly about the Genre and what relates to it, how martial arts are used in multiple genres. It talk about character creation for MA characters, how to run martial art combats from realistic to wuxia cinematics, and how to run campaigns that involve MA, or that involve MA characters. It also has some maps that MA characters would have a good chance of visiting (school, arena,...)

 

I like them... :)

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Re: Round Two... FIGHT

 

Originally posted by Citizen Keen

By the end of the summer, I intend to own both. But which should I buy first?

I've got both. Get UMA first unless you are planning to run a martial arts campaign and need the info in Ninja Hero to put together your campaign. Without UMA many of the maneuvers in Ninja Hero won't make a lot of sense.

 

I bought UMA because my Champions campaign has 3 martial artists. Using maneuvers and suggestions from UMA, they all look and fight very differently.

 

Some of the higher level martial artists from Ninja Hero, especially the anime ones, are good matches for superhero martial artists or even entire teams. They've got a ninja who costs 873 points!

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I would get UMA first, unless you want to see sample characters. Ninja Hero has a ton of sample characters, while UMA has some sample powers & such. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that they were written to compliment each other, so they don't overlap very much at all.

 

FYI:)

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Re: Round Two... FIGHT

 

Originally posted by Citizen Keen

By the end of the summer, I intend to own both. But which should I buy first?

 

I consider the UMA as one of the basic books of the HERO System. It is useful in any campaign in which players will fight hand-to-hand or with weapons. And yes I mean any campaign.

 

I have both and would reccomend you get both, but you could do without Ninja Hero unless you were going to run an Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, medeival China, or Dragonball Z campaign. Even then with UMA you could easily do it.

 

Let me put it this way you don't need Ninja to use UMA, but you pretty much need UMA to use Ninja.

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Originally posted by Monolith

It is a curse. Quick typer, error maker. :)

 

Monolith's power.

 

+10 Lightning Reflexes, to post first.

+2 Speed, to post more often.

 

Unfortunately, he forgot some Levels with Posting, so he's limited to his base PCV (posting combat value). ;)

 

What everyone else says. UMA is for creating Martial Artists in any Genre. Ninja Hero is my favorite of all the Genre Books (yeah, including Champions and Star Hero), mainly because it hits every Martial Arts Genre from the Three Musketeers to Video Game Fighting Tournaments, and does such a good job with it.

 

Buy UMA first, then get Ninja Hero.

 

D

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Originally posted by misterdeath

Monolith's power.

 

+10 Lightning Reflexes, to post first.

+2 Speed, to post more often.

 

Unfortunately, he forgot some Levels with Posting, so he's limited to his base PCV (posting combat value). ;)

I think we get +1 Level for each 1,000 posts we have on the boards. I can actually feel myself getting better. :)

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Originally posted by misterdeath

What everyone else says. UMA is for creating Martial Artists in any Genre. Ninja Hero is my favorite of all the Genre Books (yeah, including Champions and Star Hero), mainly because it hits every Martial Arts Genre from the Three Musketeers to Video Game Fighting Tournaments, and does such a good job with it.

 

For what its worth, I hope to be able to do a Ninja Hero companion come 2004. More sample powers, more maps, (lots) more NPCs, and a full-blown anime/video game level setting -- Student Warrior University!

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Originally posted by Susano

For what its worth, I hope to be able to do a Ninja Hero companion come 2004. More sample powers, more maps, (lots) more NPCs, and a full-blown anime/video game level setting -- Student Warrior University!

Wow! That would be great. :D

 

Will it be a .pdf file or a more physical kind of book?

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