MA Power Tricks

[Ranxerox]

I recently read a comicbook called The Shaolin Cowboy, and the title character cut through a man's neck twice in what appeared to be one motion, and then kicked out section of the man's neck that was between the two slices.

 

Okay a it's a very sick and violent comic, but that's not what I'm posting about. I was trying to write the Shaolin Cowboy up in my head and was struggling with how to express an over-the-top, utterly ridiculous killing move like one with the guy's neck. I briefly considered Major Transform: Living Person to Spectacularly Dead Person. Ultimately, I decided that I was making this too hard, and that what the SC had done was power trick.

 

Which brings me to my question, have any of you bought the Power Trick skill for a martial artist and if so what sort of tricks did they use it to perform?

[Robyn]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

I recently read a comicbook called The Shaolin Cowboy, and the title character cut through a man's neck twice in what appeared to be one motion, and then kicked out section of the man's neck that was between the two slices.

 

Okay a it's a very sick and violent comic, but that's not what I'm posting about. I was trying to write the Shaolin Cowboy up in my head and was struggling with how to express an over-the-top, utterly ridiculous killing move like one with the guy's neck. I briefly considered Major Transform: Living Person to Spectacularly Dead Person. Ultimately, I decided that I was making this too hard, and that what the SC had done was power trick.

 

The victim is dead . . . how he died may be little more than a Special Effect.

 

If hit locations matter, you can buy PSL's to offset the OCV penalty to aim for the neck. If you want to ensure you don't use the sword unless it is this very cool move, give it an "all or nothing" Limitation (either the sword can kill him, or you screw up the move and it doesn't even touch him), perhaps even adding a Side Effect for screwing it up. If you want to make sure the target doesn't resurrect (from having their head chopped off?!?), Link a teleport of some sort to remove the head from the body (but since when is Decapitation not a traditional method of making sure that inhuman entities stay dead*?).

 

*Never mind

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

For that matter you could simply make it a Deadly Blow talent with Requires a Skill roll (Power skill, whatever you call it) and/or something like a variant on No Concious control at the -1 level... call it "Plot Driven" or something, that says that in order to use the deadly blow, t has to be a showy thought out "Killing Move", roleplayed decently and not be a totally inappropriate use of the ability, mostly so as to prevent it from being used too frequently in the course of a single fight should it not drop the target on the first shot.

With those limits a +2d6 deadly blow would be affordable and WAY lethal

[Ranxerox]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

The victim is dead . . . how he died may be little more than a Special Effect.

 

If hit locations matter, you can buy PSL's to offset the OCV penalty to aim for the neck. If you want to ensure you don't use the sword unless it is this very cool move, give it an "all or nothing" Limitation (either the sword can kill him, or you screw up the move and it doesn't even touch him), perhaps even adding a Side Effect for screwing it up. If you want to make sure the target doesn't resurrect (from having their head chopped off?!?), Link a teleport of some sort to remove the head from the body (but since when is Decapitation not a traditional method of making sure that inhuman entities stay dead*?).

 

*Never mind

 

Well, yes and no. The victim was dead and how he died was a special effect, but there is more happening than that. The victim in question had an army of thugs backing him up, and the way that the Shaolin Cowboy killed him was obviously meant to send a message to that army. There was no question that the victim died in exactly the manner that Shaolin Cowboy intended him to die So, yes it is a special effect but it is a "called" special effect.

 

Normally, when a character rolls enough damage to kill someone it is the GM who describes exactly how the person died (note: this isn't somehting that happens much in my campaigns, I favor the Bronze Age over the Iron Age). IMO, this is a case where the player described the special effect of the death and all the GM and dice did was say whether it went off according to the player's plan. Since power tricks are often used for show-off moves like turning coal into diamonds, it struck me as an appropriate already in game method for handling the matter.

 

I like your all or nothing sword. I'm sure that Shaolin Cowboy could have just as easily killed the guy with a rock or pair of chopsticks, so I don't think it would be appropriate to buy his sword that way. However, if I ever find myself in a fantasy campaign, I might make a character with a sword that "slays all who it touches". That would be very cool.

[Ranxerox]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

For that matter you could simply make it a Deadly Blow talent with Requires a Skill roll (Power skill, whatever you call it) and/or something like a variant on No Concious control at the -1 level... call it "Plot Driven" or something, that says that in order to use the deadly blow, t has to be a showy thought out "Killing Move", roleplayed decently and not be a totally inappropriate use of the ability, mostly so as to prevent it from being used too frequently in the course of a single fight should it not drop the target on the first shot.

With those limits a +2d6 deadly blow would be affordable and WAY lethal

 

Yes, the Deadly Blow talent would be a good way for this character to do the kind of damage that he is shown routinely doing. Thank you for pointing me to it, since I've only read select parts of my DC book and did not know of the existence of this talent.

[Robyn]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Well' date=' yes and no. The victim was dead and how he died [i']was[/i] a special effect, but there is more happening than that. The victim in question had an army of thugs backing him up, and the way that the Shaolin Cowboy killed him was obviously meant to send a message to that army. There was no question that the victim died in exactly the manner that Shaolin Cowboy intended him to die So, yes it is a special effect but it is a "called" special effect.

 

Bonus to Presence, only for Presence Attack, only when specific conditions are met. If you go for the head and kill him, you get a much better Presence Attack than usual; or, if you kill him, you can just add the bonus and declare "this is how I killed him" as its Special Effect.

[Black Rose]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Well' date=' yes and no. The victim was dead and how he died [i']was[/i] a special effect, but there is more happening than that. The victim in question had an army of thugs backing him up, and the way that the Shaolin Cowboy killed him was obviously meant to send a message to that army. There was no question that the victim died in exactly the manner that Shaolin Cowboy intended him to die So, yes it is a special effect but it is a "called" special effect.

 

Normally, when a character rolls enough damage to kill someone it is the GM who describes exactly how the person died (note: this isn't somehting that happens much in my campaigns, I favor the Bronze Age over the Iron Age). IMO, this is a case where the player described the special effect of the death and all the GM and dice did was say whether it went off according to the player's plan. Since power tricks are often used for show-off moves like turning coal into diamonds, it struck me as an appropriate already in game method for handling the matter.

 

I like your all or nothing sword. I'm sure that Shaolin Cowboy could have just as easily killed the guy with a rock or pair of chopsticks, so I don't think it would be appropriate to buy his sword that way. However, if I ever find myself in a fantasy campaign, I might make a character with a sword that "slays all who it touches". That would be very cool.

 

I was about to mention the possibility of simply making it a PRE Attack if the victim were a nameless scrub. Since he wasn't, I personally would go with something like Deadly Blow, All or Nothing, yadda yadda, with some CSLs for flavor, and simply describe it as a double decapitation blow followed by a kick to the neck slice. The PRE Attack bonus dice should be forthcoming normally. If not, simply Link some in.

[pinecone]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Annother suggestion for "Fancy cuttin" is to buy it with charges so it won't be used for every attack.....

 

Fancy cuttin +3d6 HKA vari spec effects:Matches base attack, only to increase attack to maximum possable for base attack, Power skill "Cowboy up"

ETc...4 x day or the like

 

Then Pres attack with "Demonstrates powers" and "Extreamly violent action" seems called for....

[OddHat]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

It was probably just a Sweep with a killing attack in a campaign where hit locations were in use. Add a few penalty skill levels to take care of the Hit Location, and it's not even that tough a shot. Counts as a Very Violent Action and maybe a Display of Superpowers when PRE Attacking the thugs.

[Ranxerox]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Hmmm. Thanks for all the input, but I didn't really start this thread to talk about that one particular move.It is just what got my mind on the idea of martial artist and power tricks in the first place.

 

Bricks do power tricks; speedsters do power tricks; energy projectors do power tricks; why shouldn't martial artist also do power tricks?

 

If Nite Ninja wants cut a chair in two and do it so quickly and cleanly that it doesn't fall down until someone tries to sit in it, does he really need to buy a special power to do it? What about when Karate Ken when he wants to do Bruce Lee's trick of breaking boards with his fist starting the punch just 1 inch away from the board?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Hmmm. Thanks for all the input, but I didn't really start this thread to talk about that one particular move.It is just what got my mind on the idea of martial artist and power tricks in the first place.

 

Bricks do power tricks; speedsters do power tricks; energy projectors do power tricks; why shouldn't martial artist also do power tricks?

 

If Nite Ninja wants cut a chair in two and do it so quickly and cleanly that it doesn't fall down until someone tries to sit in it, does he really need to buy a special power to do it? What about when Karate Ken when he wants to do Bruce Lee's trick of breaking boards with his fist starting the punch just 1 inch away from the board?

 

Makes total sense to me

[pinecone]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

I agree...thogh in my mind a MA's powers are All "power tricks" already..

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Anudder MA power trick, similar to the aforementioned chair cut...

Adding a Trigger to your killing blow to the neck, so the opponent doesn't die till he moves, ala Highlander

[Ranxerox]

Re: MA Power Tricks

 

Anudder MA power trick, similar to the aforementioned chair cut...

Adding a Trigger to your killing blow to the neck, so the opponent doesn't die till he moves, ala Highlander

 

I would probably allow this use of MA powr trick in a comicbook or a cinematic martial setting. Of course if the character is going to make a habit of this move, they would have to pay points to buy the trigger.