Kid Chaos Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 One of my players wants to have some of the classic Woo Ping abilities from the movies. After having reviewed several movies I noticed that the leaping seems to come in two flavours for most of these movies...Raw Superleaping and Enviromentally Boosted Leaping. Using that I came up with the following write-up. Assume 10 Strength for now. Woo Ping Leap - Thanks to you basic understanding of the universal condition you are able to leap farther than most people of your physical stature. Instead of 2" you are able to leap 8" on a running broad jump, 4" with a running upward jump or a standing broad jump, and 2" with a standing upward jump. In addition you have the ability to use the enviroment to aid your leaps. Using this ability you can "climb" walls, perform amazing flips off of objects, and so forth. This second abiltiy does not grant you the power to walk across walls or increase your basic leaping ability. To perform a this leap requires you to make an acrobatics skill roll and have some object you could logically use to push off of. Number Bits 6 Woo Ping Leap (+6" Leap) 4 Enviromental Aided Superleap (+8" Leap, Requires acrobatics skill roll -1/2, no noncombat move -1/4, linked to Leap -0) Total Cost : 10 points I can't say I'm entirely happy with it and I'm sure there's a better way of simulating these two factors using the rules. Any input would be much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytus Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 According to the Ultimate Martial Artist, the kind of leaping you see in your typical "Black Belt Theater" is best simulated as such: 1) Allow the player to buy up to, but no more than, twice the normal amount of leaping for his STR, and make it Skill Roll Required: Acrobatics. For the more over-the-top Anime style films, there is no practical upper-limit to the amount of Leaping one can buy. For the "Jumping Up the Walls Trick" I'd buy it as a form of Clinging, with the same Leaping limitation of Skill Roll Required: Acrobatics. You may wish to add some other limits: Only to Climb Up, Must move at least 5" Each Phase... that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Chaos Posted July 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 I thought about using clinging for the walk/jump up walls but by nature it would allow her to scale a skyscraper in that manner...something I've not seen a woo ping leaper do. Of note in some films they don't require two walls to push off of and simply do a touch off leap and continue up. In most Woo Ping films thy also just leap as a basic ability. No Acrobatics skill about it unless they're getting fancy.. Yes this is jumbled...I'm on cold medication and my brain is fuzzy. I'll reorganize it later when the fog lifts if it makes no sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKimball Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Ninja Hero has lots of great info on wuxia-style gaming. Often movement is bought as Teleportation, Must Move Through Intervening Space, Only On Reasonably Level Surfaces (that last one is not always present, depending on the genre). To me, this works best. I don't have the book in front of me, so this is from memory; I highly recommend the book, however. Cheers! Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Chaos Posted July 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Is that the new Ninja Hero or the old 4th edition? I have the latter, but it will be a while before I get the former sadly. I'll look at my 4th edition version tonight when I get home and see if I can find it in there. That looks to be a good way to model it. I suppose a few -0 lims would work. Possibly "Only to go up" and "Must be next to a verticle surface". Just to make it clear to the player they aren't going to be using it to "appear" behind people anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKimball Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Originally posted by Kid Chaos Is that the new Ninja Hero or the old 4th edition? Sorry, the new one. I don't have the old one (in fact, I only started playing with the release of 5th). Good luck! Cheers, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 There should be varying levels of leaping for wuxia. There is basic leaping off of horizontal surfaces, then leaping off of vertical surfaces, then leaping off of stupid vertical surfaces like thrown weapons (Iron Monkey) or flexible bamboo (CTHD), then leaping off of water (CTHD), then leaping off of water using only your sword (Hero), then outright flight with the sword (Bride With White Hair). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Chaos Posted July 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 The player is mostly looking for the superleap's the seem to do on a regular basis, the push off leaping they do by leaping halfway then hitting something to complete the leap and the running/leaping up walls. Most of these came from her watching Bullet Proof Monk, Hard Boiled, Replacement Killers, Romeo Must Die, Fist of Legend, Drunken Master, and a few other movies.. She thankfully didn't want the ultra silly run across verticle surfaces schtick from Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snarf Posted July 3, 2003 Report Share Posted July 3, 2003 In an upcoming game, I was just going to do it as a bunch o' leaping with all the wall running and other tricks as acrobatics rolls and SFX, cause I'm lazy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Chaos Posted July 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2003 that's what my idea was for...a basic leap doubling and then the extra leaping requiring acrobatics and some physical object to use...would allow her to climb/leap up walls, run up someone and do a super backflip, etc.. problem is I know my wife...she'll find some way to abuse it. I suppose I'll lay out the options and let her pick one, then I'll use the other one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauntless Posted July 3, 2003 Report Share Posted July 3, 2003 I always thought Yuen Woo Ping's best films were the one's he didn't use wire work in. Check out Tai Chi Master, Hero Among Heroes, Fist of Legend or any of his Jackie Chan films. Yuen's more famous films...Iron Monkey, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Matrix of course all had serious wire work...but I highly recommend you check out the other titles I listed above. I think Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen are so popular because a lot of their movie work involves little to no wire work (with some notable exceptions). Jackie himself said he doesn't like wire work because he wants people to see what the human body can truly do...and I agree. After watching movies like Shaolin Temple (watch a young Jet Li make Michael Jordan envious with the ability to jump), Once Upon a Time in America 2 (probably the best staff fighting sequence ever between Donnie Yen and Jet Li...even more than Invincible Pole Fighter), or Drunken Master 2 (Jackie in his prime), I think you'll agree that you can have incredible martial arts sequences without flying all over the place. But if you really want leaping abilities I think it depends on the kind of "feel" that you want. Like you mentioned, there seems to be the innate "flying" abilities like seen in Crouching tiger...and then there's the "augmented" leaps seen in most others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent X Posted July 4, 2003 Report Share Posted July 4, 2003 Originally posted by Klytus According to the Ultimate Martial Artist, the kind of leaping you see in your typical "Black Belt Theater" is best simulated as such: 1) Allow the player to buy up to, but no more than, twice the normal amount of leaping for his STR, and make it Skill Roll Required: Acrobatics. For the more over-the-top Anime style films, there is no practical upper-limit to the amount of Leaping one can buy. For the "Jumping Up the Walls Trick" I'd buy it as a form of Clinging, with the same Leaping limitation of Skill Roll Required: Acrobatics. You may wish to add some other limits: Only to Climb Up, Must move at least 5" Each Phase... that sort of thing. If they're really good they don't even need the Required Skill Roll limitation. It's based on skill but they never fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 4, 2003 Report Share Posted July 4, 2003 Originally posted by Dauntless I always thought Yuen Woo Ping's best films were the one's he didn't use wire work in. Check out Tai Chi Master, Hero Among Heroes, Fist of Legend or any of his Jackie Chan films. Yuen's more famous films...Iron Monkey, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Matrix of course all had serious wire work...but I highly recommend you check out the other titles I listed above. Even the director of CTHD said that the movie was set in a "mythical China that never was." So the amazing abilities shown by Li Mu Bai and the other Wudan-trained fighters were supposed to be over the top. So that makes them good candidates for wuxia-style campaigns I think a better way to represent the gliding/leaping moves of CTHD might be Flight 8"; Must touch surface once per Turn -0 (or -¼ if you're feeling really generous). I give it such a low speed because nowhere in the movie does it appear it's exceptionally fast. It appeared to me to be perhaps a bit faster than a typical person runs, but not much. (As to why it's so slow, I figure this follows the "dancing bear" rule: It's not amazing how well the bear dances, but that it dances at all. It's not amazing how fast Wudan fighters fly; it's amazing they can fly at all.) For the more "normal" leaps I'd just buy a few extra inches of Leaping. Most "Kung Fu Theater" types seem able to leap to the top of two or three story buildings, so an extra 3-6" is probably enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fur Face Posted July 4, 2003 Report Share Posted July 4, 2003 I'm with Trebuchet A limited form of flight seems to be the proper mechanic. If you are concerned about abuse, you can always limit it more: no NCM (-1/4), must touch down each phase (-1/4); requires Acrobatics roll to bounce off objects (-1/2), etcetera. I suppose the real issue is you feel that your wife is going to abuse it. This adds another dimension entirely, and is a consideration regardless of how the power is built. I have a character who uses wuxia flight and clinging powers (clinging/perching, no to resist knockback (-1/4). I wouldn't use it to run up the side of a building, because that's not what its for. But it the building had various "perch" points I could get to, then that would be fine, it would just take awhile. You could buy any of the recommended powers listed in this thread, adding a limitation "only for wuxia stunts". Then the literal interpretaion of the power won't matter. If she tries to run up the side of a building like spiderman, just say "sure, find a perch point you can jump to, but it will take awhile". I understand that I have only a limited knowledge of your situation, so please feel free to ignore my two cents if you like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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