Suggest a Martial Art for a shrinking character

[Bartman]

I have a character I am designing who will have shrinking as a primary power. I want the character to have some combat ability without powers and his punch needs a little bit more oomph. So Martial Arts seems to be the way to go. However I have hit a connundrum. What real world martial art would work best for somone who is only 20 cm tall? Punches and kicks wouldn't be long enough to gather any real momentum and holds and throws would be rather hard to do. It would be like somone wrestling an elephant. Is there a MA which could conceptionally work against an opponent who is 8 times the character's size?

[lemming]

Re: Suggest a Martial Art for a shrinking character

 

Originally posted by Bartman

Is there a MA which could conceptionally work against an opponent who is 8 times the character's size?

I think throws and such might be slightly problematic, but remember that your character is going to still be hitting hard in a much smaller area. Could probably make a case for hitting pressure points, etc... I've done martial arts and there were some black belts that during sparring would just hit some of mine. Very effective.

 

Find Weakness and/or AP on strength may be called for.

[J4y]

remember that your character is going to still be hitting hard in a much smaller area. Could probably make a case for hitting pressure points, etc... I've done martial arts and there were some black belts that during sparring would just hit some of mine. Very effective.

 

The problem is that if his arm is a couple cm long no matter how hard he hits pushing someone's skin in a couple cm isn't going to have any effect. At best it would be like attacking someone with a tack.

 

Everything would have to be flying kicks, movethroughs or using an extremly large weapon like a zanbatou. Could maybe ride butterflys or moths and poke things with a lance.

[Bartman]

Originally posted by J4y

Could maybe ride butterflys or moths and poke things with a lance.

Not quite the visual effect I was looking for.

 

But your idea of flying kicks, movethroughs, etc isn't bad. I forgot to mention that he will have Density Increase linked to the Shrinking so while a 2cm punch is still not overly effective a flying tackle should be viscious. So is there a real world Martial Art which focuses on such full motion attacks like flying tackles?

[Lord Liaden]

Is there a reason why your character could not develop a unique martial style particularly suited to his small stature? I've been rewriting the old VOICE supervillain La Pulga ("The Flea") with a martial art featuring UMA maneuvers which use Movement elements, since she has both Shrinking and Superleap. (La Pulga has jokingly named her style "Flea Fu.")

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Is there a reason why your character could not develop a unique martial style particularly suited to his small stature? I've been rewriting the old VOICE supervillain La Pulga ("The Flea") with a martial art featuring UMA maneuvers which use Movement elements, since she has both Shrinking and Superleap. (La Pulga has jokingly named her style "Flea Fu.")

 

Well he's not really the type of character to do that. Let's just call him less than completely motivated. If he could just walk down the street and into a dojo, he would. But the development of a whole new style of combat is beyond him. He went to college because that's what his parents expected of him. He's a doctor because that is the profession his parents chose for him. He lives in Millenium City because his wife wanted to. He's a hero because that's what his family told him to do when he discovered his powers. He doesn't make choices and he certainly doesn't innovate. So if there were a combat style that matched his needs he could go and learn it, but he wouldn't make one up.

 

If there isn't a real world Martial Art, thats cool. I'll just buy a couple of dice of HtH attack and a couple CSLs. But if something existed that would work for the guy I'ld rather use that because it'll have more flavor.

[J4y]

So is there a real world Martial Art which focuses on such full motion attacks like flying tackles?

 

Normal humans just don't have the speed to pull showy moves like that off so no martial art would focus on them, but many or most martial arts DO teach some flashy moves which, while only good in the dojo for normal humans, could be applied effectivly by a superhuman in real combat.

[Lord Liaden]

Could your character have been athletic enough (or nagged enough by his family) to have studied gymnastics in high school or college? Digital Hero #2 featured an article on "Gymnastics as a Martial Art" which might be usable for what you want. It was put on the website as a free article, right here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh02gymnastics.htm

[Fireg0lem]

According to UMA 4E, Pentjak-Silat, the national fighting art of Indonesia, contains some substyles that "are extremely acrobatic and involve a great deal of jumping." This might be what you are looking for.

[caris]

Athletics

 

Well, I seem to remember one version of Ninja Hero having a Martial Art based off of football, that would be another option. Also in addition to the grabs and throws, doesn't Professional Wrestling used a lot of flying moves?

 

Just some thoughts.

[Stray Cat]

Re: Suggest a Martial Art for a shrinking character

 

One recently converted 4th ed. character I constructed, Firefly, is about the size of a bullet and can fly very fast. He has the martial maneuvers passing strike, charge, and flying dodge. He specializes in flying by and swiping at his opponents. It doesn't hurt that his damage shield acts as a piggyback attack to his velocity-based maneuvers.

 

Cat

 

Originally posted by Bartman

I have a character I am designing who will have shrinking as a primary power. I want the character to have some combat ability without powers and his punch needs a little bit more oomph. So Martial Arts seems to be the way to go. However I have hit a connundrum. What real world martial art would work best for somone who is only 20 cm tall? Punches and kicks wouldn't be long enough to gather any real momentum and holds and throws would be rather hard to do. It would be like somone wrestling an elephant. Is there a MA which could conceptionally work against an opponent who is 8 times the character's size?

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Could your character have been athletic enough (or nagged enough by his family) to have studied gymnastics in high school or college? Digital Hero #2 featured an article on "Gymnastics as a Martial Art" which might be usable for what you want. It was put on the website as a free article, right here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh02gymnastics.htm

 

Actually this sounds just about perfect. I can easily see the guy having been encouraged to be a scholarship athlete. Some of these moves match the always in motion look and feel I was looking for.

 

Thanks LL.

[KA.]

Bartman,

Lemming already suggested this, but please do not neglect Find Weakness!

This character is a Doctor, and that, in combination with being small and agile, just seems to cry out for this construct.

 

"Let's see, that nerve cluster should be just about here . . ."

 

High speed dropkicks to the side of the patella,

 

Move Through's on the Adam's Apple,

 

This guy should be able to take some people down!

 

From your description of his circumstances, this guy sounds like he might have a lot of repressed "feelings" that need to be "channeled".

Which could make him pretty vicious if he actually had to get physical with someone.

 

That, combined with a doctor's knowledge of anatomy, and his small size, add up to Find Weakness in my mind.

 

KA

[Bartman]

KA, I may well put Find Weakness on the guy (or add it to him later). But the effect I'm looking for is something that would give him some combat capability without using his powers. I find that the ability to take out a thug without active power use can be really useful in certain circumstances and the Find Weakness is something I would probably put a linked to Shrinking disad on.

 

I do think the character is likely to do a lot of growing once he gets into play. It'll be interesting to see exactly where the chracter goes.

[pinecone]

Well I'd go with "Learned how to use size and mass" FU and buy HA+4D6 AP, and call it good...unless 8D6 AP is to small an attack (cool an almost pun...)