薔薇語 Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Okay, maybe it has been all the talk about the Ultimate Martial Artist or perhaps the story I recently read about a Chinese man who taught some moneys Kung fu; either way, I now want to try and build a Monkey Kung-Fu martial artist with a slight twist. I was going to build it with a follower (monkey) that fights in combination with the martial artist. Should I try to build this as a follower and then build in team work manuevers or build the money as a special effect? I'm leaning to the former because it allows a lot of versitility (having the money go fetch things, interact with others, operate seemingly autonomously, etc). Also, if you were to build a Monkey Kung-Fu martial artist, what would you consider must haves? Currently I'm envisioning a 8-12 DC game paradigm and for the Character to not be a master level martial artist. Thoughts? Ideas? Cool Kung Fu videos? La Rose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Interesting idea! I hadn't thought of building it "Batman & Robin" like by making the monkey a Follower. I think a lot really depends upon how you build the Monkey. If he's built with normal Martial Arts (like the main character), and both have Teamwork, that would be IMO the most "straightforward" build. With this setup, you two could coordinate for the greater chance of stunning, or the Monkey could do Trips/Throws while you do Strikes on the prone targets. But if you want to build "special combo maneuvers" as powers into the Monkey or the main character (like maybe CSLs UBO?), that would be a more complicated build, and possibly less likely to pass by the GM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Have you ever looked at Kim Possible ? She has a villian I believe was called Monkey Fist, who has a horde of monkey ninjas-outfit and all. Although he is designed with kids in mind, still some of the episodes describe what you said, and might inspire a couple of more things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Also' date=' if you were to build a Monkey Kung-Fu martial artist, what would you consider must haves?[/quote'] Proficiency with the staff, lots of acrobatics, break fall, probably some extra leaping. Contortionist is a key skills for some styles as well, and you can certainly justify some Climbing (always neat to see them climb that staff) Monkey style is actually pretty diverse and there are several substyles. Makes it a bit difficult to speak in real broad generalities. But I'll try anyhow... A lot of the techniques are done crouching, sitting or laying down. This lends itself to a lot of low level kicking and sweeping techniques. Hand techniques vary considerably from style to style, but most of the stuff I've seen was pretty big and circular. Lots of vital attacks in the mix: eye gouges, throat and groin strikes/grabs, as well as some pressure point attacks. I've always seen a heavier emphasis on strikes, sweeps, trips and a few sacrifice throws, with the occasional arm lock in the mix. Monkey ground fighting is pretty much all about rolls, spins, sweeps and kicks. Not much in the way of grappling/wrestling technique once they hit the ground, at least not that I've seen. But there could be more joint locking or grappling in the forms... Some styles use lots of really loud monkey inspired screaming, screeching and hooting done with the techniques, so some of the Kiai type powers could be appropriate (like an improved PRE attack with Incantations). There's lots of youtube vids on this style (some much better than others...), but I always think of Paulie Zink when I'm think of Monkey Style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOvw1y26yFc Sadly, not the highest res video... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted December 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Thanks Bloodstone! I was on Youtube looking for other displays of Monkey Kung-Fu after watching you link and came across this little movie clip: Monkey Kung Fu Looks kind of awesome. What I see, in game terms, from watching it is: Leap, Acrobatics, Break fall (tumbling), Basic strikes, maybe a quick strike, dodge, and maybe an offensive block given the way the student was blocking with one arm so as to attack with the other. PRE Attacks based on screaming and unusual behavior. Also an obvious distinctive style: even normal people could tell with ease. Anybody else see anything different or contrary? La Rose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remjin Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Okay, so Bloodstone remembered that I'd done some of this style way back in the day... now, the most displayed monkey style is usually "Lost Monkey" or some variation thereof, as well as the occasional drunken monkey. I studied wooden monkey and a bit of iron monkey, corresponding to the chinese conception of the elements. Each style is quite a bit different but has a lot in common as well. Without turning to total martial arts geekery, I'll start with agreeing with these two things: Proficiency with the staff, lots of acrobatics, break fall, probably some extra leaping. Contortionist is a key skills for some styles as well, and you can certainly justify some Climbing (always neat to see them climb that staff) Monkey style is actually pretty diverse and there are several substyles. Makes it a bit difficult to speak in real broad generalities. But I'll try anyhow... [snip] and etc. Have you ever looked at Kim Possible ? She has a villian I believe was called Monkey Fist' date=' who has a horde of monkey ninjas-outfit and all. Although he is designed with kids in mind, still some of the episodes describe what you said, and might inspire a couple of more things.[/quote'] Acrobatics and breakfall are very key, I'd say, as well as anything that allows you to be prone with less or no disadvantage. The monkey styles I studied stayed VERY low to the ground, to the point of crouching most of the time and only a few techniques standing or started standing. Strikes to the vitals is key, and maneuvers I would include from 5th edition (haven't read all of 6th yet) would be passing strike, passing throw, move-through, and the vital strike I saw somewhere in addition to whatever else might be up there. Sacrifice throw is a very good one, with techniques that often call for jumping onto someone and then flinging both of you to the ground. Passing strike has more to do with the tendency to climb/move to hit someone (staying or going by); passing throw for jumping onto/grabbing/rolling into someone to grab them and throw them, and throwing; move-through for some of the styles to have the monkey fighter throw his whole body at someone (usually the legs/knees, but it depends on the application and includes throwing one's self into the body, over a leg to throw through the groin, etc.); and vital strike because there tends to be targetting of the groin, eyes, throat, and joints. Sweeps are very common, including what I would call an auto-fire sweep (the bit where they are on the ground twirling their legs is both a multiple sweep and follow-strikes as well movement for positioning into new launch points). Some distinctive things of monkey acrobatics is that there is a lot of flipping, manuevering, and changing of direction and facing using the head as a pivot... even flipping by jumping forward, bouncing off your skull, and landing on your feet again. (My neck hurts thinking about it.) Thus Monkey practitioners also have a certain amount of "iron head" training and also tend to have toughened their bodies quite a bit from constantly crashing themselves into the ground and otherwise. The beginning move of the 1st iron monkey set starts with a back-flip that lands you flat on your back, from which you kip-up and begin your forward somersaults (sp?) bouncing off your skull. Yeah. Even my teacher recommended I skip that one... or rather, he didn't like how excited I was getting about hurting myself. So perhaps a tad of extra PD or something might be in order. In essence, there are a lot of strikes targeting the groin, eyes, joints, and throat. Like a lot of chinese martial arts (and other styles as well) of reported shaolin origin, it also has a tendency to use every part of the body as a useable striking point or even like a limb, depending, so you might consider using a limited form of multiple limbs since the style considers fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arm, shoulder, hip, butt, thigh, knee, shin, all the various parts of the foot (ball, heel, inside and outside edge, toe tip in some instances, top of foot, ankle ball inside and out sometimes), the entire back, and head as its body of weapons. Its just a justification for doing something weird somewhere along the line. Contortionist might not be bad. All in all, monkey seems a lot about throwing other people off their game... being crouched throws attack lines out of the norm, fighting downward, the alternate mode of movement, and its tendency to be unconventional in general) so something that perhaps represents that would be nice, though likely a bit overmuch. I don't know much about intimidation in regard to the style, and certainly don't remember any "kiai" type stuff or yelling in general. Still, could be just a matter of the variety I studied rather than the lack of its existence. Like all chinese martial arts, origins and lineage and the confusion of multiple variations of multiple roots of the same style persist so no one things is ever really generally true. =) All in all, I'm no expert in it. I studied more as a "minor" so to speak. We had a general curriculum, you generally specialized in one area (in my case, black tiger), picked a secondary specialty (never did pick one, really, but I spent a lot of time with the dao, monkey, and shuai-jiao), and then consumed a steady broad diet of everything else. Now that I've probably bored or annoyed you with my rambling, tangential, and likely excessive amount of babble... I'll leave it here by just saying: neat idea, sounds like fun, and I would personally build it as a duplication sidekick or follower... with duplication being kind of wonky, but giving you more control over it, and follower less so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. sounds like penalty skill levels to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Hmmm. Physical Manifestation (Monkey Sidekick)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Now that I've probably bored or annoyed you with my rambling' date=' tangential, and likely excessive amount of babble... I'll leave it here by just saying: neat idea, sounds like fun, and I would personally build it as a duplication sidekick or follower... with duplication being kind of wonky, but giving you more control over it, and follower less so. [/quote'] Wow, Remjin, thanks for all the information. Rep soon to follow! Feel free to keep up the ramblings. Running the Monkey as a duplicate, though, does sound like an interesting idea that i hadn't thought of. Also, buying the build to have something akin to "multiple Limbs" to represent the use of one's whole body seems like a great idea. I might even go with some ambidexterity to off-set the limitation on using the various parts. As far as actually building this, I am coming to the point of thinking that I should have the Martial Artist use something less than full monkey and his monkey being the best example of that. Basically two variations on the same style. I've been working on this in HD for the last couple nights. If I get it finished enough, I'll post it. La Rose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbywolfe Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Ignoring the Martial Arts side of the discussion for a minute, I have to ask, what kind of monkey are we talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted December 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Ignoring the Martial Arts side of the discussion for a minute' date=' I have to ask, what kind of monkey are we talking about?[/quote'] I have to say that I chuckled a little when asked about my monkey. . I'm not really quite sure. Good question. I have a stereotyped idea of what a monkey looks like but I haven't gone as far as to choose a species. But I think this could and does tie in well with the initial back story I have. Young child growing up in China town San Fransisco with his grandfather (only known family) who runs a little theater / movie shop. One day as he is helping clean up the theater late at night, he heres a rustling from inside the theater. He calls to his Grandpa thinking it might be some drunk. Grandpa Faung can barely see the creature in the dark theater and ends up chasing it (realizing it wasn't a drunk) into the front concession area. Child tries to cut it off by getting there first. As Grandpa Faung enters the area with his broom in hand, the monkey jumps behind the child and tries to protect himself from the crazy old Chinese man with a broom. It is then that Faung sees that it isn't just some random animal, it is a very special monkey; one that he knew of quite well. It was then that Grandpa Faung became Master Faung and started to train his grandson in Kung-Fu (Monkey style). The Child and the monkey become fast friends and compatriots; so much so that they can even 'talk' to each other. What kind of monkey was the question though... Well, since I'm going with something unique, I might just go with a stylized, made-up version of one akin to the one in Kung-Fu Panda. La Rose. PS: I know I posted this in the Dark Champions section but I'm currently thinking of this character in more of a Teen Champions style game where he is sent off to train with supers by his Grandpa / Master. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapier Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Ignoring the Martial Arts side of the discussion for a minute' date=' I have to ask, what kind of monkey are we talking about?[/quote'] I great big blue-bottomed burrito eating poo-flinging kind...hopefully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Ignoring the Martial Arts side of the discussion for a minute' date=' I have to ask, what kind of monkey are we talking about?[/quote'] I hope it's this one: [ATTACH=CONFIG]34493[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted December 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Steve, the image is not working. La Rose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Hamadryas Baboon Always liked these guys, and they're what I'd guess Monkey's based on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Hamadryas Baboon Always liked these guys, and they're what I'd guess Monkey's based on Actually, he's supposed to be based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee%27s_Golden_Langur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Steve, the image is not working. La Rose. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 Re: Monkey Kung-Fu + an actual Monkey. Actually, he's supposed to be based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee%27s_Golden_Langur yeah, I can see it. Cool! makes a bit more sense, come to think of it, as the range for the Hamadryas only goes east as far as India, IIRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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