Random RPG Musings: Mystic Martial Arts
Jan. 9th, 2012 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tuftearsInspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rowyn muttering about wanting a single simple RPG system that fits in 20k words, I figured I'd throw together some bits and pieces.
Un-playtested, obviously. This is straight from my brain to the keyboard and from there into LJ. I decided on a 'kung fu' kind of setting.
Players get 15 points to spend on 'body stats'. These are divided into:
Strength: You hit harder, you can carry more, you can carry bigger weapons.
Agility: You hit more often, you can dodge enemy attacks, and you can better carry out precise and demanding tasks.
Zen: You can notice things that might elude casual observation. You pick up on social cues as well as physical signs.
Intellect: You know more about the world and its mysteries. You can figure out complex problems and work out solutions.
Chi: You have great drive. You won't be easily stopped in a fight. Fuels spells and powerful attacks.
The 'average person' has 2 points in each of these. You must have at least 1 point in each 'body stat', and no more than 5.
These feed into 'derived stats':
Wind: 5 * (Strength + Chi). Your endurance. Comparable to hit points in other systems, you lose Wind when the enemy lands a hit on you, but when you run out of Wind, the next solid hit that lands will be a Knockout. You also use Wind to fuel your powerful attacks.
Pick an adjective and a noun, and that's your martial art in a nutshell. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Drunken Monkey, Blazing Sword, and so forth.
Martial arts would be designed using points. There'd be a list of common martial arts, and if people wanted to design their own, it would work like Champions in that you'd be able to balance out circumstantial advantages and disadvantages to reduce the point cost of your style. So, Drunken Monkey requires you to be drunk or else your powers work at half effectiveness. Blazing Sword adds fire damage, but is weak against water. Crouching Tiger emphasizes low-to-the-ground kicks and blocks, but is weak against bird-type arts that attack from above.
Let me go back to the idea of Champions and power pools. The idea of a power pool is that you have a grab bag of powers which all come from the same pool. Let's say your power pool is 30 points. Of that, you might have 3 20-point moves, and two 10-point moves. You can't activate them all at the same time, but you can use up to 30 points of moves in each round, so each round you could use a 20-point move and a 10-point move. Those moves don't necessarily have to be attacks; they could be defenses or utility moves like throwing down a puddle of slippery oil. Also, each 5 point of power costs 1 Wind. You regain your Chi in Wind each round.
With that in mind, we probably want to drill down a bit. The default action shouldn't be just "attack enemy", you should be trying for open spots, and your enemy has to decide how he or she wants to defend against you. I picture head, chest, legs and limbs, being the primary targets, and the attacks come from your legs and arms.
On the other paw, I think that leads into a really weird place: you, the player, shouldn't also be micromanaging your character's every moves. You want to think about strategies.
So for example: Stone Monkey engages in combat with Leaping Mantis. Leaping Mantis jumps in with a barrage of quick hits, but Stone Monkey plays Thorny Stone Wall, a powerful defense which returns damage every time the enemy attacks him, and reduces enemy damage considerably. Stinging from Monkey's return attacks, Mantis realizes he needs to change his strategy and performs a Feint which soaks up Monkey's defensive counterattacks, then a Hard Strike to pierce through the armor...
Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe we need to look at how turn order and initiative works. I'm thinking specifically, give players a hand of cards. They draw one card each round and then place one card down, then they go in order.
However, at any time, a player may play a higher card in order to block someone else's action. That reflects them jumping in to do something or other that alters the natural flow of things. They don't draw an extra card to replace it, so this can only happen a limited number of times. And this can lead to an exchange where people are 'one-upping' each other, changing what they do in order to reach an outcome more favorable to them. When Stone Monkey activates his defense, does Leaping Mantis see it in time to change his attack? The cards will decide!
Hmm.
I'll have to think about it. What do you all think, have you seen a martial arts RPG implemented already in a way you liked?
rowyn muttering about wanting a single simple RPG system that fits in 20k words, I figured I'd throw together some bits and pieces.Un-playtested, obviously. This is straight from my brain to the keyboard and from there into LJ. I decided on a 'kung fu' kind of setting.
Character Creation
Players get 15 points to spend on 'body stats'. These are divided into:
Strength: You hit harder, you can carry more, you can carry bigger weapons.
Agility: You hit more often, you can dodge enemy attacks, and you can better carry out precise and demanding tasks.
Zen: You can notice things that might elude casual observation. You pick up on social cues as well as physical signs.
Intellect: You know more about the world and its mysteries. You can figure out complex problems and work out solutions.
Chi: You have great drive. You won't be easily stopped in a fight. Fuels spells and powerful attacks.
The 'average person' has 2 points in each of these. You must have at least 1 point in each 'body stat', and no more than 5.
These feed into 'derived stats':
Wind: 5 * (Strength + Chi). Your endurance. Comparable to hit points in other systems, you lose Wind when the enemy lands a hit on you, but when you run out of Wind, the next solid hit that lands will be a Knockout. You also use Wind to fuel your powerful attacks.
Martial Arts and Combat
Pick an adjective and a noun, and that's your martial art in a nutshell. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Drunken Monkey, Blazing Sword, and so forth.
Martial arts would be designed using points. There'd be a list of common martial arts, and if people wanted to design their own, it would work like Champions in that you'd be able to balance out circumstantial advantages and disadvantages to reduce the point cost of your style. So, Drunken Monkey requires you to be drunk or else your powers work at half effectiveness. Blazing Sword adds fire damage, but is weak against water. Crouching Tiger emphasizes low-to-the-ground kicks and blocks, but is weak against bird-type arts that attack from above.
Let me go back to the idea of Champions and power pools. The idea of a power pool is that you have a grab bag of powers which all come from the same pool. Let's say your power pool is 30 points. Of that, you might have 3 20-point moves, and two 10-point moves. You can't activate them all at the same time, but you can use up to 30 points of moves in each round, so each round you could use a 20-point move and a 10-point move. Those moves don't necessarily have to be attacks; they could be defenses or utility moves like throwing down a puddle of slippery oil. Also, each 5 point of power costs 1 Wind. You regain your Chi in Wind each round.
With that in mind, we probably want to drill down a bit. The default action shouldn't be just "attack enemy", you should be trying for open spots, and your enemy has to decide how he or she wants to defend against you. I picture head, chest, legs and limbs, being the primary targets, and the attacks come from your legs and arms.
On the other paw, I think that leads into a really weird place: you, the player, shouldn't also be micromanaging your character's every moves. You want to think about strategies.
So for example: Stone Monkey engages in combat with Leaping Mantis. Leaping Mantis jumps in with a barrage of quick hits, but Stone Monkey plays Thorny Stone Wall, a powerful defense which returns damage every time the enemy attacks him, and reduces enemy damage considerably. Stinging from Monkey's return attacks, Mantis realizes he needs to change his strategy and performs a Feint which soaks up Monkey's defensive counterattacks, then a Hard Strike to pierce through the armor...
Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe we need to look at how turn order and initiative works. I'm thinking specifically, give players a hand of cards. They draw one card each round and then place one card down, then they go in order.
However, at any time, a player may play a higher card in order to block someone else's action. That reflects them jumping in to do something or other that alters the natural flow of things. They don't draw an extra card to replace it, so this can only happen a limited number of times. And this can lead to an exchange where people are 'one-upping' each other, changing what they do in order to reach an outcome more favorable to them. When Stone Monkey activates his defense, does Leaping Mantis see it in time to change his attack? The cards will decide!
Hmm.
I'll have to think about it. What do you all think, have you seen a martial arts RPG implemented already in a way you liked?
