Lone Wolf Fists: Magical Martial Arts

I really only like the first few episodes of Dragonball Z.

The set-up is great; the world’s greatest, magical martial artist and his almost-equally powerful demonic rival get totally beaten by an alien superman. In the first episode, he’s already doing the Zod thing and demanding the hero break his moral code and kill a bunch of folks or lose his son.

The stakes are high; mortal foes Goku and Piccolo must join forces to have any hope of overcoming Raditz or he’ll destroy the world. Not a bad opener.

Best part? He kicks their asses. Raditz completely mops the floor with them; the whole fight is a long and desperate series of high-stakes failures. It’s only through a suicidal act of self-sacrifice that the duo can beat him, which starts the series off by killing the main character. Incredible.

Gets better though; his two buddies are coming in a year, and they make him look like a weakling. That’s right folks; this guy wasn’t even the miniboss, he was the goomba.

So the next few episodes, where we’re mostly watching the characters training, you’ve got a powerful tension that makes them a lot more consumable. Toriyama also does a great job of showing how difficult and strange the training is, and he shows just enough improvement to give us a sense of progress.

We follow both Goku training with King Kai in the afterlife and his son Gohan training in Piccolo’s demonic style on earth. The dynamic of master and student is interesting. The masters become proud of their students, learn about them, discipline them, and show genuine excitement as their mastery improves.

At one point Kai is like “Holy shit, this dude is going to master Kaioken. I’m immortal and I never thought this would happen!”

Importantly, we don’t see either student use their new powers right away. Toriyama knows a thing or two about drawing out that content: son of a (fine, upstanding young woman, no doubt) makes us wait until the fight with the Saiyans gets well underway before we get to see that action.

And that fight is a ballbuster too. The miniboss Sayian Nappa chews through 9/10ths of the main cast before Goku sprints his hairy ass to the battle. There’s heartbreak after heartbreak as characters fight their very hardest and die in utter futility against these bastards.

It’s only after he’s broken our hearts and totally convinced us that the series is doomed that Toriyama lets Goku arrive. It’s only then, when he shreds Nappa in the opening shots of the battle, that we get a sense of just how much all that training paid off.

Anyway it’s not something to miss. Go and buy the fist season DVD and be happy. It stays reasonably good up through the Frieza saga then falls apart, but it never gets to those heights again.

…

What’s the takeaway from this? There’s a lot to unpack, but for the sake of focus I’m going to direct your attention to how the characters learn and what that means for them.

Goku clearly learns new moves when he trains with King Kai. The act of learning those moves, the degree of discipline and effort required to master them, is what made him stronger.

Not just a little stronger either; he was like a different character when he returned to the world; even his best friend since childhood is like “Whoah there’s… Yeah there’s no way you’re Goku. He’s the strongest guy I know and you’re unrealistically stronger than him”

I echoed this mastery-through-move-acquisition in Lone Wolf Fists. Everything links back to which new moves you learn; get a more powerful move, you get stronger in every dimension.

Another important lesson: their new moves shaped the tactical landscape of the battle. Goku’s Kaioken enabled him to compete with warriors who enormously outclassed him. The final epic contest with between his Kamehameha wave and Vegeta’s Galick Gun was only possible because of his power-boosting use of Kaioken.

Later, when he realizes that he’s hit his limit and Vegeta is chasing him as a giant ape (this fight is rad guys), his use of the Spirit Bomb is him exercising a new tactical option at his disposal. The tactical landscape changed because he acquired new powers.

While I was writing, testing, and re-writing the rules for Techniques, I kept this firmly in mind. Techniques should never be bland; there should never be “speed bump” options that players hate. Each one should be magical, powerful, and desirable, even taken alone.

They need to open new tactical windows for players to clamber through. Sure, it’s cool that you can punch a car in half now, but if you’re also able to lift a building out of its foundations? Well, that’s a whole new dimension of tactical options that just opened for you.

There’s a lot to unpack with Techniques, too. I’ll let you get to reading them; see for yourself.

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Techniques

Techniques are magical martial arts moves. They are movements of body and spirit which focus a warrior’s Prana into something at once a maneuver and a spell. Powerful, dangerous, mystical; Techniques brought about the end of the world. In its ashes, they are wielded by hero and villain alike. Can these mystic martial arts redeem themselves and bring the world to salvation? Or are they doomed to bring only ruin?

To characters, Techniques are secret mystical attacks, defenses, and other maneuvers. They are taught by masters and recovered from ancient texts; replicating them is unthinkable, as they represent the culmination of effort from countless generations of magical martial-arts grandmasters. Mastering a Technique is a triumph both of effort and soul; it is a realization of a student’s destiny, and another step on their quest to self-perfection.

To players, they are special powers fueled by their character’s Prana. They offer great power and acquiring them increases their character’s core capabilities. You can probably see some similarities there!

How Techniques Work

Techniques are a central focus of this game; as such, there’s a lot going on with them. Some of it is obvious, some of it is subtle. We’re going to give you a shakedown on how Techniques work, how they’re acquired, and a thorough rundown of what they do in the game and some of the consequences of that. I sure hope you grabbed that sandwich.

Elements of a Technique

Let’s start by getting you familiar with the elements that comprise Techniques. Here’s what they look like all together:

Here’s a breakdown of the elements:

Name: The in-universe name of the Technique. These are sometimes descriptive, sometimes poetic. Generally, they offer a blend of both, telling you what a Technique does with a cool and intimidating title.

Cost: The amount of Prana which must be spent to use the Technique

Rank: Techniques generate Sets; this is the Rank of the Set.

Facing: This is the Facing of the Set. As with any Set, you may combine this with any other dice of the same Facing to increase its Rank.

Power: In addition to the Set they generate, Techniques often have other powers. They are detailed here.

Using Techniques

To use a Technique, first choose which one you want to use. You can only use one technique to enhance a single action, so choose wisely.

Next, spend Prana from one of your Chakra Pools equal to the Technique’s Cost. This is an act of magic in the game’s world; a martial artist channeling their Prana in a focused effort to change reality.

Now, the Technique does a few things.

First, it creates or enhances an action with a Set. This Set is equal to the Technique’s Rank. So, for instance, a Rank 2 Technique creates a Rank 2 action. Simple as that.

This Set has a Facing which is, you guessed it, provided by the Technique’s Facing. These are sometimes a range: 2-4 it might say. This means you get to choose any Facing within that Range. It could be a Facing of 2, or 3, or 4, in that example. You can’t mix Facings; you can’t have 2 and 4, for instance, and you can’t choose a Facing outside of that range, like a 5.

Here’s a very important note to this step: this Set made by a Technique? It works like any other Set. This means that you can combine it with Sets or dice of like-Facing.

Furthermore, actions created work like any other action. Head on back to p.XX for a refresher on them, but in brief:

•  You get a single Rank 1 action per turn
• You get as many Rank 2+ actions as you like per turn
• You can use Rank 1 defenses as often as you like

What does this mean for Techniques? It has a lot of implications; if you have a Rank 1 Technique, you can only use it once per turn unless you’re enhancing another action with it, for example. Just keep that in mind as you’re learning about and using Techniques; they make Sets and Sets all work the same.

The next important thing Techniques do is unleash their Power. These are unique effects created by the Technique’s magic. Techniques describe exactly how their Power manifests: sometimes this is in mechanical terms (“Creates a fire-element Hazard of Rank 3…”) sometimes it is described as an effect in the Tactical Infinity (“Onlookers begin weeping uncontrollably…”)

Often, a Technique’s Power has one or more Keywords which enhance, direct, or limit it’s uses. This is explained shortly.

After it’s Effect and Set have been manifested, the Technique has expended its power and concludes. It can be used again to enhance another action if it’s Cost is paid once more. Although only a single Technique may enhance a given action, multiple Techniques (or the same Technique numerous times) may be used on the same turn.

Keywords

Some powers or restrictions are common: these are grouped under Keywords for ease of use. They appear under the Power heading. Here are some common keywords:

Offensive: This Technique may only be used to increase or create an Attack.

Defensive: This Technique may only be used to increase or create a Defense.

Versatile: This Technique may be used to increase or create an attack or defense

Sustainable: Techniques bearing this keyword can be sustained, like Skills.

Counterattack: These Techniques answer the foe’s attack with a deadly counter. If your Defense reduces the Attacker’s total to a negative result, the Technique inflicts Damage equal to the negative total to attacker.
For example, you’re attacked with a 38 result. Using a Counterattack Technique, your defense is boosted to an impressive 50. This reduces the attacker’s total to -12, so they’re walloped for 12 damage. Ouch!

Infuse: A Technique with this ability saturates a touched object with its cruel magic, poisoning it
On weapons or fists, this allows a strike to poison a target

More insidiously, food, drink and other consumables may be tainted so that those ingesting them suffer the effects of the poison

Infuse Techniques do not create attacks of their own; they only empower attacks. Because of this limitation, they can be used in conjunction with other Techniques. This is a special exception to the normal limit of 1 Technique per action.

Holy/ Unholy: These Techniques resonate with holy or unholy energy. They deal +1 Rank of damage to beings of the opposing type (Holy attacks smite Unholy creatures and vice versa). An unholy being cannot use a holy-keyword Technique, and likewise holy beings may not use unholy Techniques. They may still learn and teach them, however.

Levels of Technique

Each martial style has four levels of Techniques, ranging from the easiest to master to the most difficult. These levels are as follows:

Novice: The simplest and most direct Techniques. The forms that teach these techniques are taught to the most promising students. Those whose quest for self-mastery unlocks the dormant power of their Chakra learn how to focus their Prana through the motions and unleash these maneuvers. They lack the versatility and raw power of more advanced techniques but are still an expression of pure will brought to reality by magic. Most styles have four of these.

Expert: These more advanced maneuvers can only be mastered by those with the potential for greatness. They offer incredible power; some martial artists are known by their signature Expert-level Technique. Most styles have three such Techniques.

Master: Learning one of these rarified Techniques is the mark of a master (hence their name). Their wielders gain the power to achieve feats beyond the capabilities of their lessers, literally doing the impossible. These Techniques (and their masters) are respected and feared. Most styles only have two such powers.

Ultimate: These Techniques offer power beyond the pinnacle of mortal achievement. Those who 

learn these maneuvers crave a might both dangerous and inhuman. These powers once destroyed the world; what can be said of those who seek them, let alone of those who master them? Complete styles have but one of these awesome Techniques.

Breaking the limits of the Effect Charts

Techniques offer power beyond their martial uses: they allow a mortal martial artist to surpass their earthly limitations and achieve godlike feats. They do this by breaking through the Rank limitations of the Effect charts. This works as follows.

Every mystical martial style has a single skill (Power, Agility, Endurance, Senses, Intellect, Heart or Spirit) which it may enhance with its Expert and higher-level Technique’s Sets in lieu of providing its Power.

For example, rather than searing a foe with the Violet Immolation Arc, you may use it’s Set to perform a Rank 2 Agility action (or combine it with some Effort dice to make an even higher-Ranked action).

•         Novice Techniques, the weakest variety and easiest to master, cannot enhance skills this way unless their Power states that they can.
•         Expert level Techniques may enhance the skill but are still bound to the limitation of 6 on the Effect charts.
•        Master-level Techniques push this limitation, allowing up to Rank 7 effects.
•     Ultimate Techniques unleash the full power of the effect charts, enabling terrifying Rank 8 effects.

In all cases, you must actually achieve the Rank to get it’s result. Even if you unleashed an Ultimate Technique, it would only create a Rank 5 Effect unless you combined it with other Effort dice. In this way, you must fuse the most powerful magic with your character’s effort and concentration to achieve the highest results.

Learning new Techniques

Characters gain power solely through their mastery of new Techniques. The self-refinement and discipline required to master ever more powerful Techniques refines their body and soul, broadening and deepening their capabilities with each new move they learn.

Mechanically, characters gain higher Degree as they learn new Techniques. The mix of Techniques necessary for this, and what new powers this unlocks, is detailed later when we talk about Degrees (p.XX)

In the meantime, let’s learn how to get new moves.

Kharmic cost: to learn a new Technique, you must spend accumulated Kharma equal to it’s Kharmic Cost. To characters, this represents the fusion and refinement of their many struggles with destiny into a concrete expression of its realization. To players, this is their payoff for many, many scenes of entertaining (and sometimes difficult!) roleplay.

Training: As already mentioned under Montage Scenes (p.XX), it takes a full Montage of training, self-reflection and practice to learn a new Technique.

Now, it’s entirely possible that Orthogonal content, Zui consequences or just the twisted will of the GM interrupts this training with something dangerous and exciting, like a disaster or an enemy coming to seek their vengeance. This doesn’t interrupt your training; as a matter of fact, it’s considered a part of the training.

At any time while you’re dealing with this distraction, you can unleash the new Technique for the very first time. Within the setting, these events of sudden and complete mastery of a new Technique are called Moments of Clarity. We adopt that same nomenclature out of game (because it’s cool). 

Training Methods: There are two; Masters and Manuals.

Masters are characters that already know the Technique. They teach the student it’s nuances and guide them through a training regimen over the course of the Montage scene, ultimately culminating in the student’s mastery (or failure, if they don’t have the Kharma handy to pay for it).

An important note about masters is that they must willingly teach the student. Most will only do so for a student they deeply trust on a philosophical or personal level. It’s not impossible to coerce one, but ultimately, they must teach the Technique willingly.

Manuals are written or recorded instruction that guide a student through the nuances and training regimen. Unlike a master, a manual cannot be asked questions, making them notoriously frustrating when the maneuver is unintuitive or difficult.

However, a manual cannot refuse to teach its lesson. In many cases, it is much easier to learn from a manual than a recalcitrant master. The creation, passing, and theft of manuals is common practice among the martial brotherhoods of the World of Ashes and Ghosts.