Lone Wolf Fists: Redesigning the Kung-Fu (Water and Wood martial arts)

Hey all! The end of the playtest writing is finally in sight (thank god). Pretty soon, the eyebleed's eyesore will be no more, and the playtest's hotness will be at your door (beatbox noises with my mouth)

Ahem. In any event, the first time I wrote the kung-fu styles in their entirety in like, three sleepless days. I've had some considerable thought on them since then (and also considerable feedback, including from my esteemed co-creator David Ramirez). It was pretty clear, even when I first wrote them, that I'd need to re-write them at some point. Well, that's now.

One of the significant changes is going to be spinning off any overtly social or non-martial magic into Gupt Kala of their own (so the Golden Lion's fighting style isn't going to surrender a third of it's martial options to social magic, for instance).

My first run at it had total parity between the seven factions and the seven masteries; that degree of 1-to-1 matching seemed unified on paper, but after writing it out it was a scattered and unintuitive mess.

In that paradigm, a social-based kung-fu made sense throwing lightning around. But, on reflection, it doesn't feel or play right. That's not something you'd see in Fist of the North Star.

Another change is just an evolution in my understanding of the tactical realities of how people play the game. I based a lot of the system's strategy on the resource-creating curve that games like Magic: The Gathering use (magic uses land-drops, while my game's version is opening Chakras).

Magic balances around the "mana curve", or the amount of lands (or resources, in their case "mana") you'll potentially have available in an otherwise unchanged land-drop environment of one land max per turn. First turn? One mana. Second turn? Two. And so on.

My game has a similar framework, but the resource advancement is more permeable; Not only do different characters have different amounts available to start, but they also have different amounts they can potentially activate.

Studying this and running mock battles has led to me realizing that my costing curves are kind of screwed up; I wasn't thinking about the environment and resource availability in sufficient detail to cost correctly (I also based the cost largely from the likelihood of rolling a set of a given size, which factors in less in the current pricing).

Um... This is getting dull. Let me talk about some of the bloodier, gorier, head-explodier reasons I changed stuff.

Here's the wood style of the Emerald Kirin. Originally, this was a nature-loving hippy style, emphasizing mystical wood-control and healing magic. That... didn't feel very post apocalyptic. Like, I wanted the Kirin's mystical jungle to feel like a savage paradise to contrast with the arid, radioactive wastelands of most of the setting.

But it didn't give you a lot of brutal, flesh-shredding combat options. Excessive, almost comedic violence is an important hallmark of Fist, so I re-wrote the whole style. I wanted to keep the healing stuff, but put a more monstrous twist on it; so now, it's based on Wolverine's ability to regenerate himself, more than some hippy-dippy green healing borefest.

Further, the main offense tree is this savage, "Vietnam flashback" style ultraviolence, which is both more visceral and more appropriately stomach-churning. The defensive powers drive this feeling of guerrilla-warfare, jungle-predator home by emphasizing movement, retribution and pack tactics.

The ultimate technique is showing off my new design thinking for ultimates: rather than being strictly more powerful, it's a little closer to a powerful paradigmatic shift. This is again similar to M:TG's rares; while not strictly the strongest, most expensive spells, they can be more efficient, or break the expected sequence of play in a powerful way, or just change the terms of the game, making them keys to particular strategies.

(Hey stick around after the style; I did two, and I want to talk about the second one!)

...

Immortal Emerald Tiger

Novice

Blood of the Serpent

• Cost: -
• Rank: (1)
• Facing: (3-6)
• Effect: Once per round, regenerate 1d10 Health, or Aggravation from a physical Imbalance. This can reduce the Rank of an Imbalance. Your wounds always heal completely and leave no lasting scars. In addition, you may pay 3 Prana to create or increase an Endurance action, as indicated by the value in parenthesis. 
• Keywords: Healing
• Skill: Endurance

Flesh-Gnawing Swipe

• Cost: 3
• Rank: 1
• Facing: 6-9
• Effect: This attack twists your fingers into savage skin-ripping hooks. A successful hit generates 1d10 Aggravation in addition to the damage it inflicts, creating or worsening any physical Imbalance. 
• Keywords: Offensive
• Skill: Power

Badger’s Furious Defense

• Cost: 3
• Rank: 1
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: Increases any physical defense. You may additionally spend an Effort die from your Effort Pool or Focus to add the Counterattack keyword to this technique, as you double your effort into savagely retaliating against the foe.
• Keywords: Defensive, (Counterattack)
• Skill: Agility

Expert

Frog and Gecko Flesh

• Cost: 7
• Rank: (2)
• Facing: (3-6)
• Effect: Regenerate 3d10 Health of Physical Aggravation. If this is used to heal a damaged or missing limb, it is totally regenerated. Cannot restore sense or generative organs. May instead create or increase an Endurance action using the results in parentheses. 
• Keywords: Skill
• Skill: Endurance

Vein-Splitting Jaguar Assault

• Cost: 7
• Rank: 2
• Facing: 6-9
• Effect: This ferocious strike mangles flesh and organs, hideously wounding your foe. If you successfully hit your enemy, you may spend any number of Effort Dice from your Effort Pool or Focus Slots. For each die you expend, increase the damage you deal by +1d10.
• Keywords: Offensive
• Skill: Power

Leopard and Monkey Motion

• Cost: 7
• Rank: 2
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: Creates both a defense and Agility action when used. This Agility action is taken out of sequence, allowing you to move before the foe takes any other actions. This is incredibly useful for a hasty retreat. 
• Keywords: Defensive
• Skill: Agility

Master

Frog and Scorpion Nerves

• Cost: 15
• Rank: (3)
• Facing: (0-3)
• Effect: Regenerate 5d10 Health of Physical Aggravation. Any damaged organ or limb can be resuscitated, no matter how extensively injured. Alternatively, you may use this technique to boost an Endurance action, as exhibited in the parenthesis. If you are poisoned or sick and overcome that danger with Endurance empowered by this technique, you fully metabolize the malady and may excrete it as a bodily fluid, poisoning those that contact it. You are forever immune to identical afflictions so absorbed.
• Keywords: -
• Skill: Endurance

Lion Onslaught Rush

• Cost: 27
• Rank: 4
• Facing: Any
• Effect: You launch an explosion of ferocious attacks. The Ranks of this Technique may be split up to empower multiple strikes (for example, a Rank 1 and Rank 3 boost). All strikes empowered by this technique deal 1d10 Physical Aggravation in addition to their damage.
• Keywords: Offensive
• Skill: -

Alpha Shepherds the Pride Instruction

• Cost: 15
• Rank: 3
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: In addition to protecting yourself with inhuman dodging and reaction time, you may split the Ranks of this defense between yourself and any followers, allies or other characters you can perceive.
• Keywords: Defensive
• Skill: Agility

Ultimate

Savage God Trance

• Cost: 28
• Rank: -
• Facing: -
• Effect: You enter a trance, channeling the soul of the primal hunting god that taught these techniques to mankind. This effect is Sustainable.  For this entire round, and as long as it remains sustained, it grants you several powerful boons:
• Motion of the Primal God: Select three Novice-Level Techniques as you enter the trance. Those Techniques are now natural abilities you may evoke once per round, for no Prana cost.
• Divine Savage Decree: Once per round, you enjoy up to a 10-Prana discount on any Technique.
• Beyond Mortal Limitations: The cap for all your natural rolls is now 8, rather than 6.
• Keywords: -
• Skill: -

....

More Talking About Kung-FU

I promised you more, didn't I? Well, here it is; the water-kung-fu of the Brotherhood of Freaks. This one is less changed thematically than the wood style; you're still a water bender with the kamehameha.

The biggest innovations of this style are the new robustness of the environmental interaction mechanics. Freezing water into ice pillars and skating around on frozen surfaces means something new in light of the environment destruction rules under the Power skill and the movement rules under Agility.

Also, making a water-bending style in it's entirety was all of four Techniques; water-bending in Avatar: the Last Airbender consistent of:

1) Making waves happen

2) Impromptu ice sculpting

3) Turning water into a razor

4) Octopus bubble?

It's amazing how much of that you get from "you can move, shape and freeze ( X amount of) water". I had to put in some skull-crushing super-savage (somewhat made-up) Hawaiian martial arts to both fill out the style's techniques and unify it with the game's brutal aesthetic. Pretty easy to do though, since Hawaiian kung-fu apparently translates to BONE BREAKER STYLE. 

Christ, I wouldn't fight someone who knew that style on the strength of the name alone. Like if you called it Eye-Gouging-Finger I just... Y'know, maybe we can settle this without gouging?  

...

Supreme Ocean Devil

Novice

Water Charming Mantra

• Cost: 3
• Rank: 1
• Facing: 3-6
• Effect: You may Command or Transform water.
• Command: Levitate, shape and mold a volume of water, using the final Rank of this technique as a Power effect. 
• Transform: Freeze/thaw an equal amount of water surface on contact, up to 10” in thickness. This can be used to make ice bridges across lakes, or freeze a foe below the surface of a pond, for instance.
• Keywords: Element Control (Water)
• Skill: Agility

Razor-tipped waves

• Cost: 3
• Rank: -
• Facing: -
• Effect: Create a weapon or small, simple item out of water (this technique allows you to harden liquid water into ice, convert it to steam, or transform it into any state it can naturally occupy). Solid items are as brittle as ice. If you create a weapon, you gain it’s bonus once for free and you may levitate and control it with your will, allowing you to summon and command a small army of weaponry.
• Keywords: Element Control (Water), Offensive
• Skill: Senses

Creature of the waves meditation

• Cost: 2
• Rank: 1
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: Toughens your body and quickens your reflexes to increase your defense. Additionally, you may breath water as easily as air: this element is Sustainable, although the defense boost is not.
• Keywords: Defensive
• Skill: Endurance

Expert

Wave and Glacier Command

• Cost: 7
• Rank: 2
• Facing: 3-6
• Effect: You may Command or Transform water.
• Command: Levitate, shape and mold a volume of water, using the final Rank of this technique as a Power effect. 
• Transform: You may freeze/thaw up to a 10’ thickness and shape it spontaneously into simple architectural elements, such as pillars, walls, and statues.
• Keywords: Element Control (Water)
• Skill: Agility

Bonebreaker Strike

• Cost: 7
• Rank: 2
• Facing: 6-9
• Effect: Your fists, feet and forehead harden and fill with Prana as you launch them with tsunami force into the hapless foe.
• Keywords: Offensive
• Skill: Power

Riptide Defense Stance

• Cost: 8
• Rank: 2
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: Creates a defensive bubble of blue energy, shielding you from incoming attacks. If it is breached, or at your command against a weaker strike, it shatters in an explosive burst. Roll 1d10 per Rank of the shield; this is the total of an Offensive blast you can use to attack the foe that broke the shield. This gush of energy otherwise acts as an Offensive technique, so you may further empowered it with Effort, Focus or Weapons as usual.
• Keywords: Defensive, Shield, Sustainable
• Skill: Endurance

Master

Sea God’s Whim

• Cost: 13
• Rank: 3
• Facing: 3-6
• Effect: You may Command or Transform water.
• Command: Levitate, shape and mold a volume of water, using the final Rank of this technique as a Power effect.
• Transform: You may freeze/thaw the entire amount you control. Alternatively, you can create a typhoon disaster with a Rank equal to your result. 
• Keywords: Element Control (Water)
• Skill: Agility

Tide Against the Breakers Strike

• Cost: 22
• Rank: 4
• Facing: 6-9
• Effect: Your arms and hands swell with Prana. In addition to enabling a stone-crushing attack, this allows you to grab and throw a single foe with superhuman strength. The grab may be Sustained at its magic-heightened level.
• Keywords: Offensive
• Skill: Power

Sea Devil’s Vortex

• Cost: 13
• Rank: 3
• Facing: 0-3
• Effect: Creates a shield of lashing water tendrils.The tentacles counterattacks those foolish enough to strike you. Cannot function without a substantial volume of water to shape into tentacles (1 barrel, roughly 42 liquid gallons of water)
• Keywords: Defensive, Shield, Counterattack
• Skill: Endurance

Ultimate

Mountain-Shattering God Tsunami

• Cost: 22+
• Rank: 4+
• Facing: 6-9
• Effect: Generates a wave of throbbing blue Prana to hurl at your foes. The base form is Rank 4, but you may charge another Rank for 4 Prana. The upper limit of Rank charged in this manner is 24 Prana, or a total of Rank 10. The wave of energy can be blasted at range, and directed like a stream of liquid.
• Keywords: Offense, Energy, Ranged
• Skill: Power