Cinematic Combat

Cinematic Combat Rules

The following rules are shamelessly unrealistic and strictly optional, but can be fun in larger-than-life games!

Dual-Weapon Attacks

This optional rule might be cinematic ... but it is balanced enough to use in a realistic campaign. The GM has the final say. If you have at least two hands, you can strike with two hands at once using an Attack maneuver instead of an All-Out Attack (Double) maneuver. Each hand can attack unarmed, with a one-handed melee weapon, or with a pistol. Of course, if your ST is high enough, you can wield a two-handed weapon in one hand!

Each attack is at -4 to hit, but you can learn the Dual-Weapon Attack technique to reduce this penalty. You have an extra -4 (total -8) with your "off" hand, unless you have Ambidexterity or learn Off-Hand Weapon Training.

Roll to hit separately for each hand. You can attack one target or two – but to strike two foes with melee attacks, they must be adjacent. If you aim both attacks at a single opponent, he defends at -1 against them, as his attention is divided!

If you already have multiple attacks – for instance, from an Extra Attack – you may "trade" only one of these for a Dual-Weapon Attack. All your remaining attacks must be simple, single-weapon attacks.

Bulletproof Nudity

PCs with Attractive or better appearance can get a bonus to active defenses simply by undressing! Any outfit that bares legs, chest, or midriff is +1. Just a loincloth or skimpy swimwear is +2. Topless females get an extra +1. Total nudity gives no further bonus to defense, but adds +1 to Move and +2 water Move.

Cannon Fodder

The GM may rule that minor NPCs are mere "cannon fodder," with these effects:

1. They automatically fail all defense rolls ... yet never All-Out Attack.
2. They collapse (unconscious or dead) if any penetrating damage gets through DR. If they are unprotected, or if the hero's attacks are such that damage would always penetrate, there's no need to roll damage at all. In any event, don’t bother keeping track of HP!

Cinematic Explosions

In reality, a grenade or anti-tank rocket will almost certainly kill an unarmored man. In cinematic combat, explosions do no direct damage! Ignore fragmentation, too. All a blast does is disarray clothing, blacken faces, and (most importantly) cause knockback. Every yard of knockback from a cinematic explosion causes a token 1 HP of crushing damage.

Cinematic Knockback

In reality, guns cause little or no knockback. But in cinematic combat, a big gun can blast foes through windows and even walls! Work out knockback for a piercing attack just as if it were a crushing attack. In addition to rolling to see if he falls down, anyone who suffers knockback from any attack must make an IQ roll or be mentally stunned on his next turn. This roll is at -1 per yard of knockback.

Flesh Wounds

Immediately after you suffer damage, you may declare that the attack that damaged you (which can include multiple hits, if the foe used rapid fire) was a glancing blow or "just a flesh wound." This lets you ignore all but 1 HP (or FP) of damage ... at the cost of one unspent character point. If you have no unspent points, the GM might let you go into "debt": he will subtract these points from those you earn for the adventure.

Infinite Ammunition

PCs always have spare ammunition or power cells. If they use up all they are carrying, they immediately find more. Furthermore, weapons never malfunction.

Melee Etiquette

If a PC chooses to fight unarmed or with melee weapons, his opponents always face him one-on-one, one at a time. Unengaged NPCs can dance around the fight uttering shrill cries of encouragement, but wait their turn to attack.

If the foe is a super-strong monster that could kill or maim the hero with a single blow, it rarely strikes to inflict damage directly. Instead it slams the hero, or grabs him and tosses him around!

TV Action Violence

If struck by a potentially lethal attack (including a rapid-fire attack that inflicts multiple hits), the hero can choose to convert his failed defense roll into a success. This costs him 1 FP and he loses his next turn.

The hero cannot spend FP to avoid unarmed attacks or melee or thrown weapon attacks that inflict crushing damage (or no damage, such as a grapple), unless they would hit the skull or neck. Likewise, he cannot avert attacks on his weapons or nonliving possessions.

With this rule in effect, those involved in a fight with lethal weapons "duck for cover" and are forced "onto the defensive" until they're exhausted.

Martial Arts: More Cinematic Combat Rules

The unrealistic Cinematic Combat Rules – particularly Cannon Fodder, Flesh Wounds, Melee Etiquette, and TV Action Violence – are extremely appropriate for a chambara-style or Hollywood action-movie game. Some gamers might find them too silly for a serious campaign, though – even one that uses many other cinematic options. Below are further thoughts in this vein. Not all are rules! A few are advice to the GM on how to roleplay NPC adversaries.

Unarmed Etiquette

Weapons and shields can't parry or block unarmed attacks. This applies to PCs and NPCs alike. Against an unarmed foe, it may be necessary to discard weapons to survive – a weapon in each hand leaves only dodges against unarmed strikes! This reflects how swordfights work in some movies: fighters never use a blade to stop an unarmed attack painfully. Unarmed defenses that injure – Aggressive Parry and Jam – aren't affected.

Gun Control Law

If the PCs don't have firearms of their own, ordinary thugs won't use guns except to threaten them. When the thugs attack, they'll use bare hands or melee weapons as well. "Name" adversaries (a crack sniper hired to kill the PCs, the boss' right-hand man, etc.) may use firearms, but won't defend against attacks intended to disarm them.

Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy

If the Gun Control Law is broken, the bad guys won't hit with the first shot (or shots, if using rapid fire). This always lands close enough that the PCs know they're under fire, but never does any damage. The GM may extend this protection for multiple turns if the PCs are using Acrobatic Movement to get away instead of fighting!

Shaking It Off

A PC can undo the effects of a failed HT roll to avoid knockdown or unconsciousness by spending 1 FP immediately after he fails the roll. He feels woozy (the lost FP), but he shakes it off and stays standing. This is useful against knockdown by a 1-HP blow to the head or vitals that Flesh Wounds cannot affect (it always lets 1 HP through, which might still cause knockdown), and to weather attacks that TV Action Violence won't avert (such as unarmed blows to the torso and explosions that allow no defense roll).

Shout It Out!

In some comedic martial-arts films, fighters loudly name each move from a hidden style before they execute it. Attackers don't merely use "Death Palm," "Dragon's Claw," or "Eagle's Beak"...they shout it out. These attacks are supposedly unstoppable except by potent defenses – but merely knowing a counter isn't enough. The defender must shout out his move, too!

To simulate this, the GM may let players make up style names and buy Style Familiarity with these fictitious styles at the standard point cost. Each perk represents an entire body of hidden moves. The person who named the style must describe the general "flavor" of its moves; e.g., "Monkey King style is inspired by the monkey's agility and cunning."

A fighter can exploit such a Style Familiarity in two ways. He can shout out the name of an attack before launching it, giving the target -1 to defend against it, or he can call out the name of a defense, gaining +1 to his defense roll. If the attacker announces his attack ("Cobra Fist!") and the defender names his defense ("Snake Charmer!"), the modifiers cancel out.

These attacks and defenses aren't actual techniques but names the player makes up on the spot in keeping with the spirit of his fictional style. For instance, the Monkey King fighter might defeat a "Crane Style" defense with a "Monkey Snatches Fish from Bird" strike. The actual moves can be standard techniques – even ordinary attacks and parries. The martial artist uses his secret training to enhance them, naming them aloud to channel his chi.

A warrior can shout out only one technique – offensive or defensive – per style per battle. Once he has used a move from a secret style, it won’t catch his foes off-guard again. If he has several special Style Familiarities, each represents a different body of hidden teachings that he can use in the same battle. Opponents might not be surprised by another Monkey King attack – but they won’t expect a Righteous Southern Fire move! Reset the count in the next fight, even against the same adversaries. In the movies, old rivals always bring new tricks to a rematch.

The GM might wish to limit martial artists to one such Style Familiarity per full 50 character points they have, to ensure that experienced masters know more secrets than young Turks. He can also introduce special moves that have only one specific counter...in which case the PCs must develop it on their own or find an instructor who can teach it (an excellent time for The Training Sequence).

Proxy Fighting

A staple of humorous martial-arts movies is the martial artist who fights indirectly using items found around the battlefield. He doesn't wield these objects as improvised weapons – he uses them as "proxies" through which he can deliver his usual techniques! For instance, he might deliver a Jump Kick by leaping up and kicking a typewriter at a foe, grapple another enemy by slamming a door on him, and parry an attack by spinning an office chair into his assailant's path.

A fighter can only use an object this way if nobody else is holding onto it, its weight doesn't exceed his Basic Lift (use 1/10 the weight of a suspended or rolling item, such as a dooror a cart), and it can move to reach the desired target or block the incoming blow. If all these conditions are true, the martial artist can use any of his normal techniques at -4. When punching or kicking an object at someone out of reach, add the usual range penalty. Rather than bog down combat with math, assume that maximum range is ST/2 (round up).

A skilled martial artist can also use people this way – traditionally, young disciples, hapless sidekicks, or adversaries.

For this to work, the master's best melee combat skill (armed or unarmed) must exceed his victim's. He can either knock his proxy's body into other people or grab his unwitting ally and manipulate him like a giant puppet. In either case, if the proxy is armed, the controller can use the weapon (at default, if he lacks the necessary skill).

If the master merely wishes to slap another person into his foe, his proxy must be within his reach and his intended target must be within his proxy's reach. The proxy's facing is unimportant. The controller may attack his proxy with any strike (not a grapple) at an extra -4 plus the penalty to hit the "borrowed" body part: -2 for an arm or a leg, -5 for the head. If he hits and his proxy fails to defend, the proxy is unharmed but the commandeered body part strikes the desired target exactly as if the master had landed his technique directly.

To use someone else as a puppet requires a successful grapple with both hands from behind. The martial artist puts his hands on his proxy's arms, positions his legs behind the other person's legs, and so on. This takes a full turn.

On each later turn, determine whether the grappled proxy is willing or unwilling. A willing proxy must be conscious and take a Do Nothing maneuver on his turn (he can still shout and make big eyes). An unwilling proxy is anyone able to protest being used this way, most often an enemy. An unwilling proxy may try to break free as usual on his turn. Someone who is stunned – e.g., a wounded foe or a mentally stunned passerby – counts as willing!

The master cannot use a grappled proxy to perform any maneuver that requires more than a step or any technique that requires a jump. In a chambara game, he cannot use the special mobility rules. Otherwise, he can use all of his usual attacks and defenses. For a willing proxy, all rolls are at -4; for an unwilling one, the penalty equals the proxy's ST/2 (round up) but is always at least -4.

When attacking, damage is unchanged in all cases. There's no bonus for working through a heavy object or a strong person, and no penalty for using a light object or a weak person. (Unrealistic? Yes, but this is a silly rule!) If the target parries an attack in a way that would damage the attacker, any damage is to the proxy.

When defending, success stops the incoming blow as usual. Objects simply get in the way, although the GM may rule that the attack destroys a fragile object. People "parry" blows with their limbs or weapons, or "dodge" by being pulled aside. Failure means the proxy is hit, not his controller.

For obvious reasons, it's best not to use your Dependent this way! However, a skilled-but-frail master might fight through his clumsy-but-hardy student – and any fighter might find it handy to use one of his nemesis' henchmen as a human shield.

Bullet Time

At the GM's option, a player may spend 3 bonus character points to stop time for his PC in combat. He can do this at any time – even between an enemy's attack roll with a gun and the targets' dodge rolls or bullets' damage rolls, hence the name of the rule. The one thing this can't interrupt is death. If a failed HT roll means the PC is dead, he's dead; the player can't stop time to get a dying action.

Entering Bullet Time gives the hero one turn to do anything that he could do with a normal turn. After that, ordinary time resumes and the GM assesses the outcome of the fighter's actions. The player cannot spend more points to buy multiple, consecutive turns of stopped time.

Possible effects include:

• All-Out Attack, Attack, Committed Attack, Defensive Attack, and Move and Attack let him attack one or more foes, as his abilities allow. He rolls to hit normally. His targets are defenseless. The GM determines damage effects (knockback, knockdown, etc.) and applies them immediately when time returns to normal, before anything else occurs.
• Attack maneuvers also let him pluck arrows, bullets, etc., out of the air. The player may specify how close he lets them come before he stops time. It takes a DX roll and an attack to grab each projectile. Snatched weapons have no momentum upon returning to normal time, and cannot injure anyone.
• Concentrate lets him activate or deactivate a special ability, operate controls, etc., so that the ability or machine will be "on" (or "off") when normal time resumes.
• Move or Change Posture means that when time speeds back up, he'll be in his new location or posture.
• Ready allows him to draw an item, open a door, etc. When normal time resumes, the item is ready in his hand, the door is open, and so on.

In all cases, if he moves so much as a step during Bullet Time, all "paused" melee or missile attacks on him automatically miss when time starts again. If he moves between a weapon and its intended victim, the attack hits him when normal time resumes, although he may defend normally. If his actions move another person into the path of a suspended attack, it hits that person instead – but the victim may defend himself.

During Bullet Time, everything but the PC who initiated the change freezes...from his perspective. He sees everyone else paused in mid-step, bullets and arrows hanging in air, hand grenades trapped between ticks of the clock, and so on. He and any items he's carrying are the only things that move. Everyone else sees him move in a blur.

Bullet Time is similar to Player Guidance in that it lets players use unspent points to purchase game-world effects, but the effects are more dramatic. It's designed to simulate video games and "sci-fi wuxia" movies. It's inappropriate for campaigns based on traditional chambara or wuxia films, or quasi-realistic action movies. Even in games where it is suitable, the GM should limit it to combatants with Enhanced Time Sense, Trained by a Master, or Weapon Master.

Space: Cinematic Combat vs. Robots

Science fiction is full of ways for humans to defeat robots. Most of these are inappropriate or unbalancing for a serious campaign.

Paint on the Sensors:

Or glue, or spaghetti – anything sticky will do. A successful DX or Throwing roll, at -10 to hit (use an all-out attack!) will cover the robot's visual sensors, leaving it blind. An alternative is to place a cloak, tapestry, or hat over its head, though if the robot has arms, such obstructions can be easily removed.

In addition to having a -10 to hit (unless it has radar or other scanners), many movie robots who are blinded spin out of control for 1d turns due to disorientation, or destroy friend and foe alike with wild shots from their weapons. Some may even self-destruct! Give the robot an IQ roll to avoid panicking while blinded. Robots that do not panic will retreat, or rely on audio sensors or data transmitted from other robots to target opponents.

Run Upstairs:

Useful against robots with wheels or treads.

Cinematic Knockback:

In cinematic combat, a person with a shotgun or heavy pistol can sometimes stun a heavily armored robot, even if his shot didn't penetrate DR. GMs may rationalize this as the robot pausing to evaluate possible damage, the sensitive computer brain suffering disruption, or the robot being knocked off balance and having to reorient its gyros. In addition to rolling to see if it falls down, a robot that suffers knockback must make an IQ roll or be mentally stunned for one turn. The roll is at -2 per yard the robot was knocked back.

Defeat Them With Logical Paradoxes:

To be confused, the robot must be sapient, and willing or forced to listen. Unless the campaign is very silly, a robot will not self-destruct from being told "I always lie; I'm telling a lie," or from being asked to compute the value of pi to the last digit. Instead, the adventurers must confront the robot with a paradox in its own main programming. Success may also require a Contest of Psychology, Fast Talk, or Computer Programming (AI) vs. the robot's IQ.

If the robot loses, it may go into a frenzy, struggling to justify itself or resolve the paradox instead of attacking. In some cases, the effects of a success may be more severe. Suppose a robot is programmed to eliminate life. If its definition of "life" is broad enough to include the robot, and the PCs point this out, the robot might conveniently decide to destroy itself.

The Vat of Molten Metal:

There always seems to be one of these handy when a heavily-armored robot needs to be disposed of! The preferred method is to lure the robot next to the vat, then achieve a one-yard knockback or slam, or get it to fail a DX roll. The GM may give a PC a one-time +5 bonus to ST if he slams or grabs the robot, then holds on as it plummets and follows it to his doom! Immersion in a vat of molten metal does 10d corrosion damage each second.

Robot Combat Etiquette:

Automaton robots don't dodge, charge or even take cover; they advance at a steady walk, heedless of any fire! Once it gets close, any big, strong robot that has arms and hands will try to grab people rather than shoot or punch them.

See Also

• Martial Arts: Cinematic Combat