Martial Arts: Cinematic Combat

Cinematic Combat

Faster Combat

You can run extremely detailed fights using Martial Arts and the Basic Set, but most gamers find quicker combats more fun! Below are tips on how to speed up battle. They’re advice, not rules – the GM should use only the suggestions that suit his gaming group.

• Limit options. Let the players choose only those options that suit the kind of game you're running: realistic or cinematic, emphasizing unarmed martial arts or weapon styles, etc. Politely but firmly forbid the rest.
• Encourage options that lower defenses. Deceptive Attacks, feints, Ripostes, and Stop Hits add complexity...but reduced defenses increase the odds that a blow will land and end the fight. This keeps battles from taking forever because nobody ever fails a defense roll.
• Make a "cheat sheet." List modifiers and page numbers for all the optional rules you intend to use. An index card is ideal for this – and doubles as a handy bookmark for a page of frequently used rules.
• Work out everything in advance. Somewhere on the character sheet of each PC or important NPC, note such things as allowed movement, modified skill, and damage with attacks; jumping distance; slam damage at full Move; and crippling thresholds (damage over HP/2 and HP/3).
• Require speedy decisions. Tell each player to have his actions ready when his turn comes. If he doesn't, he must take some "default" action agreed upon in advance: All-Out Defense, Do Nothing, repeat his previous action, etc. "My PC is a kung fu master! He'd know what to do!" doesn't hold water. A second is still a second, even for a kung fu master. There's plenty of time to weigh options while others are taking their turns.
• Encourage "trademark moves." Have each player work out a few "standard operating procedures" in the form of an entire turn's worth of actions calculated in advance; e.g., "Committed Attack (Strong) and Rapid Strike: thrust to the vitals at skill 13, then a Deceptive swing to the torso for -2 defenses at skill 12." These are good "default" actions for the player who can't make up his mind!
• Hold players responsible for remembering options. If you let the players use a specialized rule, make it their job to remember its details and location. If they can’t remember the rule, their characters decide not to use the tactic.
• Have major wounds end fights. An NPC should flee or surrender if he takes a major wound (or crippling wound), unless he has a serious mental problem like Berserk. Don't keep going until everyone on one side is unconscious or dead. It takes forever and isn't especially realistic or cinematic.

What Is...A Rapid Strike?

A Rapid Strike is normally two distinct attacks – one after the other – but it doesn't have to be. It might instead be a single motion that connects more than once: a punch with an elbow behind it, a sword cut calculated to hit two legs at once, a knee to the groin that ends with a stamp to the foot, and so on. Since the two blows don't hit the same location at the same time, this is just a "“special effect." The target may defend normally against each attack, and has his full DR against both.

Other Rapid Strikes consist of a blow with a vicious follow-up. The target still gets normal defenses and DR against this. For instance, a knife thrust followed by a cut could represent stabbing and then tearing. The victim might twist so that the knife slides out (dodge), use his shield to shove you away (block), or restrain your wrist (parry). His armor DR would affect the second attack – despite the knife being inside his armor – because you have to rip through him and his armor. Similar logic applies to a stamp-and-grind with the heel, chop-and-draw with a sword, a grapple that nabs one arm and pulls it across the body to trap the other, and so on.

The GM should permit anything that applies on a per-attack basis – poison or magical flame on a blade, Innate Attack with Aura, and so on – to work once per attack, not just once per Rapid Strike. Simply assume that the target is exposed for longer or over a greater proportion of his body.

Because such interpretations have no game effects, you may take dramatic license when describing a Rapid Strike. This is good roleplaying!

Other Multiple Actions

The Multiple Attacks rules apply only to the All-Out Attack, Attack, Committed Attack, Defensive Attack, and Move and Attack maneuvers. A fighter can "trade" attacks for feints, but he can't sacrifice attacks to perform tasks covered by other maneuvers. He cannot make multiple posture changes with Change Posture (but see Acrobatic Stand), hastily Ready an unready weapon (but he can draw several weapons; see Multiple Fast-Draw), count his turn as more than one second of Concentrate, or Aim or Evaluate on a turn when he attacks. Exception: Individuals with Altered Time Rate can do all of these things by taking suitable maneuvers on their turn!

Mind Games

An important part of martial-arts mythology, especially in cinematic settings, is that "martial artist" is as much a mindset as it is a skill set. These optional rules address this philosophy.

The Contest of Wills

In martial-arts films and samurai legends, entire battles are fought in the mind. The warriors lock eyes, and then one suddenly breaks eye contact and walks away, beaten...or charges, knowing that he’s doomed.

To initiate a Contest of Wills, the challenger must Concentrate and lock eyes with his opponent. If his foe accepts the challenge, he must take a Concentrate maneuver as well. If he rejects it, he must make a Will roll to avoid being drawn in anyway. Success means he can take his turn normally and cannot be challenged again this combat.

Once the Contest begins, roll a Regular Contest of Will each turn. Either fighter may substitute Intimidation or Mental Strength for Will, if better.

Modifiers: Fearlessness; +5 each for Indomitable and Unfazeable; the better fighter gets +1 per three levels by which his best combat skill exceeds his opponent's. Reputation can go either way. For instance, -2 for being a ruthless killer would give +2, but +2 for being merciful might give -2. In some settings, Status and other reaction modifiers apply.

Roll once per turn until somebody wins. Find the winner's margin of victory as if this were a Quick Contest and make a reaction roll for the loser, applying the margin as a bonus. Use the "potential combat situation” results on the Reaction Table. If this drives the loser to attack, he has the winner's margin of victory as a penalty to his attack rolls!

This rule is for PCs and major NPCs. See Fear and Martial Artists for a way to demoralize thugs.

Concentration and the Martial Arts

Losing your cool can mean losing the fight! If a martial artist fails his self-control roll for a mental disadvantage that would distract him (GM's opinion), he fights at -2 to DX. This includes submitting to Bad Temper in any fight, Lecherousness when facing a sexy foe, etc., but not things like Berserk and Bloodlust.

Fear and Martial Artists

Fear can be a killer, too. A failed Fright Check is likely to stun the victim and make him easy prey. The GM may require Fright Checks from combatants who suffer dismemberment or lose an eye to an Eye-Pluck, a nose or an ear to Pressure Secrets, or any body part to a bite (see Teeth). While most Fright Checks in combat are at +5 for the heat of battle, those for gruesome injuries are not!

Heroic PCs can use Intimidation on minor NPCs. The GM may want to quantify the +1 to +4 for displays of strength as +1 per five of their number the NPCs know the heroes have defeated, to a maximum of +4. This doesn’t have to be in the same fight! It affects soldiers who hear tales from buddies who survived the last battle, thugs who see the heroes emerge unscathed from a room guarded by a dozen of their comrades, etc. Reputation is another important modifier; see The Contest of Wills. Enough bonuses make even default skill (Will-5) effective!

Faking It

To convincingly fake martial-arts skill based on what you’ve seen in demos and movies, make a DX-based Performance roll. Success means your audience believes you! This lets you attempt Intimidation using the rules for specious intimidation. Critical success means you pass yourself off as a master, which may have minor social benefits.

To portray the martial arts on stage or screen, roll against Stage Combat. This defaults to Combat Art/Sport skills at -2, and to combat skills and Performance at -3. For scenes involving multiple performers, roll against the lowest of the worst performer's skill and the choreographer's Fight Choreography skill.

Such tricks provide no combat benefits and are unlikely to fool real martial artists! Against a trained fighter, treat these rolls as Quick Contests. He gets an IQ-based roll against his best combat, Combat Art, or Combat Sport skill. You must win to convince him you're the real thing.

Fiction usually depicts combat dramatically, as either a heroic contest or a violent ballet. Often the bias is subtle, with the storyteller extending the benefit of the doubt to barely possible feats but otherwise hewing to reality. This is typical of the gossip of real-world martial artists when they relate tales of how their style pushes the limits! At the other end of the spectrum are epics that pit the superhuman techniques and unlikely weapons of the heroes against those of the villains, with little regard for physical laws.

Termed "cinematic" because it's most familiar to us from the movies, this dramatic approach isn't unique to the silver screen. This is the world of heroes from earliest myth and legend, battling armies, monsters, and gods; swashbucklers from romantic novels, dueling all comers to certain victory; comic-book ninja and commandos, using sheer skill to make up for small numbers; and masked wrestlers on television, taking hard hits from the top rope and still walking away from the bout.

In campaigns in this vein, the GM should consider using most or all of the optional rules in this chapter that aren't strictly unrealistic but that are possibly optimistic. These fall into two main categories:

• Rules that speed up actions or make extra actions possible (or easier), such as Quick Sheathing, Multiple Fast-Draw, Quick-Shooting Bows, Rapid Fire with Thrown Weapons, Rapid Strike with Thrown Weapons, Multiple Blocks and Parrying with Two-Handed Weapons.
• Rules that make fighters more mobile – especially if they involve acrobatics! These include Acrobatic Stand, Feints Using Non-Combat Skills, Acrobatic Movement, Acrobatic Attack, Flying Attack, and Retreat Options.

None of these options is absolutely cinematic. Used conservatively, they might even be realistic. Nevertheless, a campaign that features a large proportion of these rules will feel cinematic, while one that omits most of them won't – regardless of the GM's intent!

Some optional rules offer additional detail that doesn't suit a fast-and-loose cinematic game, the worst offenders being Postures, Hit Locations, and Techniques, Fast-Draw from Odd Positions, A Matter of Inches, Close Combat and Body Morphology, More Actions After a Grapple, and Fencing Parries. Harsh Realism for Unarmed Fighters and Limiting Dodges are meant for realistic characters, and would ruin the fun of cinematic warriors. Finally, Untrained Fighters doesn't suit PCs (even untrained ones) in a cinematic campaign – although it's a good option for "cannon fodder" NPCs!

Below are additional rules that can help build a cinematic feel. Except for Multiple Attacks, which appears here because it refers to several superhuman advantages, most of these are strictly cinematic. Use them in a realistic campaign at your peril!

Multiple Attacks

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Rapid Strike

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Feints and Multiple Attacks

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Multiple Targets

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Grappling and Multiple Attacks

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Chambara Fighting

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Chambara Movement

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Chambara Attacks

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Chambara Defenses

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Special Feats for Cinematic Skills

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Flying Leap

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Light Walk

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Lizard Climb

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Extra Effort in Combat

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Existing Options

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New Options

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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.