Martial Arts: Creating New Techniques

Creating New Techniques

This chapter’s techniques don’t constitute an exhaustive list. Each martial-arts master has unique moves, a typical fencing manual describes hundreds of attacks and parries for one type of sword, and a global survey of unarmed fighting arts would reveal thousands of kicks. This doesn’t even touch on feats from legend and cinema, which – freed of the fetters of physics – vastly outnumber realistic techniques! Thus, the GM is likely to learn of new techniques from fact and fiction...and face players who want signature moves for their characters.

Most “new” techniques are variations on existing ones, with differences so subtle that they don’t merit game effects. For these, don’t bother with the design system below. Just rename one of the techniques on pp. 65-89 to agree with your source and use its rules as written. The original technique and all renamed versions should default to one another at no penalty. For instance, you might refer to Lethal Strike (p. 85) as “Spear Hand” or “Crane’s Bill,” but all would use the Lethal Strike rules and default to each other at full skill.

Below is a greatly expanded version of Creating Techniques (p. B229) that’s intended for truly new techniques. This system is meant for dedicated Martial Arts campaigns. Its degree of detail would be excessive in other kinds of games. It’s also primarily for GMs. If the GM permits players to use it, he should carefully examine their creations before allowing them.

Name

Give the technique an evocative name. You might take this from a real-world style or a fictional source, or simply make it up. The name might be prosaic, like “Uppercut”; designed to frighten enemies, like “Up From Hell”; or poetic, like “Brushing the Horse’s Tail” or “Swallow Takes Wing.”

Concept

Decide what the technique does in game terms. Skip down to Defaults (pp. 90- 92) to see what’s possible, if you’re unsure. The crucial thing to remember is that combat skills – studied as part of a style or on their own – represent the distillation of decades, centuries, or millennia of experience under circumstances where error could mean death. Thus, their core uses provide a tried-and-true balance between several measures of effectiveness, notably defense, mobility, power, precision, reach, and speed. A technique that stresses one or two of these things will compromise the rest. Also bear in mind that a technique cannot improve the core use of the skill to which it defaults: punching for Boxing, Brawling, or Karate; grappling for Judo, Sumo Wrestling, or Wrestling; or swings and thrusts for Melee Weapon skills. Techniques can only boost secondary uses (e.g., kicking, for Brawling or Karate) or penalized versions of primary ones. The same logic applies to techniques that default to active defenses: these cannot improve ordinary active defense rolls, only penalized uses in special circumstances.

Prerequisites

Basic Attacks

A basic attack is any fundamental use of a combat skill that can form the basis of an offensive technique, defining its initial effects and default penalties. A skill’s “core” use is the most basic attack of all and defaults at +0. For an unarmed striking skill, this is a hand strike or punch that deals thrust-1 crushing damage (p. B271). For an unarmed grappling skill, this is a grapple (p. B370). For a weapon skill, this is any of the attacks listed in the table entry for that weapon – although not every weapon technique works with every attack. Trickier options include elbow strikes (p. B404, p. 71), grabs (p. B370), kicks (p. B271, pp. 75-76), knee strikes (p. B404, p. 76), shoves (p. B372), slams (p. B371), sweeps (p. B232, p. 81), and throws (p. B203, pp. 75,78-79).

Unless the technique is based on Dodge or an attribute, it must specify at least one prerequisite skill. The technique automatically defaults to this skill – or, for defensive techniques, to the Block or Parry score calculated from this skill. If more than one skill qualifies as a prerequisite and gives a default, the buyer must specialize; see Specialties (p. 92-93). Skills that don’t give defaults can still be logical prerequisites; e.g., Acrobatics for flamboyant jumping kicks, or Riding for mounted techniques.

It’s reasonable to name another technique as a prerequisite, too. This may or may not give a default. A fighter must have at least a point in the prerequisite technique to improve the subsidiary technique, but he can always attempt it at default – or even at “double default,” if he has points in the underlying skill but not in either technique.

Finally, advantages can be prerequisites. By far the most common of these is Style Familiarity (p. 49) with a style that teaches the technique. All cinematic techniques require Trained by a Master or Weapon Master – anyone can attempt them but only warriors with one of those advantages can improve them. Techniques for nonhumans might require Claws, Extra Arms, Strikers, etc., if they rely on such body parts.

Defaults

A technique must default to a skill, another technique, an active defense, or (rarely) an attribute. The default penalty measures the technique’s precision. Improvements in areas other than precision – mobility, power, reach, etc. – worsen the penalty, while shortcomings reduce it. The more allround capability a technique offers, the worse its default penalty and the more points you must spend to get good at it!

Many techniques incorporate maneuvers, active defenses, or combat options (such as Telegraphic Attack and Wild Swing), but thanks to the design principles behind GURPS, they obey the same rule: if they favor one type of effectiveness, they sacrifice another.

Below are guidelines for assigning default penalties. You can save time and effort by starting with the closest existing technique and adjusting its default as you add and subtract effects. The most important rule is this:

The final default modifier can never give a bonus. If this happens, set it to 0.

Offensive Techniques

When building an offensive technique, you must choose the attack it’s based on. This determines its basic default penalty. Some important options by skill, with basic default penalties given in parentheses:

Boxing: Punch (+0).
Brawling: Elbow (-2), Kick (-2), Knee (-1), Punch (+0), or Slam (+0).
Judo: Grab (-4), Grapple (+0), Sweep (-3), or Throw (+0).
Karate: Elbow (-2), Kick (-2), Knee (-1), Punch (+0), or Sweep (-3).
Melee Weapon: Strike (+0). A hooked/tined weapon, whip, etc., can Grab (-4). A long weapon can Sweep (-3).
Sumo Wrestling: Grab (-4), Grapple (+0), Shove (+0), Slam (+0), or Sweep (-3).
Wrestling: Grab (-4) or Grapple (+0).

Unless you specify otherwise, the technique works with all of All-Out Attack, Attack, Committed Attack, Defensive Attack, and Move and Attack. It can work differently in each case, though. If so, be sure to describe the differences.

You can limit the technique to a subset of these maneuvers. If you do, you must also choose one specific option for any maneuver that offers multiple options. The technique inherits the effects of these maneuvers and options – including any built-in penalties to the attack roll, which adjust the default penalty. For instance, a kick (-2) that must use Move and Attack (-4) would default to skill-6 and use the Move and Attack rules. If you apply any of the modifications below, the technique effectively becomes a new option for the maneuver( s) in question.

Additional effects further modify the default. While some of these are open-ended, extreme levels are cinematic; see Designing Cinematic Techniques (pp. 94-95). Common options include:

Damage: +4 to default for -2 damage or -1 damage per die, whichever is worse; +2 to default for -1 damage; -2 to default for +1 damage; or -4 to default for +2 damage or +1 damage per die, whichever is better. Techniques based on Defensive Attack cannot take damage bonuses but can worsen their damage penalty for an improved default.

Extra Movement: Techniques based on Committed Attack can optionally allow a double step at -2 to hit. Those based on Move and Attack let the attacker travel his full Move at -4 to hit. In either case, add the appropriate penalty to the technique’s default penalty. Alternatively, base the technique on All- Out Attack, which allows half Move at no penalty. For a slambased technique, remember that a slam isn’t at -4 to hit (and isn’t “capped” at skill 9) as a Move and Attack, and allows full Move as an All-Out Attack.

Hit Location: Add any hit location penalty to the default. No technique can eliminate every hit location penalty, though! At most, a technique can eliminate the penalty for one specific target. For details, see Targeted Attacks (p. 68).

Opponent’s Defenses: +2 to default per +1 to all of the opponent’s defenses against the attack, or -2 to default per - 1 to any one of the target’s defenses against the attack. If the technique penalizes more than one defense, only the largest penalty uses this scheme; smaller penalties to other defenses give only -1 to default per -1 to defense. For instance, if the victim has -2 to parry, -1 to block, and -1 to dodge, the default is at -6.

Own Defenses: +2 to default per -1 to all of one’s active defenses while attacking, or -2 to default per +1 to any one active defense. The latter modifier differs from Defensive Attack in that it trades skill rather than damage for a defensive bonus; it can “stack” on top of a regular Defensive Attack. Techniques based on Committed Attack include that maneuver’s basic -2 to all defenses and cannot remove this by adding a defensive bonus – but they can get an easier default by taking a worse penalty! Techniques based on All- Out Attack cannot modify the attacker’s defenses at all.

Wild Swing: If the attack specifically strikes a target to the side or back, apply the -5 Wild Swing penalty to its default (see Wild Swings, p. B388).

Special Benefits: Each built-in exemption from the usual rules gives -1 to the default penalty. Such benefits are similar to Style Perks (pp. 49-52) but apply only to one technique. Examples include:

• Being able to retreat after a particularly acrobatic Committed Attack.
• Bypassing the DX roll to avoid falling on a miss with a low-powered kick.
• Ignoring the effective skill limit of 9 on a Wild Swing when striking rearward.

A technique can also “trade” one of the usual effects of the attack on which it’s based for a different but equally valuable effect. For example, Push Kick (p. 78) lets a Brawling or Karate kick act as a shove (p. B372), trading kicking damage for the ability to use twice that damage for knockback only. Conversely, a “Slap” technique might turn a Sumo Wrestling shove into a strike that inflicts punching damage instead of knockback. Such benefits often make an entirely new basic attack available to a skill. All such techniques get -1 to their default penalty to reflect the fact that they’re unusual, rarely taught uses.

Special Drawbacks: Extra restrictions give +1 apiece to the default penalty. A few examples:

• An additional success roll required before attempting the technique (failure means the technique fails) or to recover afterward (with negative consequences on a failure!).
• Having to Do Nothing to recover on the turn after the technique. This is cumulative with the modifier for an extra success roll afterward.
• Having to parry an attack by the future target and/or use a “setup” move that takes a full turn (e.g., grapple him or take a Ready maneuver) to be able to employ the technique. This is cumulative with the modifier for an extra success roll beforehand. Throws automatically work like this and cannot claim this drawback.
• Increased odds of the attacker getting hurt on an ordinary miss. This might be self-inflicted injury when punching any DR instead of DR 3+, collision damage, etc.
• Limited target selection, most often “upper body only” (skull, eyes, face, neck, torso, vitals, arms, and hands), “lower body only” (groin, legs, and feet), or “only on a foe who isn’t standing or who has lower SM.”

Some drawbacks come in multiple levels:

• A penalty to the DX roll to avoid falling on a missed kick is worth +1 for DX-2, +2 for DX-4, or +3 for DX-6 or worse. A required or automatic fall, as for Drop Kick (p. 70) or Elbow Drop (p. 70-71), is worth +4. Having to drop to a kneeling or sitting posture is worth only +2.
• Reduced maximum reach is worth +1 per yard. Going from 1 to C counts as 1 yard (+1) and is common for lowpowered kicks.

Example 1: Back Kick (p. 67) gets the basic -2 for a kick and an extra -5 for a Wild Swing, since it’s an attack directly backward. Furthermore, it ignores the usual skill cap of 9 on a Wild Swing – a special benefit (-1). These penalties total -8. However, the attacker has -2 to his defenses, which adds +4. The final default penalty is thus -4.

Example 2: Flying Jump Kick (p. 83-84) gets the basic -2 for being a kick plus the -4 for Move and Attack. It gets +2 damage, for another -4, and gives the target -2 to parry, for a further -4. It has two special benefits, too: it ignores the skill cap of 9 on a Move and Attack (-1) and lets the attacker add his jumping distance to his Move (-1). These penalties total -16! However, the kick leaves the attacker at -2 to defend, for +4. And it has three special drawbacks: it requires a Jumping roll to execute (+1); the roll to avoid a fall is at DX-6 (+3), which becomes DX-8 with Move and Attack’s built-in -2 to avoid falls; and any fall results in collision damage (+1). These bonuses total +9, making the final default penalty -7.

Locks and Holds

A lock or a hold with special effects on the turn after the attacker grapples his victim is an offensive technique that defaults to a grappling skill. The basic default penalty is the penalty to grapple the target hit location (see p. B400). On top of this, all such techniques have three mandatory modifications: having to grapple or parry in order to attempt the hold or lock gives +1 for requiring an additional success roll and +1 for taking an extra action to set up, while the ability to inflict ongoing suffocation or injury via a Quick Contest, when a grapple normally causes no damage, is a special benefit worth -1. These modifiers total +1. Apply other modifiers as necessary.

Example: Arm Lock (p. 65) targets the arm, which has a hit location penalty of -1 for grappling purposes, making the basic default penalty -1. It gets another -1 for being able to inflict ongoing injury. These penalties total -2. However, the initial grapple takes an extra turn (+1) and requires an attack roll (+1), adding +2. The net default penalty is +0.

Defensive Techniques

A defensive technique defaults either to Dodge or to the Block or Parry score calculated from a particular combat skill. It might default to more than one of these defenses, in which case the buyer must specialize (see Specialties, pp. 92-93).

A use of a defensive technique is a use of the active defense to which it defaults for all purposes. It’s only possible if the fighter could attempt the underlying defense – that is, never after an All-Out Attack or against a surprise attack, and only against an attack that the defense could affect. It takes the same modifiers as that defense; e.g., Combat Reflexes gives +1 and retreating provides +1 or +3. Where the rules limit the number of defenses possible or give penalties for multiple defenses, techniques that default to Block or Parry count as blocks or parries, respectively.

Most defensive techniques offer a way to “buy off” penalties to defenses. These have a default penalty equal to the situational penalty in question. Some examples:

-1 to defend against a Dual-Weapon Attack (p. B417).
-1 to parry using a knife.
-2 to block a flail.
-2 to defend against an attack from the side (p. B390) or above (p. B402), or a “runaround” attack (p. B391).
-2 to parry a kick if using Boxing or Sumo Wrestling.
-2 to parry using a whip.
-3 to parry weapons using unarmed skills other than Judo and Karate.
-4 to parry a flail.

The GM may permit other effects – either instead of or in addition to the above – each of which modifies the default. Examples include:

Opponent’s Defenses: The defender can use his defense to “set up” his next attack. For each -1 to the default, the attacker is at -1 to parry the defender’s attack, on the next turn only, if that parry involves the weapon that the defender warded off using this technique.

Own Attack Roll: Another kind of “setup.” For each -1 to the default, the defender gets +1 to his attack roll, on the next turn only, against the attacker he warded off using this technique.

Own Defenses: -1 to default per +1 to one other active defense after defending with this technique, or +1 to default per -1 to all other active defenses after using this defense. The latter modifier can only offset penalties; it cannot result in a net bonus.

Special Benefits: Each built-in exemption from the standard rules – e.g., being able to drop to the ground or sidestep as a retreat against a melee attack – gives -1 to the default penalty. A few potent benefits might give -2; e.g., being able to retreat two steps or step directly toward your enemy and count it as a “retreat,” either of which is cinematic if you can improve it!

Special Drawbacks: Each additional restriction on the defense adds +1 to its default penalty. This cannot give a net bonus. Some examples:

• An additional success roll required before attempting the technique. Failure means the defense fails!
• Attacker may opt to hit a more vulnerable target than his intended one if the defense fails. A common example is a weapon parry that involves risky hand placement on the parrying weapon, giving the attacker the option to strike a hand should the parry fail.
• Falling down on an ordinary failure.
• Inability to defend against a broad category of attacks: armed attacks, close-combat attacks, swings, thrusts, etc.
• Increased injury from the incoming attack if the defense fails. This is worth +1 to the default for +1 to the attacker’s damage – or +2 if the attacker gets the better of +2 damage or +1 damage per die.

Example: A fighter wishes to use his Brawling parry to ward off swung weapons by stepping inside his attacker’s guard and parrying the weapon arm instead of the weapon. Brawling has -3 to parry weapons. The ability to step forward as a “retreat” is a special benefit that adds a further -2. The total penalty is -5. However, there’s a major drawback: failure means stepping into the attack for +2 damage! This gives +2, making the final default penalty -3.

Utility Techniques

The GM may allow a technique that “buys off” a specific situational skill penalty for all uses of a skill, if a fighter could logically study a body of moves that would be useful in that situation. However, no technique can eliminate a general category of penalties, such as “all posture penalties.” For instance, Ground Fighting (p. 73) defaults to skill-4 and permits a fighter to buy off the -4 to attack when lying down, while Low Fighting (p. 77) defaults to skill-2 and does the same for the -2 when sitting or kneeling . . . but a single technique couldn’t encompass both.

Utility techniques need not be based on combat skills to be useful in a fight. Warriors might be able to improve their odds with special uses of Acrobatics, Jumping, and other athletic skills in combat; see Acrobatic Stand (p. 98) and Breakfall (pp. 68-69) for examples.

Specialties

If a custom-built technique defaults to multiple skills, list those skills. Individuals who learn the technique must specify which version they know and note the skill name as the technique’s “specialty” on their character sheet; e.g., Elbow Strike (Brawling) or Elbow Strike (Karate). There’s no default between such specialties – even if the parent skills do default to one another.

Techniques that default to other techniques automatically “inherit” the specialty of the parent technique. For instance, if a student learns Finger Lock from his default to Arm Lock (Judo), he automatically has Finger Lock (Judo).

All of this applies equally to defensive techniques. The fighter must specify both the defense (Block, Dodge, or Parry) and the skill that enables it (unnecessary for Dodge); e.g., Dual-Weapon Defense (Shield Block) or Dual-Weapon Defense (Staff Parry).

If a technique defaults only to ST, DX, Dodge, or a similar score that doesn’t derive from a skill level, it doesn’t require specialization.

Difficulty Level

The lists below assign “Average” or “Hard” difficulty to broad classes of techniques on the bases of real-world difficulty and game balance. These are merely guidelines! The GM may rule that an otherwise Average technique with many special effects is Hard – or that one that would normally be Hard is only Average because it’s such a basic use of the skill to which it defaults.

Average

• Holds and locks that pit the attacker’s arms or hands against the target’s torso, arms, or legs.
• Unarmed strikes and shoves involving elbows, hands, knees, and other “intuitive” striking surfaces. This varies by race; e.g., teeth are a dog’s first resort but not a man’s.
• Weapon thrusts and swings.

Hard

• Defensive techniques.
• Disarms.
• Feints.
• Holds and locks applied using the attacker’s legs or feet, or that go after the target’s feet, hands, head, or neck.
• Improved resistance to disarms, feints, grapples, etc.
• Multiple strikes, regardless of how many arms or weapons the attacker has.
• Techniques that buy off penalties for a target (e.g., hit location) or situation (e.g., posture, or combat from a moving platform).
• Unarmed attacks that involve “unintuitive” striking surfaces. This depends on race; e.g., a kick is unbalancing and thus unintuitive for a human but not for a horse.
• Weapon-based grabs and grapples.

Maximum Level

A combat technique should always specify a level past which further improvement is only possible by raising the parent skill, technique, etc.

A technique that defaults to a skill, technique, or active defense at a penalty cannot be raised past the score to which it defaults. GURPS treats attacks and defenses as discrete actions . . . but in reality, each move “sets up” the next. Any technique tricky enough to give a penalty is only as good as the fighter’s grasp of the basics he uses to set it up.

On the other hand, a technique that defaults to a skill (only) at no penalty represents a “sub-skill”: a body of knowledge that one could theoretically isolate and study almost as if it were its own skill. Skill+4 is a reasonable maximum here – but the GM is free to use skill+3 to control easily abused techniques or skill+5 for self-limiting ones.

A technique that defaults to a technique or an active defense at no penalty can never exceed the parent score, however.

Techniques that default to attributes constitute a special case. Improving a technique like this represents training at a feat that anybody could try – which describes most skills! Since there’s no upper limit on skills, the GM could fairly allow almost any maximum.

Description

The description of a technique should provide about the same degree of detail as the worked examples in this chapter. Remember that techniques include all of the effects of the combat options, maneuvers, and techniques from which they’re built, except for those deliberately removed using the design system. To keep page-flipping in play to a minimum, summarize the basic and added effects in one place.

Designing Realistic Techniques

Every aspect of a realistic technique should make sense in real life. In particular, the tradeoffs should be logical. One could stack up any number of effects and work out the “fair” default . . . but that would be an abstract number shuffle and have little to do with reality. In general:

• Damage: For realistic punches, damage bonuses should come with drawbacks – most often high potential for self-inflicted injury. If a punch gets extra damage without such a limitation, base it on Committed Attack (Strong) or All-Out Attack (Strong).

Kicks can deliver extra damage with fewer drawbacks, or even with other bonuses. For instance, a high-powered kick that involves jumping at the foe might be parried at a penalty, as it’s difficult to parry an entire person!

Weapon strikes that deliver extra damage involve exaggerated windups, awkward striking angles, or placing the weapon in contact with the target for a long time (e.g., a drawing or sawing cut). Any of these things should give the target a bonus to defend.

Extra-powerful kicks and weapon blows tend to open up the attacker’s guard, giving him a penalty to his own defenses! Many are Committed or All-Out Attacks.

• Extra Movement: In realistic games, high-mobility attacks should be Committed or All-Out Attacks. Allowing fighters to buy off the -4 for Move and Attack is unrealistic – being able to run at top speed, attack at full skill, and still defend effectively is simply too much action for one second.
• Opponent’s Defenses: Realistic bonuses to the target’s defenses against an offensive technique shouldn’t exceed +2. They make the most sense for haymaker punches, extra-damage weapon attacks, and other slow or clumsy strikes that are easy to see coming and avoid.

Penalties to an opponent’s Parry – from offensive or defensive techniques – shouldn’t be worse than -2. These mainly suit tricky “spinning” attacks, kicks that get their bonus damage from a jump (which can bash the defender’s hand aside), and parries that involve moving inside the foe’s guard...which tend to cause extra damage to the user if he fails! Few realistic techniques can justify a penalty to the defender’s Block or Dodge. For that, use a feint or Deceptive Attack.

• Own Attack Roll: The bonus to hit with an attack that follows a defensive technique shouldn’t exceed +2. Such techniques tend to be dangerous and should usually result in the defender taking extra damage if he fails.
• Own Defenses: A bonus to one’s Block, Dodge, or Parry when using an offensive technique shouldn’t exceed +2 for a realistic attack. This is typically a Parry bonus, and only benefits parries with the weapon used to attack. It represents a guarded blow calculated to “feel out” the foe in order to better respond to him – much like a Defensive Attack – and often comes with a reduction in damage. It wouldn’t be unrealistic to tie +1 Parry to -1 damage and +2 Parry to -2 damage. Bonuses to other defenses when using a defensive technique should likewise not exceed +2.

Similarly, a penalty to all of one’s own defenses when attacking likely represents an aggressive attack similar to Committed Attack. The GM might wish to make this penalty mandatory for techniques that get bonus damage. In any event, the defense penalty from a realistic offensive or defensive technique shouldn’t be worse than -2.

• Special Benefits: Above all, these must make sense. For instance, a full-powered kick shouldn’t be able to take “no DX roll to avoid falling on a miss” as a benefit. A kick that safe is likely low-powered, with a damage penalty...or has a balancing drawback, such as being a low kick that can only affect the feet and legs of a standing target. Removing the effective skill cap of 9 from a Wild Swing is realistic; many real-world martial arts teach precision strikes to the side and rear. Eliminating the same limit for a technique based on Move and Attack is highly unrealistic, however!
• Special Drawbacks: These, too, must be logical and fit in with the technique’s other effects: a full turn of Ready to “wind up” before a high-damage attack, reduced reach for a cautious attack that gives the attacker a Parry bonus or a damage penalty, a Jumping roll to execute a dangerous kick (and a penalty to the DX roll if it misses), etc. The GM shouldn’t permit “super-techniques” that give the attacker damage and defense bonuses, penalize the target’s defenses, and offer many special benefits . . . and then “pay” for it all by piling on a dozen unrelated drawbacks.

Lastly, it’s important to recognize that it isn’t realistic to buy off every penalty. As noted above, no believable offensive technique should be able to eliminate the -4 for a Move and Attack – and of course any penalty that a cinematic technique can’t handle (see below) is definitely beyond the reach of a realistic one!

Designing Cinematic Techniques

A cinematic technique doesn’t have to make sense. All that matters is that it’s true to the spirit of the game and – if taken from a fictional source – its origins. Legend and cinema are full of “super-techniques” that give bonuses in every category, the only cost being a huge default penalty . . . which is of no concern to the master, whose prodigious skill can easily absorb a mere -15 or -20. A few guidelines for GMs who wish to temper their cinematic campaigns with game balance:

• Damage: No matter how deadly a technique is reputed to be, the GM should limit its damage bonus to +2 (or +1 per die, if better). Weapon Masters already get a damage bonus, while unarmed fighters can learn Pressure Secrets. These simulate the devastating “secret techniques” of cinematic masters far better than do massive technique-based damage bonuses.
• Extra Movement: In settings with a chambara or wuxia sensibility, there should be many techniques that let warriors buy off the -4 for Move and Attack. To truly simulate these genres, most techniques should have a Move and Attack variant! An attack that gets extra movement from jumping, tumbling, vaulting, etc., has an additional -1 – or -2 if it allows full-fledged acrobatics (see Flying Attack, p. 107, and Acrobatic Attack, p. 1007).
• Hit Location: Contrary to the rules for Targeted Attacks (p. 68), the GM may wish to allow warriors to eliminate hit location penalties completely by buying cinematic techniques. This is deadly – imagine a swordsman who can completely remove the -9 to hit the eyes or the -10 for chinks in armor on the skull – but it is in keeping with much of

martial-arts fiction.

• Opponent’s Defenses: Bonuses to the target’s defenses against offensive techniques can go as high as +4 in cinematic games. Use this for exotic “finishing moves” that only work against opponents who are already defeated and unable to defend. On the other side of the coin are mythical techniques (either offensive or defensive) that can supposedly defeat the strongest defense. These might give an opponent up to -4 to his Block, Dodge, and/or Parry.
• Own Attack Roll: Elaborate defensive techniques might give +4 or more to hit one’s foe after parrying his attack at a proportionally huge penalty. This is an excellent choice for the cinematic barbarian, whose parry is often little more than a powerful, cleaving blow designed to knock aside his opponent’s weapon and lead directly into an attack.
• Own Defenses: A cinematic warrior might get up to +4 to one of his defenses for an elaborate offensive technique that involves attacking from some secret guard position...or up to -4 to all of his defenses when making a desperate lunge or mighty swing that’s designed to avoid retaliation by killing the target. He might receive between +4 and -4 to other defenses when using a similarly extreme defensive technique.
• Special Benefits: Almost anything is possible! Offensive techniques that make it possible to buy off Move and Attack penalties are particularly common. These often toss in an extra -1 to get rid of the skill limit of 9 and a further -1 to eliminate the restriction against retreating afterward.

Defensive techniques can enjoy similarly extreme benefits. A classic example is defense against attacks from behind without having Peripheral Vision or 360° Vision. This benefit gives a basic default of -1, plus the usual -2 for the awkward angle. A technique like this might require Danger Sense or Precognition to use at all.

• Special Drawbacks: There are at least two schools of thought on this matter. Some techniques seem to pay for their effectiveness by being risky. They offer many benefits alongside frightening drawbacks that keep their default penalties relatively modest. Even a beginner can try these moves...but any failure is disastrous!

Other techniques have no special down side – except, of course, for a huge default penalty. This puts them out of the reach of beginners. Once perfected, though, they’re very reliable and very deadly.

The GM decides which model to use. He might use the same one for every technique he designs, vary his approach from style to style, or let the chips fall where they may.

The GM should be more lenient about which combat penalties a cinematic technique can remove, too. The only hard-and-fast rule is that no technique should make it possible to buy off the penalties for Rapid Strike or multiple parries (reducing these penalties is the territory of Trained by a Master and Weapon Master, which are far more expensive than any technique); those for distraction, stunning, the momentary shock from injury, etc. (nobody spends enough time in any of these states to get good at fighting that way); and those for darkness or invisibility (but see Blind Fighting, p. B180).

Useless Techniques

A few techniques are almost worthless in a real fight. They seem to make sense but simply don’t work in reality – although this doesn’t automatically make them cinematic or silly (see Silly Techniques). This is often the case for secret techniques, many of which are so secret that they’ve never been tested in anger (see Secret Techniques, p. 86). If the GM wishes, he can cook up plausible-sounding techniques with intriguing names and have unscrupulous – or naïve – masters offer to teach them to the PCs. Since these techniques don’t really do anything special, he can assign default penalties, difficulties, and maximum levels more-or-less randomly.

A potential student gets an IQ-based roll against the technique’s prerequisite skill when he first hears about or witnesses the technique. If the teacher is being deliberately deceptive, treat this as a Quick Contest, with the teacher using Fast-Talk if speaking, his combat skill if demonstrating. If the student succeeds (or wins the Contest), he realizes that the technique is a dud. Otherwise, he’s unsure – the player must decide whether to spend time and points to learn the technique, and the GM has no obligation to tell the truth.

On a successful roll, offensive techniques work as attacks and defensive ones work as active defenses. But that’s all they are: ordinary attacks and defenses encumbered with a default penalty. The GM should mumble, shuffle paper, and roll dice in secret whenever they’re used to give the impression that something more is going on.

On a critical success, however, the sheer lack of logic involved throws the opponent off-guard! If the techniqueuser was attempting an attack, he rolls on the Critical Hit Table three times and picks whichever result he likes best. If he was trying a defense, he makes his opponent roll three times on the Critical Miss Table and chooses which result to apply. In effect, he gets the benefit of Luck on the roll on the table – because he got lucky!

Designing Techniques for Nonhumans

Slight physiological differences between humans and nonhumans needn’t imply new techniques. It’s easiest to use human techniques and simply note the impact – if any – of minor physical peculiarities. Features (p. B452) should only alter special effects. Small differences that make techniques more effective don’t change the techniques but qualify as racial perks (just like Fur, p. B101) in Martial Arts games; e.g., “Long Thumbs” is a perk because it converts Eye- Gouging (p. 71) from a nasty attack to a deadly one.

Major body parts – Extra Arms, Strikers, etc. – often do require new techniques. The fastest way to design such a technique is to start with a human technique and modify its default and damage to reflect the capabilities of nonhuman body parts relative to those that the technique assumes. For example, a tail is an Extra Arm that “punches” for thrust-1 damage while a leg has -2 DX and kicks for thrust damage, so when adapting kicks to tail strikes, the default becomes two points less severe but damage drops a point. Thus, a “Tail Smash” based on Stamp Kick (pp. 80-81) defaults at - 1, not -3, and does thrust damage, not thrust+1.

Design techniques with no human equivalent using the detailed system. The standard attack modes of a body part are its basic attacks, with effective DX and damage as noted above. A technique that grants a whole new basic attack – e.g., a grapple with a Striker such as horns – has a special benefit and merits the standard -1 to its default.

Additional notes and examples appear under Sweep (p. 81), Teeth (p. 115), and Close Combat and Body Morphology (p. 114-117).

This page has not been finished up!