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Fat Gandalf's Bar & Lounge (OOC Chat) - Chapter Nine

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Initiative & Perception Bonuses, Initiative Order, and Action Sequence.
Hercules +2/+1: 19. Action 3/10. Traversed with Toothgnasher. - Scored mightily with MPAT against the Red Thunder cloud!
Mario +3/+2: 14. Action 3/12. Traversing with Toothgrinder. - Missed with valiant effort at MPAT vs. Red Thunder.
Toph +5/+8: 12. Action 2/8. Traversed with Freki.
Ylva +9/+9: 11. Action 2/11. Traversing with Munin.
Shirley +6/+3: 23! Action: 3/8 - Gave orders, Traversed with Geri, created Polyphonic Nexus.
Cera +6/+5: 22! Action 3/8 - Traversed with Geri, giving detailed warning to Broadsword.
 
Toph will also spend an Action Point, but for her to-hit roll, not her perception one. I"ll mark off the AP from my sheet.
 
Sil is out for a bit. I'll provide the results for Toph's Action and... if everyone agrees, I will move Ylva out of the fight (as I don't play PCs) and adjust the Difficulty Challenge accordingly.

Note: Something will be taking place in-game but it has nothing to do with Ylva popping into Temporal Stasis - this was going to happen whether Ylva was here or not. =)

This next bit will therefore take some adjustment from me. I'll get to it when I take a break from writing up Hand to Hand: HEMA (Western Fencing).
 
Hooray! I created and added Hand to Hand: HEMA (actually for Sherwood's Rifts Game) to The Martial Way in Robotech: Broadsword.
 
Captain Hesperus Captain Hesperus Tag!

(I just realized that I put the NPCs at the bottom out of habit instead of in their correct Initiative order. Derp! Fixed! =)

Initiative & Perception Bonuses, Initiative Order, and Action Sequence.
Shirley +6/+3: 23! Action: 4/8 - Gave orders, Traversed with Geri, created Polyphonic Nexus.
Cera +6/+5: 22! Action 3/8 - Traversed with Geri, giving detailed warning to Broadsword.
Hercules +2/+1: 19. Action 3/10. Traversed with Toothgnasher. - Scored mightily with MPAT against the Red Thunder cloud!
Mario +3/+2: 14. Action 3/12. Traversing with Toothgrinder. - Missed with valiant effort at MPAT vs. Red Thunder.
Toph +5/+8: 12. Action 3/8. Traversed with Freki. - Shot and missed, but at least the penguins are happy, right?!
((Ylva +9/+9: --. Action --/11. Traversing with Munin.)) <--- Note to self: Ylva is in Temporal Stasis (see Shop Talk) until Sil's return. CR adjusted.

So! Technically this is Shirley's Action. However... it's also the beginning of Action #4!

And something happens in Action #4. Which you've probably already learned if you read in-game first after I've done both posts! =)
 
First, nice work on the HtH fencing.

Second, as a part of her action, can Toph share her targeting info with the others to give everyone a better shot at hitting that officer's pod?
 
Try this on instead (see in-game.) =)
 
Is that our fearless leader Capt. Sharp? Cool! I'm ready to rock.
 
Psychie said:
I do believe so. The Old Man is about to show us rookies how it's done.
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While I love reading this stuff, I must semi-reluctantly change the subject to martial arts and how having multiple martial art forms available to your Characters works, and why I do it the way I do. I'll start on the following post.
 
Sherwood Sherwood Hey Sherwood? What level did Mario pick up Muay Thai, please?

I'm putting together a biggish post and I'd like to use Mario as a good example.
 
Captain Hesperus Captain Hesperus Kaerri Kaerri Psychie Psychie Sherwood Sherwood Silanon Silanon

Heya again, Gang! Sometimes, just talking about my favorite hobbies helps me wind down from work. So it is with this post. Hopefully, you're in the mood for a similar distraction. So let's fly away together, shall we? I'll chop this into three posts.

This time around, I'll be covering three items - one per post - that I hope interest you (or at least take your mind off of work):

1. HEMA.
2. How I handle multiple martial arts in Palladium games (and a note for Sharseya that I've mentioned before but bears repeating here).
3. A change I've decided to make to Robotech: Broadsword involving martial arts. =)

1. First up, a little news. For about a year or two now (maybe longer?), I've wanted to introduce a Hand to Hand system into our Palladium game that offered a European weapon-based system so all of those PCs out there who want to fight with a sword have an alternative to Zanji Shinjinken Ryu. I hope you don't mind me delving into that for a moment.

In games that I've run or been a PC in, the following types of characters have all studied the Japanese art of Samurai sword-fighting. I want you to take note of their origins: an Atlantean Tattooed Undead Slayer, a Cyber-Knight from a European fantasy world, an alien master of the sword from a sci-fi setting, a Godling warrior of Japanese descent born during Japan's feudal days, and (I kid you not) a Drow Elven Samurai. In all cases but the last, Zanji Shinjinken Ryu was the exact system used (the last was a D&D game, but Zanji was basically the base for the elf's style). Only in the case of the godling is it culturally accurate. So why did the others choose it? Simply because it was the best alternative they had to simply taking the Fencing Skill or being stuck a martial art system that definitely didn't fit (say, Moo Gi Gong, Wu Shu, or Ninjitsu).

So I made Hand to Hand: HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts). Finished it up yesterday (cleaned up a touch of grammar today) and I like what I see. It's now in Robotech: Broadsword if any of you are interested in picking it up.

Enjoy it! And if you use it in your game, give me credit. =)
 
2. Sherwood, in his Rifts game, has asked:
Sherwood said:
I was under the impression that the new MA style would start out at a level 1 bonus, and go up accordingly, just like any other skill. That is what I am doing with Mario with his two different MAs, and unless we continue past level fifteen, his Thai Kick Boxing will not max itself out.
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This statement is correct. Any martial art system starts at Level 1 regardless of the level of the PC/NPC that picks it up. It's the Skill progression that the Real Life martial artist in me has a serious problem with.

As far as I can tell, in standard Palladium rules, if a Character chooses a second martial art system (say, in Ninjas & Superspies where this happens more often than in other games), a Character progresses level by level just like other Skills. Let's say you're playing an 8th Level Martial Artist with one system. Great! Choose a second system and now you're 8th level in the 1st system and 1st Level in the 2nd system. Reach 9th level? Great! Now you're 9th level in the 1st system and 2nd level in the 2nd system. Sounds great! That is, until you see it from a martial artist's perspective.

I've had the benefit of training with many, many martial artists - many of whom had multiple systems under their belt (pun intended). It was nothing to train with someone with both a Tae Kwon Do background who also studied boxing, or a Judo guy who also studied Hapkido, or a Special Forces guy (boy, he was a big dude!) who studied the U.S. Green Beret's system, but also knew others. In my favorite school, it was no surprise to learn that someone had come from a different school altogether. In that school alone, we had people with backgrounds in Shao Lin Kung Fu, Defensive Training from law enforcement, Escrima/Kali stick-fighting, and more!

"To know one thing is to know ten thousand." - Miyamoto Musashi

I've learned that roleplaying games and martial art systems have something important in common (O.K., several things, but let's stick with this one) - the more systems one is familiar with, the easier it is to learn others. Think of yourselves as examples. I think none of you can honestly refer to yourselves as "white belts" among roleplayers. Most of us are quite familiar with several systems (I imagine Sherwood knows the most total systems as I've tended to specialize in the systems I know). And hey! What happens when you throw video gaming into the mix? How many games do you know how to play?

I believe the more you've gamed, the easier it is to learn new things in that same field.

So, I personally have always thought it unfair for, say, the above example of 8th level Character (someone with no small amount of life experience) with two systems to know one well, but have to crawl up the second system's path.

Remember - both here and in Sharseya, the higher level you get, the more RP points you need to get to the next level. This rule works in favor of the method I'm about to describe.

How I determine the experience level of a PC in martial art systems beyond their first system:
A. When the PC gains a Character Level, pop open Robotech: Shadow Chronicles. Go to the Military Specialist/Technical Officer table (page 152 in the hardbound edition, page 225 in the small paperback version, and no idea in the PDF as I don't own it).

B. Find the xp difference between the base xp total from the new level and the old level. Ex: PC chose 2nd martial art at 8th Character Level (49,961 xp) and has just reached 9th level (69,961 xp). 69,961 - 49,961 = 20,000 experience points.

C. Put this xp total toward the experience table used by their O.C.C. (20,000 xp puts the PC at 5th level).

D. Do this every time they level to determine their new level in martial art systems beyond their first. =)

Let's use Mario as an example. Mario Zuko is currently a 9th level Character whose O.C.C. is A.T.A.C. Hover Tank Pilot. Therefore, he's a 9th Level Tae Kwon Do artist (since he chose that at 1st level). But he picked up Muay Thai too! What level did he do this? I don't recall, but let's say Mario was 6th level. In standard Palladium, he's a 9th level Tae Kwon Do guy (clearly a black belt) but still a mere novice in Muay Thai at only 3rd level.

The RPer in me is fine with this. The martial artist in me says, "Hey! That PC has earned 20,000 experience points since he first started studying Muay Thai! Why is he only 3rd level?" To which I say, "Right! 20,000 experience points is a lot! Where would that put him if he were a 1st level Character?" The answer? 5th Level!

This means Mario Zuko (if he learned Muay Thai at 6th Level) is a 9th Level Tae Kwon Do artist and a 5th level Muay Thai artist! If he picked up a 3rd system at 9th level and made it to 10th, he'd be 10th level in Tae Kwon Do, 8th level in Muay That (as he had to earn 54,000 experience points), and1st level in whatever 3rd style he picked up. That might seem like a lot (8th level instead of 2nd?), but consider this - no Skills except his ability to perform Muay Thai are affected. It just shows how good Mario is with his second martial system (and therefore gives him real reason to use it).

Looking back into my earliest Rifts games, one of the reasons I liked doing it this way is because I saw PCs who were just never using their second martial art system (except for the Attribute bonuses). Most of us were Real Life martial artists (yes, I converted a bunch of good buddies from our school to my Cyberpunk 2020/RIfts RPing table for years on end!). We agreed unanimously that the more you study and practice, the better you got. There came a point when the wisest of us combined all that they had learned - regardless of where they had learned it from - into one system - their system (remember Musashi's words I quoted earlier?). =)

That approach has worked for me in Real Life so why not include it in my games? Sure, it's more math. But math and martial arts and gaming... it all gets easier the more you practice it.

Right, Gang? =)

So... doing it this way, Mario might actually use his Muay Thai in combat instead of letting it sit on the sidelines as I saw in my early Rifts Palladium games. =)

Part Three coming up (it's a lot shorter than Part 2 here).
 
Part 3.

So! A change I've decided to make to Robotech: Broadsword involving martial arts. =)

All Martial Art Systems have had their Skill costs dropped by 1. This means Tier 2 systems now cost 4 Skills and Tier 1 now cost 3. This way, you guys can pick up more systems if you'd like to. After all, why have the Mindbender in the Sickbay on the Broadsword if you guys aren't going to use it, right?

Hee hee! =)

There's also a tip I'd like to point out concerning Character Sheets. Everyone likes to list out the bonuses between, say, when in your mecha and out of your mecha, right? When you have another martial system, just treat it the same way. "These are the numbers I use when using Jeet Kune Do/These are the numbers I use when using HEMA/These are the numbers I use when in my Mech (Jeet Kune Do + MECT and any Special Bonuses provided by said mech)."

Whew! I'm definitely not thinking about work anymore tonight! =)
 
Oh, and to indulge the nerd in me further, I've downgraded Krav Maga to a Tier 1 system making it easier to purchase.
 
Mario actually picked up Kickboxing at level 5, but I am getting the point of your example. With this info, I may have to Mindbend some skillls around to pick up a third!
 
Sherwood Sherwood Level 5! Cool! So... *reaches for book* Page 152.

Base 9th Level Mario Palladium xp = 69,961
Base 5th Level Mario Palladium xp = 16,961
69,961 - 16,961 = 54,000.

54,000 xp in Military Specialist = 8th Level!

So Mario is 9th Level in Tae Kwon Do, 8th Level in Muay Thai, and 1st Level if he decides to pick up a third system while 9th level! =)
 
Dannigan said:
All Martial Art Systems have had their Skill costs dropped by 1. This means Tier 2 systems now cost 4 Skills and Tier 1 now cost 3. This way, you guys can pick up more systems if you'd like to. After all, why have the Mindbender in the Sickbay on the Broadsword if you guys aren't going to use it, right?
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Does this mean we have an extra skill slot? ^;3^ (Those of us who had a tier 2 or 3 system, of course.) Or is the extra point to be used towards another system?
 
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