Women and the Martial Arts

[Utgardloki]

I figure I haven't gotten into trouble for gender issues lately.

I'm not looking for ways to discriminate. What I'm looking for are ways to establish unique fighting styles for characters who may be smaller and not as strong as their opponents, but have a high dexterity, constitution, and power. Many of these ideas may be used for small men, and of minimal use to large women.

One idea I am thinking about is a legendary ability that allows a character to use DEX + POW instead of STR + SIZ for determining base damage:

Martial Arts Dancer

Requirements: DEX 15+, Martial Arts Strike 75%+, Acrobatics 75%+
Hero Points: 8

Your spinning moves and unpredicatable strikes make you a more formidable opponent in melee than your small size suggests. You gain the following advantages:

* You can use your DEX + POW instead of STR + SIZ to determine base damage for melee attacks, whether armed or unarmed.

* You gain a +10% Dodge bonus plus another +10% for every three meters you move in a round.

* You may dive for cover, gain the benefits thereof, and then return to standing immediately. (Or you may choose to go to a sitting, prone, or supine position if you choose.)

 

[CthulhuFnord]

Seems pretty neat to me. I like the idea of Pow being used to determine the Damage Bonus.

 

[Utgardloki]

Next I'll try to make a good legendary ability for fighting in high heel shoes.

Given that a woman in spiked heels puts about as much pressure on the floor as an 18-wheel semi, a character who can manage the requirements could really hurt someone.

 

[Magistus]

You should add this to the Wiki.

 

[soltakss]

I used to have a male Wind Lord who wore poisoned glass stilettoes - high heels with a poisoned tip that allowed me to dance once per day and basically do a deadly Can-Can.

 

[Halfbat]

The Dive for cover thing may need to be tightened up. As soon as I saw it my mind brimmed over with possibliities for abuse... :twisted:

 

[Mage]

Well, if you want to focus on say a martial art for 'women' I would recommend you research Wing Chun Kung fu.

 

[TRose]

Speaking of martial arts, there used to be a set of rules for Kralori mysticism/martial arts on the Internet. I don't remember much except you had to spend points you earned by doing things to buy certain styles, kind of like spending hero points. Has anyone tried to convert it over and anyone know if its still on the web?

 

[Grrrr]

Well I don't like the feats/legendary abilities system so I might swipe the idea of Dex+Pow for damage modifier and just use that for the Martial Arts skill.



Grrr

 

[Nickbergquist]

Wow, I love that legendary ability concept.

It puts me one step closer towards fully articulating Nina from Tekken or Milana from Mortal Kombat in RQ terms....

Now you've got me thinking about a martial arts-based campaign. Dang!

 

[Utgardloki]

The Dive for cover thing may need to be tightened up. As soon as I saw it my mind brimmed over with possibliities for abuse... :twisted:

You'll have to be more specific, how would you abuse this ability?

Would it make a difference if the dive for cover part required the character to start from a standing position?

 

[Halfbat]

The Dive for cover thing may need to be tightened up. As soon as I saw it my mind brimmed over with possibliities for abuse... :twisted:

You'll have to be more specific, how would you abuse this ability?
Would it make a difference if the dive for cover part required the character to start from a standing position?

OK. Yes, it probably would, but see below. It's also about limiting when it can be used.

* You may dive for cover, gain the benefits thereof, and then return to standing immediately. (Or you may choose to go to a sitting, prone, or supine position if you choose.)

It's an interpretation issue, which I'm sensitive to atm as I have a died-in-the-wool D&D player who looks for rules advantages.

My instant reaction was to see a player demand his character pop out from cover, or from prone, throw/lob/launch something, then use this Dive for Cover to disappear into cover/prone until his next CA. Then use it again to pop out once he'd reloaded. Similarly with combat and a piece of cover.

If it is an extension to "Dive" it may be worth saying that it is an extension to the "Dive" Reaction, and can only be used with a Dive Reaction.

Otherwise it looks an interesting LA and costed about right, too.

Hope this helps!

 

[Shadow Queen]

A female "RuneQuest Ninja" does that include a swift knee where it hurts??

 

[Mage]

I think it goes without saying.

 

[Sinisalo]

May I recommend you do three rounds with Jane Crouch?

 

[Utgardloki]

One house rule that has been discussed in a previous thread: characters with the Martial Arts skill may add one to their STR + SIZ to determine Damage Modifier, for every 10% rank in Martial Arts. So a character with 12 STR, 11 SIZ and 69% Martial Arts: Strike would have +1D2 modifier instead of a +0 modifier. This bonus only applies to unarmed strikes and martial arts weapons.

This still gives an advantage for martial artists who are big and strong, but about 50-60% Martial Arts: Strike will put a "typical" female character on an even par with a "typical" male character without martial arts training.

As for fighting in high heels, let's see how this looks:

Stiletto Stance

Requirements: 90% Martial Arts (Strike), 90% Balance, DEX 19+ and at least six points higher than your SIZ

Hero Points: 8

You can fight effectively in spiked heels. While wearing high heels/spiked heels/stiletto pumps/etc:

* You do not take any skill penalties because of your footwear.

* If you score a critical hit, you have landed a solid blow with a spiked heel that does an additional 1D6 damage, and is considered impaled, except that you may automatically yank your heel free, doing normal damage.

 

[Shadow Queen]

How about a Martial Arts RuneQuest book with the Monk Class

 

[Utgardloki]

It hasn't been done yet in this thread, so I might as well go through the Legendary Heroes book and pick out the legendary abilities that would be good for female or small martial artists.

Avoidance requires a DEX 16 or higher, Dodge 90% or higher. It makes it harder to hit you in combat. I'm not sure how this would work with my house rules, but it may be worthwhile in a conventional

Black Waltz requires a DEX 15 or higher, Close Combat Weapon Skill 90% or higher, Dance at 90% or higher. This doubles your number of attacks, but you lose your damage modifier. This could come in handy if you have a negative damage modifier, but wouldn't work well with my Battle Dance ability above. This LA also leaves you fatigued after a number of rounds equal to your CON.

Storm of 1,000 Blows requires DEX 15 or higher, Martial Arts 90% or higher. This is a good one for someone who might be outnumbered frequenty.

Windwalker requires DEX 15 or higher, and Acrobatics 100% or higher. I wouldn't allow it because I hate the Exalted RPG, but for a GM that allows it, it could be cool.