Back to Altair Ogram Ashkabaken

Hand to Hand Martial Arts

Martial Arts Known: Aikido, Tai Chi Chuan, Drunken Fist, Silat, and HEMA.

Weapon Choices:
Silat: Karambits
Aikido: Katana
Tai Chi Chuan: Spear
Drunken Fist: Improvised Weaponry such as bar stools, ladders, ect
HEMA: Large Axes.

Maneuvers Known: 10

Counter Throw:
Directing an attacker’s momentum against him, the martial artist sends him flying into the nearest wall… or the ground… or worse. A basic soft-style maneuver, this remains an effective technique. When the martial artist is attacked, make a resisted roll of Dexterity + Martial Arts against the attacker’s Dexterity + Brawl, Melee, or Martial Arts (depending on the Ability that the opponent is using to attack). If you score more successes than your attacker does, then you deflect the attack and may – immediately and without having to divide up your dice pool – try to throw him (as below). If you fail the throw, you still sidestep his attack. Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1, Athletics 1 (soft style)
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 6
Damage: As Throw Actions: 1

Throw
Having grappled her opponent (or used a counter throw, above), the martial artist slams him into a convenient surface. In game terms, the attacker needs a Dexterity + Martial Arts dice pool equal to, or higher than, her opponent’s Dexterity. With a successful roll, the martial artist can throw her opponent up to one yard for each success she scores on her attack roll.
So long as she’s got a straight shot at the location, she can choose where her opponent lands. When he lands, he takes damage based on her strength. If he’d been charging her at the time he was thrown, the impact also inflicts an additional +1 die for every 10 feet he’d been traveling at the time (+10 dice maximum). If the impact inflicts more than three health levels in damage (after soaking), the opponent must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) or else be stunned for one turn.
Should the martial artist throw one opponent into another one, the flying enemy inflicts one die bashing damage for each point of Stamina he has, plus one additional die for the momentum and impact if one or both of the opponents were moving at the time. (A Stamina 3 bad guy, for example, who’d just run 20 feet before being thrown would inflict five dice of bashing damage on his buddy.) Throwing one opponent into another one adds +2 to the roll’s difficulty for that throw, but it does indeed smash two birds with one throw.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts (any style) 2
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: hard 7/ soft 6
Damage: Strength + movement/B Actions: 1

Death Strike
Aiming a rigid hand at an organ, joint, or other incapacitating location, the attacker directs devastating force at that target. This strike inflicts lethal damage.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 3 (hard style)
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 5
Damage: Strength +2/L Actions: 1

Deflecting Block
Evading an attacker’s blow, the martial artist redirects the attacker’s force against her. In game terms, the defender rolls Dexterity + Martial Arts in Phase Two: Defense. Each success subtracts one success from the attacker’s roll. If the defender scores more successes than his attacker, then the attacker must roll Dexterity (difficulty 8) or else fall to the ground (or smash into a nearby surface), taking her own Strength in bashing damage.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (soft style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 6
Damage: Attacker’s Strength/B Actions: 1

Dragon Tail Sweep
A spinning leg sweep that knocks an opponent sprawling. In game terms, the effects work like a throw, but the martial artist doesn’t need to grab her opponent first.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 1
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 8
Damage: Opponent’s Strength/B Actions: 1

Elbow/Knee Strike
A quick, brutal blow with an elbow or kneecap, usually directed at a vulnerable spot at close range.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (any style)
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 5
Damage: Strength +1/B Actions: 1

Spinning Kick
Our martial artist spins around and plants a solid kick into the object of his attention.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 6
Damage: Strength +3/B Actions: 1

Joint Lock
Having already grappled his opponent, the martial artist applies pressure to joints and pressure points. If he chooses to exert force against that spot, he can dislocate or break limbs, joints, or possibly even the neck. The player rolls Dexterity + Martial Arts to grapple his opponent (see Grapple, above), then may immediately (without dividing his dice pool between attacks) roll Dexterity + Martial Arts to inflict damage. Each success rolled inflicts one health level’s worth of lethal injury.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (any style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 5
Damage: Successes/L Actions: 1

Snake Step
Shifting away from the blow, our martial artist deftly sidesteps a close or ranged attack. Naturally, he must be able to see it coming first. A successful roll acts as a dodge attempt with an additional three-dice bonus.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (any style), Athletics or Acrobatics 1
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: hard 6/soft 5
Damage: N/A Actions: 1

Thunder Kick
A devastating flying kick. Hurling himself through the air, the martial artist focuses his chi and mass into a strike potent enough to end most fights immediately. In game terms, each success adds one additional die to the kick’s damage. A character cannot use the Thunder Kick more than once every five turns, however, as it demands intense focus and commitment to the blow.
Minimum Ability: Martial Arts (hard style) 3, Athletics or Acrobatics 2
Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts Difficulty: 7
Damage: Strength +3 + successes/B Actions: 1

Weapon Maneuvers

Karambit/Dagger moves

Bind:
Sweeping her antagonist’s weapon up with her own, a defending fighter uses gravity and leverage to prevent her enemy from using his weapon this turn. Essentially, this technique involves a block that denies the opponent the use of his weapon until he can break the bind. Unlike a typical block or parry, however, this maneuver succeeds automatically if the defender makes her roll.
As the opponent attacks, the defender captures his weapon with her own. A successful roll represents a successful capture attempt, which deflects that attack and immobilizes both weapons (meaning that neither party can use them) until either the defender ends the bind or the opponent successfully breaks free as described under the Grapple maneuver (Mage 20, p. 421). Both parties can use other attacks – kicks, head-butts, punches, etc. – during a successful bind. Due to the close range, occupied attention, and lack of leverage and space, however, attacks other than head-butts add +2 to their usual difficulty. Other opponents, however, subtract -2 from the difficulty of trying to hit either fighter while their weapons are bound.
Bind attempts typically begin with the defender maneuvering her opponent into position – often with a held action, a Feint (see below), a taunting remark, or some similar enticement to strike. That enticement isn’t necessary, but it’s a common tactic that – if successful – reduces the difficulty of the Bind maneuver itself to difficulty 6, not 8. This enticement requires an additional action before the Bind attempt itself. As with other two-action moves, this enticement could be performed within the same turn if the player chooses to employ a multiple action (detailed in Mage 20, pp. 388-389).
Obviously, this is a hand-to-hand fighting technique that typically demands weapons that are strong and rigid enough to bind and be bound (blades, staves, clubs, etc.). That said, an especially flexible weapon (like a chain, whip, or rope) could be used to capture an opponent’s weapon too… and with such weapons, this is a popular technique.
Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 6/8
Damage: N/A Actions: 1+

Curtain of Blood:
With a superficial slash above his opponent’s eyes, the attack spills a bit of the red stuff into her vision. The resulting distraction sets him up for a better shot… or possibly for a quick retreat.
It takes at least two successes on the attack roll in order to cause that blood to flow. The “curtain” effect kicks in one turn after the slice is made. The cut itself is too shallow to cause damage; until the target can clear her eyes and staunch that flow of blood, however, she’s using half of her usual dice pools. (Stopping the flow requires one full action unless the opponent can close up wounds through force of will or innate healing abilities.) Naturally, this attack means nothing against opponents who do not bleed, or whose faces are protected from cuts and incidental blindness.
Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 8
Damage: N/A Actions: 1

Jab:
A short, quick stab at the opponent tests his defenses and skill. The attacker also adds +1 to the difficulty of her opponent’s next attack against her, due to the fast, defensive nature of this move.
Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon +1
Damage: Weapon -2 Actions: 1

Lightning Parry:
With a massive blow or a flurry of blazing-fast strikes, the character deflects incoming shots from a host of attackers. Despite implacable odds, she remains – for the moment – untouched. En garde, gentlemen!
The difficulty for this maneuver is 6 + 1 for every attacker beyond the first (+2 for three attackers, +3 for four attackers, and so on). With five successes or more, she breaks the opponents’ weapons, too, forcing them to roll their Willpower (difficulty 7) or back away in fear.
Unless she has extra actions within a single turn, the defender cannot do anything this turn except deflect the incoming assaults. As a rule, this trick should work only against blade-fodder mooks, not against serious antagonists; for details, see Mook-a-Palooza, Mage 20, p. 414.
Realistically, this maneuver should apply only to hand-tohand attacks; martial arts movies, though, use this technique against missile weapons all the time.
Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 6+
Damage: N/A Actions: 1

Riposte:
Following through on a previous parry, the attacker takes advantage of his surprised opponent and delivers a rapid counterstrike. This maneuver must follow a successful block or parry, and can be performed only with hand-to-hand weaponry. A fighter with multiple actions in a single turn (thanks to Time 3, a multiple-actions dice pool, or some other advantage that allows her to act more than once within that turn) can perform this maneuver in the same turn as the parry itself.
Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon -2
Damage: Weapon Actions: 1

Shiv:
Wrapping herself around her opponent, the attacker shoves a short stabbing weapon into a sensitive location – an armpit, the belly, a helmet’s eye-slit, and so forth. As an extra benefit, the attacker restricts her opponent’s ability to move, making him vulnerable to other attacks from interested parties. The attacker herself becomes more vulnerable too, but desperate circumstances demand desperate measures.
A two-action maneuver, the shiv “technique” requires a successful Grapple maneuver first. (Again, see Mage 20, p. 421.) Assuming she’s successful, the attacker uses her next action to shove a short stabbing weapon (dagger, stiletto, hatpin, spike, etc.) into the vulnerable spot. This demands a second roll (Dexterity + Melee) but lets her ignore all protections from armor while inflicting a bit of extra damage too.
This attack’s base difficulty is 7; however, a target with very few vulnerable spots (that is, covered except for eyes and /or with only small chinks in their armor) raises that difficulty to 9. So long as the attacker keeps her weapon in the target, she can twist it around and inflict an extra level of aggravated damage per turn. This damage cannot be soaked unless the target is essentially immune to harm caused by weapons digging around in his innards. Werewolves, vampires, dragons, and similar critters can attempt to soak such damage because they’re just that tough to kill; cyborgs and so forth, though, can have their workings seriously messed up by this sort of thing. (Spirits and ghosts, lacking physical substance, can’t be harmed by a shiv attack unless the fighter employs a weapon that can hurt them, they’ve already materialized, or both. Zombies, skeletons, and other critters that lack functioning organs are unfazed by such mayhem.)
As with the Bind, Grapple, and Stabbing Frenzy maneuvers, the attacker remains vulnerable to other assailants.
Characters who take shots at her subtract -2 from their usual difficulties; if they miss, however, they hit her target instead.
Roll: Dexterity + Melee Difficulty: 7/9
Damage: Weapon +1 + Special Actions: 2

Stabbing Frenzy:
Armed with a short-bladed knife, the attacker ducks inside the opponent’s reach and unleashes a storm of rapid jabs and stabs. It’s a risky attack, because the attacker cannot dodge or counter any assaults at such close range; the sudden massive trauma involved, however, usually occupies the opponent’s attention that turn. That said, the attacker is vulnerable to other opponents, who subtract -2 from their difficulty when trying to hit him. Thus, this is a sort of sacrifice technique, best used in a one-on-one fight. On a similar note, this attack is useless against armor that’s thicker than 2 points of protection. These zero-range stabs have no momentum behind them, and so cannot penetrate thicker types of armor.
Because it depends upon using a short, fast weapon to stab the target at exceedingly close range, this maneuver can be performed only with short knives (switchblades, pocket knives, stilettos, etc.), razor blades, needles, broken bottles, small hand axes, or spiked fist-load weapons. There’s no room in this frenzy for slashing or elaborate technique – it’s just a brutal, desperate barrage. Hence, this maneuver employs either Brawl or Melee, not any form of refined martial art.
Roll: Dexterity + Brawl or Melee Difficulty: 4
Damage: Weapon +3 Actions: 1