Like most people, mages prefer to keep a distance between their enemies and their own fragile shells. So, when Technocratic shock troops or joyriding gangbangers make your character’s life difficult (or when you are the shock troops or gangbangers!), the following systems handle flying lead and other projectiles.
Most folks, in a firefight, place more importance on cover than on accuracy. For those characters who take the time and effort to aim correctly, though, the results are more effective.
In game terms, an aiming character must remain more or less still... perhaps striding forward with Terminator menace but otherwise motionless. For each turn spent aiming, add 1 die to your appropriate attack dice pool, up to a maximum of your character’s Perception rating.
A scope adds 2 dice to that attack roll as well; this bonus, however, applies only to a single shot. Each new shot must be aimed again using the scope in order to get the full bonus and effect. (Certain scopes reduce attack roll Difficulty too — see Special Gun Sights.)
In order to aim properly, a character must have at least 1 dot in either Firearms (to aim guns), Energy Weapons (to employ energy weapons), or Archery (in order to use bows).
Storms of gunfire mark many battles between the Awakened folk. And thanks to the Technocratic nightmare called automatic weapons, a character can empty zir entire ammunition clip in a single wild burst.
Firing a gun at full-auto speed adds 10 dice to the attack roll, but it also raises the Difficulty of the shot by +2, courtesy of the gun’s recoil. In order to empty a clip, your character needs at least a half-clip of ammo to begin with; once those shots are fired, the clip is useless.
Full-Auto Strafing: When strafing an area, the attacker hoses down that area with bullets. Game-wise, this tactic works the same way as full-auto fire, except that the successes are distributed evenly between each target involved. If the number of successes rolled winds up smaller than the number of targets, then the Storyteller decides who’s been hit and who’s been missed by that spray of bullets.
Long before guns became man’s weapon of choice, long-range fighters employed the muscular precision of bows. These days, such weapons seem cumbersome and odd. Still, in the hands of a skilled archer, bows have several advantages over firearms. They’re quiet, accurate, and powerful — you can shoot a stake through a vampire’s heart at 100 paces if you’re a would-be Katniss Everdeen.
These weapons, though, demand more expertise than guns. To use a bow correctly, a character needs the secondary Skill Archery. The player rolls Dexterity + Archery in order to shoot that weapon. Different bows have different Difficulty ratings, as listed on the Ranged Weapons chart. A character without the appropriate Ability can try to use a bow, but ze suffers a +2 Difficulty penalty.
Sadly, bows are more breakable than guns. So are bowstrings. If the would-be archer botches a roll, the bowstring snaps and must be replaced before the weapon can be used again. (Wits + Crafts or Archery, at +1 Difficulty — assuming you have an extra bowstring... if not, thou art fuck’ed.) Bows also take longer to send off their projectiles than guns do. In game terms, an amateur archer must nock and draw the arrow (an automatic action) before ze can loose it. A character with 3 dots or more in Archery, however, can nock, draw, and loose as a single action. A crossbow, meanwhile, takes 2 turns to ready and shoot. Skill doesn’t matter here, though, because the mechanisms involved move only so fast. A Time 3 Effect, of course, can speed the whole process up by giving extra actions to the character — see the Time Sphere entry in The Book of Magick.
We weren’t kidding about that staking a vampire from a distance trick. Saying it, however, is easier than doing it. To accomplish that feat, the archer needs to score at least 5 successes and must also inflict at least 3 health levels (after soaking) in order to pierce the monster’s chest and bring xyr undead dominion to a splintery halt.
Magick or no magick, gunfights are no place for carelessness. Folks who can’t shrug off bullets or energy blasts use cover as often as possible. Such protection often comes into play during car chases, drive-bys, firefights, and other attacks on people who aren’t crazy enough to stand up and get shot at. The problem, of course, is that you can’t shoot what you can’t see. In order to aim and fire, you’ve got to expose a bit of yourself to your enemy’s gunshots as well.
Cover adds to the Difficulty of hitting a target; the more cover a character has, the harder it is to hit zir. Conversely, it’s also harder to shoot from certain positions or to fire accurately while you’re moving as well. In either case, the shooting character suffers a penalty to zir shots, even as ze gets the benefits of cover.
| Cover | Difficulty to Hit Target | Shooter's Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Lying Flat | +1 | 0 |
| Moving | +1 | +1 |
| Behind Wall | +2 | +1 |
| Only Head Exposed | +3 | +2 |
With or without cover, a character can move up to one half of zir maximum running distance and still act without taking a penalty or dividing up zir dice pool. (See Movement.) Ducking behind walls and dodging behind cars are time-honored tactics for the modern gunfighter, and a person who wants to avoid a one-way trip to the Shadowlands will use cover and movement to zir best advantage.
Every weapon on the Ranged Weapons chart has a certain listed Range as part of its entry. That Trait shows the weapon’s medium effective range; within this distance, the Difficulty is considered to be 6. A given weapon can be fired up to twice that listed Range at Difficulty 8 (possibly higher at the Storyteller’s call). Within 2 yards or less, however, the characters are within point-blank range and the Difficulty drops to 4.
Guns run out of ammo... sometimes, when dealing with mages, more unexpectedly than usual. Smart gunfighters carry extra ammunition for such occasions. Assuming that your character has a spare clip handy, an automatic weapon can be reloaded during combat by taking a single action to do so. That gun can still be fired within the same turn — the player simply loses 2 dice from zir usual attack dice pool.
Revolvers are another matter. Because they don’t use clips, such guns usually have to be loaded bullet by bullet unless you’ve got a speed-loader already primed with bullets. A character with a speed-loader can slap a new clip into zir gun, as above. If ze doesn’t have a speed-loader ready, ze needs to take a full turn to reload that pistol manually. No other actions are possible that turn, though a Time 3 Effect can slow a temporal pool around the mage, during which time ze can load zir gun normally and then shoot.
A character with a Firearms rating of 1 or better can reload without making a roll under normal circumstances, though certain complications (badly hurt, reloading in a moving car, and so on) might demand a Dexterity + Firearms roll. Reloading a spent clip or speed-loader with fresh bullets, however, requires a Dexterity + Firearms roll (Difficulty 6) and an entire turn.
Many automatic weapons can fire off three-round bursts. As with the full-auto fire circumstance above, these bursts add extra dice to your attack roll — 3 extra dice for a three-round burst — at the cost of a higher Difficulty (in this case, +1 to the normal Difficulty). The listed damage is based upon a single bullet from the gun in question. Obviously, this tactic expends 3 bullets each time a burst is fired. Check the Ranged Weapons chart to see which weapons can fire three-round bursts.
When a gun’s too much and a fist doesn’t reach far enough, a hurled beer mug or knife can be remarkably effective... especially when enhanced with a bit of magick.
Throwing objects is easy enough; actually hitting someone with one requires a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll. That roll’s Difficulty is typically 6, though close targets might be Difficulty 5 instead. Distant targets, or clumsy objects being thrown (tables, street signs, weapons that haven’t been designed to be thrown), may raise that Difficulty by +1 or +2.
If the attacker knows the Sphere of Forces, ze could add a push of Forces 2 to a thrown weapon, adding velocity and momentum to the hurled object. Each success scored with this coincidental trick lowers the Difficulty of the attack by -1, to a maximum reduction of -3. This, in turn, makes it more likely that the attack will score additional damage — see Phase Three: Damage and Magick Enhances Violence.
Difficulties, damage, and other details associated with different weapons can be found on the Ranged Weapons chart, under Thrown Weapons. The range of a hurled weapon usually depends upon the strength of the thrower and both the bulk and aerodynamic qualities of the object. The Storyteller should feel free to adjust the Difficulties and ranges according to circumstances. Sure, a strong cyborg can throw a car... but really, how far can xe throw it, especially when the Masses are watching xyr?
If you wanna get your John Woo on (and really — who doesn’t?), the two-fisted gunslinger stunt is an old favorite. Outside the movies, though, it’s far more difficult than it looks. A shooter who employs two guns at once needs to divide zir Dexterity + Firearms dice pool between both weapons and also add a +1 Difficulty penalty to the gun in zir off hand. That said, a skillful combatant can lay down some serious damage with a pair of large pistols and the will to use them.
Because mages are normal humans, and because normal humans aren’t particularly strong when stacked up against other Night-Folk, mages and their human allies must bring imaginative fighting techniques to the arena. Thankfully (for the mages, at least), humankind has spent millennia refining methods of effective force.
The following systems cover the many techniques an Awakened character might use to take zir enemies down. Each section features notes about the necessary elements of each maneuver: damage, roll, and so forth. If a maneuver requires 2 actions instead of 1, the attacker must either divide zir dice pool between them or employ a Time 3 Effect in order to finish the job. Either way, the attack takes place within 1 turn unless specified otherwise.
Optional Rule: Weapon Length
When you bring a knife to a katana fight, you’re at a distinct disadvantage. To reflect the inherent dangers of battling an opponent with a longer weapon, this optional rule subtracts 1 die from the attack dice pool of the character who’s got the shorter weapon. This option applies only to hand-to-hand situations. If you find yourself facing off against a HIT Mark with nothing but your athame at hand, it’s time to be anywhere but there.
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 5 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing or Lethal | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 5 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Lethal or Aggravated | Actions: 1 |
A brave or skillful attacker can try to disarm an armed opponent with zir bare hands. In this case, the roll is Dexterity + Brawl, the Difficulty is 8, and ze subtracts 1 die from zir usual attack dice pool. A character with at least 3 dots in the Martial Arts Skill can perform this bare-handed disarm maneuver at Difficulty 7 instead; in this case, the roll is Dexterity + Martial Arts, not Brawl.
| Roll: Dexterity + Melee / Brawl / Martial Arts | Difficulty: +1 / 8 / 7 |
| Damage: Special | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Normal | Difficulty: -1 / -2 |
| Damage: Normal | Actions: 1 |
To grapple another character, the attacker needs to make a successful Strength + Brawl, Martial Arts, or Do roll. If ze wants to bring the pain with zir attack, the player can roll zir Strength to inflict damage, beginning on the next turn and continuing until zir opponent breaks free. That foe may try to soak that damage as usual. If, instead, the attacker wants to hold zir opponent still, xe’s stuck in zir grip until xyr next action.
To escape a grapple, the opponent has two options: xe can break free by successfully beating xyr attacker in a resisted Strength + Brawl roll, or xe can reverse the hold by doing the same thing and then scoring 2 successes more than xyr attacker has scored. At the Storyteller’s discretion, an agile character can use Dexterity instead of Strength to escape; if xe’s got Acrobatics, Martial Arts, or Do, xe can use one of those Traits instead of Brawl.
Grappling attacks normally inflict Bashing damage. A character who’s got barbs, spikes, or claws — and who tears into zir victim with them while xe’s held — inflicts Lethal damage instead.
| Roll: Strength + Brawl / Martial Arts / Do | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: Strength or none / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: Strength / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
Reading an opponent demands 1 action. The character may attempt to do this only once per combat scene for each dot ze has in Wits. (A Wits 3 character, then, could try this trick up to a maximum of 3 times in a scene.) The Storyteller might choose to limit this trick to characters who have at least 2 dots in both Wits and the appropriate combat Trait; slow-witted people who don’t understand fighting aren’t good at this sort of thing. At ranges beyond 20 feet or so, this trick does not work unless the observer has at least 1 dot in the Correspondence or Mind Spheres and uses a perceptual Effect to read zir opponent at a distance.
| Roll: Perception + Combat Trait | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: N/A | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl / Melee | Difficulty: 8 |
| Damage: None | Actions: 1 |
A tackle requires at least 2 yards of distance to achieve effective momentum. Each combatant must make a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll (Difficulty 6 for the attacker, Difficulty [6 + the attacker’s successes] for the target), or else wind up sprawled on the ground afterward.
A would-be tackler who botches either trips and falls (inflicting 1 die of damage upon zirself for every yard ze ran); slams into something else (inflicting that damage plus zir Strength damage upon zirself); or crashes into zir target and bounces off (suffering the opponent’s Stamina in damage and leaving the target xemself unharmed).
For the most part, tackle damage is Bashing, not Lethal. A person crushed beneath the weight of a flying cyborg, however — or hit by someone who’s suddenly amped zir mass with Life or zir momentum with Forces — is liable to need a hospital, stat; in game terms, this tactic inflicts Lethal damage instead. Do we really need to point out that a fragile human mage who flings zirself into a cyborg or mass-enhanced body is liable to suffer that kind of damage zirself...?
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: Strength / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
Folks raised on the streets have nasty ways of taking a person down. It’s sheer survival in such environments. The following collection of brutal blows demands at least 3 dots in the Brawl Ability, plus a background that includes such dirty tricks (gang membership, violent neighborhood, rape-prevention classes, and so on). Street-honed mages might also use such tactics as tools to focus ugly “coincidences,” especially ones using Entropy, Life, Mind, and (when the Sphere increases kinetic momentum) Forces.
Mage Trick: The Thunder Punch
Throwing Enlightened force behind a punch, kick, or other hand-to-hand attack, a fighting mage delivers an unexpectedly powerful blow. Story-wise, the trick looks like a perfectly executed strike. In game terms, the mage employs either Correspondence 1 (to judge the perfect spot to hit), Entropy 1 or 2 (to either find a weak spot or adjust probability to the perfect place and time), Forces 2 (to increase velocity), Life 3 (to boost Strength or to damage the enemy internally), Mind 2 (to send an impulse to surrender), Matter 2 (to break inert materials), Prime 2 (to directly attack the target’s Pattern), or Time 2 (to note the perfect opening). As with most other tricks, each success reduces the Difficulty of the attack roll by -1 per success, to a maximum adjustment of -3.
In most cases, this “thunder punch” — which can also be performed with hand-to-hand weapons — is coincidental and inflicts Bashing damage. A Life 3 or Prime 3 Pattern assault, however, inflicts Aggravated damage instead, using the blow to focus an all-out metaphysical attack. Truly powerful blows may slip into vulgar magick if the mage appears to be too weak to have inflicted such a powerful strike... like, say, the proverbial skinny geek smashing every bone in the body of a towering muscle-thug. Oh, yeah — the thunder punch can kill people if you’re not careful, so it’s best to save this trick for Night-Folk and other such opponents unless your mage wants to face charges for manslaughter or murder.
Another flipside to the blow is obvious: you can hurt yourself while doing it. If the target manages to soak every level of damage inflicted by a thunder punch, then the attacker hurts zirself; the damage ze would have inflicted on the target gets inflicted on the mage instead (yes, ze can try to soak it too). In the case of the Pattern attacks, the mage simply suffers Bashing damage, not Aggravated harm. If, however, the mage tries to thunder punch a wall, steel armor, solid stone, and so forth, ze might take Lethal damage instead, possibly shattering zir hand or foot... or, if ze’s using a weapon to strike, breaking zir weapon against that unyielding surface.
This attack doesn’t normally inflict lasting damage. At the Storyteller’s discretion, however, a truly vicious strike (gouging with Life-grown claws, showering xem with acid, etc.) might inflict a health level or 2 of Lethal damage in addition to the blindness. 5 successes or more might destroy the eyes completely... and although Life magick can heal such injuries, there’s vulgar spellcasting involved unless the healer uses a First Aid pack, cool water, or some other method of coincidentally fixing blindness.
| Roll: Dexterity + Subterfuge | Difficulty: 9 |
| Damage: Special | Actions: 1 |
This maneuver requires a successful grappling attack. If the enemy can’t break free within that turn, the brawler can use zir next action to slam zir foe into the nearest and most painful surface. The impact typically inflicts Bashing damage; if the surface happens to be sharp, spiked, or incredibly hot, however, such injuries might be Lethal instead.
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Bashing or Lethal | Actions: 2 |
A curbstomp attack requires a stunned or immobilized target, plus 1 turn to place xyr face into position. After that, the brawler stomps and physics does the rest. The attacker rolls zir Strength for the attack. This assault inflicts Lethal damage and may inflict lasting and horrific injuries (broken teeth, shattered jaw, ruined face, etc.) at the Storyteller’s discretion.
| Roll: Strength + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Lethal | Actions: 2 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
Unless the attacker has a horned head, spiked helmet, steel skull, or other lethal implement, the headbutt inflicts Bashing damage. If the target soaks all of that damage, however, then the attacker is stunned for 1 turn. Anyone stupid enough to headbutt a cyborg or other unyielding opponent suffers the damage ze would have inflicted and gets stunned for a turn as well. (For rules about being stunned, see Blinded, Knocked Down, Immobilized, or Stunned.)
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: As per firearm + 2 | Actions: 1 |
If our brawler assailant makes a successful attack roll, zir target winds up stunned for one turn for each health level inflicted after the soak roll. Xe can try to shrug it off with a Stamina roll (Difficulty 8), but unless xe manages to do so, xe’s down for the count in agonizing pain. Normally, this trauma involves Bashing damage. Low blows struck with claws, teeth, blades, or enhanced crushing force, however, are Lethal.
| Roll: Dexterity + Brawl | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: Strength + Stun / Bashing or Lethal | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Melee | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Lethal | Actions: 1 |
People have been beating each other senseless since the dawn of time. These last few decades, though, have witnessed the refinement and popularity of hundreds of martial art disciplines. Skills that had been, until recently, the secret arts of elite warriors have since become sports, pastimes, and self-defense techniques for almost everyone. And though the average person is merely brawling when ze opens up the Whup-Ass canister, a skilled martial artist fights far more effectively than that.
Lacking the claws and teeth of vampires and other Night-Folk, mages must rely upon weapons and martial arts in a serious fight. And given their disciplined and inquisitive natures, the Awakened often make excellent pupils for the fighting arts... arts that are, on many levels, physical reflections of the mental disciplines involved in magick. Certain mages — especially Black Suits, Thanatoic killers, crafty wizards, and street-savvy witches — even focus their mystic Arts through martial skills, utilizing chi energy and physical conditioning as tools for their arcane practices. Although the Akashic Art of Do is far more refined and potent than typical martial arts — and is therefore detailed below — the Akashayana aren’t the only mages who focus magick through a well-aimed punch. (See the Martial Arts practice described in Focus and the Arts.)
Optional Rule: Drunken Style
Aping the effects of intoxication on monkeys and other primates (like people), watchful martial artists recognized the unpredictable nature of a blurry-reflexed fighter. By learning to enter semi-trance drunken mind states, or by training to attack off-beat, these martial artists formulated a style that’s incredibly hard to read... and thus, incredibly hard to defend against.
The following optional rule allows a practitioner of a drunken style (or, in Akashic circles, the Broken Rhythm School) to adopt this unpredictable form. Assuming the lolling drunken stance (see Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master films), ze bobs, weaves, and rolls. In any turn in which ze wins initiative, that martial artist adds +2 to the Difficulty of any attack ze makes, but ze also adds +3 to the Difficulty of any character who tries to block, dodge, disarm or otherwise counter those attacks. These advantages, however, do not apply in turns during which ze loses initiative.
A defender who’s using Time Sphere perceptions during the fight can counter this advantage, dodging and defending normally; a Mind reader, however, cannot do so because not even the martial artist zirself knows exactly what ze’s going to do next.
The fighter doesn’t have to be drunk when using drunken style martial arts. In order to employ this option, however, the martial artist must have at least 3 dots in either Martial Arts or Do, and must take a specialty in either Drunken Style or Broken Rhythm School. Normal fighters — drunk or sober — cannot use such techniques effectively.
Some practitioners describe “soft” and “hard” approaches to the martial arts: hard styles emphasize direct actions, aggressive stances, thrusting attacks, and sharp defenses, whereas soft styles focus on avoidance, fluid movements, misdirection, and momentum-based techniques that use an attacker’s energy against xyr. One approach strikes; the other flows.
Many practices feature both elements, especially within mixed martial arts that take elements from various practices. Certain practices, however, have distinctly hard components (karate, savate, tiger-style, etc.), and others focus on a soft approach in terms of both philosophy and practice (aikido, wing chun, judo, and so forth). As some of the entries below point out, certain techniques work better with one style than they do with another.
Most disciplines go far beyond combat maneuvers. Additional Abilities like Athletics, Acrobatics, Meditation, and Esoterica (with specialties like Herbalism, Yoga, Body Control, Chinese or Ayurvedic Medicine, and various philosophies) are part of the essential training for many martial arts. Game-wise, a character should have several dots in such Abilities, reflecting both the physical training and the spiritual and philosophical basis of the art. For suggestions, see the Eight Limbs of Expertise sidebar in the Do section below.
The following maneuvers can be used by any character with a few dots in the Martial Arts Skill. For each dot in Martial Arts, you can choose 2 martial arts maneuvers. Certain advanced maneuvers demand a Minimum Ability; only characters with the appropriate dots in the appropriate Abilities may employ this maneuver.
This section represents the effects of normal martial arts. To employ such arts as a focus, again see the Martial Arts entry under Practice: The Shape of Focus in Focus and the Arts and the Magick and Violence page.
As noted in the Attributes and Abilities entry Optional Rule: Minimum Abilities, a martial artist mage should have at least 1 dot in Martial Arts (or Do, if ze uses Do) for every dot in the highest Sphere ze uses through zir martial arts techniques. Mage or no mage, a budding karateka should not be able to channel devastating magickal Effects through an art ze barely understands.
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (soft style), Athletics 1 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: As Throw | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 3 (hard style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 5 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Lethal | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (soft style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: Attacker’s Strength / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 1 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 8 |
| Damage: Opponent’s Strength / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (any style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 5 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 1 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: [Strength + 2] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (any style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: hard 5 / soft 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
The player rolls Dexterity + Martial Arts to grapple zir opponent, then may immediately (without dividing zir dice pool between attacks) roll Dexterity + Martial Arts to inflict damage. Each success rolled inflicts 1 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 / Lethal | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 3 (any style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: [Strength + 3] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 1 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: hard 6 / soft 5 |
| Damage: N/A | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 1 (hard style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 5 |
| Damage: [Strength + 1] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: [Strength + 3] / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
So long as ze’s got a straight shot at the location, ze can choose where zir opponent lands. When ze lands, ze takes damage based on zir Strength. If xe’d been charging zir at the time xe was thrown, the impact also inflicts an additional +1 die for every 10 feet xe’d been traveling at the time (+10 dice maximum).
If the impact inflicts more than 3 health levels in damage (after soaking), the opponent must make a Stamina roll (Difficulty 8) or else be stunned for 1 turn.
Should the martial artist throw one opponent into another one, the flying enemy inflicts 1 die Bashing damage for each point of Stamina xe has, plus 1 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 5 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 2 (any style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: hard 7 / soft 6 |
| Damage: Strength + Movement / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 3 (hard style), Athletics or Acrobatics 2 | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: [Strength + 3] + Successes / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: Martial Arts 2 (hard style) | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: Strength / Lethal | Actions: 1 |
| Minimum Ability: | |
| Roll: Dexterity + Martial Arts | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: Strength / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
Kuei Lung Chuan: Dragon Spirit Kung Fu
The secret discipline of the Wu Lung Tiger School, Dragon Spirit Kung Fu features broad, powerful movements that combine the fury of a tiger with the grace of a dragon. In game terms, Kuei Lung Chuan is a hard style, flashy and grandiose, that encourages a passionate approach to life and war.
To reflect Kuei Lung Chuan, a character from the Wu Lung — and only from the Wu Lung! — may take a Martial Arts specialty in this form. As usual, that character can learn up to 2 maneuvers for each dot in the Martial Arts Skill and will have several dots in Acrobatics and Melee as well.
The Spirit Dragon style concentrates on several weapons: the jian sword, the spear, the staff, and the war fan. A Tiger School martial artist can take a Kuei Lung Chuan specialty in Melee to count every 10 rolled with that Ability as 2 successes, not just 1. Taking the same specialty in Acrobatics allows the martial artist to get those extra successes while employing zir Tiger School training in zir acrobatic feats. Together, these advantages reflect the grand discipline of Dragon Spirit Kung Fu. (For details, see Specialties in Attributes and Abilities.)
Kuei Lung Chuan emphasizes certain techniques. A character trained by the Tiger School will have at least 2 of the following maneuvers in addition to whichever other attacks ze decides to learn, and upper-level devotees will have most, if not all, of these techniques: Death Strike, Dragon Tail Sweep, Hard Strike, Snake Step, Thunder Kick, and Withering Grasp. The Dragon Wizards, of course, often use their secret kung fu art as a mystic focus, too.
The quintessential martial art from which all other disciplines supposedly descend, Do is far more than a mere collection of fighting techniques. As shown by its Trait listing in Attributes and Abilities, Do is a way of life... or, more literally, the Way of life. When directed toward peaceful ends, Do allows a person to refine enormous potential. And when directed, by sad necessity, toward the ends of violence, Do is legendary in its martial applications.
As revealed in Attributes and Abilities, a starting character cannot begin play with more than 2 dots in Do. Further expertise must be earned over the course of the game. Only Akashics and their closest, most trusted allies may learn it, and that discipline is a lifetime commitment. A Tao-shih (Way-scholar/warrior) must spend at least 1 hour every day practicing Do; otherwise, zir skills diminish. In game terms, ze loses dots temporarily until regular training resumes — roughly 1 dot for every 2 weeks without practice.
Game system-wise, Do confers the following advantages and limitations to its practitioners:
Far more than mere super kung fu, Do also includes study in the eight limbs, or fields of study, that epitomize a well-focused life. The nearby sidebar reveals those eight limbs. To progress within Do, a devotee must study those limbs as well as the martial applications of that Art.
In game terms, you must have at least 2 dots in limb-related Abilities other than Dharmamukti for every dot in Do. Before you can add another dot of Do, you must first add 2 other dots in limb-related fields. To go, for example, from Do 2 to Do 3, your character would also have to learn at least 2 dots in 1 of the Abilities on the sidebar. Ideally, ze’ll eventually learn at least 1 dot in all eight limbs.
Eight Limbs of Expertise
According to the Akashic Dharma Sutra, the Way is divided into eight fields of expertise. And although Do is often regarded as a martial art, its devotees recognize that a truly harmonious human being understands at least a little bit about all of them.
These eight limbs are known as:
- Dharmamuki: Unarmed combat techniques of the Dharma Clasped Hand. Both adapting and inspiring other martial arts techniques, this limb comprises the most obvious form of Do, but only one of its many applications.
- Dhyana: The Limb of Meditation, focused upon calming an excitable mind. Refined as a way to escape the clutches of egotism and attachment, Dhyana employs mandalas, the Five Asian Elements, meditative movement practices, and the greater realm beyond Self.
Associated Abilites: Awareness, Enigmas, Meditation
- Jivahasta: The Hand of Life, a study of healing arts and bodywork.
Associated Abilites: Esoterica (Bodywork, Herbalism, Yoga) Medicine (Alternate Healing Techniques), Survival
- Karma: Devotion to humble labor, the perfect focus of small things, and one’s place within an infinite cosmos, epitomized by the saying, “Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.”
Associated Abilites: Art (all kinds), Crafts (all non-martial specialties), Etiquette
- Prajna: The study of ethics and philosophy. Just as a devotee of the Way refines zir body for war, ze must also refine zir mind with kindness, compassion, and the stillness of perfect harmony.
Associated Abilities: Academics (Philosophy), Belief Systems, Cosmology
- Shastamarga: The Way of Weapons, intended to expand bodily awareness into the tools that extend the body’s reach. By focusing on weapons, the craftsmanship involved, and the awful consequences of their use and abuse, a devotee learns to judge the implications of zir own actions upon the greater whole.
Associated Abilities: Academics (Strategy), Crafts (Weaponsmithing), Melee
- Sunyakaya: The Limb of the Empty Body, cultivating the ability to disappear. Based as it is upon the removal of ego through the concealment of identity, this limb has more practical uses as well.
Associated Abilities: Meditation, Stealth, Subterfuge
- Tricanmarga: The Way of the Triple Struggle, balancing out the forces of Dynamism, Stasis, and Entropy (seen as Tiger, Phoenix, and Dragon) within one’s own self and then — by extension — reaching greater harmony with the world beyond that self.
Associated Abilities: Acrobatics, Athletics, Esoterica (Body Control, Yoga)
Optional Rule: The Peaceful Way
Do is not merely a martial art. By applying the Way to peaceful tasks, a Tao-shih may focus its principles to great success. In story terms, the Akashic character meditates upon the Way as ze performs whatever task ze has set zir mind to doing.
In game terms, the player spends 1 Willpower point and then rolls zir Do Trait as a dice pool against Difficulty 8. Each success ze rolls adds 1 success to a mundane task associated with one of the eight limbs listed above. To perform the task itself, the player rolls the associated Attribute + Ability, at whatever Difficulty seems to fit the task at hand (Storyteller’s discretion).
Only the Associated Abilities listed above may be enhanced by this optional rule, with the exceptions of Do combat maneuvers and the Abilities associated with the Shastamarga limb. Such violent tasks do not get the benefit of this rule; this is, after all, the Peaceful Way, and so martial applications are not appropriate to its purity.
Beyond the martial prowess and its associated skills, the Way also teaches its devotees an array of secret techniques. Some get integrated into the established Arts of what mages call magick — that is, Do becomes the focus for Sphere-based Effects. Other techniques, however, remain the special purview of the Akashayana.
A devotee of Do may learn 1 of these techniques for each dot of Do ze has beyond the first; if, for instance, Xiao Mengli achieves Do 4, she can choose up to 3 special techniques. Such disciplines are the work of devoted study and many years of practice. No one, obviously, can master them all!
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: 7 / 9 |
| Damage: As weapon | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: 8 |
| Damage: [Strength + 3] + Successes / Bashing | Actions: 1 |
Sadly, this technique does not confer total protection from harm. The character will always take 1 health level of damage from a blow that exceeds zir Stamina Attribute. If Lucy Hark gets hit for 5 levels of damage and she has a Stamina of 2, then she’ll still take 1 health level from that attack, despite her Iron Shirt technique.
| Roll: Adds dots in Do to soak roll | Difficulty: N/A |
| Damage: N/A | Actions: N/A |
In any application, the player must state zir intention to use the Shout at the beginning of zir action, or else hold back a few dice to use the Shout as a second action that turn.
| Roll: As above | Difficulty: 7 / [Willpower + 3] / 8 |
| Damage: N/A | Actions: 1 |
If one of those leaps gets used as an attack, the Difficulty rises by +1 but adds 2 extra damage dice to that attack. Leaping and attacking are still considered 2 different actions, so it demands the usual divided dice pool. Especially if it’s enhanced by the Correspondence and/or Forces Spheres, the Plum Flower technique can be quite amazing.
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: 6 |
| Damage: N/A | Actions: 1 |
Damage-wise, Jou Chuan inflicts the attacker’s Strength + weapon, plus 1 die for every success scored by the Akashic character beyond what he needed to catch the attack. If, for instance, Raging Eagle needs 3 successes to catch his opponent’s attack, and he gets 6 successes, then the redirected attack inflicts the opponent’s Strength + weapon + 3 more dice.
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: 7 |
| Damage: As above | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: N/A |
| Damage: As above | Actions: 1 |
| Roll: Dexterity + Do | Difficulty: 8 |
| Damage: [Strength + 5] + Successes | Actions: 1 |
In order to employ this technique, the devotee must have a Dexterity + Do dice pool that’s at least as high as zir Dexterity + Melee pool, if not higher. This technique does not apply to guns, though it may be used with bows or thrown weapons.
| Roll: As per attack | Difficulty: N/A |
| Damage: As above | Actions: N/A |
Mage Trick: Catching Bullets
By adding a Time 3/Forces 2/Life 2 Bullet-Catch Effect to the Arrow Cutting feat, an Akashic character can catch bullets. Forces reduces the bullet’s kinetic energy, Life hardens the skin against the projectile, and Time quickens the Akashic’s reflexes to incredible speed.
To perform this trick, an Akashic mage who’s aware of the attack can cast the Effect, focus it through Do, and then roll zir Dexterity + Do as if it was a dodge against the gunfire. If ze scores more successes than zir attacker, then ze catches the bullet before it can hit zir. Whether or not this is vulgar magick depends on where ze is; in most places, it would be vulgar, but in regions that accept a superhuman martial arts paradigm, it’s coincidental.
This feat does not work against shotguns or rapid fire weapons. Although a mage could certainly pull a Matrix-style vulgar stunt in order to stop a hail of bullets, that’s a different kind of trick.