Martial Arts in Space!

Since Star Wars 2020 is Cyberpunk 2020 based, this is the perfect opportunity to include Fight Club, the custom martial arts rules I came up with:

As such, any character taking points in the Martial Arts skill will need to:

1. Assign 3x the number of points between the 11 techniques
2. Calculate his BDM(Body Damage Modifier). See the chart below
3. Calculate his SDM(Skill Damage Modifier). Skill level in the given technique/2

Body	Body Type Modifier	Body Damage Modifier
1	0	0
2	-1	+1
3	-1	+1
4	-2	+2
5	-2	+2
6	-3	+3
7	-3	+3
8	-4	+4
9	-4	+4
10	-5	+5

Finally, here's the printable character sheet with Fight Club additions:

Unarmed Combat for "Kill, Cyborgs! Kill!"

Okay, let's tackle this little topic.  I need an unarmed combat system for Kill, Cyborgs Kill!, the cyber-horror adventure I'm working on. Here are some of the desired attributes of said system:

• It's a Cyberpunk game so it needs to include lots of bitchin' martial arts
• BUT 2010 martial arts, not 1980's
• AND it's a horror game so I want to keep the combat simple so as not to break the mood
• AND DnD Compatible
• AND needs to work with the skill system

Techniques

There are several unarmed combat techniques characters can use:

• Punch: 1d4 damage
• Kick: 1d6 damage
• Grapple: hold your opponent, restraining him from using large weapons, moving.
• Escape Grapple: escape a grapple
• Throw(only from grapple): 1d8 damage, opponent is prone, still grappled
• Choke Hold(only from grapple): puts opponent to sleep. Each additional round the choke is held, must save or die
• Joint Lock(only from grapple): 1d8 dmg
• Neck Lock(only from grapple): paralyzed. Fort save or die.
• Eye Gouge: blindness till end of combat. Fort save or permanent.
• Groin Shot: stunned till end of combat. Fort save or permanent damage.

Skills

The skill check is done as an Opposed Skill Check(see Skills section), with the attacker and his opponent each rolling and comparing their rolls.

Example: The ninja attempts to punch Detective Hobbs. The ninja rolls 1d20+DEX bonus+Ninjitsu skill vs. the Detective’s 1d20+DEX+Brawling skill.

Example: Detective Hobbs attempts to grapple a junkie, who has no relevant skill. The Detective rolls 1d20+DEX bonus+Brawling skill vs. the Junkie’s 1d20+DEX.

Death & Dismemberment Chart for Unarmed Combat

This is a different chart for non-lethal damage such as from punches, kicks, throws, and joint locks(if a PC punches with brass-knuckles, throws an opponent's onto a concrete floor, or curb-stomps a prone opponent’s head then that is normal armed damage and should use the normal chart.) Upon taking unarmed damage which leaves a character with 0 or fewer HP, roll 1d10 + the number of negative hitpoints the character has.

• 1-6 Lightly Stunned: character misses next turn
• 7-14 Stunned: character is not killed, but is useless for the rest of the combat
• 15+ Killed: blunt force trauma, internal bleeding, etc.

Winning isn't All That

So, why did I come home last night with a bloody mouth and a big dumb smile that I couldn't wipe-off my face?

No, let's start over...

There are some DMs who think their job is to set-up encounters just difficult enough to provide the party a bit of a challenge, but not, heaven forbid, to put them in any real danger. They may even apologise to you if a particular combat starts going against the party. And if things really go South, they will start fudging dice rolls or having the monsters make intentional tactical mistakes.

Their reason for doing this is that they don't want to ruin people's fun by having them lose, but, ironically, their combats aren't fun, since there is no incentive to think too hard, try anything new or novel. Just roll your dice everybody, round after round after round until the inevitable...

Compare this with the DM who doesn't pull any punches. When the party finds themselves in a crunch, they've played with this DM a while and they know it's do or die. Suddenly the creative juices start flowing! Tactics, strategy, dirty tricks, religion checks for divine intervention. A PC sacrifices himself so that the others can escape!

Now that's fun! That's engaging! The players push themselves to their limits. In this way, a lost battle can be more fun than a hum-drum victory.

OK, so back to last night...

Last night was Jiu Jitsu practice. Now, I started out training with several guys who have only been training for a year or two: enough to give me a hard time, but not that hard a time. I got to try out a few new techniques, as well as apply some old favourites. Good times.

And then I had a match with J. Now I never really stood a chance with J. He's been training various martial arts since he was a kid, and BJJ several years more than me. He's younger, stronger, and he also fights a bit dirty when he's frustrated. So I had to use all my resources in the match: my most solid techniques, a few fake-outs, and also ultimately pain tolerance when he did manage to pin me in a bad position. Ultimately the match ended in a draw. But that hard-won draw was infinitely more fun than all of the night's textbook victories.

Cyberpunk Boxing

So in my alternate Martial Arts System for Cyberpunk 2020, I made punches do "non-lethal damage".  If that's to wimpy for you, you can always get Cyberlimbs like this guy...

How to Weasel People into Gaming With You or "Sometimes Three's a Crowd"

Wow!  My wife actually playtested Fight Club with me!  All I had to do was convince her it isn't an RPG, just a stand-alone game(which is technically true, though it is also a set of alternate martial arts rules for Cyberpunk 2020).  OK, I'm not sure she believed me entirely, especially when I pulled out the characters sheets and polyhedral dice, but she was a good sport and at the end of the test she told me, sounding quite surprised "That was fun!"

Playtest Results

This was my third playtest of Fight Club.  Since it was my wife's first time with Cyberpunk 2020 combat, I gave her an advantage: I gave my character a Reflex of 5, while hers was 10.  And I got my butt kicked as a result.

Orignial BTM chart

I had added a mechanic for Cool to Fight Club: if your character is knocked down then a Cool test can bring them back into the action. I did this because of a real-life factor in Martial Arts.  Royce Gracie one remarked that he likes to classify a fighter based on 3 factors:

1. Physical Attributes
2. Fighting Skill
3. Spirit

This third one is a real factor.  You can sense when your opponent(or you) have given-up on winning and they just shut-down or go into autopilot.

Anyway, the first two factors are covered by your Ref, Body, and Skills, but I wanted to give a representation to Spirit too, so I decided that would be your Cool score.  But it still ends up being a dump stat since REF and BODY have so much more effect.  So regrettably, I changed the rules so that COOL is not a factor and the cool tests are now standard Stun Tests vs. Body.

To make BODY more important, I'm also changing the Add to Damage and BTM to make them more of a factor(skill can add up to 5 damage to a strike, so Body should too).

Original Add to Damage chart

	Body	Body Type Modifier	Add to Damage
	1	0	0
	2	0	0
	3	1	1
	4	1	1
	5	3	3
	6	3	3
	7	3	3
	8	4	4
	9	4	4
	10	5	5

Anyway, maybe I'm make a PDF with the summary of these alternate martial arts rules for CP2020.

The Fight Club Mini-Game

So two of you have arrived, but the rest of your gaming group is running late.  The pizza isn't here yet and you've run through all the small-talk already.  What can you do?  NEED STIMULATION NOW! Well here's The Fight Club Mini-Game for two players to keep you busy...

BTM

Step 1 Create Your Fighter

1. Divide 17 points between Body, Reflexes, and Cool stats(maximum 10)
2. Calculate your BTM(damage reduction due to toughness)
3. Calculate you Strength Modifier to damage
4. Divide 30 skill points between the 10 martial arts skills(maximum 10)

Sample Character Sheet

Strength Modifier

Body:6 Ref:7 CL:4 BTM:-2 SB: +0

• Strike: 3
• Dodge Blow: 3
• Enter Clinch: 3
• Escape to Standing: 3
• Grappling Counter: 3
• Improve Ground Position: 3
• Takedown: 3
• Joint Lock: 3
• Choke: 3
• Kick: 3

Step 2 Fight!

• Based on CP2020's Friday Night Firefight rules
• Alternative Martial Arts Rules are here
• Example fight(except with weapons, multiple fighters) is here
• If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out: the fight is over. 

Appendix: Alternative Martial Arts Rules for CP2020

Here are all the posts on this alternate system for Cyberpunk 2020 Martial Arts

• Introduction
• Mechanics
• Advancement
• Example

Cyberpunk 2020 Updated for MMA: Part 3

Continuing from the last post on an modernized martial arts system for CP2020.

Advancement

Key Attacks

CP2020 has a rather complex system for advancement in Martial Arts.  Each individual Art has a difficulty level to determine how much XP you need to advance in it, and a bonus it gives for Key Attacks.

Due to today's more cross-training approach, I'm going to say that characters improve a particular technique rather than an art. Since this makes martial arts a bit more expensive, we'll say that 1 skill point buys you 3 martial arts skill points(to be divided between 3 different martial arts skills).  I'm also going to do away with the art-specific bonuses.

This requires 10*10/3=33.3 skill points to max-out all martial arts skills, which seems like a reasonably high-enough number since characters will generally want to specialize rather than max-out(in CP2020, you begin with 40+INT+REF skill points, so around 50)

Key Attacks for Karate

So for example if I created a martial artist character, and I wanted to put 15 skill points into martial skills, I would have 45 martial arts skill points to distribute between the 10 martial skills.  So let's say this guy's a pro-boxer, but has trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on the side in hope of transitioning to MMA:

• Strike-9
• Dodge Blow-9
• Enter Clinch-6
• Escape to Standing-6
• Grappling Counter -3
• Improve Ground Position-3
• Takedown-3
• Joint Lock-2
• Choke-2
• Kick-2

Side Effects

One side effect is that whatever Martial Arts you studied is no longer your skill, it's now your back-story to explain your martial skills.

Another is that the Brawling skill is no longer relevant.  If you want to make a Brawler, who has learned to fight on the street, just spend 7 skill points on 21 martial arts skill points.

• Strike-7
• Dodge Blow-7
• Kick-4
• Takedown-3

Cyberpunk 2020 Updated for MMA: Part 2

CP2020's Martial Arts combat is built around 11 general techniques.  In this article I'll propose my own alternate set of 10 techniques for modern martial arts.  Unlike CP2020, martial level will be per-technique, not per art i.e. each technique is effectively a separate Skill.

CP2020's General Melee Mechanic

1 Techniques

The popularization of ground fighting due to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has added a lot of techniques to the martial arts world, as well as a good deal of positioning strategy.

1.1 Positions

There are a number of positions your character can be in, and this determines both w
hat techniques can be used and with what chance of success/effectiveness.

So simple, even a Rockerboy could do it!

• Standing- standing far enough away from opponent to trade powerful punches/kicks
• Clinched- two adversaries are standing, but tied-up with one another such that it's harder to trade blows.  Close enough to attempt take-downs
• Ground- two adversaries are grappling on the ground.  Three possible sub-positions:
• Neutral- both adversaries are on equal footing
• Superior/Inferior- one adversary has a better position than the other

1.2 Positional Techniques(4)

During his turn, a character uses his action to attempt to change positions.

Original List of Techniques

• Enter Clinch
• Transition from Standing to Clinched
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Takedown
• Transition from Clinched to Ground(Neutral)
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Success by 5 or more means you threw him for a transition straight to Ground(Advantage)
• If you're on a firm surface 1d6+Damage Modifier
• Escape to Standing
• Transition from Clinched/Ground(Neutral) to Standing
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Improve Ground Position
• Transition from Ground(Disadvantage) to Ground(Neutral) or Ground(Neutral) to Ground(Advantage)
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter

1.3 Attack Techniques(4)

There two types of strikes and two types of submissions.  Note that head strikes/kicks against an opponent wearing an open helmet have a 50% of hitting the helmet(modified location chart below) and thus having their damage reduced.

General Hit-Location Chart

• Strike- Strike with hand/elbow.  Cause 1d6/2+SB+Damage Modifier
• Roll against opponent's Dodge
• Roll Location: Face 1-4, Head 5-8, Body 9-0
• Positions and Bonus/Penalties
• Standing: 0
• Ground(Neutral): 0
• MMA Equivalent: punching from within the guard
• Ground(Advantage): +5
• Kick/Knee- Cause 1d6+SB+Damage Modifier
• Roll against opponent's Dodge
• Roll Location: Face 1, Head 2, Body 3-6, R. Leg 7-8, L. Leg 9-0
• Positions and Bonus/Penalties
• Standing: 0
• Ground(Advantage): 0
• MMA Equivalent: knee from side mount
• Ground(Neutral): -5
• MMA Equivalent: upkick, Silva's crazy kick from guard
• Easier to counter
• if your kick from standing misses then you are easier(+4) to strike/kick/clinch until your next turn
• Joint Lock
  
• Hold Submission to cause pain, threaten major injury, force prone
• Force Submission to break the limb
• Limb incapacitated until medical care+healing time
• 4d6 damage, unmodified by BTM/armor
• if the joint being forced is the neck/spine, paralysis/death ensues
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Roll Location: Neck 1-2, R. Arm 3-5, L. Arm 6-8, R. Leg 9, L. Leg 0
• Positions and Bonus/Penalties
• Clinch: -5
• Ground(Disadvantage): -5
• Ground(Neutral): 0
• Ground(Advantage): +5
• Choke
• Hold Submission to cause pain, threaten unconsciousness, force prone
• Force Submission to choke unconscious
• Once released, you are considered stunned, with no Stun Check
• Each additional round the choke is held, the victim must make increasingly difficult Death Save(as with mortal wound levels: -0, -1, -2...) or die
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Positions and Bonus/Penalties
• Clinch: -5
• Ground(Neutral): 0
• Ground(Advantage): +5

1.4 Defense Techniques(2)

These are usually used reactively, without using-up a character's turn, to counter techniques in 1.2, 1.3 above as specified.  If the character focuses on defence and doesn't do any other action, then he can get an additional +5 to his defence roll.  There are two types.

• Dodge Blow(distinct from the Dodge skill, which no longer applies to combat)- dodge or block a strike, kick, blade, club, etc.
• Grappling Counter - prevent opponent from executing a technique

1.5 Miscellaneous Rules

• Damage modifier = level of the technique/2
• 3rd party dodge
• When two characters are Clinched or on the Ground and a third character attacks one of them, they have a more difficult time dodging
• -5 penalty to Dodge Blow
• Small weapon can be drawn from Clinched/Ground, even your opponent's weapon

• Opponent can try to prevent this
• Roll against opponent's Grappling Counter
• Small weapons can be used from Clinched/Ground as a normal attack from that range
• pistols considered point blank range
• knives: -5 to Dodge Blow roll
• rifles can't be used effectively from those positions
• clubs, swords can be used from the same positions as strikes, with the same penalty/bonus
• Non-Lethal Damage
• Strikes/Kicks/Throws/Joint Locks do damage.  So do blunt attacks to limbs.  But it's a non-lethal type of damage.  So no Death Save is neccessary. That's right, no Fists of Death--that only works in Anime
• On the other hand, throws which hit the head on a hard surface, or blunt attacks to the head/body do normal damage
• You do still need to make a Stun Check.  If you fail then you are Lightly Stunned(as opposed to Stunned when shot, stabbed, etc.)
• Being Lightly Stunned is less permanent than being Stunned by Normal Damage(Stunned for

  

  Stun penalties vs. points of damage

  the rest of the combat)...
• You miss your next action, but...
• For each following round make another Stun Check.  If you succeed, then you are no longer Lightly Stunned and can start performing actions again
• Non-lethal damage heals at a rate of 1 point per hour of rest(though the bruises/cuts take longer to go away)
• Disarm- done as Strike/Kick/Joint Lock with an additional -4 penalty
• Dirty Shot- strike opponent in the groin, eye, etc.
• Roll with a -5 penalty(same as attacking specific limb)
• Does 4d6 non-lethal damage like a broken limb
• Successful eye gouge blinds character in that eye
• Once Opponent is Stunned/Lightly Stunned
• No escape skill check is needed to stand back up from ground, put opponent in Ground(Advantange), continue to punch opponent, etc.

That's it for Techniques.  Next time... Advancement!

Cyberpunk 2020 Updated for MMA: Part 1

Wow.  This post got way too long, way too fast.  So this will be the first part of a series.  Gygax had his Polearms, I have my Martial Arts...

So let's start with the problem:

When I was running Polish Resistance with CP2020 rules, we were dissatisfied with the martial arts rules.  Bottom line, CP2020's fights just didn't seem realistic.

To list some of the problems:

• The Boxer in the party, his punches were doing an amount of damage on par with a rifle-shot
• Strikes do the same type of damage as a gun-shot(i.e. no non-lethal damage), so all his punches were fatal
• Grappling was pretty useless in practice
• There were no submissions

So you have to ask: How did CP2020, a game which LOOOVES martial arts, get it so wrong?

The answer is, to a large degree, due to how martial arts and our perception of martial arts have changed since the game's publication in the late 80's.

How Martial Arts Have Changed

The advent of Mixed Martial Arts competition, popularized with the advent of the UFC in 1993, has led to a lot more cross-over in the Martial Arts World.  Specific schools borrow from each other much more, you have MMA schools which don't even attempt to focus on a single style, and martial artists cross-train multiple arts to a large degree.  In short, the trope of going to live in a Shaolin temple and learning the 7 super-secret strikes of death is no longer culturally relevant.  Now it's all about breadth.

How Our Perception of Martial Arts Has Changed

This really get's at the heart of the matter.  When CP2020 was published in the 80's, we only knew what high-level martial arts looked like from from the movies. Today, due to the proliferation of martial arts training and cheap electronic video cameras, we know what it looks like from actual fight footage.  For example, take a look at Bruce Lee's fight in a Karate Studio, versus this recent fight in Wandrelai Silva's gym.

To name a few of the things we have learned since then:

• There are virtually no knock-outs on the first strike
• The fights often end up in a clinch and then on the ground
• Brawls generally go the way of those with superior numbers
• Breaking bones and choking your opponent unconscious is a very effective way to win a fight

So in subsequent posts I'll describe an alternate system for CP2020 Martial Arts which is a better fit for today's updated outlook...