So I'm watching Kiss of the Dragon, with Jet Li..., On acupuncture Options

[Voran]

Aside from watching Jet kick an inordinate amount of ass, what stuck with me (badum bum) was his use of acupuncture to disable or assist with his kicking of ass.

So I'm wondering, how would that play out in SR?

[Abstruse]

Magic of some sort, a new tradition maybe? Priority B or Aspected...maybe some kind of geas or something...it's not that hard to work out with a little playtesting and tweaking, but it does seem a bit underpowered. An adept power maybe? *shrugs* 2 PP, successful melee attack, opponent must roll Willpower against the PC's Magic or be stunned for a round? Just off the top of my head, fiddle with it.

The Abstruse One

[mfb]

well, there's the nerve strike physad power, in MitS. geasa it to using acupuncture needles with your unarmed attacks (the needles aren't going to do any significant damage on their own, so i'm willing to call them 'unarmed'). and, of course, there was delay damage attack, at the end.

[Voran]

Hmm. Ok. I'm also thinking some sorta TN based on essence. Less essence would make it more difficult...hmm actually the magic comparison isn't too far off when I continue thinking about it.


And, I'm watching Jet beat up an entire police station...heh, that's some cool stuff. Leads me to another consideration. He's using a two stick fighting style to beat the crap out of a classroom of cops training with batons. It makes me think, two weapon fighting in SR, seems kinda burdened with retarded rules.

[Austere Emancipa...]

+50% skill dice is "burdened with retarded rules"?

[mfb]

well, there's that whole 'buy a skill or pay for an edge' thing, too. pretty complex, for something as simple as weilding two seperate weapons against multiple opponents!

[Austere Emancipa...]

Compared, for example, to the separate actions to attack, several different Feats, separate attack and damage bonuses, etc. in d20. Uh-huh...

(And don't start with me, mfb, I wouldn't know how it works in d20 if I didn't/hadn't played it.)

[Voran]

[mfb]

it's in cannon companion. you have to take a seperate skill for your off-hand weapon; you add half that skill to your main skill, when attacking. alternatively, you can take a 6 or 8 point edge that lets you add half again your main skill (so a guy with 6 skill would roll 9 dice to attack).

aw, c'mon, austere. it's been awhile since we hijacked a thread and burned it down around our own ears!

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Voran]

D'oh that'll teach me to just breeze through the CC. Another side comment, since its my thread, I can be as off-tangent as I want :) You're all welcome to join....anyhoo...

The ambidexterity edge seems to have gotten hellaciously silly since SR Companion. I can understand the desire to 'balance' out akimbo gun users, but ...c'mon :)

[Voran]

Oh wait, now I remember why I breezed through. It made my eyes bleed when I went through the rules there. Combined with the 'new' martial arts styles/rules in CC, it gave me a headache :P That poor escrima/kali/type martial art user has to spend a bit more to be even passably competent :P

[Kakkaraun]

I personally think the idea of an "Off-hand weapon" skill is complete and utter bullshit. Honestly. It's not like it's a separate goddamn concept too smack someone with a pipe with your left hand or right. I say it should be a straight up penalty, reduced by the Ambi edge.

[kevyn668]

[TinkerGnome]

The best maneuvers for non-serious melee characters are evasion and close combat. Evasion if you don't want to be fighting at all and close combat for those who don't have a reach weapon on hand and want to nail a troll with a polearm.

Anyway, that six point ambidexterity edge is the reason you have starting adepts with 18 dice in melee combat before pool.

[Shockwave_IIc]

Which they should never need to improve......

Becks is more forgiving to the MA user. Onlt barely mind

[broho_pcp]

killing hands, delay damage, and nerve strike would cover all you want to do with the acupuncture and pressure point skills to reflect Jet's amazing abilities.

[Kakkaraun]

I want the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Attack.

[Kagetenshi]

Whirling is always nice, too.

~J

[snowRaven]

[Kakkaraun]

I've done everything you mentioned there, but my appraisal is a bit off, because I'm kind of ambidextrous. Just a wee bit.

But the thing is, yes, it's harder to hit someone with your off-hand, but it's still the same concept. IE, same skill, higher modifiers.

[Abstruse]

[The White Dwarf]

Yea, it is that hard to use 2 weapons at once, let alone against two different people. Anyone with martial arts training in something like sais or nunchakus can tell you that. Jet Li is the real deal following a scripted scene, which is why its so fluid. The CC Ambidexterety edge is insanely powerful, and is priced appropriatly. When you consider people getting near 12 melee dice without any pool use, or trolls dual weilding shotguns and assault rifles, yes its powerful.

As to the original question, Im thinking geasing the nerve strike power is the closest thing, but you could come up with a few new powers if you wanted. To me it seems to better fit the "flavor" choices of a character with appropriate knowledge skills than actually adding new powers but thats me. Besides, having the actupuncture knowledge skill could be useful on a lotta things besides melee... be sorta fun idea.

[Cain]

One thing you can do, if your GM allows-- you can buy Killing Hands M, then geasa the difference, to purchase Killing Hands D. That way, you can use Killing Hands M anytime; but if you want to do Deadly damage on a base hit, you have to use your geasa-- talisman (acupuncture needles), incantation (Sho-RYU-ken!) or what have you. It's a good way of simulating a particularily powerful and difficult technique.

[A Clockwork Lime]

The problem is he didn't use them to kill people. He used them to disable 'em. It's practically what the Nerve Strike power was designed for. The only thing that needs changing is the rate at which the Quickness returns (it shouldn't be allowed to start until someone removes at least one of the needles).