Maneuvers for other combat skills., Why limit it to Unarmed/Martial Arts? Options

[Catsnightmare]

Under the Martial Arts rules in the CC, you can buy certain Maneuvers according to your level of skill in your particular Martial Art/Unarmed Combat style.
Why not have the option of purchasing maneuvers with other melee combat skills, clubs, edged weapons, etc. Hell even for ranged weapons too, Pistols, Projectile Weapons, Thrown Weapons.

Some of the existing Maneuvers would port over well to melee weapons, Multi-Strike, Vicious Blow, Whirling. Some of the ones I thought up include.

Melee Weapon Maneuvers
Quick-Draw The quick-draw maneuver allows the character to use quick drawing rules with melee weapons, but only weapons of the skill the maneuver is purchased for. I.E. you get quickdraw for the Clubs skill thus you can only quick draw those types of weapons.

Firearm Maneuvers
Speed-draw This maneuver can only be purchased for the Pistol skill. Using this maneuver when the character makes a quickdraw test, the number of successes from the test is added to the characters initiative. The character only gets this initiative bonus under certain conditions. They only get this bonus for the first combat turn, (thus no silly-assed "I reholster my gun and quickdraw again." for faster initiative munchkinism), and they must use only the pistol to attack, any melee attack (including counterattcking) and the char loses the speed-draw bonus for the rest of the turn.

I'll add some of my other ideas as time permits. I'm also open to suggestions, constructive criticism and ideas.

[kenny26]

this is very interesting.
it allows for much greater character customisation to allow players to pull off these amasing tricks that you only see in movies (i'm thinking jackie chan's way of using his surroundings, arnold's trick for reloading a shotgun with one hand, etc.).

of course, many of these things can already be simulated through excisting rules.
but some could be added.

the question is: is it worth the bother?
will the players care to learn more rules for shooting a gun, and will they be willing to pay the skill points/good karma for the maneuvers?
i'll need some time to consider this...

[Siege]

Eh.

I'm not a really big fan of the idea because most of the firearms "feats" cover things that aren't particularly unique but when you add the "feat" tag, you have to have that particular "feat" to do something that prior to, anyone with enough skill could have attempted.

So right off the cuff, I'd say 'no', but I'd still peruse anything you have to put up.

-Siege

[sir fwank]

if you are interested in firearm crazy stuff you may want to look up the john woo rules that were posted on one of the old forums. one of my players has my supadisc of everything i've ever collected on sr, so i can't post the rules.

[Cain]

What I've thought of, but never implemented, are martial arts that break apart the various weapon skills. For example, instead of Clubs, you'd buy Escrima; instead of Edged Weapons, you'd learn Fencing, Kenjutsu, and so on. You could learn maneuvers with these arts just like any other art.

[Siege]

Or thumb through the "Feng Shui" rule book for inspiration. Schticks are always amusing.

Another source of inspiration would the the "Dead Lands" game system.

-Siege

[Zazen]

I was thinking back to threads filled with weapon-manuever ideas and how they all seemed either insane or useless. I had a thought: why not have tiered maneuvers? Some maneuvers can be bought only if your skill is 4 or above, some when it's 6 or above, some at 8 or above, etc. That way people with mediocre skill can't just grab the coolest maneuvers (like they already do for martial arts). They'll be reserved for people who dedicate their characters to an art and the maneuvers will retain their coolness.

In fact, why not apply this to the martial arts maneuvers, sticking the really really good ones (close combat!) in a high tier while loser moves like vicious blow can be acquired at a lower level (and possibly cheaper?).

I dunno, just something I thought up while ignoring homework and drinking too much coffee :)

[The Jopp]

There already IS a tiered system by the way, a character is limited to one maneuver per two skill points. Maneuvers shouldn't be linked to a certain levels since it is all a matter of what kind of training the character has been given.

A ganger kid who has been trained from the beginning how to fight against multiple opponents might very well have a skill of 2 and the Whirling maneuver. Joe Nobody the gas station attendant might have the Vicious Blow because he is simply a mean bastard and aims for places where it would hurt and/or maim the worst.

Still, I can easily see a lot of maneuvers applied to weapons without the need for the ONLY skill that gives maneuvers to weapons, the Pentjak Silat skill.

Weapon Maneuvers (examples)

Parry
Any weapon except whips and gloves can be used to parry an attack in close combat. A character gains up to half his Weapon Skill (edged, clubs polearm etc) that can be added when defending from an attack.

Since the character is so focused on defending himself he may only use half his skill when attacking in the following turn.

Lunge
This can be used with any edged/pointed weapon with a thrusting point, like a spear, halberd, sword and dagger.

The character gains +2 to the power of the weapon when he/she lunges forward to skewer their opponent. The drawback of this attack is that the character leves himself open for attack and has a +2TN for any kind of defense against close combat attacks for that turn.

Whirling
This works just as the CC rules but with a weapon

Ensnare
This attack can be made with any whip weapon. The character makes an attack roll as normal and damage as normal. The target must make a quickness test against the attackers successes or be ensnared.

An ensnared target must make a knockdown test as per normal rules and spend a complex action be free. An ensnared target has a +2 to all actions that involves movement.

The attacker will have +2 to any defensive close combat rolls unless they let go of the whip or release their victim (complex action)

Disarm
This attack works like the Adept power Disarm. With the exception that the attacker does NOT need both hands free, they need a weapon.

[Zazen]

[Raptor1033]

also, ensare is already an ability people can use with whip weapons. the rules you put down are pretty much the same except the person with the whip doesn't get a +2 to defense while ensaring someone.

[The Jopp]

Hmm, I must have missed that. I wonder why one doesn't get a penalty? You are after all locked to your opponent as long as you hold on to the whip.

[Catsnightmare]

Also Disarm is a basic maneuver that everybody can do, melee or unarmed.

[snowRaven]

I have simply created armed martial arts with the same manuevers as the unarmed. For escrima, arnis de mano, etc just switch the advantage that they can learn the maneuvers with their brawling/unarmed escrima skill as well.

For firearms I'll leave the neat stuff for adepts (made a few new adept powers specifically for firearms-based adepts)

[Catsnightmare]

Is there a link to your new Adept abilites? I'd be interested in seeing them.