It began years ago on the island prison of Yomi. Twisted adepts affiliated with the Ministry of Mankind were seeking a way for ordinary humans to stand face to tusk with trolls and emerge victorious. The atrocities committed during this period are another story for another time, but the art of exquisite brutality they created slowly spread among the ranks of Humanis supporters world wide. Their collection of techniques goes by many names in many countries, but in North America is known by the street apellation of Trogstomp. Practioners are in their element when facing orks, and especially trolls, in hand to hand combat; in fact, they deliberately seek out opportunities to test their skill. Grappling with goblin gangers gives them no cause for concern. However, training is difficult to obtain. Not only are most of it's most seasoned exponents actively hunted, but learning the techniques requires either live ork and troll "sparring partners", or the use of extremely realistic tutorsofts which border on BTLs in their illegality. Those who study the Way of the Human Fist are also taught the use of clubs and knives. Fearful whispers in metahuman communities speak of unaugmented humans defeating trolls in close quarter battle. The Sons of Sauron are learning, to their horror, that the smoothies have some very rough edges indeed...

Trogstomp (Thor's Hammer, Way of the Human Fist)
Advantages: negate a troll's natural +1 reach bonus; ignore a troll's natural +1 armor rating (melee attacks only); +1 bonus on melee Defense Tests against opponents classified as Large (Arsenal, p.161; may be taken twice for a bonus of +2).

Common maneuvers taught to practioners of this style include Clinch, Disarm, Groundfighting, Vicious Blow, and Watchful Guard.

I was going to include a "theme music" segment form youtube, but thought better of it. Just watch Romper Stomper, starring Russell Crowe, and wait for the party scene.

Very nice flavor. I'd punch it out a little though given how specific it is. Negating the natural armor is the same as +1 DV other arts get vs anyone. Same with the defense.

what about dandelion-eaters and dwarves?
and it's bad enough allready that close combat gets the dice from agility instead of strength . .
and what would happen if you had a human adept take it and then he changes into a troll or an ork?

Heaps of self loathing.

You could beat yourself up real good .

I think this is an awesome idea. Back in 2nd, I made a character who was a former Alamos 20K member who'd been biowared out to go head-to-head with a troll. Back then, the bioware rules weren't quite as strict as they are now, and I had a ton of muscle aug and toner, plus some plastic bonelacing and maybe orthoskin (the concept required the character to be able to pass easily through most scanners). As I recall, this starting character went toe-to-toe with the groups heavily karma'd cybertroll once, and was actually throwing out a slightly higher damage code, with slightly fewer dice to resist, and I think the combat skills were about the same. He would have loved something like this (except that he didn't hate trolls anymore by the time I started playing him). I think it definitely makes a ton of sense in-game, but I've never seen anything similar in any of the books, so I'm glad you stepped up.

Similarly, I would think there would be something to counter elves, and their quickness--possibly exploiting their frailty, though RAW-wise, they're as sturdy as humans (lame!). First of all, everyone hates elves. Second, the art could be designed to counter Carromoleg, or however you spell the martial art from the Tir. Dwarves don't have their own martial art, and they seem to only have disadvantages in a h2h, so I'm not sure it makes as much sense to have an art designed specifically to mess with them. But Trolls and Elves are definitely viable targets for this sort of thing.

dwarves have no troubles in H2H whatsoever, they only have problems RUNNING from H2H *g*
but what kinda dwarf will run anyway? they are stronger and sturdier than humans, so meh . . .

Stronger, sturdier, and, somehow, more aerodynamic.

Dwarf Tossing, anyone?

If only you could blag it as a survival roll instead of running.

*snickers*
Dwarves ain't short, they are compact!
and if their eyes are at your belly hieght, that means your balls is at shoulder height for them . . perfect punching distance *g*

An alternative advantage of the martial art could be an enhanced gang up bonus. That would actually be useful outside of bypassing a troll's natural armour, and Humanis goons don't strike me as the type to wander around kicking metas except in groups, so it suits them well.

Humanis Definition of a Fair Fight: 25-to-1.

That's pretty much what I thought too.

I actually think that Humanis should have it's own fighting style that is based on "squad tactics" and taught to the more militant recruits, or even used as a recruiting tool.

SR3-Troll-Definition of a fair fight: 1-to-25 *g*

Shadowrunning Troll definition of a Fair Fight: 1-to-50!

Remember, Humanis Goons don't have much, if anything in the way of Cybernetics, and won't have anything in magic. Humanis hates the awakened just as much as the Metas! The rhetoric against them is just not as pronounced.

They still have the rare magician, however... Usually Toxic due to the hatred filling them.

What would be really scary to a troll is some kind of pressure point attack that "only" did stun damage, but forced them to resist with willpower rather than body. A martial art with that technique combined with some good dodging benefits would be really scary

Before the game died because the group scattered for a bit, a player of mine had made an insane damage soaker troll mystic adept possession tradition melee chick and the next opponent she was going to fight was an elf assassin/"Property Retrieval Specialist" though in this case the property was people. She was going to have completely soft maxed Agi, Unarmed Combat 5 with a specialization, and Nerve Strike. 5 net hits total and the troll would be out for the count.

Chris

....true, but it's not usually Humanis getting in the fight. Humanis is made up of ordinary people, which is why not many are magicians, and not many are heavily cybered. But if you look at the militaristic factions of it, like Alamos 20K, it's a different story. Those guys are going to be cybered up specifically to deal with trolls. And as for magic, they sure didn't shun it when they were bringing down the Sears Tower. Plus, I bet every one of their mages has Slaughter Troll.

Slaughter Troll, Slaughter Ork, Slaughter Dwarf, Slaughter Elf...

Most especially Slaughter Troll, I'd think, though. I mean, the others can be taken care of relatively easy with good ol' bullets (and grenades with daisies taped to them are awfully hard for elves to evade). But with the Troll, an Ares Predator just isn't gonna cut it...

i had one character like that once . . and those were all the spells he knew at level 8 with exclusive and fetish to manage the horrendous drain . .
no other spells in that character . . yeah, no, he did not get played long *snickers*

Forgot one: Slaughter Human.

For those Trog-Loving Race Traitors!

... or trogs

Please turn to page 150 in your hymnal and read under "Defender Has Defended Against Previous Attacks."

My current character is a human shaman who knows Slaughter Human. Not that he hates his own race, but he's got cyber, and the specificity helps manage drain. Since the vast majority of the opposition tend to be human, there wasn't much of an operational need to take full-blown Mana Ball. Of course, he has Slay the Troll, too, which helps. A couple months ago, I got to make a Troll resist something like 20 damage with his Willpower, and his soul scattered to the winds. But I mostly took that spell because IRL, my best friend has a "Celtic Folk Metal" band that's pretty popular among a certain segment of the Ohio metal scene, and their "hit" has as its refrain "Slay the Troll!" Still, for an homage to my friend, that spell has turned out DAMN useful, even if I've only used it to full effect once. It just takes a Troll one IP to ruin your day, sometimes... I don't know if that particular character would go for an anti-Troll martial art, but I can see most combat characters giving it some thought, not just Humanis.

Although it is not commonly known, the Humanis Policlub has existed in Tir Tairngire since it was founded. Operating in small, extremely secretive cells, and in cooperation with the Knights of the Red Branch, they developed a fighting style to counter the sissy Carromeleg of their keeb oppressors. Practioners hone their senses to razor sharpness with punishing training regimens. The Dandelion Dynasty has been overthrown; even so, every now and then it is neccessary to pull some weeds...

Daisy Breaker
Advantages: +1 die on Perception tests (may be taken twice for a bonus of +2); negate the +1 Reach bonus from Kick attacks; +1 die on melee Defense Tests against Interception attacks.

Common maneuvers taught include Blind Fighting, Evasion, Focus Will, vicious Blow, and Watchful Guard.


New combat maneuvers (written in jest, but if you can make 'em work, be my guest):

Halfer Heave-Ho
Only usable against dwarves. Make a Strength+Unarmed Combat Opposed Test. If successful, you throw the runt a number of meters equal to the net hits scored+one half your Strength (round up). See the latter half of the Throw maneuver for additional results.


Gimley's Groin Gouge
Only usable by dwarves or midgets, and only works against male opponents larger than yourself. If you succeed in a Surprise test when making a melee attack, you give your enemy a good, solid shot to the short and curlies. Add one half your Strength (round up) to the attack's DV. Combined with the use of bladed weapons, the results of this strike are less than pretty.

...right on!


...I like it!

...being only 4'10" I wonder if the Short One can learn this

Orks don't have a problem fighting carromeleg trained elves. Just rip off it's leg and send it caroming off it's elf buddies. That tends to end these fights real quick.