Has anyone thought of broadening the Martial Arts quality to include other sports, like Soccer(Football) or Baseball?

If they have, any suggestions on the bonuses various sports could allow?

I am considering adding them to my list of optional rules, and have a rough idea of what they should be able to do, but I would like some input from the fine folks here.

Might as well just make up your own quality that mirrors the Martial Arts system and have Techniques instead of Maneuvers. One foreseeable problem with this is giving something like the Bicycle Kick Technique (as seen in Futbol) to a football player. It makes less sense than giving a Karate student, say, the Watchful Guard Maneuver (although Kick Attack already seems bizarre to me).

I'd think that Sports-based qualities would be rather less effective than Martial based ones as far as combat goes. Baseball might for example, give you bonuses with clubs (the homerun cyberlimb style certainly does) but swinging to hit a small fast moving object, while improving your overall cardiovascular system, doesn't translate completely to swinging and hitting people with sticks well. Soccer kicks for the most part are also terrible for actually damaging someone, since they're supposed to be used for precision control of a small (and very light) round object.

If anything, I'd give them more general bonuses, for example Soccer giving you bonuses to fatigue resistance, running and the like, Baseball maybe giving that extra point to club skills, Visual Perception (you gotta have good motion vision to be really good at baseball) and throwing?

Just my thoughts on it.

It's already kind of wonky that you have Qualities, Stat, Skill, Spec, *and* now Martial Arts + Maneuvers; theoretically, it would be nice to avoid encouraging it.

Thanks for the input. I wasn`t really thinking about combat uses. Honestly, in my games I prefer a little more of the cloak and dagger style, which is where these may be useful, if at all. I was also looking at them as a way to fluff up some NPC`s, with a related bonus I might not be able to find elsewhere and allow PC`s some access if they wanted.
I already do a little research on the martial arts, especially if a character wants to use one, and certain things I won`t allow, or at least will discourage. For example, if a character is a wrestler or boxer, taking Kicking attack doesn`t seem that appropriate to me.

Rugby: (North American football, Australian football)
Not as much a fighting style, as it is a combination of skills. Several high class physical athletes come from theses sports, and since the term 'tackle' still brings images of a 250+ lb line backer it is intimidating to some degree. These combatants thrive on the physical impact sensation, and know how to collide in such a way that stops a person dead in their tracts, and lets a person use his size to his advantage. Unlike most martial arts that focus on one attacking entity, this sport focuses on a team aspect and knows how to be additionally productive when a partner is helping you. The greatest masters work for sports arena teams, and require a bit a wealth to take in a rookie, but if you are good enough to get scouted, the pros will come to you.


Advantages;
+1 dice on a charge, +1 dice on a knockdown, +1 dice on subduing a target, +1 dice on attacking a target engaged in melee with an ally

specialty maneuvers:

punter: Kicking a ball a long distance is a rather important task in some sports. Replacing ball with rib cage or face is more important to a few opportunistic shadow runners. With a little bit of a running start (1 meter minimum) a star athlete can relive his glory days in a way that puts that puts a sniper our of commission
-----+2 dice on attacking a prone opponent with a charge attack kick.

cut block: This is a sacrificial kind of block, done by linemen to protect their quarterback as a last ditch effort. The linemen dives at the targets knees to knock them over without worrying about anything their upper body strength could do to bowl them over. Fancy foot work could still live a linemen on his face though.
-----make a melee attack to knock an opponent with legs prone with a +2 dice modifier. Then go prone. Can be used to intercept a charge.

Screen blocker: Your skills at protection made you good at your position in sports. With a bit of a push and a shove, you can keep a solid wall of your muscle between you and some of your more important teammates.
-----you may roll your block skill against a target in your melee range, to prevent another target from being the target of an intercept attack. If your block fails, the attacker makes a second intercept roll at his initial target.



blah... I'm not sure how broken these are.

The trouble, as I pointed out in the martial arts thread, is that maneuvers (or techniques) will generally boil down to dice pool modifiers - and the athletics group already has tons and tons of 'ware, magic, and even qualities that can pump its dice pools sky high.

Hmmm. That is something to think about.

Said this was mostly for flavor anyway.
...I'm not sure how you would do this for a not-so-physical sport like baseball.

Is that trolling? I don't care for baseball myself, but that really made me laugh.

I guess steroids were just a hobby for Mark McGwire. It's not like he needed them for baseball.
/

Well, the quality would appy to something not quite physically related for something like baseball. The perception (noticing where the ball is going), maybe an initiative (hitting a fast moving small object requires some reflexes), clubs (swinging the bat), and maybe throwing weapons (they do throw balls a lot).

But, I immagine this could have potential use for even a mental sport, like chess. Negate one glitch/downgrade a critical glitch during a run/session (because you`ve likely thought a few moves ahead, and what might cause trouble), perception (seeing things across the board), Judge Intent (to get an idea what the opponent might be thinking), and maybe logic attribute (no skill) tests.

As you had said, it is mostly for fluff.

Some of these sound frighteningly close to game breaking...I think it is better to just take high Intuition and Knowledge Skill: Chess. That's like saying that because someone plays chess they are better at Judging Intentions and Perceiving things, while it is more likely that they are good at chess because they can do those things. Likewise, someone isn't good at Karate because they can block well, they are good at blocking because they study Karate.

I don`t think it is game breaking, but I have to agree with you on chess. It wasn`t exactly easy to even think of modifiers to the possibilty of chess, and those skills or abilities I listed aren`t exactly trained by playing chess.

Chess: (starcraft, shogi, poker)
Not as much a fighting style, as an accumulated skill set. Several high class mental athletes come from theses sports, and since the term 'checkmate' still brings images of being forced into your own suicide, it can be useful to their own needs. These combatants thrive on the strategic set up, picking apart weaknesses, and forcing opponents into bad positions through a series of feigns and misdirections. Unlike most martial arts, this mindset lets you prepare for contingencies and think up counters on the fly in strokes of brilliance. This sport heavily focuses on a team aspect and knows how to make the best use out of every member of your team. The greatest masters can often be found online, but some may require a fee to tutor someone. Though finding a trainer that is versed in the combat adaptions of your game may be harder to find.


Advantages;
+1 dice To you and all of your team on the first initiative passes, +1 dice to intercept an attack, +1 dice to called shots, +1 dice when an ally is within melee range of your target.

(I might actually roll this into my gambling addict ork hand to hand adept.)

Uhh, wow. Yeah, not too crazy about that one. I don't see how being good at poker or Starcraft gives you a bonus on intercept melee attacks, calling shots, or the, uhh, the everything that you and your team could be doing on the first initiative pass.

If you want to play a super-keen, perceptive, always-thinking-two-steps-ahead chessmaster type...why don't you just THINK like that? Plan for contingencies, boss your team around, have a ton of knowledge skills and an appropriately high Logic stat, and roleplay being a chessmaster. Hell, give your team cutesie names over the TacNet like Bishop and Castle and crap, if you want to.

But I don't think this is the way to do it.

twas a joke and was mostly for flavor. As was explained above, most of the fighting styles are useless in comparison to athletic tricks. Someone mentioned chess and I wrote it up. Before you ask, yes I do put high level starcraft on par with chess.


chess boxing
But the entire concept is debatable. Is a more intelligent fighter a better fighter? If a boxer knows about anatomy and psychology does he hit harder?

Just about anything can be the center of a philosophy for a martial style, hell that is why kung fu seems to come in a hundred different stances and minorly different styles.