Ben Kendall's page

Hello there! My name is Ben and I am looking for players to run through a Pathfinder game here in Eugene, OR. I am also going to throw out some posts at my FLGS in the area. Get back to me here on the board or at my email castle@tranceaddict.net. Lets make this happen! I am also into playing board games and such if the moment calls for it. Cheers!

Uh, exactly why are you going for mundane, real world styles in a magical universe?

go out to some comic store and get some back issues of Jademan Comics.

Golden Armor: All about AC and DR, uses another style for offense. vulnerable at only one point on your body, cannot be cut or pierced.
Iron Outfit; Same, not as powerful as Golden armor, no death point.
Buddha's Palm: Hand strikes only, but the most powerful of them. the style of the Buddha himself.
Star-Picking Kung Fu: Distance claw attacks
Infinite Tao: Soft Palms and damage absorption, tai chi done large.
Ancient Electric Bolt: Massive, brutal fist style, with overruns and bull rush/knockbacks, and excellent defense.
Fu Yee Challenger; Graceful style with special high-level moves, like being in two places at once. You gain power by challenging the gods to answer you.
Hin Yuen Heaven Opener; Straight up style, lightning aligned, uses all attack styles. Very versatile.
Nine Suns Kung fu: Pure versatile inner power and evasiveness. Enhances an attack form, excellent self-healing/recovery.
Hell Dragon Kicks/Palms: Extremely lethal attack style, equal parts power and technique.
Bone Crushing Claw: Rip/rend style based on precision/finesse
Steel Claw: Rip/rend style based on power.
Red Hot Kung Fu: Add Fire/fire resistance.
Fireproof Ice Note: Fire and Ice kung fu, with some ranged attacks.
Floral Blossom style: Nerve strikes, soft palms, throws,redirect attacks back at attacker, evasiveness, a woman's style.
Blazing Sun kung fu: Another fiery style combined with powerful palm strikes.
Infinite Oceans: A water-based palm style, a pre-eminent inner power style. Mighty palms and distance palms.
Shadow Leg: Extremely fast kicking style based on the best lightfoot, rapid kicks, and evading attacks.
Five Extremes: sword and hand form, each finger an element, deadliest of sword forms.
Saint-Slaying Sword: Taoist technique for controlling a weapon from a distance.
Four Seasons swordplay: Four specific sword forms + a lightfoot technique.
...

You're rad. Those are all great ideas. I'm partial to the idea mixing real world with magical world. Not all styles would have magic like profound abilities, but maybe wouldn't be put at a disadvantage because of that? Or maybe be more suited to some situations than others? Just throwing out ideas and seeing if they stick to the wall.

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Thanks for all the input so far!

To clarify, I doubt this book will have entries for karate, judo, and other Earth names, mainly because most games don't take place on Earth. We'll probably either go with practical names ("Defensive Acrobatic Style," "Offensive Scorpion Style," and so on) or create flavorful names (roper style, dragon style, etc.) and in each's introductory paragraph, pointout "This style is good for emulating combat styles such as X, Y, and Z."

In other words: it is important for a fan of judo to be able to find the word "judo" in th book so he can play a character based on his own knowledge, but it is important to avoid the baggage associated with prominently using the name of that style in the book (I'm sure anyone who takes the Karate Initiate feat is going to be the target of endless Karate Kid jokes, for example).

Rules should certainly say "inspired by" or "based on" whatever, where they really are so inspired and based... But I doubt anyone is going to have a problem finding what they want, that's more of a matter of how you present your information up front and index it from behind.

Ben Kendall wrote:

There's nothing stopping one from writing a Krav-like combat system into a fantasy setting merely because it is generic and lacking in a mystical personality like kung-fu or others. I say make it up. Give it one. The key is making it functional and brutal like Krav is.... Another idea would be bonuses to disarm rolls when in a grapple (if pertinent) and at higher levels bonuses to attack (maybe a +1?) per threatening adjacent creature?

Krav-like. Here's an argument against using real world names, because Krav isn't the only style to offer what Krav offers. I can show you functional and brutal, I can show you disarm, all without ever having stepped into a Krav school.

What about these guys, Ben? or the dozens of others?

Yeah! That's the idea. Any sort of combative like system will do. We can take whatever we want from whatever we want, right? Its all coming from our collective noggins. My idea is that it is inspired by a "krav-like" system. (I say "Krav-like" since Krav is the most recognizable.) And I also like adding some magic to other types of martial arts systems (like the tiger claws thing) or do we go crazy and do some Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type wire work with some other types styles? What do you think? If we went that way, would that be a prestige class or...?

There's nothing stopping one from writing a Krav-like combat system into a fantasy setting merely because it is generic and lacking in a mystical personality like kung-fu or others. I say make it up. Give it one. The key is making it functional and brutal like Krav is. Adventurers would love to have this skill to fall back on, and given in most fantasy worlds that we role play in, it would seem that a short training time and effective martial art that uses gross motor function would be a matter of time. Take the FR for instance. How long have adventurers been fooling around and been seen as an almost cultural staple of that world? OR make some sort of "combative" system that would see use. There are tons of special units in fantasy armies that I could see in my minds eye as using such things. If somebody takes something like a Tiger Kung-Fu, style then perhaps they would get a magic ability like being able to grow claws for 1d4 damage, whereas the Krav-like style would be more of an aside and used when weapons aren't available. Another idea would be bonuses to disarm rolls when in a grapple (if pertinent) and at higher levels bonuses to attack (maybe a +1?) per threatening adjacent creature?

As a big fan of Krav, I would love to see it. But its pretty modern so you'd have to adopt it to a fantasy setting. Maybe it would be developed by a retired adventurer that created his own mode of unarmed combat over the years? Since it relies on real world technique, you would have to have variations for the types of creatures encountered. For examples, many tentacles, or breath weapons, or gaze attacks or magic users, etc., would have to be factored in somehow. Or, it could be like a Rangers enemy focus ability that would stack with the Ranger class ability.