Everybody was Kung Fu fight-ing!
DISCLAIMER: This preview is based on a PDF penned by yours truly, and as such, I will refrain from giving it a score.
Introduction
Under Azoth Games, Vladimir Rodríguez released a new book under the new Akashic Expansions line of products, this time focusing on martial arts. Expertly edited by James Ray, this is the author first full book. This is a preview of the product in the style of my reviews.
What’s inside?
75 pages of content (not counting covers, ads etc.) for 12 bucks, which include:
-Campaign Building and Rules: Including suggestions on how to change nomenclature for martial arts. Monks and temples. Also, updated rules for Ki and its use, plus Mu, a dark mirror of Ki used by undead and the vilest of martial artists. Also some variants for Ki if you never liked it being a pool.
-Dueling and Tournaments: Rules for Initiative duels (think iaijutsu, plus rules for having deadlier duels), Xiqu (Chinese opera) performing, Lion Dance contests, martial duels and their cultural role, including notes for seconds and referees. Martial arts tournaments, including performance combat and “heels”, individuals that become stronger by getting booed, and even commentators. Also notes on giving characters not participating something to do.
-Training: One of the most important elements of the genre is training. This includes rules for training ability scores (don’t worry about balance, this is expensive, difficult and time consuming) and some other things.
-Character Options is IMHO the strongest section of the book, this includes:
*Gungfujia, a guru philosophy devoted to excellence in all things. It features a new type of veil, the style veil, giving gurus something to do with their 8 veils and only 7 chakra binds LOL. They also get an akashic Ki pool and some monk toys.
*Drunken Brawler archetype for, well, brawlers. This one borrows a lot from similar concepts from older classes. They get Charisma to AC but no armor (it functions differently from a monk’s Wis to AC). It builds a drunken pool and empowers some abilities with it. At the highest level, you can ferment the contents of a creature’s stomach! They also get another flavorful, defensive ability that counts as a stance that makes them really difficult to fight.
*Shoto brawler archetype. This one works similar to a daevic, getting minor akashic abilities to empower fighting video games-inspired abilities. If you ever wanted to play Ryu in Pathfinder, this is your best bet!
*Shi Fu rajah archetype. This one loses all Path of War abilities and exchanges them for martial arts goodness. You can even have one of the PCs as your pupil!
*Mysterial unchained monk archetype. This one updates the OG monk archetype from Akashic Mysteries to work with the unchained monk.
*Unenlightened unchained monk archetype. This one is Intelligence based and is a dark reflection of mysterials. They are the prime users of Mu, and use a negative-energy version of elemental fist.
*Hatyaara ninja archetype. This one trades some stuff to get access to akashic magic. I also made some veils for this one that I couldn’t include here, so please wait for them ;)
*Ki bloodline for sorcerers. Wisdom based and get some melee abilities. For the more magical oriented casters.
*Fake Master mesmerist. Basically a fake master of the martial arts, with abilities like Bullshido, McDojo and fake Ki, this one will do great for a villain.
*The Shyam, a race forgotten by history for shunning their creator. They have a natural aptitude for Ki development.
*Mind-born, manasaputra-blooded aasimars.
*Variant “plane-touched” races, so you can get an ifrit with a naturally-fire-aspected ki.
-Skills and Feats: This includes Autohypnosis for non-psionic classes, Knowledge (martial) for campaigns that don’t use Path of War, plus a variant for not making them new skills. There are 8 martial arts traits, 16 feats, 19 ki feats, and two new styles featuring the standard 3-feat chains, Ghul style (so undead don’t lose elemental styles) and Hawk style (grapple-focused).
-Veils: This section includes a new type of veil (style) and a new subtype (ki). I included the martial arts focused Raiment of the Tai Lin Master 8 veil set, the Ansatsuken Shoto Arts 5 veil set (not exclusive to the Shoto), and 8 style veils, including Swift Crane, Clawed Dragon and Soaring Hawk. We end this section with 5 veils, thre weapons, one voice and one minor, all having a strong martial arts flavor, even the minor one.
-Equipment: The smallest section of the book includes a new special material for clothing (ironsilk), 3 special weapon qualities (crushing which is a version of keen for bludgeoning weapons, plus ki energized and ki burst).
-Bestiary: This includes notes for the Ki monster subtype and how to add a Ki statblock for ease of use (which all monsters here have, including a ki aura intensity for the new detect ki feat). A 1st level guru, a 7th level guru, an 8th level Road Fighter shoto brawler, the boddhisatva manasaputra template, a training golem, a new imperial/akashic dragon (Kundalini dragon, with stats for the 4 common age categories), a navitic creature template for natural ki creatures with a sample navitic ogre mage.
Of Note: I really like how the training rules came out, and there are enough character options to make many types of martial artists. The new style veils are made for people who like the idea of style feats but don’t want to commit too heavily on them. Also, both akashic magic and ki get their own type of entries for monsters, making it easier for play. The fake master is great if I may say so.
Anything wrong?: That is not for me to decide but I am opened to critiques.
What I want: There were many things that I wanted to add but couldn’t because of time. Maybe for the sequel? I might do a style veil only book, plus I do have some more content for martial arts goodness inspired in other types of traditions, like Taoism.
What cool things did this inspire?: I’m dying to know what type of characters you make!
Do I recommend it?: If you like martial arts with a fantastical bent, this book will hopefully be of interest to you. As I said, I’m not one to give a grade to my own work, so I will gladly accept any grading readers’ give me! Happy gaming!