Aberrant 2.0 Martial Arts

Martial Arts

Basic Attacks Note that the damage from these has actually decreased significantly from the core rulebook. The unarmed damage boosters from body modifications are extremely powerful, after all. And there's always mega-strength.

• Light Attack: A fast kick, jab, or the like deals little damage but is fast and accurate.

Accuracy +1, Defense +0, Damage (Strength + 0B), Min Strength 1, Max Strength (infinite)

• Heavy Attack: A slower, more powerful attack.

Accuracy -1, Defense +0, Damage (Strength + 2B), Min Strength 1, Max Strength (infinite)

• Disarm: When facing an armed enemy, turning the tables on the opponent by stealing their weapon is often advisable. A Disarm rolls Strength + Brawl versus the opponent's Strength + Might or Strength + Brawl (choose higher). If the character succeeds, the weapon is flung away from the opponent. If the character succeeds with 5 or more successes, she may immediately take possession of the weapon.

Accuracy +0, Defense +0, Damage N/A

• Grapple: A grappling attack. A successfully grappled character may attempt to escape or take control of the grapple, both sides making opposed Strength + Might or Strength + Brawl (choose higher) rolls. Each dot of Mega-Strength is 5 automatic successes to that roll.

Accuracy +0, Defense +0, Damage N/A

• Grappling Smackdown: Smackdowns require 1 WP to use and a turn to wind up, essentially being little more than over-the-top finishing moves. A successful grappling smackdown not only inflicts the damage listed and also puts them in a grapple which you control.

Accuracy +0, Defense +0, Damage Strength + 4B

• Striking Smackdown: Smackdowns require 1 WP to use and a turn to wind up. A successful striking smackdown knocks the target prone (unless they succeed a reflexive, opposed Stamina + Resistance roll with a difficulty of the attacker's strength) and deals the damage listed.

Accuracy +2, Defense +0, Damage Strength + 6B

Grappled Attacks

The controller of a grapple can initiate any of these attacks. All of these attacks halve enemy soak (rounded down), as the controller has an advantage in looking for weakpoints and exploiting them, and automatically hit. However, they can only be used once/turn.

• Pound: Pounding someone in a grapple is a great way to inflict damage. This may involve mounting someone and whaling on them, slamming their face into nearby hard objects, breaking joints, or other methods of causing pain.

Damage Strength + 2B

• Coup De Grace: Not actually a finishing blow, an edged weapon like a knife can be used in a grapple, being stabbed into weak points. Alternatively, a grapple can be used to allow for the point-blank use of a small arm.

Damage (as weapon + 1)

Optional Rule: Stun Damage

Fists and feet are generally poor ways of inflicting damage on people and this optional rule allows this to reflect that. If this rule is in place, characters without Mega-Strength or a normal Strength of 6 or above deal Stun, rather than Bashing damage with their unarmed attacks. This means that beating someone unconscious is still possible but they'll tend to recover after the scene no worse for wear. As a more realistic form, this may only hold true for characters with low Brawl/Martial Arts scores, as they do not know how and where to hit to maximize damage.

Martial Arts Classifications

Characters may buy either soft or hard martial arts, which both provide their own independent bonus sets. Soft martial arts provide benefits for grapples, defensive maneuvers, and disarms, while hard martial arts provide benefits to strikes and enduring injury. Characters may buy both, but pay full cost. Martial Arts is still limited by the number of dots of Brawl a character has-a character with Brawl 2 can have no more than Martial Arts 2.

Soft Martial Arts

Examples of soft martial arts are judo, aikido, tai chi, and other relatively gentle unarmed combat forms which rely on redirecting the opponent's strength rather than exploiting one's own. Soft martial arts are more delicate and graceful than the brutality of hard martial arts, but are still effective, and require somewhat less physical conditioning.

Martial Arts *: +1 Accuracy to disarms and grapples (incl. grappling smackdowns), +1d to unarmed parries.

Martial Arts **: -1 difficulty for disarms and tackles (so difficulty is +0 instead)

Martial Arts ***: Grapples may use (Dexterity + Martial Arts) against the opponent's (Strength + Might) instead of a contested roll of (Strength + Might) to hold targets. Grapples may also use the opponent's Strength to deal damage, rather than the character's.

Martial Arts ****: +1 success on all rolls to keep control of a held target, an additional +1d to all unarmed parries (total +2d).

Martial Arts *****: Any successful parry of an unarmed or melee attack uses its remaining successes as a counterattack that attempts to either grapple (unarmed) or disarm (melee).

Hard Martial Arts

Hard martial arts rely on raw power, physical brutality, and vicious speed to deal devastating blows against foes. Examples are Karate, Kung Fu, Krav Maga, Commando Sambo, LINE, MCMAP, and other alphabet soup military martial arts forms. These tend to be based on the simple principle of hitting someone very hard very often until they stop fighting back.

Martial Arts *: +1 Accuracy, +1 Damage to Strikes and Kicks (including the Striking Smackdown)

Martial Arts **: +1B/0L soak, -1 difficulty for kick attacks

Martial Arts ***: -1 Multiple Action Penalty for unarmed strikes/kicks only, +1 Damage to Strikes and Kicks (total +2 damage)

Martial Arts ****: +1 Bashing Health Level, -1 wound penalty from bashing damage, +1 accuracy to strikes and kicks (total +2 accuracy)

Martial Arts *****: +1 Bashing Health Level (total 2), striking smackdowns convert their damage to Lethal after soak.

Bashing Health Levels are considered to be -0 Health Levels, but may only be filled with Stun or Bashing damage. Lethal or Aggravated damage ignores them-basically, they're a buffer against Bashing damage and provide the martial artist the ability to survive more of a beating from clubs or fists than an untrained man, but provide no protection against knives or guns.