Saturday, April 23, 2011

Martial Arts Combat Maneuvers for Mongoose Runequest 2

One of the recognized shortcomings of MRQ2 is that there isn't really a good way to reflect unarmed Martial Arts. Here's one idea, to allow a special set of combat maneuvers to those who are trained in a Martial Arts combat style. I'd be grateful for any comments or critiques.

Break Neck (Critical Only) – On a successful attack to the head only, the attacker may undertake an opposed test of Brawn skills with the defender. If successful, the attacker immediately inflicts a Major Wound on the defender’s head [Note – this is a devastating attack, and hence is difficult to inflict – the attacker must get a critical hit, hit the head and win a brawn v brawn opposed test]

Choke – in the event of an attacker establishing a grapple to the head or chest (see p.92), the attacker may choose this combat maneuver to attempt to asphyxiate the defender. The defender must make an opposed Resilience roll against the original attack roll or start to asphyxiate (see p. 54). The defender must continue to make resilience checks every round against the original attack roll or take damage, until they slip free or the attacker drops the grapple.

Jump Kick – using this combat maneuver the attacker may roll 1d10+10 for hit location rather than 1d20. No grapple may be established. EDIT: In addition to damage inflicted, the attack also counts as a Leaping Attack (p.91) but may affect targets up to the attacker's SIZx2. The Opposed Test is the defender's Evade vs. the original attack roll.

Slam Tackle – this combat maneuver is a variant of Bash useable only on an unarmed charge. The effects are as Bash except as follows: the defender must make a difficult Athletics skill test to avoid falling prone (hard if knocked into an object), and if the defender does fall, the attacker falls with them unless they succeed in an Acrobatics check. The attacker may establish a grapple, as usual.

Spin Kick – using this combat maneuver, the attacker delivers a devastating kick attack. The attacker may roll 2d3 plus Damage Modifier for damage. No grapple may be established.

Throw (attack and defense) – a combatant may use this Combat Maneuver to throw an opponent in a powerslam, judo throw or other such maneuver. The combatant defending against the maneuver must succeed in a test of Brawn against the original successful attack or parry or be thrown 1d3m, taking falling damage if appropriate. The thrown party will be prone unless they succeed in an Acrobatics test.

3 comments:

  1. I have been thinking about this as well: I agree that the way to go is to adopt a Martial Arts combat style. I would be inclined to grant an additional CA to the user of that style to reflect the speed of execution. So far I have not given the combat maneuvers much though, but what you propose looks fine as a starting point. I'm gonna take them along if that's okay and see how they work, we have a new group starting any week now using the new MRQ II rules, to give them a decent chance. I hope they'll stand up to our RQ2/RQ3 hybrid + house rules mix, coz introducing new players is proving so hard if there is no basic rulebook.

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  2. Regarding CAs. If a character can punch/kick with both fists/legs, I'd consider that dual wielding. So an additional CA seems reasonable.

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  3. I am so stealing this for my MRQII modern-day spy thriller hack.

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