Forums of the Megaverse®

What does everyone think about the martial arts presented in the various Rifters? I know there are a handful designed to be more powerful for use with Nightbane. Ruling those out, how do Savate, Wrestling, Eskrima(I actually think it was a different version of stick fighting, but Eskrima was what I remembered), and such fit powerwise with the rest of N&SS hths.

They're a mixed bag, with the ones in Rifter #7 generally being considered the worst.

Which are the ones in #7?

"Brazilian Jiujitsu," Capoeira, "Jeet Kun Do," Kick Boxing, "Krav Mahga," Munen Muso, "Pancracean," Pro Boxing/Pugilism, "Command Sambo," Savate, and "Petjut Kilat Silat/Arnis"

Ahh, the non oriental set. Some seem very over powered.

RockJock wrote:Ahh, the non oriental set. Some seem very over powered.

Not too mention poorly spelled, badly researched, incomplete, and unedited.

But other then that...great right?:)

RockJock wrote:But other then that...great right?:)

No

What else was left to say?

RockJock wrote:What else was left to say?

This is the part where you're supposed to ask me what the decent styles are.

Lol, fine, you win, what are the decent styles?

The Rifter #3 Nightbane styles (Bishoudo, Chi-Kung, Chiang Di Chuang, Gen Kuei Do, Lei Feng Do, Luan Mo, Mo Long Kung, O-Ken Wa, and Yung Huo Jen [see the Cutting Room Floor for the last one]) have some minor techincal problems, and are a bit on the powerful side, but otherwise okay.

The Rifter #3 Revised Grappling Rules styles (Hung Gar Kung Fu, Kalaripayit, Kodokan Judo, and Wrestling) only need a bit of technical work to be truly great.

Kenpo Karate in the N&S adventure Intrigue in Singapore in Rifter #6 suffers from very minor technical problems, but wasn't researched very well.

In Rifter #18 is the style Bersilat, which has a few minor technical issues, but is otherwise decent.

Anything else you can pretty much ignore.

Thanks for the headsup.

meh, i never had a problem with the Rifter 7 ones...

mechanically, they never seemed too over-the-top... (the Rifter 3 ones on the other hand... always struck me as notably on the powerful side...)

research wise, don't care... not like i'm playing N&SS to emulate reality... and it's not like i'm using N&SS source to research anything but arse-kicking in a fantasy world...

but whatever...
personally, i say if it made it to print, it deserves consideration... at least until a revision is released...

Pro Boxing/Pugilism Is one of my favorites It's not over powered, maybe a little limited but it is great for flavor. You can easily build good stories around how you picked up boxing and they don't need to involve traveling to a lost monastery in the mountains as a child.

Blight wrote:Pro Boxing/Pugilism Is one of my favorites It's not over powered, maybe a little limited but it is great for flavor. You can easily build good stories around how you picked up boxing and they don't need to involve traveling to a lost monastery in the mountains as a child.

That is not completely true. In the Ancient mountains of the Rockies there lies a monastery of kick ass where only the strongest survive the horrible trials to become a professional boxer. (Note: most of the deaths are actually on accident. Boxing was never meant to be practiced on a mountainside monastery without railings.)

I think the Rifter #7 styles are pretty badass. Pro Boxing and Kickboxing are a little redundant, but other than that I like them. Jeet Kun Do and Krav Mahga are both SICK in actual combat, especially in higher levels. None of the styles are particularly mystic-oriented, which is a shame but I suppose that's mainly an East Asian thing.
As for real-world accuracy, who cares? I'm playing a game, not writing my Master's Thesis.

Command Sambo and Krav Mahga are two of my personal favs from #7.

In N&SS Tae Kwon Do is one of the deadliest martial artforms with a Deathblow on a Nat 20 at first level. This having been said I have plenty of grains of salt for the Rifter #7 styles.

sinestus wrote:personally, i say if it made it to print, it deserves consideration.

Considering no-one besides EW at Palladium really "gets" Ninjas & Superspies, making it into publication isn't really that big a benchmark.

N&S does not truly simulate the various forms of martial arts. Erik even admits that some aspects of a martial arts form had been rearranged to make for a better game balance. Some forms he had very little reliable data and in those cases he made them up.

His goal seemed to be to showcase how different each martial arts was from one another, to showcase what he believed were the stgrengths and weaknesses of the various styles, and how they would stand up to one another.

The various forms found in the Rifter may be a close simulation of that style but may not be well balanced in the context of N&S.

Well I think that some of the other "martial art form" writers on the boards here should put up or shut up .. In a nicer way, put some of your material whether it is just one or 100 forms, combat modifiers, 1 or 100 martial art powers, etc... and submit them. If you want better in the Rifter, then write what you believe is better and submit them.

Do we need more styles statted out?

I would be more interested in adventures or settings ideas.

Actually, if there is one style I would love to see is a style using a gun. There is an OCC in RIFTS: China 1, the Gun Master, that utilized this style but it would be interesting to see it in N&S terms.

oni no won wrote:Actually, if there is one style I would love to see is a style using a gun. There is an OCC in RIFTS: China 1, the Gun Master, that utilized this style but it would be interesting to see it in N&S terms.

You mean like this?

Ah yes, old topics coming back to haunt me again.

Ifn I might add to this discussion??

Ifn 1 has the very 1st non-revised edition of N&SS(I do) you will notice that the forms in the first edition(Non-Revised) are more potent and powerful than what is listed in the revised edition.