[OSSR] STREET FIGHTER: THE STORYTELLING GAME TURBO

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

Moderator: Moderators

Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

Josh/Ogre: I remembered that game existed, didn't know the actual name of it.

DeadlyReed: they did indeed, but I'm sticking with the actual books as they were published. I might finish it off with a whimsical outline of how someone should write it if they were doing it today, or by talking about some dude's fan creation based on it (but designed with KoF in mind and more moving parts) called Thrash - though honestly that could be a review unto itself.

Any way, I haven't forgotten this, I've just been flitting from one thing to another.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

Okay, let's go over noteworthy maneuvers...

Dim Mak is the second punch listed, and it's a high-level type move with high requirements (Kung Fu only, to boot). It costs 1 Chi and is +0 across the board, but has extra effects: you can delay the damage for a number of rounds (any number of rounds, so you can in fact delay it by days at a time if you so wish - keep in mind that this won't let you combo it with an attack made on that later turn for Dizzy purposes. You don't have to tell them when it kicks in unless they're the MC.), which is sometimes useful but not that often. Probably good for plots. The other effect is that you lower one of their physical stats by 1 each time you Dim Mak them, to a minimum of 1. These are re-gained after the fight ends with a successful Honour roll, just like depleted Chi. No word on whether the rest of it requires additional fights be won or can be slept off.

There's also a general thing about how the Storyteller can do whatever for the sake of drama. Because White Wolf. But I get the reasoning behind a high level "evil" attack that can curse people in varying ways and create a story out of it.

The Dragon Punch gets some points because they paid attention to its uses in the game: it's an anti-air attack that knocks people over if they're airborne, and knocks people back if they're not, and you can also use it as a jump to avoid projectiles with the caveat that if you do that, you can't also use it to hit the attacker at the same time.

The Ear Pop is a niche fucking move. It's Speed and Move -1, and Damage -4, but ignores Stamina for soak. In other words, it breaks even on damage if you have an opponent with Stamina 4 (entirely likely for real opponents, to be fair), at which point it's still a pretty lame move. Against someone who hits the cap of Stamina 8, you're effectively Damage +4, which actually is good - there are plenty of moves with higher damage bonuses, but they don't ignore Soak. This only costs 2 or 3 points (the former for the three big wrestling arts, the latter for anybody else) and has Punch ** as its only requirement, but using it costs 1 Honour. As I said, niche move.

Flaming Dragon Punch is another high-level move, and it doesn't actually set people on fire or just get a damage boost: it causes knockdown even to standing foes, and against adjacent foes (as in, you don't move up to your opponent before activating it), it hits twice and you roll damage twice. This is about right, and it's worth noting that Ken does tend to hit multiple times with his Dragon Punch.

Image
Not as much as Sakura does.

The headbutt is a punch. Sure, whatever.

Hundred Hand Slap is a high-end move (requires Punch 5) that only a few people get (Sumo for 4 points, Kung-Fu and Sambo for 5). It sets your movement to One, is -2 Speed and +0 damage, but rolls damage 3 times if it hits. Seems about right.

Skipping a few, let's look at Fei Long's Rekka Ken. It works in an interesting way: basically you use it in conjunction with one of the three basic punches, and get +3 Speed. On your next turn, if you choose one of the three regular punches, you again get +3 Speed and you add damage for purposes of Dizzying. You can carry this on to a third round of doing it, and the Dizzying still adds up if they aren't already seeing stars from the second hit. However, afterwards you have to pose and show off (gaining 1 Glory as normal), otherwise you lose 3 Glory.

Shockwave is a Line effect (hexes = Strength score), ignores foes in the air, and everyone else is knocked down even if they're blocking or suffer no damage.

The Spinning Clothesline looks stupid, this is true. But the rules for it aren't too bad. You take -2 Move, and it's +0 on the others, but you start off rolling damage against everyone adjacent or in your hex. Everyone hit is shoved back 1 hex. You then move 1 space and apply damage again to people in the area, shoving them back. Repeat until you run out of movement, decide to stop, or get knocked down by an interruption. Crouching foes are not hit.

With a maximum Move of 8, subtract 2 from the attack, you can potentially hit someone seven times in the same turn with this: once before moving, then just keep moving in the direction you push them. For all those high Dexterity Sambo (or Special Forces or Native American Wrestling or Capoeira) users.

Also there's a Turbo version that is +1 Speed and only -1 Move, so you're looking at up to 8 hits for a super-agile character.

Spinning Knuckle is pretty useful - you can avoid projectiles as though jumping, and it hits twice (so rolls damage twice).

Triple Strike is weird. It's a Punch that involves two punches and one kick. For each of the former you roll +0 damage and use your Punch rating, for the latter you roll +1 damage with your Kick rating. Then you discard the lowest damage and apply both of the higher ones.

That's it for punches (that I consider worth mentioning). And that's all from me for another episode. Here are some worksafe pictures (okay you can see a glimpse of Sakura's gym shorts if that matters) that are just cool/funny, spoilered for size:
Image
Image
Image
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

KICKS!

This starts with the Air Hurricane Kick, which refers you to the Hurricane Kick (later). Fuck you, White Wolf. Essentially you can start with a jump to leap over a projectile then angle down in a hurricane kick, combining "dodge projectile" with "attack face". Only costs 1 point because it's basically a special modifier for a move, but has steep requirements - Kick ****, Athletics ***, Jump and Hurricane Kick.

The Backflip Kick moves you two hexes back after you use it, being one of the rare "attack THEN move" moves.

Double Dread Kick is kind of weird. It's Move +1, but first it delivers a roundhouse kick (+1 Damage, 1 hex of knockback), then after that you need enough movement left to advance into the hex your opponent just vacated, and then you unleash a back thrust kick (+4 damage, 1 hex of knockback). It does state that if the opponent is right at your maximum move range, you can choose to execute the roundhouse into the empty hex in front of them, step in, then deliver the second kick.

There are actually a lot of "hits twice" kicks.

Dragon Kick is a Flaming Dragon Punch, except it's a Kick.

Flash Kick is an aerial, anti-air (knockdown vs air) move that hits really hard - it's +7 damage, which is the highest we've found so far. Expensive and has Kick *** Ath ** Foc ** as requirements.

Forward Flip Knee is an interesting one: it sets your Movement to 2, and you have to declare it against an opponent in your hex or an adjacent one - you can't move into it. After you use it, you move one or two hexes such that you flip over your opponent. If you use this to interrupt their attack, they can't target you because you've flipped behind them.

Great Wall of China is basically a Super Lightning Kick: it hits three adjacent hexes that touch the character (so a semi-circle arc), each hex hit three times at +1 damage. But you can't move at all on the turn you do it.

Oh hey, here's the hurricane kick they promised earlier! It's expensive to get (4 for Shotokan Karate, 5 for Wu Shu or Kung Fu) and has high requirements, and costs 1 Chi and 1 Willpower. You move up to your full Movement (minus 1) as part of the attack, in a straight line, and each time you enter a new hex you hit everyone in that hex and anyone in an adjacent hex. And it causes 1 hex of knockback with each hit, so you can bounce someone along with you, ala Spinning Turbo Lariat. It's an aerial move, multiple hits do not combine to cause dizziness (unless it's part of a Combo I suppose), and Blocking opponents specifically can just Block every single hit. Note that it's -1 Damage, so you really are supposed to deal death by a thousand papercuts. But you totally can do that. There's also the Whirlwind Kick, by which they mean the Spinning Bird Kick. It's Slower but deals +0 damage, so if it isn't interrupted, it racks up more damage.

Lightning Kick (or Lightning Leg as they put it) requires you stand still, but hits 3 times. So it's the Great Wall of China, but only hits a single hex.

The Wounded Knee is actually a thigh kick: it hits for +3 damage, and also causes the opponent to suffer -2 Move and, for Kick attacks, -2 Speed, for 2 turns. It has its uses. Hell, combo it into your slower things and you're golden.

Chun-Li says: "Kicking is the stuff of champions!"
Image
Image
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

Cannot wait for you to cover throws...

Image
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:37 am, edited 3 times in total.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

I'll try to cover a few categories this time around.

BLOCKS

Image
If you didn't see that coming, blocks are probably age-appropriate for you.

There is a note that unless otherwise stated, all Block moves, even special ones, have the "+2 Speed for consecutive Blocking" bonus for blocking.

There's a special Punch block that interrupts a Punch, gives you the full Soak, and then lets you make a counter-attack Punch assuming you're not knocked back, knocked down, dizzied or whatever.

There's also a Punch and Kick specific block that has +4 Speed and against the relevant attack category is +4, against everything else is -2 (but remember even -2 is Stamina + Block Rating -2).

Maka Wara is Iron Body:
Image
That's what Google gave me. That and a lady doing deadlifts in short pants with stripes.

Okay, so this is expensive and has Block 4 as a requirement, but you don't play it as a card. Instead, it powers up any Block you use (for no added cost) when your opponent uses a Punch or Kick. You take (and soak) damage as normal for the Block you use, and then your opponent takes damage (Stamina + Block - 3) as they just broke their wrist or whatever. True story, in high school I once injured my wrist punching someone in the shoulder, and had to tape it for a couple of months.

San He makes you The Blob, the B or C tier villain from X-Men. It costs Chi and doesn't give the Speed Boost, and it doubles your Block rating for the purpose of Soaking the attack you use if for. Now so far the best damage I've found is a +7 so you could have 23 damage dice with Strength 8 Kick 8, and with maximum Stamina and Block you could subtract 24 from Soak to reduce even the mightiest attack to "basic single die". Also you are immune to knockdown (except by Grabs) and knockback (so a Hurricane Kick would travel through your square, you'd take 3 hits, then they keep going), and even against shit like cars running into you, you can roll Strength + Block to remain in place.

Missile Reflection lets you redirect ranged attacks (specifically thrown/fired stuff, not laser beams or fireballs) with a Dex check. 1 hit needed for shuriken, 2 for arrows, 3 for bullets (and in the case of bullets you need to be holding a piece of metal to actually deflect them). You can redirect these at the attacker (except for bullets) or anyone else and if your Dex roll was successful it just flat-out hits, attacker rolls damage. It specifies that when you activate this you can reflect any number of missiles targeted at you in that turn. "Yes, any number." I don't see the point in that emphasis.

If you think it's shit that you can't deflect fireballs, don't worry: that one is a prerequisite for Energy Reflection, which uses a Wits roll (and 1 Chi per projectile), needing 2 hits, and other than that it's the same. Yes you can bounce fireballs back at the attacker.

Image
Hey, you're not a Street Fighter!

GRABS!
Image
SUPLEX CITY! SUPLEX CITY!

The Air Throw is an anti-air move. It's also a throw. +5 damage is pretty nice, throws them 3 hexes, isn't too expensive.

The back roll throw can throw your opponent up to 16 hexes away (Strength + Kick) so I guess it could be useful at higher power levels when your pool there is a big number and every battlefield is a Mortal Kombat Pit Stage.

Image

There are a bunch of sustained holds, like the Head Bite, the Iron Claw, the Bearhug, the Neck Choke, and the Side Scroller Move Where You Grab Your Opponent and Knee Them in the Face.

Grappling Defence is basically a Block that works against (and only against) Grab moves, using your own Grab rating and not Block.

PILE DRIVER
Image

Actually there's nothing noteworthy about the basic one. The Spinning Pile Driver, on the other hand, takes some investment to get and is a +7 damage move which of course can't be Blocked, can leap over projectiles like an Aerial, and counts as an Aerial once you've grabbed the opponent and are in the air - meaning in 3 player fights you can then be knocked out of the sky with a Dragon Punch.

The Siberian Suplex is a pair of German Suplexes and lets you roll damage twice. Also the target bounces away after the impact.

Cammy's Thigh Press (Hurricanrana/Hooligan Throw) doesn't really have anything special other than the fact that you swap hexes when using it, or if you're in the same hex, you choose an adjacent one to throw your foe into.

That's it for Grabs, so let's celebrate with ANOTHER TRIP TO SUPLEX CITY!
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
And here's what everyone was REALLY after:
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
And a much bigger bonus picture:
Image
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
hyzmarca
Prince
Posts: 3909
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

Post by hyzmarca »

Koumei wrote:"Yes, any number." I don't see the point in that emphasis.
There are many implications to that.

1) It means that the fighter can block all projectiles fired at him in a turn. So if he's shot at a billion times, then he can defect all one billion projectiles. That's important.

2) It means that the fighter doesn't have to deflect them all, and can selectively choose to take hits. This is good if someone is shooting at you with a healing gun.

3) It possibly means that the fighter can block negative or imaginary numbers of projectiles fired at him. If someone shot you with -i57 bullets then you can totally deflect those. Though I can't imagine how thus would ever come up in game.

4) It also implies that the fighter can choose to deflect a fraction of a projectile, though I'm not sure how that would work game mechanically. Presumably, if he deflected half of a fireball then he and the deflection target would both take half damage.
Last edited by hyzmarca on Wed Aug 03, 2016 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

The first two are important, yes, but just... it's a weird emphasis.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
User avatar
Josh_Kablack
King
Posts: 5318
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Online. duh

Post by Josh_Kablack »

Whoa...okay...sorry... but I gotta step in here...because you somehow actually undersold the Suplex.
Image
Only one of these characters has made it into a fighting game

The basic Suplex is the fastest Grab that inflicts Knockdown. Anyone can buy it for 2 power points, and some styles can get it for just 1.

It also has zero Chi or Willpower cost to use, so movespam is okay (until you run into the Scrub-encouraging Honor rules). But I gotta ruin the surprise for your next section and point out the Knockdown rules:
page 140 wrote: Knockdown...
....
If you are knocked down, you subtract two Speed from your maneuver next turn as you regain your footing. If you suffer a Knockdown before your attack in the current combat turn, you do not suffer the -2 Speed penalty next turn. Instead you forfeit your action in the current turn as you regain your feet....
....
A blocking opponent cannot be knocked down unless the Knockdown attack is a Grab or some other attack that ignores Blocks

So anytime you manage to both win Initiative and inflict a Suplex on your opponent...They lose their action. And on turns where you lose initiative and still pull off a Suplex, you become 2 points more likely to win initiative on the following turn.

Unlike the Yomi card game, attacks do not auto-beat grabs. Unlike 3.x D&D, landing a grab does not require dodging an AoO. The only priority is Speed, and at the +0 for the basic Suplex, that's in the middle third group of moves speed-wise, give or take Dex differences and the temporary boosts from Blocking and Combos. So suplexes are faster than about a third of moves, about as fast as another third of moves and slower than the fastest third of the available moves. That works out to about a 50/50 overall chance of winning initiative with the basic Suplex, and a truly massive advantage in the action economy of this game.
Image
Not sure this is technically a Suplex. Do not technically care


Thus there is a viable tournament fighter build that is centered around a combo that has the first move as either"special that includes extra movement to close" or "basic block" and the second and third moves as Suplex + Suplex.

It's not quite an infinite throw loop, but it's scary good in a game genre where one-on-one fights are expected to be really common.
Image
Here's Morrigan Aesenland rocket Suplexing the Hulk into Mike Hagar's head on the way to winning the finals of UMvC3 at Evo 2106

Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Thu Aug 04, 2016 5:30 am, edited 4 times in total.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

The thing with R. Mika staring at Cammy's bum (and why wouldn't you?) is the set up for her powerbomb. Some say it's the jack-knife powerbomb of Big Sexy Kevin Nash, but I'd say it's actually the ganso bomb/origin bomb/original powerbomb/hollowpoint - she throws them right onto the back of their head and neck. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure a broken neck can impair fighting ability to some extent. Might have to ask Frank or Ant about that one.

I didn't really pay attention to the relative speed ratings - I clearly should have. Yes, the Block-Suplex-Suplex combo (or DashingMove-Suplex-Suplex) is solid gold.

Honestly, I haven't covered Focus (ie Fireball) yet, but being a grappler is definitely a life choice you can make work. You want good Dex, but come on, it's a White Wolf game: you already knew you wanted good Dex. Basically all your attacks become Unblockable, limiting your opponent to their Stamina in soak (and knocking them down regardless), unless they too are wrestlers, and by being a wrestler you have access to the grapple defence which lets you "Block" grabs with your best technique rating. As long as you keep a good Dex there, you should be okay for actually closing in and landing moves without falling to constant projectiles and flip-back kicks and other things that are often the bane of grapplers in the video games.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

So let's move on... to ATHLETICS!

So Blanka's Beast Roll. This has very high requirements, and is pretty cool. It is an Aerial move so you can avoid projectiles, moving in a straight line at -2, and then hitting someone before reversing to finish their movement in the opposite direction and hitting a second target. They then bounce two more hexes back in the original direction. Thank fuck they provide a diagram.

The Cannon Drill also has high requirements, and is +2 across the board... but travels low enough that it's not an Aerial, so you can go straight into fireballs. On the other hand, +2 Speed +2 Move sounds like a decent set-up to the double-suplex.

The Drunken Monkey Roll is a Crouching move that evades projectiles. So that's something.

The Flying Headbutt is +0 Speed +3 Move, so depending on what you value the most, it is also a good set-up for the Double German. It's also an Aerial. And +4 damage too.

The Flying Heel Stomp (see: Lord Vega/M. Bison... and Seth Rollins) is a handy one: +2 Move, and you have to move in a straight line, but you can Hit & Run. So if you have 6 Move total, you can move 2 spaces, stomp someone's head, then continue 4 spaces.

Jump is a special move. It requires Athletics 1 and costs 1 point for anyone. Presumably anyone can at least jump a little bit, this is actually the ability to leap through the air and dodge shit. For the record, this IS that ability. You can jump (Athletics*3) feet at a time, so a minimum of almost a metre, and up to 24 feet at the maximum Athletics rating. You can play it just as a Jump on its own (in which case it is an Abort move), or you can specifically play it combined with one of the six basic strikes as a jumping attack. Note that a Jumping Jab is different from a Jab for the purpose of a Combo - you don't just get added flexibility there.

Also of note is that you can't just simply go "Jumped!" to automatically leap over a projectile - I wish it were that easy. If you interrupt a fireball aimed at you by Jumping (including Aborting to it and the new Speed rating making you faster than them), you then potentially avoid the attack, making opposed rolls: Focus vs Dex+Ath. So you probably win and avoid it.

Note that all the "This avoids projectiles like a Jump" moves use this rule as well. Because they're like a jump. And we just get to it now. Fuck, would it kill them to describe this at the start?

Kippup isn't actually a move, it's a perk you buy for 1 point if you have Ath 2. If Knocked down, you only suffer -1 Speed, not -2 (but it doesn't change the fact that they can cancel your turn). It's an automatic effect and not something you declare or prepare or whatever.

Rolling Attack is a prereq for Blanka's special roll, and basically lets you move at frigging +4 Move, and after you hit once, you bounce back 2 spaces. The Vertical Rolling Attack is an anti-air Aerial leap thing (see: Jumping over projectiles) that lets you move 4 feet up per dot, so up to 32 fucking feet in the air. I like it.

Wall Jump is a special Jump and can be used in all the same ways as a Jump. It also adds 6 feet to your Jump, bringing it up to 30 feet, which is pretty rad. Anyway, you jump towards a wall at up to your full Move, then jump off the wall at Move + 2. If you are moving perpendicular to the wall, you spring back the exact way you came, otherwise you travel in the opposite angle, like bouncing Lightning Bolts in old D&D or lining up a trick shot in pool.

Basically, it's the move that Chun-Li and Vega (Balrog) had in Street Fighter 2, and I can't actually remember if it's still in later games, who else picked it up and so on.

I'm actually bored at this point, so I'm going to bring this chapter to a halt. I'm not even going to finish off with a picture of Chun-Li's tatty-bo-jangles or anything of the sort.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Username17 »

There's a lot to learn about game design from the Street Fighter RPG. I mean, the core system is a train wreck, but it still manages to have interesting tactical choices. And that's fascinating, because there aren't a whole lot of moving parts.

It also shows some shit that just doesn't work. Like, there isn't a compelling reason to know how to punch and kick. Because generally you could just do one of those things well and then spam the shit out of it. So the different skill ratings for different maneuvers is crap and doesn't work for shit. But, the simple toggle of being able to stunlock enemies for a turn by hitting super hard or by knocking them down before their turn leads to some interesting choices. It's better to do a sweep if you're going first and better to kick super hard if you're going second. That's interesting. But the inputs that get you there aren't complex.

-Username17
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

FrankTrollman wrote:There's a lot to learn about game design from the Street Fighter RPG. I mean, the core system is a train wreck, but it still manages to have interesting tactical choices. And that's fascinating, because there aren't a whole lot of moving parts.
Yeah, I find it fascinating how many people say it's a good or great game, because I wouldn't say that. I'd just say it's better than any other martial arts RPG I can think of - Exalted, Ninjas & Superspies... um... Monk-Only D&D? Shit, I've already run out of examples. Also I like it more than the rest of White Wolf's stuff, but that's just because my hatred for them is a renewable energy source that deserves government funding. Also if someone offered the choice between playing any werewolf from any movie or book ever, or playing Cammy, my choice is already made and it's the latter. Probably the same for Vampires, though Alucard from CastleVAAAAAANIA is a contender there.
It also shows some shit that just doesn't work. Like, there isn't a compelling reason to know how to punch and kick. Because generally you could just do one of those things well and then spam the shit out of it. So the different skill ratings for different maneuvers is crap and doesn't work for shit.
Pretty much. Punch and Kick are obviously different because they have different buttons in the video games, but the basic moves are barely different and the special moves pretty much cover the same bases. So while plenty of characters in the video games are reasonably good at both, what you'd actually do in tabletop is choose one.

For the record if I were the one making this, I wouldn't use hexes, I'd make the "map" a side-on one where you shift your token up or down based on jumping, ducking and such. Because Street Fighter. (And because most fights are 1-on-1 in empty arenas like a CharOp build contest, so nobody gives a shit about in-depth positioning.)

Anyway, here is some FOCUS
Image
Here is something to focus on.

So we start off straight away with fucking Acid Breath. Where you spit a spray of acid. A move that is quite iconic - for Reptile, from Mortal Kombat. A game that is not Street Fighter. I'm not going to discuss the actual mechanics,just the fact that it states that it dissolves clothes and has a picture of a guy using it to dissolve a woman's clothes. Because fucking White Wolf.

Now I'm not against attacks that destroy clothes when appropriate - that's part of Bakuhatsu High, but BH specifically draws inspiration from Ikkitousen and Freezing!, series in which the clothing is made out of rice paper and nitroglycerine. Clothing in Street Fighter, on the other hand, is notoriously resilient to damage - even when your face is a bloody mess after a fight, your clothes are just fine. This one is 100% White Wolf.

There are healing powers - one to heal another, the other to heal yourself. In one turn you can heal up to your Focus rating in levels, and each level costs 1 Chi, so it's kind of expensive.

Cobra Charm is a weaksauce hypnotism that takes up all of your actions except moving, is broken if your target takes damage, allows you to issue very basic commands like "move here" or "lie down", and it's basically an opposed-Intelligence Sustained Hold. Also it ends if you move more than 3 hexes away. It is not Dominate, forget all about Dominate.

Extendible Limbs is something that you combine with any of the six basic attacks, and it adds your Focus to the maximum range.

Okay, so Fireball. Fireball is like the bread and butter of fighting games so let's look at it. You need Focus 3 and nothing else, and anyone can buy it for 5, Kung Fu and Wu Shu can buy it for 4, and Kabbadi and Shotokan can learn it for 3. So you could in fact have this as a starting character if you wanted. That's good. I mean you're limiting yourself by having to pump 3 points into Focus this early, but it's doable. The range equals Wits + Focus, so a minimum of 4 hexes when you get it, and at the end of the day up to 16 hexes. Presumably Sakura either has low Focus or low Wits, seeing as her Fireballs have low range.

It costs 1 Chi to use, so total fireball spam is actually out of the question, but if anything is going to cost Chi, then obviously "hurling energy blasts around" is one of them (and between good players, you're not going to see someone throwing 10+ fireballs in a single round). You have to stand still to do it, and it's -2 Speed and +2 Damage, meaning it's not that unusual for people to interrupt it by leaping over.

It also mentions that you can use it to ignite stuff like dry wood, paper or gasoline, and you can fire it straight up to provide dim illumination for a few turns.

There's an Air Fireball which is a Fireball performed in the air - you can't Jump over it, it is +0 Move instead of "None" and it also costs 1 WP in addition to the Chi. It doesn't actually state it is an Aerial move so technically you won't get knocked down by a Dragon Punch.

Ghost Form lets you move through objects and be immune to non-energy attacks. Energy attacks still hit you, your clothing goes incorporeal with you (I am surprised, given the Acid thing above), you auto-escape Sustained Holds, and also you can only walk around, you can't make any attacks of your own. It also guzzles Chi so it's not a long-duration thing. Don't think of Vampire Astral Projection.

Ice Blast is like a Fireball except it deals more damage and freezes the opponent in place until they score a total of 3 hits on an extended Strength test (that being all of their actions each turn) or until they get hit. So basically aside from costing 2 Chi it is entirely better than the Fireball. Also, that is a move used by Sub-Zero. From Mortal Kombat. Which isn't Street Fighter.

Ryu's Improved Fireball also exists: it's a Knockdown against foes who don't Block, it's only -1 Speed, and it's +4 Damage. There's also a giant Super Fireball thing that hits a hex and the six surrounding hexes, also at +4 damage. We also get Repeating Fireball as an option - you throw up to your Focus rating in fireballs, split as you like between targets. They're each at +0 damage, and foes Jumping over them have to roll to dodge each one separately.

Mind Reading is a thing, which out of combat is entirely up to the MC, but in combat, you declare you're using it before a round starts, and spend 1 Chi, then your target (within Wits+Focus hexes) shows 2 cards. They have to play one of those two cards.

Musical Accompaniment is a Focus power. It's another thing that is not played as a card. If there is background music you get +1 to either Speed, Move or Damage (you can choose each turn).

Shock Treatment is Blanka's electric thing. It hits everyone in your square and adjacent to you, and allows zero movement. Also it costs 2 Chi, but it's 7 damage and has knockdown. Blocking characters suffer damage (presumably Soaking normally?) but don't get knocked down. Also when you purchase the power you decide whether it's standing or crouching.

Sonic Boom is basically a stronger, slower fireball.

Stunning Shout affects either one real opponent or a group of minor opponents, at the discretion of Mister Cavern. You make opposed Willpower rolls and if you win, they are stunned for the round if they are yet to act, otherwise your net hits are applied as a Speed penalty to their action next turn.

Telepathy is another "Not a maneuver card" thing. Each turn you spend a Chi and link minds with a bunch of people, letting you discuss tactics while others don't get to hear it.

Thunderclap is a weak move (-3 damage) but hits everyone within 3 hexes, so it's good at clearing out chaff.

Toughskin is a power you can use alongside any other card. I think at this point you can link four or five cards together at once. It costs 1 Chi but gives you +2 Soak for that turn, bringing the maximum to 26 (Block 8 doubled from another power to 16, Stamina 8, +2 from this). Now it's looking more like Exalted.

Yoga Flame is pretty crazy. It's 2 Chi and -2 Speed and only 1 Move (total), but you hit one hex in front of you then 3 hexes beyond that in a small cone, each for +7.

Yoga Teleport lets you vanish when you use it (2 Chi +3 Speed), then at any point later in the turn you can decide to reappear within (Int + Focus) hexes.

Finally, Zen No Mind: it costs 1 WP and then you select three cards. You then have to wait for everyone else to resolve their turns. Only after all of that (also meaning nobody can interrupt what you decide to do, and can't even Abort to a Jump or Block) do you decide which card to actually play, from those three.

That brings the chapter to an end, and basically brings the book to an end as far as I'm concerned. I skipped ahead in explaining how combat works before what the moves are, but that's not the order they decided to use because fuck you. There's your usual advice for the MC and all that, along with general ideas for how to run a campaign. It stops being interesting. Tune in some time later when I may or may not cover the expansion book that adds more options. In the meantime, seeing as they love Mortal Kombat so much in this section, enjoy some Kitana.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

Okay, I have a sore throat, so I figured I should apply some whisky topically as a local anaesthetic. It works wonders! (Possibly some will get swallowed in the process) And that means I might as well review the Player's Guide.

First up, it takes twelve pages of "What's in this book", awful art and intro fiction before we reach any real content: New Styles!

So they introduce Savate: the French art of kickboxing in disturbingly tight pants. I'm fairly certain no Street Fighter characters practised this when the book was released. For that matter, do any do that now? Anyway, it's 2 Chi 5 WP and has a lot of punches and kicks, but very little in the way of anything else - and no grabs (aside from the ones anyone can learn).

It also gets special modifiers: +1 to Soak when someone's superior Speed interrupts one of their standing kicks, unless the enemy is sweeping (in which case it's -1 Soak). Also they get +1 damage to all of their kicks.

The sample Savate user is Jacques Desroche, who looks like a bell-end. Also despite being a character made-up just for this book, they still give him 10/6/5 for attributes, 21 dots in techniques (including Kick 7), 5 Glory, 6 Honour, and loads of other crap. They can't imagine characters existing that use their own fucking character creation rules. That's like five drinks.

Next we get Ninjitsu/Ninjutsu (I don't actually know what the proper ruling is on whether to go -jitsu or -jutsu. I usually say jutsu, this book uses jitsu. I do know that most -do styles ("The way of ___") have -jutsu/jitsu styles ("Killing your opponent via ___") as well - judo, kendo, iaido, kyudo all have jutsu versions. I assume aikijutsu is a thing that exists, for twisting someone's arm completely off). In order to be a true ninja, you need dots in the new background of Clan Heritage. You need four dots in order to learn hand magic.

Also ninja are apparently very honourable despite what popular films suggest. I'm pretty sure that no, despite what a lot of media suggests, they are dishonourable. Admittedly, in a feudal system where "honour" basically means "of noble birth and ranking and acting in a way that reinforces this", ninja are largely dishonourable "because they can't trace their bloodline to the Emperor and live amongst peasants (and are in fact peasants)". Whatever. MORE DRINKS.

Also, it mentions how yes you totally can spend XP to gain and increase Backgrounds - some games explicitly allow it, others explicitly disallow it, others remain silent on the matter and just assume one or the other (and assume you know the answer because you play the same other games as the author). Also if you improve your Clan Heritage rank, the ST "must work this into the chronicle". So apparently they are bound by law and you can force them to make the plot about ninjas. I'm okay with that - everything is better with ninjas.

Image
Case in point.

Ninjutsu has a whole bunch of special requirements and shit. In order to be a basic Genin, you need 1 dot in each of the following: Alertness, Interrogation, Insight, Streetwise, Subterfuge, Blind Fighting, Security, Stealth, Survival, Investigation, Style Lore. Oh hey, this is where the "required/pre-spent abilities" of some Exalted types originated! Also you need Clan Heritage 3.

To be a Chunin, you need to have at least three dots in five of them (and 1+ in the rest), and Clan Heritage 4.

To be a Jonin, you need 5+ dots in 5+ of the abilities, and 3+ in all of the rest, and Clan Heritage 5. At this point you can start your own clan and train students. Well at least they acknowledge the possibility of a player character becoming a master and running an organisation, that's pretty rare for White Wolf.

Ninjas start with 5 Chi and 2 WP, and get a whole bunch of punches, kicks, grabs, athletics moves and focus moves. But only a couple of blocks. The ninja is quite the everyman, in return for all the XP taxes they run into.

Their ninja is Yuki Takada, because Ibuki doesn't exist yet - she's in Street Fighter 3, which was released after the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series, which was in turn released after they finished Supering up Street Fighter 2.

Now we get onto new Backgrounds, starting with Animal Hybrid. Apparently this was broken, so let's have a look!

No matter how many dots in it, it changes the way you generate your attributes: you get 9 Physical dots (maximum rating of 6 to start with), 2 Social dots (maximum 4 as a starting character) and 4 Mental dots (maximum 5 to start with).

For Abilities, they can only start with up to one dot in some of them, and up to two in a few others, and when spending XP on those abilities it's 3xcurrent instead of 2x. So they just don't do that, got it.

You straight-up get 2 free dots in Animal Companion. Even if you only put 1 dot in Hybrid. You also get a free dot in Athletics, and there are some extra free moves available to you - considered Basic so you can combine them with Jump and Stretchy Limbs and shit. If you have 1 or 2 dots you get 1, if you have 3 or 4 you get 2, and if you have 5 you get all 3 of the abilities: Bite (+1S +1D -1M), Tail Slash (-1S +1D +1M) and Claw (-1S +2D +0M). But they suggest creating other appropriate things of a similar level as your shape dictates.

They also get access to extra special moves, which is a bit smaller than that of most martial art styles (but not by much), and remember this isn't taken instead of a martial art, you get all this stuff just because you took a background. Beasts get access to a lot of grabs, athletics moves and focus moves.

Finally, they have a page of sample "natural abilities". Basically, you choose an animal type when making your hybrid, and if your Hybrid rating is 4+ you get the natural abilities for your animal. So there's heat resistance (weather, not fire attacks), cold resistance (weather), wall climbing, flight (fairly crappy), swimming, running, gills, regeneration (1 Ag per hour, can regrow/reattach limbs), extra limbs (+1 to Grab and Punch techniques if they're arms, +1 to Kick and Athletics techniques if they're legs), or "make up something else".

Also you can frenzy: any time you suffer half your remaining health levels in damage, you have to roll current Chi. If you fail to get any hits, you lose the ability to combo, you have to attack every turn even if it costs you Honour or whatever, you get +2 Speed, lose access to Flight and Wall Climbing and such, can't use special moves and cannot be dizzied. Also, you lose 1 temporary Honour per turn, and if you lose all of it, it translates to losing 1 permanent. Each turn you can roll again to snap out of it, and starting on the second turn you can spend a WP to re-roll if you fail. Or you could have spent it in the first place to add an auto-hit. Just Saiyan.

This is who they had in mind when writing it, for the record:
Image

Of course.

So what do we think of Animal Hybrids? I don't think "broken" is the right word. I think annoying is more appropriate. You do get some good benefits, and can really shore up a move pool that focuses too much on punches and kicks, but it has drawbacks - some like the Honour loss in a frenzy and limited dots in "not ripping people in half" stats will specifically hurt you, but others like the frenzy thing at all and being an obvious mutant freak will make life hard for the entire party. And if you are playing a bunch of 1 on 1 fights without worrying about non-fighting stuff and Honour and all that, then yes, for the most part it works out in your favour to do this. So that's not good.

Also, it's kind of annoying that most backgrounds either do literally nothing and are just flavour text or XP taxes on other things, or they do minor stuff where the entire description fits a box that can fit four to a page, then this takes seven pages (including the sample animal hybrid, a lizardman).

Next time you'll be introduced to Cybernetics!
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

Okay, let's cover Cybernetics, so people can play as the famous robotic Street Fighter characters.

Image
Like Sektor and Cyrax from Mortal Kombat 3!

Image
And Jack from Tekken

Image
Or how about Fulgore from Killer Instinct?

Or Robo-Ky from Guilty Gear, Robo-Fortune from SkullGirls, the entire cast of Rise of the Robots... actually every fighting game except Street Fighter, it seems.

This is a Background, like the Hybrid thing. At one dot you only have something like a single robotic limb, and it's hard to notice. At two it's two limbs, and some people might notice something is off. At three, most people notice because three of your limbs are robotic and your limbs are actually stronger and faster (let's see if the stats actually make that sentence true, shall we?), at four, "Your cybernetics are more powerful than most machines. You can seriously injure normal fighters and win most matches against Street Fighters" [Citation Needed]. Four areas are enhanced... "These could be all four limbs, or other body parts."

You are now picturing robotic cock.

At five dots it says five parts are robotic, and you are more machine than man, and from any distance it is obvious you are a cyborg. Let's see if these dots actually do anything in game or simply tell you how many body parts you get to colour in metallic.

Okay, if you have even a single dot of it, then subtract 1 from the number of dots you get to put in Social attributes. Boo hoo. Also Social attributes become 6*current in XP to upgrade. To make up for this, you get one free dot to put in Mental or Physical, and for all Mental and Physical attributes, you always only pay 4*current even when you're raising them above five. FUCKING SOLD.

You then get free Ability dots which are placed after you spend Ability dots (because you purchased Backgrounds after Abilities I assume, but it hardly matters - they explicitly tell you the up-shot so the reasoning could be because they like ponies), meaning you can raise them above the initial limit of 3 for "Before Freebies". You get +1 to Interrogation, Computer and Medicine, and +2 to Intimidation. But now you might have to actually undo a previous step, because you can't start with more than 2 dots in Streetwise or Investigation, and increasing those two costs 3*current instead of 2*current.

Because robots are shit at investigation.

Image

Now, because other Street Fighters have low opinions of cyborgs, you actually start at -2 Honour - you can buy up from there normally, indeed you could spend your starting points to have 1 Glory 0 Honour or 0 Glory 1 Honour. Or you could go 3 Glory -2 Honour, whatever. Now, Honour is handy for recovering WP/Chi after combat, so this can be a problem - you'll probably end up spending Freebies on raising these so there is a sort of tax. On the other hand you start with 12 Health before buying extra, instead of 10.

Next up... you can use your Background rating as a replacement for the Focus Technique. As in for meeting requirements and for dice pools. Which is great all the way up to the point where people are getting Focus 6-8, at which point you have to suddenly buy up 5 useless dots before you take the 6th and get an actual benefit. Also, you can learn any Focus techniques, regardless of Fighting Style, but you always pay the most expensive cost.

Also? You can choose to use your Physical Attributes in place of Mental ones for the purpose of Focus attacks, meaning you have a single set of 3 Attributes that actually matter. And for Focus moves, you can spend Health instead of Chi if you want.

Once you have a Cyber-Torso (which is "a body part" - they actually list the Legs, Arms, Torso, Head, and Extra Limbs, so forget what I said about robo-cocks. You can't, can you?) you may take Additional Limbs for robotic parts. Each pair of extra arms adds +1 to your Punch and Grab, and each pair of extra legs adds +1 to your Kicking and Athletics. Or you could take animal-like features for an Extra Limb set, gaining Animal Hybrid attacks. So you won't do that, you'll do one of the others.

Okay, so all-up? Clearly the route to Real Ultimate Power is to be a robo-warrior. You then just focus on Physical stats all the way, you take extra limbs, and become Robo-Goro who Suplexes trains and punches cities.

Image
And win the game like this.

And also, while it's the strongest option, it doesn't necessarily make you super fast or strong, and isn't just flat-out giving you what you need to fight those established high-XP characters, so the flavour text in the Background description is full of shit as normal.

Next post will cover Elementals! (Bending style, not Made-of-Element style)
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Omegonthesane
Prince
Posts: 3685
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 3:55 pm

Post by Omegonthesane »

Presumably robocock is part of Cyber-Torso, or a bonus for having two robot legs (buy 2, get 1 free!)
Kaelik wrote:Because powerful men get away with terrible shit, and even the public domain ones get ignored, and then, when the floodgates open, it turns out there was a goddam flood behind it.

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath, Justin Bieber, shitmuffin
User avatar
Leress
Prince
Posts: 2770
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Leress »

The only person I can think of that is close to a cyborg in the Street Fighter series is Area from Street Fighter Ex 2 Plus. All she has is just gear and not actual limb replacement.

Image
Last edited by Leress on Sun Aug 14, 2016 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Koumei wrote:I'm just glad that Jill Stein stayed true to her homeopathic principles by trying to win with .2% of the vote. She just hasn't diluted it enough!
Koumei wrote:I am disappointed in Santorum: he should carry his dead election campaign to term!
Just a heads up... Your post is pregnant... When you miss that many periods it's just a given.
I want him to tongue-punch my box.
]
The divine in me says the divine in you should go fuck itself.
Koumei
Serious Badass
Posts: 13877
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: South Ausfailia

Post by Koumei »

Okay, as promised, Elementals. You take this as a Background, and select the element with which you specialise. With "You can manipulate your element on a basic level" at one dot and "You can make truly miraculous things occur. Power is at your beck and call." at five dots.

Fire aspected get +1 to Soak vs fire, -1 to Soak vs water.
Water aspected get +1 to Soak vs water, -1 to Soak vs earth.
Air aspected get +1 to Soak vs air and any Aerial move and -1 to Soak vs fire.
Earth aspected get +1 to Soak vs earth and any Knockdown moves and -1 to Soak vs air.

Presumably they mean the special moves of the elemental type and not "soaking any damage that might be caused by 'the air'". Otherwise resisting Fire is sometimes useful, resisting Air is almost never useful (made up for by the Aerials), resisting Water is rarely useful and resisting Earth is useful when falling off buildings or, arguably, when getting suplexed onto the ground.

So they haven't balanced them from the start, that's a good sign. Any way, if you have the Background at all, you are able to learn your Elemental special moves (regardless of style), all with listed point costs, and these aren't Hadouken and such (in name, at least), they're basically their own set of powers described later in the book. They can all learn Heal, Elemental Skin, Elemental Stride and Sense Element. Air can also take Flight, Lightness, Push, Vacuum, and Air Blast. Water can also take Drain, Drench, Envelop, and Pool. Fire can also learn Fire Strike, Flaming Fist, Heatwave, and Spontaneous Combustion. Earth can also learn Pit, Stone, Wall, and Weight.

They have a list of common styles used by elementals because apparently there are enough of them wandering around to notice a pattern. But elementals can never study Ler Drit (PSYCHO CRUSHER). Whatever, if you're a PC you can't do that anyway. Kung Fu and Special Forces Training is common to all elements, if you care.

Next we get Managers, who are usually NPCs. This isn't a Background, it's a life choice and changes your starting dots. Abilities become 10/8/5 (ie 1 extra dot per category), you get 8 Background dots instead of 5, you get only 4 Tech dots instead of 8, and only 3 points to put into special moves instead of 7. They don't have a Style, they only get to learn moves that "anyone" can learn. Chi 1 WP 4. This is not a choice you make as a PC, but if you want to care about the stats for managers, it makes sense to include this.

In typical annoying WW fashion they add two new skills, but they're for Managers, so whatever. Manage and Bookie, if you cared. What's that, you don't? Great!

If you find the right kind of teacher (Trainers for physical stats, Mentors for social stats, Tutors for mental stats, Instructors for abilities), they can potentially lower the cost of your advancement in the right thing. This only works up to 5 dots and they can't help you eclipse their own ratings - in either of these cases, you pay the normal amounts as you learn your own way, probably by suplexing people. But other than that, they have their own special ability, Instruction, and make an Int+Instruct check. If they get a number of hits equal to your current rating, then the cost to increase is only 3*current (attributes) or 1*current (abilities). It doesn't say anything about retrying or how much time it takes or whatever - the implication is that you can only attempt this if you have enough XP to advance normally, and if they fail the roll you have to pay full XP, but I'm not sure if that's what they mean. Possibly you can just keep trying until you get it.

You can now also buy TEAM COMBOS. Everyone selects one move and spends one Power Point. They do not specify a limit here so if you have a team of ten people you could arguably make a 10-hit combo here... though obviously that means it fails if you don't have all ten people in the ring at the same time. That probably actually does balance it out fairly well.

You can do an "Instant", where everyone acts at the same time (so the faster people interrupt to join in with the slowest person), and they mention some moves won't work very well for this such as suplexes and AoE things. All the moves add damage together for Dizzying purposes.

Then there is an "Extended", where you have to list the moves (and attackers) in order, and then on a turn-by-turn basis, you have to hit those in order and it adds damage for Dizzying purposes - and the combo ends the moment someone misses, deals zero damage, has their attack negated, chooses to not do their combo move, or if the target is hit by anything else.

I'm not going to lie, this is getting boring. I'm going to skip the whole section on "Designing an Arena", and some other crap, and the shitty sample characters they created. Next post we move straight into the new moves introduced - at least, the ones I think are noteworthy.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Post Reply