10 Montages Until GenCon: #10: The Karate Kid Tournament

I started writing the flavor text for GenCon 2013 today in earnest. While I was writing, I got so pumped up that I started watching 80s montages on YouTube.  Since I have dispensed with the other Genres and limited the game to 80s-action scenarios, I decided that to get you all in the same frame of mind, meaning Cin20-GenCon 2013-Style, I will be posting montages that get me pumped up (and keep me pumped up until I get this flavor text done) as well as my own smartass comments and observations a la Two Bald Guys in Mokena style...(check out me and C-lo ripping Prometheus and you'll get the idea).

A caveat: I will not be posting montages from the Rocky Films, as that would easily take up all ten slots. But if I get to ten and I still feel the need to inspire and stay inspired, you can be sure I'll pop those up here  too...

And so, without further delay, we begin with number 10: The Tournament Scene from Karate Kid (The Real One, not the crappy Will_Smith_Kung_Fu_drek that he created to live vicariously through and shamelessly promote his son while disgustingly lining his pockets...)

 Some interesting points:

1. It is no wonder Daniel wins this tournament...no one knows how to move out of the way! Daniel totally wastes the first guy he faces with two simple side steps and even the Cobra Kai psycho guy at the end with the poorly_and_obviously_blonde_dyed_hair...precious!!!!.

2. Is it me, or at 1:09 was that choreography inspired, if not directly lifted from the cheesy Data East 1984 video game Karate champ? Come to think of it, I think Pat Johnson (the chorographer and referee, by the way) just snagged every fight scene out of the game...take a look::

3. Awesome Tae Kwon Do guy takes out a guy at 1:14 with ease, levels the fat guy and 1:36...awesome. Then, said awesome Tae Kwon Do guy somehow loses to Johnny...get REAL! Johnny is nowhere fast enough to avoid those tornado kicks, nor does he even think about moving laterally (See number 1.).

Remnant Weapons Entry 3: Violet-Ultraviolet Lasers

Violet-Ultraviolet lasers, or VUVs, are small high energy multibanded beam weapons. They simultaneously fire both a vivid violet beam and a just beyond visual frequency ultraviolet beam, which allows them to instantly draw a bead on and slice through all but the power armored UIs instantly. 

VUV lasers can be used as either a continuous beam or a pulse weapon. When used as a beam, it attacks any target in its swath as if an area attack. When used as a pulse weapon, the weapon's range is diminished as a continuous flow of energy is disrupted.

While highly effective and lethal, VUV lasers generate massive amounts of heat when fired. In the thin air of high altitudes and the vacuum of space this heat dissipates quickly, however in atmospheric conditions, VUVs tend to overheat and lock up after about 10 seconds when used as a beam or after  5-6 shots when fired in pulse mode. It takes roughly one to two hours for a weapon to unlock.

As a result of its heat issues, the majority of VUVs are built into UIs and craft that move between and support low-orbit/high altitude operations. When built into craft, they can be patched into its power supply providing a virtually unlimited number of charges. With their small size, however, they can be easily modified to take a standard neuronic whip power cell and used as a handheld weapon, though such a use is seveely hampered by lockup.

Violet-Ultraviolet Laser

Mass: 2 kg

Length: 27 cm
Number of Charges: 10 beams / 50 pulses per power cell

Damage: Beam 12d10 (60) / Pulse 6d10 (30)

Range: Pulse Effective Range 150 m / Extreme Range 500m
Range: Beam Effective Range 1500m / Extreme Range 5000 m 

VUV lasers slice easily and cleanly through metal and leather armors, negating them entirely. When used against Remnant armor and battle dress uniforms, the armor's ballistic armor value (ArmVB) is used to determine damage absorption.

When used as a beam, a charge will last one round. When used as a pulse weapon, on tap on the contact will use one charge

Renaming HiBRiD: Rationale and Resultant

I never really set out to design a roleplaying engine.

Originally, I just wanted some thing that worked. I kept looking at and playing other games here and there, seeing what was slick, what worked, and what didn't.

In the end, once I decided to abandon all other systems and just hack all of my notes together, I referred to HiBRiD as "a hybridized homebrew system" when describng it to others because I wanted to get across the point that it was an amalgam, or hybridization, of all of the systems I had tried, each of which seemed to do one or two things right but also seemed to bog down play in some other way that went against what I was trying to achieve.

When I came up with the concept of Ite', I inadvertently unified the patchwork of rules and I realized it wasn't really a hybridized amalgam any more so much as a unified system that was highly modifiable and patchable depending on how much detail each gaming group wished to infuse into the game. I knew anyone using it could use it either "as is" or bolt it on to any other system they were using. I also knew it would be a long time until I finished what I had started and continued to see in my mind's eye. Finally, I realized it needed a working title until I completed it.

So with these ideas in my mind, I settled on the name of HiBRiD, developed from the acronym of highly bastardized rpg in development, as a temporary name to  to reflect theses various facts.

That was in 1992. Since then, much has changed in my life as well as in the gaming industry in general. Paper systems have become less prevalent. A written, word-salad-diatribe called "Hybrid" was vomited out by some lame French asshole who called it an RPG, and in the process made it annoyingly difficult to use the name in any sort of commercial venture. But most importantly, I realized that the Ite' mechanic has evolved to really become the standard driving force behind the engine itself. What started off as a simple luck point system has flowered into a methodology for determining the level of heroism in a game. What once was used to protect players from intra-party conflict has evolved into a system for co-operative play.

Which leads me to the point of this post. Ite' is the real driving mechanic of the engine, the real crux of the system. It has ceased to become a "gimmick" and become the defacto standard mechanism for anyone attempting to play any role playing game with the style I imagined. It has become the hook for which players introduced to the game seem to remember the game.

So with this rationale in mind, I have decided to rename the HiBRiD gaming engine to reflect these developments.The new name for the engine will be called: 

The Ite' Gaming Engine.

 

A Macho Modification: A Proposal

I was thinking of how to reward what I truly consider HiBRiD action. At conventions, I usually plant either myself or my second unit director within the players to demostrate how to push rules to the maximum effect during the first action scene. While writing game rules, however, I lack a cohort, so I must resort to less effective tactics. Also, during play, I award bonuses to task rolls or eliminate penalties for actions exceptionally "HiBRiD", and while it works in play, once again on the page, the description falls flat and seems to get missed.

To this end, I have decided to award experience points for HiBRiD actions. First, here are the rules for actions from the Principle Photography chapter:

<BEGIN EXCERPT>

Time

Time is normally only tracked during action scene. When the director announces the beginning of an action scene, she will begin keeping track of time in roughly ten-second increments called action rounds.

Action

For purposes of simplicity, all character actions can be classified into one of three types:

Throwaway Actions

Throwaway actions are actions requiring little if any concentration to perform and require no task roll to complete. Your character may perform one throwaway action in addition to an involved or standard action without having it affect the task roll. If your character performs two or more throwaway actions, each additional throwaway action is transformed into a standard action, akin to rubbing your stomach and tapping your head at the same time.

Examples of common throwaway actions include carelessly tossing something aside, yelling something to someone without turning your attention away from a task, or moving less than ten meters in an action round on land.

Standard Actions

Standard actions require a significant amount of attention to perform and require a task roll to complete. Your character may perform as many standard actions as you wish during an action round, however, the more actions your character attempts, the more difficult the task rolls will be to complete. To determine how much the difficulty of your tasks will be affected, the director will total the number of actions, multiply the total by two, and add the result to all task rolls your character makes during that round.

Examples of some common standard actions include attacking a single opponent, making an area attack, treading water, exploring an area, hanging from a limb or cliff, or moving any distance between ten meters and your character's movement distance on land.

Involved Actions

Involved actions require enough concentration and attention to perform so as to preclude your character from performing any other actions other than a single throwaway action, and may or may not require a task roll to complete. If your character attempts to perform any other standard or involved actions, all actions will fail, regardless of the task roll result.

Examples of common involved actions using or girding activated aspects, swimming, actively climbing, or making a called shot.

<END EXCERPT>

Just in the simple design, I seem to have already build in a mechanism for rewarding heroic activity. By quickly totaling the number of standard tasks, the director can simply multiply the difficulty rating penalty by ten and award that number of experience points to the character.

The director has the option of not awarding this bonus, awarding it at the end of the round, at the end of the action scene, or during the next post-production session. The director can also choose to award it regardless of success/failure to reinforce any and all risky behavior, or only for successful actions only to reinforce characters evaluating risk more carefully.

All in all, a very simple and flexible mechanic to once again allow groups to create the game they want with minimal mechanics.

What do you all think?

Remnant Weapons Entry 2: The Quantal Blade

Yes, we all know of light sabers from Star Wars, but blades of energy and light originated long before in the classic serials which is where Lucas got his inspiration from, as well as a number of Science Fiction novels and short stories, including the following:

• Kaldar, Planet of Antares by Edmond Hamilton, 1933
• Gather, Darkness! by Fritz Leiber, 1943
• Foundation, by Isaac Asimov, 1951
• The Lucky Starr novels, by Isaac Asimov as Paul French, 1952 to 1958
• Nightwings by Robert Silverberg, 1968

The quantal blade is rare in Ara Knochen. Originally, it was used as tool for cutting Remnant metals, but those rare individuals with certain have psychic abilities have found they are able to use it as a weapon. It is sometimes carried by officers in the UN Military, but most commonly is associated with Sohei of the various Orders that exist who seem to share the ability to feel its energy and use it effectively as a weapon.

Quantal Blade
Mass: 500 g
Length: Hilt: 30 cm, Blade 130-150 cm
Number of Charges: 1 (2 hours total duration active use)
Damage: 6d10 (30) instantaneous

While the weapon by default cauterizes all wounds inflicted by it, players may choose to have the blade emit a fine mist of blood as an aesthetic.

When used in combat situations, the energy blade instantly inflicts damage upon coming into direct contact with an opponent's skin. The blade slices easily and cleanly through metal and leather armors, negating them entirely. When used against Remnant armor and battle dress uniforms, the armor's ballistic armor value (ArmVB) is used to determine damage absorption.

When used in noncombat situations as a tool, the blade can cut through metals of less than 1 centimeter instantaneously and through thicker materials at a rate of 1 centimeter per round. Slicing through Remnant bioplastics takes 1 minute to cut through materials thicker than one centimeter

In order to use this weapon effectively in combat, a character must possess a telekinetic or correspondent aspect.