It's been a long time since I posted about the Dynamic Fu combat stuff I was working with. I'm not a full time game designer, so wadda ya expect?

It hasn't been entirely idle, but since I already know how the system is supposed to work, its time to start discussing the nitty gritty details rather than the loftier ideals I worked with earlier.

As a refresher:  Characters are rated purely in terms of 'dots' or points of 'Fu'.  But we don't say they are rated in 'Fu' because that will get confusing very quickly.

See, there are two types of Dots... well, three really but lets keep it simple for now.

The two primary types are Traits and Fu.  Traits are innate abilities or other miscellany characteristics unrelated to learned Kung Fu.  Being brawny, or having a great destiny or a hidden master are all traits.   Traits can't be used for the active portions of combat tests, though there are some exceptions, however, they also cannot become 'exhausted', and are very difficult to 'Damage'.

Fu represents, naturally enough, your mastery of 'Kung Fu'. Hence the name.  Again, as a reminder, points of Fu give you your bonuses on various combat rolls, and can allow you to use techniques tied to specific points. Any Fu can be used for any test, and the entire concept can be expanded out to cover magic among other things.  

Dots have four primary states with two 'alternate' states for limited use.

Active (or alternatively Charged) is the default state of any Trait or Fu.  It is ready to use.  Charged is for use by traits or Fu's that do not start Active, that is they do not default to this state. Once it is 'Charged' it is functionally identical to Active dots.  

Exhausted (or Uncharged): Occasionally, using a Fu is tiring, or the opponent figures out how to counter it... however you view it, an exhausted Dot is done for. It may still provide passive bonuses (debateable... that is I haven't worked out if this is good or bad), but any active Techniques that are exhausted may no longer be used.  Note that an uncharged Fu can not become Exhausted, but a charged Fu may become exhausted (possibly in addition to becoming Uncharged again).

Burned: Only a player can burn a dot. It is never imposed by the dice, unlike Exhausted, or an Opponent, unlike Damaged.  Burnt Dots are 'out of play' for the duration of a bout, and potentially longer. This is both good and bad. Exhausted dots might recover during a bout, but exhausted dots can still become damaged. Burned traits do not recover nor can they be damaged.

Burning a Dot is a means of garaunteeing success... sort of.  On a snake-eyes the player can chose to fail, or continue 'buring' by 'damaging' the trait instead. If the opponent rolls boxcars or burns a trait of their own then the burned trait must win on numbers (burning counts as boxcars, regardless of the dice), just like a normal test.

Damaged: Damaged dots are done for. In a fight the opponents are normally out to damage all of their opponents Fu, at a minimum, or fu and traits if the fight is truly brutal. Note that without at least one Active Fu dot, a fighter is 'out', though they may continue to make 'passive' tests to avoid damage or burn Exhausted Fu's to keep fighting. Once all dots are damaged (or burnt) the fighter is helpless, possibly dead.

The primary difference between the three 'non-active' states is recovery times.  The winner of a fight automatically recovers all their exhausted dots at the end of the bout, and any fighter may recover an exhausted trait after every time they down an opponent... even if that opponent gets back up later. (for example, a fighter who exhausts his last Active Fu is Down, but after a rest may return to the fight with one or more Active Fu's... if its a long fight).  The loser only recovers half their exhausted Fu's, though typically they will regain the rest before they fight another bout (unless doing a Kumite style sequence of bouts with no scenes between them).

The winner may also chose to recover one additional dot, be it burned or damaged.  All burned traits may be recovered either at the end of the game session or at the rate of one per non-bout scene, or as a reward for winning a bout.  Note that 'cliffhanger' sessions do not permit recovery of burned dots except that they count as a 'scene', even if the cliffhanger is a bout.

Damage recovers slowly, depending upon how much is sustained. Damaged Fu recovers much faster than damaged traits, however.  If a character has damaged traits they must have 'medical' scenes to recover those at all. Hospital stays, visits from doctors and the like. Note that these scenes will still recover Damaged Fu before Traits (at the rate of one per scene), and only once all Damage Fu has been recovered can the character be considered 'out of danger'.  If the character has lost more than half their Fu to damage they can not begin recovering burned dots until their damaged Fu is healed, at which time the burned dots recover... though damaged Traits remain.  Damaged Traits only recover once all other damage is healed, at that at the rate of one Dot per session.


All of that is rather heavy so it may be rewritten at some point and reworked, the idea is that taking more than a few points of 'Damage' in a bout is bad. Note that the use of 'scene types' speaks more to the inspiration for all this rather than an innate enjoyment of chopping up game play into discrete 'types' of elements.  As a result there is no requirement in the game for scenes to take place in any kind of order.  Taking an 'Anime' example, having the nurturing character wrap a bandage around a hurt wrist during an otherwise chatty scene would qualify as a Medical scene for lightly damaged fighters.  Also note that 'healing fu' is a distinct possibility, reducing potential downtime.


Basic Dice mechanics:

All tests are rolled with 2d6, and are opposed. Climbing a wall would be opposed by the wall (which probably has no bonuses to the test, making it fairly easy).  Higher numbers win, boxcars represent critical successes, and snake-eyes mean something bad happens.

Most tests will be combat oriented, in Bout scenes.

There are four discrete combat tests, two active and two passive. Traits, normally, are only useable in Passive Tests.

There are no turns, no passes. There is initative, which determines who attacks first. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The two active tests are attacking and defending the two passive are damage and resist.   Any test may be made with Fu, only passive tests can be made by traits (which normally you wouldn't want to do, as most traits lack the bonuses to tests that Fu's have). Any test can result in the Fu used being exhausted (on a snake-eyes).

If the attacker wins the attack vs defense test he gets to initiate the damage vs resist test. If he wins that he may select any Fu or trait used by the defender to 'damage'... if he makes the base roll.

Damageing: on snake-eyes, the attack does nothing, on 3-6 he exhausts the Fu (note that Traits are immune to this outcome). On a 7+ he can damage a Fu, but not a trait. Traits can only be damaged on a Boxcars or if all Fu's are damaged/burnt.  There is an exception, as certain Fu's may allow traits to be damaged like Fu's.  Note that exhausted Fu's are easier to damage (a + to the roll...) and that some Fu's are particularly useful for damaging dots... however: as this is not a Fu test, the Fu in question MUST be used on the damage test.

While any fu can be used on any test, the Fu (or trait) used may have wider reaching effects depending upon where it is used.

Lets posit a 'Snake Kung Fu' technique that is based on weak points and tricking ones opponents.  If use for the Attack roll it allows the attacker to disallow one of his opponent's Fu's for use in the Resist test. If used on the damage test it allows the fighter a chance to damage the trait of his chosing on a 10+ test (rather than waiting for a trait to be used and bettering his chances).  

On 'picking/disallowing' opponent Fu's: there is no obligation for a Fighter to reveal his Fu's or traits (depending... many traits are obvious) or the bonuses they have to the opponent, and in fact this is discouraged.  In other words, for Snake Kung Fu, as we postulated it above, to be useful you have to have observed or fought your opponent, or use it later in the fight when you have a good idea what they are capable of.   There is no 'do over' either if you pick a trait that is already exhausted or even burnt or damaged.  

An example of a Charged trait: Loves to fight (also:Masochist), this fighter never loses. They are in it for the rush of battle, and losing gives them just as great a rush as winning, in fact it means they've found an opponent that is truly worth fighting.  As a result, they tend to fight even harder once they've had a good beatdown.
Rules: Once the character has suffered damage  at his opponent's hand, and has not regained the initative, then this trait becomes Active and may be used.  Using it is an automatic interrupt, giving the fighter initative without a test (or possibly the same test as burning a dot...) and as long as they maintain the initiative they have a +1 morale bonus to all tests against that opponent.  Once they have lost the initative again they lose the bonus. Note that this trait may be used multiple times in one bout however, if ever it would become 'exhausted' by use, it becomes Burnt. Also: This trait MUST test for damage if the fighter fails to damage his opponent before losing initative.


Initative system: Note that this is still partially conceptual, rather than fixed. It has a significant weakness in that I haven't figured out a good way to run multiple character melees with it smoothly.  But:

Fights start with a Initiative test to see who has goes first. Nothing special there.  Certain traits may provide a bonus, as do certain Fus (which MUST be the first attack/defense test if used).

However, there is no hand-off to the defender to make an attack. Instead he must seize the initiative from the attacker in some way.

There are a few ways to do this. Taking the hit, interrupts and exhausting (rope a dope...).

Taking the hit consists of deliberately skipping the Defense test in favor of making an attack test, and is often paired with burning a Fu.  The fighter who is least hurt by the attack gains the initative, and on a draw forces a test... with one exception: if neither attacker does damage the original attacker maintains the initiative.

Interrupts are similar but differ in a few key areas:  Like all 'seizing the Initiative' attempts it relies on the active portion of combat. Interrupts are harder to pull off in some ways, easier in others.  the Fighter uses a Fu to 'disrupt' his opponent's attack in some way. This often depends on how the interrupt is described, a fighter may attempt to out speed his opponent which would mean using another Initiative test against whatever Fu his opponent declaired, he may attempt to grab the attacker's arm and break it (opposed attack tests, with the winner moving on to damage tests) or he may force his opponent to over-extend (normal attack vs defense with the winner taking initiative). Unlike taking the hit, the winner is determined entirely by the active test, not the end result of that exchange.  This means the defender is usually unprepared for the hit and can only use Traits to resist, not Fu if he is struck.

The Rope a Dope: here the defender, probably relying on a trait, simply waits for his opponent to exhaust himself. If the attacker ever exhausts himself, the initative automatically passes to the defender, unless he too exhausted himself in the same pass, at which point it becomes another initative test.


One against many idea:  All test at once, high roll goes first.  Incoming attackers automatically have initiative if the fighter is already engaged, but he may make an immedeate 'seize' test regardless. Note, however, that he will automatically give up any initative he has against an existing opponent(s).  Multiple opponents may 'Gang up', combining their attacks into one roll, but by doing so they lose the ability to 'seize initative' by attacking individually.

Many on Many Idea:  Most fighters will group up into pairs, resolve initative for each pair. Any fighters NOT paired up (extra bodies, chose to hang back, whatever) may chose to attack any already engaged fighter, automatically siezing the initative as if 'One against Many' or may gang up instead.  An engaged fighter may chose to ignore his current opponent to attack (again with initiative...) another engaged opponent, though this will penalize him on defensive/resist tests as if he was ganged up against.  



Ganging Up:  Whenever multiple opponents are all attempting to attack the same person it is possible for them to team up to gain bonuses, and reduce the number of tests made. However, HOW this teaming up is done requires, like most actions in a bout, a description of intent before the test is made.
For example, on fighter might 'grab' an opponent for his gang mate to punch.

In this case, one fighter makes an Attack, with the gang bonus (in this case +1 for two on one) to grab, the other makes the damage test (also at +1, though the damage bonuses probably scale much slower than attack bonuses).

What is important here, however, is that the defender in a gang up situation will get tired/hurt faster, rather than mere bonuses to tests. Exhaustion results will result in two lost Fu's rather than one, damage results will be easier to get (Gang up bonus to damage tests?), while the attacking gang can spread out their exhaustion/damage over many people, as the defender must still chose who to test against when attacking. Note, however, that gangs do not get to automatically seize the initative, though they do have an easier time testing to take it.

Grapples:  Grapples are special attacks, though again, any Fu can test to start one. Grapple bonuses (from the Fu) are never used to initiate the grapple, that test must be made with passive bonuses (from traits or Fu's that apply... Grapple Fu's may have an attack AND a Grapple bonus, the attack bonus is used to initiate). They often are used as defensive moves, and do not require one to seize initative to start a grapple (use defensive bonus rather than Grapple bonus...)
Once initated the Grapple bonus is used for all future attack tests and only grapple Fu's may be used to do damage tests while maintaining the Grapple... at least by the grappler.  However: only grapple bonuses can be used against a maintained grapple: normal defensive bonuses are useless (though again, any fu can be used...), though certain traits my apply (Brawny, normally only gives a bonus to damage and resist tests, but can be used by Grapplers... on either side).








Well, that's really it for now.  I have written down about half a dozen traits, and have about twice that in mind already, but I've yet to actually write down the basics of Fu design. I know that I will have a list of bonus and 'traits' that any give Fu dot can provide (make your own from list) and other traits that Fu can have (weapon dependent/unarmed only as a 0/0 cost choice, with 'with weapons' costing a bonus or two...)

I also know that 'items' will be based around Dot design (seperate from Fu weapons...) and I am planning on a 'type' of Fu that fills the 'forbidden techniques', that is a seperate list of Fu 'disadvantages' that when applied to a Fu make it 'forbidden' or 'Dangerous' but also make it potentially very powerful. Things like 'damages traits on a 7+ test every time it is used' or 'charged by blood sacrifice' type things.

Hopefully this weekend I'll actually start typing up the main text for a playtest document... :eek:

Example of Combat:

Fighter 1: Big John.

traits: Brawny (+1 to damage/resist tests, useable in grapple, recovers faster)

Destiny: (Player defined, GM adds details) Hero from the East: Mysterious warrior who conqured all who opposed him but died mysteriously before he could rule (when destiny threatened it may be 'burnt' in place of a Fu. Note that the GM may declare it damaged at any point he feels it has been 'completed', at which point it can not heal.)

Basic Fu:   Punching Mastery +2 (all characters have access to basic Fus, these are purely passive bonuses that stack with any Fu bonus or Fu technique bonus... in this case, whenever he punches someone he gets a +2 to the test... the default Fighter has +0 to all, but may sacrifice a Basic Fu (losing the 'ability' to do that type of move) in favor of a free raise elsewhere.

Fu:  Texan Boxing 3 (fundamentals: Attacks +3, Defense +3, Damage +3 Resist +3, a well rounded style, but he has no techniques)


Fighter 2: Snakepit

Trait: Wily: Fighter gets a +1 speed bonus to initative tests and defensive tests to include resisting grapples. Trait may be Burnt as a resist test after the damage test has been made.

Basic Fu:   Kicking -neg (Snakepit has bad knees and can not kick at all)
               Dodging +1

Fu:  Snake Kung Fu 3  +1 attack, +2 Damage +3 Dodge. bonus damage, can use weapons, Technique: Viper Strike (tied to third dot): +3 attack, Poison Special

Fu: Coils of the Serpent 2 : +1 attack, +4 Grapple, +1 initative

Forbidden Fu: Cobra Hood 1 +3 Attack, +3 damage, When used, can use no other Fu until initative has changed hands back to user (must have lost and regained iniative). Note the lack of defensive or resist bonuses.


Note that there are more options for fu than I've used here, and the points values are not in line with the final character creation. Both fighters are seven dot fighters, but as Snakepit is an NPC villian, he gets bonus dots. He'll use them entirely for Mooks 3 (giving him in this case 9 mooks worth one fu apiece... He could instead buy three mooks worth three Fu or one mook worth six Fu, almost equivilent to a fighter, and probably named at that point... note that Mooks have no special rules aside from the fact that they are all 'bland'... essentially all their dots are Fu dots, and are balanced (lets say +3 to rolls) though a named Mook could be designed as a Fighter. If the GM (or opposing player if that option is used) could designate that all his mooks have a trait (one less fu, but they have that trait... like brawny or wiry) or could all use the same Fu (Snake Kung fu probably in this case) rather than a generic bonus.

First thing is Big John fights his way through Snakepit's goon squad. Snakepit could hold his mooks in reserve if he wanted, using them to make a balanced fight harder, but he'd rather see if his mooks can wear down Big John first, and he really wants to see Big John's moves so he can use his Snake Kung Fu to its fullest potential.

Big John waves the initative test, he knows even if he wins the various Mooks will just interrupt him.  For their part, six of the mooks break into two groups of three for the 'gang up' bonus, two mooks hold back, and one mook engaged Big John.  The two groups of three each gain +2 to attack tests and +1 to damage tests.

John decides to take the hit from the first mook. The player says

" I clock the little dude while his fists bounce off my rock hard abs" or whatever, describing his attack as a punch to the face. Hell, all he has to do is say 'I punch him' and he can use his Punching bonus. The mook in question, being a mook, declares nothing but his intent to attack. Besides, they don't know Big John is a boxer.

Both roll their attack, the mook hit, rolling +3 and trying to hit a 7+ (uncontested opposed roll), John rolls +5 against the Mook (normally a +3, but the mook is attacking... the mook could have aborted, giving up initative automatically and rolling his defense +3...). Both hit.  John continues to use his Texan Boxing Fu, so his Resist is +4 while his damage is a whopping +6. The Mook rolls +3 for both tests.  John successfully resists and takes no damage, but his massive rocklike fist pulverizes the poor mook easily (note: originally test results carried forward, giving additional bonuses for good rolls along the line. This is provisionally not the case now, but there might be a 'bonus table', giving more moderate rewards for high level success.  John's brawny trait carries over to the next test to see if he damaged or merely exhausted the mook. The GM waives this, however... the mook is down one Fu dot


To be continued...

Where was I? Oh...yeah... so one mook is down to two dots of fu...

As a note: For simplicity, unless I say otherwise, we'll just run with average dice rolls for every roll, so we're only comparing bonuses on most 'throws'.

Now, normally, Big John would hold the initiative, so he could just attack again, but there's other people involved...

So the two groups of three decide not to let their buddy get beat down by the mighty thewed texan. Now, technically both groups would rush in at the same time, but since that's a bit hard to do for most peoples puny human brains, we'll just run one sequence at a time.

Gang one just comes in pummeling, taking the initiative as the attackers.  Now, since they're just doing the beatstick, and they are all identical, we'll just roll a single attack with the +2/+1 bonus for their gang.  John doesn't want to waste time with them, so He'll just defend himself, trying to keep them all to his front, so he just rolls his +3 defense. We'll say he loses the defense check so he has to resist. Luck isn't with him and he rolls snake-eyes on his 'Texan Boxing' resist test... oops, not only did he fail but he also exhausted himself, one box down.  Lucky for him he doesn't have any techniques attached to that dot so he's not really slowwed down. The mooks get ready to roll their 'damage' check against him but John remembers he has a destiny, he's the reincarnation of a warrior from the east, a conquerer. No way some punks can whomp him like that.  He tells the GM that his warrior couldn't possibly be beat like this, not with his destiny, and the GM lets him burn his Destiny trait in place of the test he just snake-eyed. John gets to ignore the exhausted he just rolled and rolls again for the Burn. Now, only two results matter here, snake-eyes and boxcars. John rolls the boxcars, which means that the burnt dot is only exhausted, but being a trait it's immune to exhaustion: His destiny goes off and doesn't even have to be marked off.  THe mooks roll their damage anyway, but fail to roll boxcars, so they can't match his karma.

The second gang comes in with a 'plan', seizing the initiative from their fellows.  Since they didn't gang with the first mooks, they don't get any new bonus (not enough teamwork to offset their current efforts).  One mook goes to grab and headlock the mighty boxer while his fellows pound him. As the first mook goes for the grab (rolling his attack), John interrupts him, not wanting to get grabbed. Both fail their rolls and the attack 'ends' with an initiative test.  John loses and the GM declairs that the remaining two mooks in that gang get to try to double team him instead of triple team him... they'll return to a three man gang next pass.  John decides to interrupt by punching their fists with his, and with his superior punching ability he wins, the interrup goes off and he rolls two damage tests, once for each mook.  Note: the GM could have penalized him for making two attacks at once but since these are ganged up mooks he decided to let it fly.  Again, his superior bonuses allow him to damage the two mooks.  Even though he's done three points of damage to the mooks none of the mooks are down, each point was to a different mook. Some GM's may chose, for book keepign purposes, to collate damage to unnamed characters.

John has seized the initiative, and our two hangers back continue to watch. Now, all three groups are already engaged, so none can get the free interrupt for engaging him. Still, he has to declare an opponent before he can do anything, and anyone can attempt an interrupt, though for simplicity only one 'opponent' can try to oppose him at any given time.  They can try to rope a dope him, essentially forcing him to spread his damage out between them until he gets exhausted, but that would take a while.

John decides to attack the hurt 'solo' opponent.  He declares he's going to start whaling on the guy.

Gang B decides to interrupt, with one of them grabbing his arms in a 'full nelson'. John doesn't get his punching bonus against this attempt, though he would if the solo mook had done something instead. Being a great puncher is useless against someone jumping on your back from behind.

So, its +4 vs +3, John loses and the second gang successfully grapples him, leaving him helpless against the mooks.  The rest of the gang pile in and start punching, but the texan's mass keeps him safe for the moment.

Now the mooks have the initiative, and the solo mook wants his hits while the big guy is helpless. Situation grim, John decides to interrupt by throwing the guy off his back into the oncoming mook.  The mooks lack any grapple bonuses, but John has a +1 for his brawn, the mook flies into the face and John makes his damage test against both mooks (the GM's call) and because he's using a 'weapon' in teh form of a mook he gets a +1, even though technically his 'Texan Boxing' does not allow weapons (again, a GM's call).

Even without his punchign bonus he manages to hurt both of them. He still has the initiative and he uses it to launch a brutal attack against the downed duo. The GM rules he can only attack one of them, and he can't punch them because they are too low. John doesn't feel like describing a groundward punch, so he takes the face stomp move against the most injured solo mook.

The GM decides the mook will 'take the hit' and grab his foot and twist it. Its a poor move for a player on his last leg, but it sounds appropriate for the mooks and sort of cool. Naturally the mook does nothing and is out of teh fight with a size 13 to the face.

John turns to the other grounded mook to continue his rampage, that's when one of the two remaining mooks rushes in (the GM is holding them as free interrupts). John, wanting to get the mooks out of the way 'takes the hit' so he can power the guy out. We've seen the numbers, adn John knocks another dot off without injury. John uses his initiative to grab the mook and powerslam him into the other 'down' mook'. His attack is equal to the mooks defence but the dice are on his side for the moment. He has the mook up and in the air (no damage test this pass) and gang A, which has been 'engaged' but not really doing anything decides to interrupt by grabbing him....

John decides to 'take the hit' counting on knocking another couple of dots off the damn mooks for little pain. He'll lose the initiative because the damage wasn't done to the attackers. he could have 'counter interrupted' by tossing the guy at the gang A instead. The net effect would be to force an initiative test, and if he'd missed it they would get their attack before he could interrupt the interrupt... but thats getting to complex for this example.

With their damage bonus the mooks manage to exhaust a point, john is using brawny at this point so he takes it against his brawny... smoothly, as Traits don't get exhausted. Of course, that was a risk, he might risked damaging it, which would really hurt him.  John, meanwhile, succeeds in his slam. Its a grapple check and hes the only one with a bonus so far.

Of course, watching from teh sidelines Snakepit has now seen enough.  He lets john knock out a few more mooks for a second or two (note that 9 3 dot mooks should be doing a lot more damage, but... that's their purpose normally, to wear down the fighters for the big match).  

Now, Snakepit is pretty confident. He's seen John take some serious hits, he knows John's technique pretty good... though lacking 'style mastery' fu, he can only use his ability to negate/pick Fu's to force John's hand.

To be continued...