Proposal: Advanced Martial Arts

[Trax]

Could you stipulate that the character has to be in combat before using it?  I'm just thinking of the following scenario;

A character sneaks up on an enemy, activates Defensive Boost (Let's assume they have 4D total advanced dice) and then attacks the following round.  Unless the round the power is activated is counted against the time limit, they have 2 rounds of 'CPs' to use with no real MAP incurred to activate the power.

Granted, they'd have to have at least 5D in the skill to use it somewhat reliably, and that'd be a lot of skill points used to get it that far so maybe it balances out.

[Nightshade]

It does count as multiple actions, yes, but once your skills get high enough, this penalty is fairly meaningless for the increase in abilities that you are getting.  Taking one less attack per round is no real issue if I can buff that damage of my other attacks by that big a jump.  You can up your advanced skills a lot faster than you can up your attributes and there is no chance of losing all of those CPs like if you tried to up your attributes.  If my strength was 2D it would take me 60 CPs to get it to 3D.  For the same number of CPs I could increase my advanced skill by 2D and get the same boost to my strength if it was at nothing to start with or possibly more if I already had some starting D in the skill.

[GM Craig]

Ok, I'm not happy with how martial arts is playing out. I wanted the styles to be different, and have different flavour, not just having a hodgepodge of moves that appear to cost too much to learn.

So here's what i would like to do...

Make each style of advanced martial arts have it's own die code. The moves available under a style are known to you if you know that style., but your dice in that style determine your success or failure, similar to how the various Lightsabre styles work. Different martial arts styles have difference bonuses and penalties, depending on the style.

You need 5D in Brawling: Martial Arts to learn any style. Once you learn that style, you advance that as an independent skill.

So, you might have 5D+2 in Brawling: Martial Arts, and 3D in Martial Arts: Echani or 6D in Martial Arts: Way of the Shadow.

Thoughts? Comments? Leave well enough alone?

[edited for spelling ]

[Nightshade]

"Why of the Shadow"...I really want to learn this one 

So would you treat it as another specialization or a straight up skill?

I think that what you propose makes the most sense in being both simple to administer and keep track of, while maintaining variety and flavor.

[GM Craig]

Fixed it.

Thanks for the feedback. Anyone else?

[Collan]

I like this version.

[Trax]

I like that.  Makes it much less cost prohibitive and brings it more in line with similar skills.

[Niil Spaar]

So does Niil still keep his Brawling: Martial Arts specialization?  I realize that he'll need to get to 5D first before he can take any styles.