Beware my hamster-fu

[Dirigible]

Hi there;

One of the features of the martial arts genre(s) is that every non-mook character has a unique gimmick. (Using some popular examples, which are all I can think of off hand: ) The creepy schoolgirl in Kill Bill with her ball-and-chain. The Ghosts in the Matrix with their phasing switchblade-styles. The crazy granny in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with her chain-graply thing.

Not too long ago, I was stating up some martial artists. The Xiang Triplets are three identical acrobats with a fast-moving fighting style. They begin combat juggling daggers, which they throw at the PCs en mass, attempting to soften them up, before drawing closer and picking up their main weapon, a 30 foot silk rope with wooden weights running down its length at 1 foot intervals. Genrally, two hold the rope, keeping it in constant motion and trying to tangle and bind the weapons and limbs, while the other attacks in melee, keeping the foe off balance. They are very skilled at grappling, disarming and tripping using their fighting rope.

This looks to be a fairly combat-heavy campaign, so I'm looking for more interesting enemy-gimmicks. Though it begins in a pseudoAsian region, most of the campaign will take place in a pseudoEuropean region, so I'm looking for more Western styles of fighting, though Eastern ones are welcome too.

So, can anyone suggest some more interesting foes, weapon techniques and styles for me to write up? I'm more interested in the description of them than the rules at the moment.

Any contributions gratefully received.

 

[Driddle]

I've always liked the idea of a martial arts style developed around the use of a couple of immoveable rods (or alternately, one immoveable staff using the same concept).

 

[Piratecat]

In Dr. Midnight's Feng Shui one-shot, one of the bad guys fights with a long steel extending fork - like a regular dinner fork, only about four feet long. Dr. Midnight found an actual one of these at restoration hardware, and it made a great prop.

 

[Piratecat]

I've always liked the idea of a martial arts style developed around the use of a couple of immoveable rods (or alternately, one immoveable staff using the same concept).

I saw this in a fighter-oriented 3e book once, by a 3rd party publisher. I'm not sure which one, though.

 

[jaults]

I saw this in a fighter-oriented 3e book once, by a 3rd party publisher. I'm not sure which one, though.

That would be Masters of Arms, by Second World Simulations. Great, great book. I highly recommend it...

 

[Dirigible]

I've always liked the idea of a martial arts style developed around the use of a couple of immoveable rods (or alternately, one immoveable staff using the same concept).

Hmm... I could see this working with some Scorpion-esque (from Mortal Kombat) climbing spikes and retractable cords... a pair of whips, even... or someone trained to 'grab the wind'. Actual immovable rods are a bit outre for my campaign.

In Dr. Midnight's Feng Shui one-shot, one of the bad guys fights with a long steel extending fork - like a regular dinner fork, only about four feet long...

Hmmm... retractable, spring loaded trident for long-range poking, limb-trapping and pole vaulting. That sounds workable. Perhaps he double teams with a big guy with a weighted net, for Roman gladiatorial goodness.

I should perhaps mention, the central PC dual-wields a pair of glavelots (bastard-sword sized falchions... he's like a pair of armour-piercing scissors...), which is in part what gave me the combat-gimmicky idea.

What else comes to mind...
* A knife-fighter with a pair of unsual daggers, perhaps a sword-breaker and a stiletto; one to disarm, the other to get in close and puncture an eyeball or a jugular. Kind of like the slow-blade shield fighting in Dune.

*A gang of what appear to be filthy peasents... deadly-skilled with their scythes, grain flails and sickles. Something like the Gleaners, from Book of the Righteous.

* Boomerangs with ropes on them! Throw them in an arc and they drape the ropes right around the enemy, then just pull them tight to wrap 'em up.

* A really hard barbarian who carries an oil-soaked wicker and wood shield that he sets alight before the fight (after a liberal application of asbestos war paint, thanks to the village shaman). Make shield bashes that much nicer.

* The ever-popular wrestler wearing spiked or bladed armour.