Blood & Fists: Cool!

[Psion]

I got a copy of Blood & Fists the other day. It's still a ways down on my reviews queue, but I wanted to drop a line to say that from what I have seen so far, I am impressed.

For a long time, I have rued hackneyed attempts at adding special abilities by doing a sort of "end around run" around the class/level/feat system resorting to kludgy tack-on systems. Blood & Fists elegantly avoids that nonsense and uses the d20 system the way it was intended to be used, but manages to remain rather flexible in its approach.

Basically, it uses the feat system to provide basic access to martial arts styles, but uses flexible advanced classes with choices in them to manage access to more advanced abilities.

Perhaps not astonishingly (since I like the book so much), I tried a very similar approach in my D&D game, but it turned out to be too much work so I abandoned the project. It's nice to see that Mr. Rice stuck to his project and pulled it off so elegantly. Well done!

 

[Vigilance]

Wow- thanks man

Chuck

 

[zenld]

i second. just finished reading blood and fists cover to cover. good work. looking forward to using it.

the fiction was excellent. love that stuff!

 

[JPL]

I bought it the day it was released, based on Vig's comments here on the boards.

Everything I suggested, Vig had already thought of.

Very high on my list of "campaigns I'd like to run" is a globe-trotting secret martial arts tournament...a colorful group of fighters travel to exotic locales, smacking people around and having adventures.

 

[King of Old School]

Well, you just got yourself one more sale with an endorsement like that.

KoOS

 

[Voneth]

I bought it the day it was released, based on Vig's comments here on the boards.

Everything I suggested, Vig had already thought of.

Very high on my list of "campaigns I'd like to run" is a globe-trotting secret martial arts tournament...a colorful group of fighters travel to exotic locales, smacking people around and having adventures.

Yeah, wasn't that called "The Street Fighter RPG?"
LOL!

 

[Vigilance]

Actually, the inspirations for the Hanmei were Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport

But I can see Streetfighter similarities- its all about the human drama of athletic competition, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat lol.

I figured the Hanmei would give GMs a ready source of NPCs, and it could easily be a mini-campaign if you were so inclined.

Chuck

 

[JPL]

Yeah, wasn't that called "The Street Fighter RPG?"
LOL!

Something like that.

Mine wouldn't have quite so much in the way of flashy ki powers --- throwing fireballs and such.

 

[zenld]

now what good is a nasty-vicious-globe-trotting-martial-arts-tournament-sponsored-by-villians-to-recruit-new-help without a couple of fireballs?



having said that, i'm not such a big fan of fireballs myself, seeing as how they singe the beard and eyebrows. but they can be very beautiful, from some distance away, on a cloudless starry night, with your arms around a loved one...

same with lightning bolts.

but the style powers worked out pretty cool. i really like the way you balanced them against each other. 2 thumbs up!

 

[ES2]

What all kinds of feats and martial arts are in this book? Saying it's great is fine and dandy, but it doesn't give any specifics as to what is actually in this book.

Does this book simulate Street Fighter, with fireballs and super cool martial maneuvers, or is it more realistic with leanings towards real martial arts and implementing them into normal modern games?