Rather that hijack the thread on kendo in d20 Modern...
Vigilence, author of "Blood and Fists", the d20 Modern martial arts supplement, suggested that he might do some sort of modernized "Oriental Adventures". Having nothing else to do on my lunch break, I brainstormed the following:
Prestige classes are ideal for modeling the Last True ninja/Shaolin/Sinanju Master...the guy with powers and skills beyond even those of a 10th level Martial Arts Master.
I could certainly see a modern martial arts game revolving around different secret factions --- Tongs, yakuza, lost Cambodian temples, ninja clans, Japanese samurai families --- carrying ancient rivalries into a new century, using secret techniques passed down from generation to generation.
I think introducing that sort of conspiracy angle could help explain the existence of so many different "Hidden Masters" --- there really are ninjas who can turn invisible and kill unseen, and they have excellent reasons for keeping their existance a secret.
Maybe rival Shambala monasteries send trenchcoated wire-fu monks onto the streets of Hong Kong, where they do battle with the British master swordsmen of the Knights Templar. Maybe rogue Shaolin founded orders of Si-Fan warriors Tongs. Maybe the silent master assassins of Korea still have a grudge against certain Japanese noble families who still practice the way of the kensai...
And the Hanmei would fit in perfectly. This is the sort of thing where the players could start in a fairly realistic "Bloodsport"-style game. As they advance in level, they become more and more aware of the Hidden Masters...and they start to train with them. It turns out that Sifu was holding out on you all those years...but now that you've proven yourself worthy, you are ready for the gift and the burden of the True Path...
Oh, and you could work as much supernatural stuff in there as you wanted. Ki powers could gradually make the transition to something clearly superhuman...
...or maybe there are actual demons living underneath Chinatown...
...or maybe the lost city of Shambala is actually populated by true immortals [perhaps every century or so they round up all the 20th-level martial artists and give everyone a shot at living forever]...
...or maybe those are just legends that sensei recounts when he's feeling his sake. They can't really be true. And yet...I've seen sensei levitate, and that can't really be true, either...
It would be good to develop a few locations to go along with this --- maybe the Chinatown of San Francisco or NYC, for starters. Each faction has its local representation.
I've always thought that a good setup would be to make the PCs practitioners of different styles [as diverse as possible --- both the ex-con streetfighter and the Tibetan refugee] who all rent studio space together. ["It saves money, and who knows...we might learn something from each other."] If a single mentor figure helps, maybe he's a Jeet Kune Do guy who has brought these different fighters together expressly so they CAN learn from each other.
Vigilence, author of "Blood and Fists", the d20 Modern martial arts supplement, suggested that he might do some sort of modernized "Oriental Adventures". Having nothing else to do on my lunch break, I brainstormed the following:
Prestige classes are ideal for modeling the Last True ninja/Shaolin/Sinanju Master...the guy with powers and skills beyond even those of a 10th level Martial Arts Master.
I could certainly see a modern martial arts game revolving around different secret factions --- Tongs, yakuza, lost Cambodian temples, ninja clans, Japanese samurai families --- carrying ancient rivalries into a new century, using secret techniques passed down from generation to generation.
I think introducing that sort of conspiracy angle could help explain the existence of so many different "Hidden Masters" --- there really are ninjas who can turn invisible and kill unseen, and they have excellent reasons for keeping their existance a secret.
Maybe rival Shambala monasteries send trenchcoated wire-fu monks onto the streets of Hong Kong, where they do battle with the British master swordsmen of the Knights Templar. Maybe rogue Shaolin founded orders of Si-Fan warriors Tongs. Maybe the silent master assassins of Korea still have a grudge against certain Japanese noble families who still practice the way of the kensai...
And the Hanmei would fit in perfectly. This is the sort of thing where the players could start in a fairly realistic "Bloodsport"-style game. As they advance in level, they become more and more aware of the Hidden Masters...and they start to train with them. It turns out that Sifu was holding out on you all those years...but now that you've proven yourself worthy, you are ready for the gift and the burden of the True Path...
Oh, and you could work as much supernatural stuff in there as you wanted. Ki powers could gradually make the transition to something clearly superhuman...
...or maybe there are actual demons living underneath Chinatown...
...or maybe the lost city of Shambala is actually populated by true immortals [perhaps every century or so they round up all the 20th-level martial artists and give everyone a shot at living forever]...
...or maybe those are just legends that sensei recounts when he's feeling his sake. They can't really be true. And yet...I've seen sensei levitate, and that can't really be true, either...
It would be good to develop a few locations to go along with this --- maybe the Chinatown of San Francisco or NYC, for starters. Each faction has its local representation.
I've always thought that a good setup would be to make the PCs practitioners of different styles [as diverse as possible --- both the ex-con streetfighter and the Tibetan refugee] who all rent studio space together. ["It saves money, and who knows...we might learn something from each other."] If a single mentor figure helps, maybe he's a Jeet Kune Do guy who has brought these different fighters together expressly so they CAN learn from each other.
