Martial Arts Mayhem

[JoeGKushner]

Martial Arts Mayhem is the combined electronic (pdf) books put out by the Game Mechanics and published by Green Ronin. This 64 page black and white book retails for $14.95, a good price for its size.

Those who aren't going to enjoy this book are readers looking for a ton of new prestige classes as the back notes that there are zero PrCs here. In addition, those looking for great art in the vein of Blade of the Immortal or other recent Manga presentations will be disappointed as the book uses what appear to be photographs touched up with the old Charcoal Filter in Photoshop or some other image editing tool.

What then, are the strengths of the book? The book boosts martial art schools, feats, and secret techniques. Its topped off with ideas on changing rules and the feel of the game, as well as some campaign samplers to help GMs get started.

The schools are similar to the martial arts in fantasy systems where you must meet some prerequisites to earn a free ability. These abilities range from the John Woo inspired Ballistic Fist, where you master guns, to the Northern Leg School, utilizing movement to master various kick stances and overcome your enemies. Each school has three mastery levels and each mastery level provides the user with more benefits. The Southern Fist School starts of by doubling your Strength bonus to damage with an unarmed attack (number of times per day equal to level/4), and ends up with ignoring a weapon's hardness. The benefits are good and provide lots of in-game reasons to follow a certain path but at the same time, should have some more leeway for the GM to interact with the limitations. For example, how about a blank skill or feat or at least a few options like this feat or that skill at x ranks? That would allow players a greater degree ofcustomization and allow them to reach the schools in different ways.

There are over thirty feats and I'm glad to note that they've included a notice that some of these come from other sources like Blood & Fists, as well as the System Reference Document. That's a good thing as it acknowledges that there are other sources and points out places where GMs and readers can go for other ideas without hurting this book in any way. There is also a master feat list with the name of the feat, the class, (for bonus feat purposes), prerequisites, and benefit. This useful tool allows you to quickly glance at it and see what characters may need to have to reach mastery of certain feats.

The feats range from Hands Without Shadow, allowing you to make two extra attacks but taking a -5 penalty for each attack, to some old favorites like Diehard, allowing you to become stable at negative hit points and even get a partial action. Many of these feats are filler style in that they are logical extensions of previous material like Manyshot, Increased Speed, or Improved Dodge, but they help round out a character or allow a character to pursue a specialty with more options.

The secret techniques are actually feats with high requirements. See they're part of a school's library but only those who really master the school can get to them. In this, they're like the high powered feats in Malhavok's various Books of Eldrich Might series with high requirements. Let's look at Crane Fist. This requires you to have Third Degree Master of Souther Fist. That requies St 13, Dex 13, Wis 13, +9 BAB, Advanced Combat Martial Arts, Agile Riposte, Alertness, Combat Martial Arts, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Genshin Awareness, hands without Shadow and Improved Combat Martial Arts, not to mention the other degrees. In exchange, you get to make an unarmed attack as a touch attack. Not bad but definitely limited and something most people will go to for flavor for their characters as opposed to their d20 fantasy counterparts who will be looking for those super-near epic feats found in various 3rd party books. Still, if it wasn't for the harsh penalties, some of them may be too good. For example, Immortal Grip requires second degree mastery of Kobujutsu, but lets you wield larger weapons, much like Monkey Grip, but without the penalty that Monkey Grip has (-2 to hit). More powerful than a standard feat, but also much higher requirement to use.

Other tools in the book include a large selection of weapons. These range from simple weapons like the Punching Dagger, to Exotic Weapons, like the Flying Claw, a large metal claw placed at the end of a rope. Those looking for customized arrows will enjoy options like the Dragon's Tongue, an arrow with a slightly rounded point to pierce armor or the Willow Leaf, with a better critical range but a penalty to hit.

The advice ranges from ideas on Martial Arts Campaigns to pregenerated NPCs. The martial arts campaigns are good for new GMs as they include various archetypes like the kicking cop or the special operator. These little descriptions include quick background ideas, feat selections and most commonly selected feats. The campaign models start off with Apocalypse Tao, and move their way to War of the Masters. Each model includes information on the setting, where the action should be placed, Role of the Heroes, where Department-7 is, Three Key Traits, Rules, Fu level, and Opposition (sample characters). The thing I think most will appreciate is that they use pop references that are easy to recognize so that people will get the idea of the campaign model right away. Gangland for example is “The Godfather meets Enter the Dragon on today's crime-riddled streets.”

It may sound silly, but for those thinking of using d20 Modern to run fantasy based campaigns, some of the material here will help streamline those ideas right along with the expanded weapons, feats and schools.

Martial Arts Mayhem is a satisfying expansion of many ideas in the d20 system adapted to the d20 Modern system and kicked up a notch for that special Kung Fu Flavor.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Martial Arts Mayhem is a 64-page modern martial arts supplement for the d20 System, written by Rich Redman--martial artist and co-designer of the original d20 Modern Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. In addition to new feats and new martial weapons, the book expands on the d20 System's martial arts feats with two new concepts: martial arts schools and secret techniques. All together, these new rules let players and Gamemasters create martial arts master of any style, from traditional kung fu and ninjutsu to Zen archery and French savate. With these rules, you can even create boxers and flamboyant pro wrestlers! No Modern game would be complete without Martial Arts Mayhem!

 

[GameWyrd]

There aren’t that many publishers catering to the d20 modern market at all. The Game Mechanics are certainly one of them, they have the advantage of their association with Green Ronin and of their initial d20 modern experience at Wizards of the Coast. There’s also RPGObjects who publisher first to PDF, sometimes only to PDF, and don’t have the benefit of a few famous names. Nevertheless it has been RPGObjects who’ve successfully trail blazed much of the d20 modern path. It was inevitable that both companies would put out a similar product; especially given that d20 modern didn’t explore martial arts as much as it could have.

Martial Arts Mayhem is The Game Mechanics’ martial arts offering and it comes out several months after RPGObjects’ Blood and Fists. Rather than really competing and fighting over the same corner in a niche market Martial Arts Mayhem makes the right choice and works with Blood and Fists. No, Martial Arts Mayhem isn’t a second level supplement or more of the same but it does acknowledge Blood and Fists, explains where that supplement would fit into the Martial Arts Mayhem discussion and as well as taking some feats from the SRD this supplement uses some feats from Blood and Fists too. The formula works, if you’ve already got Blood and Fists then you can safely get your money worth from Martial Arts Mayhem, if you’ve never heard of Blood and Fists then it doesn’t matter and if you choose to buy Blood and Fists after reading Martial Arts Mayhem then you’re likely to be playing and buying d20 modern stuff for just a little while longer. I don’t have to mention the rival product any more in this review either. It’s worth noting that Martial Arts Mayhem makes references to other publishers too, The Other Game Company for example, and this works for me. Link as many of my purchases together into one useful mega-resource and I’d be very happy.

Early on in Martial Arts Mayhem the author comments that the term Game Balance is banded around an awful lot. I agree. I think it is used incorrectly more often than not too. Game Balance is a microcosm; it only applies to your game, your campaign world and your player character party at any given time. Got that? Game Balance is subjective. Hopefully you’re prepared, as I am, to accept that the martial art schools in this supplement just give away extra feats. It’s a reward system. If you are willing to full all the requirements for the martial art school then you’ll be able to access the perks. This is levelled too; you’ve more powerful benefits available to players who fulfil the higher requirements. There’s a whole bunch of different schools in the book and this must be one of the most important successes in Martial Arts Mayhem. This RPG supplement will bring martial arts to a wide range of different game genres. You don’t have to be playing ninja or spy games as you can even use Martial Arts Mayhem to find something suitable for your post apocalyptic game. Admittedly, the pressing desire to get a smooth but effective set of martial art rules isn’t quite fundamental in post apocalyptic games.

There are plenty of new feats in Martial Arts Mayhem. There are new feats which are open to more or less anyone who meets the requirements and then there are the Secret Techniques. It’s the mastery of the martial schools which open up the Secret Techniques to the players. However, unlike benefits, Secret Techniques aren’t just given out as a bonus for dedication and must be picked up as any other feat would be.

There’s a chapter of weapons. Then, surprisingly, there is a chapter of campaign models. Honest. No fooling. I mentioned that Martial Arts Mayhem could be used to help out in a post apocalyptic game and so it could – that’s one of the campaign models discussed in the latter pages of the book. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this to begin with. I prefer for game meal, especially over crunch, and that’s exactly what I’m getting here. On the other hand this does equate to quite a few pages of increasingly off topic information. Presumably you’ve already got a campaign idea and know what (where, why and how) you want to do with the martial arts. You just wanted this supplement for the actual high-kicking rules. Then again; maybe not, maybe you just like martial arts and different suggestions as to how to use them are a welcome surprise. I tend to read a book twice, leaving a decent gap between reads, before reviewing the product and on my second read I’d come around to the campaign models. I’m glad they’re there.

I’m not so glad the strange illustrated-over-photographs are in the book though. They’re not quite photographs but they’re not quite illustrations either and I don’t think they fit. There are products which use fully fledged photographs quite effectively in d20 modern but you don’t get that effect here. I suppose the idea is to realistically show which poses and stances are actually possible in martial arts.

This review won’t end on a low. I think Martial Arts Mayhem is good value for money. It’s US $14.95 for 64 pages and even if you’ve no care for the campaign models at all the book is still jammed full with extremely well crafted rules and additions. Inserting Martial Arts Mayhem into your d20 modern game is easy; these rules will slide seamlessly into place.

* This Martial Arts Mayhem review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Psion]

Martial Arts Mayhem

Martial Arts Mayhem is a resource adding additional new rules and character options regarding martial arts for the d20 Modern game. The game is written by Rich Redman.

Much as was the case with the Modern Player's Companion, the material in the book was originally distributed in two volumes under the authors' banner, The Game Mechanics. This version re-releases the two volumes in a single print volume.

A First Look

Martial Arts Mayhem is an 64-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $14.95.

The cover uses a metallic tone and depicts four martial artists in action poses (by James Ryman) which makes it look somewhat familiar to D20 Modern fans, without crossing the line on WotC's trade dress. A closer look really reveals that this is an instance of The Game Mechanic's computer hardware motif, with screws and fan ports making it resemble the back of a computer.

The interior art is by Mark Schmalz. The interior art actually appears to be photographs of people in various fighting stances in a somewhat splotchy looking greyscale. Overall, I find this approach to interior illustration unappealing.

A Deeper Look

The typical system used to provide characters with "special moves" typical of cinematic martial arts action flicks in the d20 system is via feats. The problem with that is for those who want detailed treatment of these sorts of abilities, the typical d20 Modern character only has a limited selection of feats, which may not live up to certain characters' expectations.

The introductory section of Martial Arts Mayhem discusses a variety of approaches that may be used to shift the balance towards unarmed (or stylish melee weapon) martial artists in a game, even giving a nod to Blood & Fists for the approach I thought was obvious: using classes. A few other "shortcut" methods you may wish to use to highlight martial arts in your game are discussed in the introduction, but of course, the bulk of this book is material that will, of its own, serve to do that to a certain extent.

The central mechanic that Martial Arts Mayhem uses to model exotic fighting styles is that of school masteries.These are very similar to "martial arts styles" in WotC's Oriental Adventures book for D&D 3e. When the character gain a number of prerequisites (primarily feats), the character automatically gains a feat-like benefit. Unlike the OA styles, all of the schools described herein come in three ranks of "degrees of mastery", each with more prerequisites (including the previous prerequisites) and a new benefits. The higher ranks also provide access to secret techniques as feats.

As some of you who have dwelled at these pages a long time may recall, I was not too enamored with the concept of the OA Martial Arts Styles. For one, you could coincidentally "walk into" styles by happening upon the right combination. Further, designing additional similar styles could permit a character potentially great benefits for a few more feats if the prerequisites overlap too much. Further, though theoretically being forced down a specific path with your feats and other character selections may earn you a little investment towards some benefit, other mechanics (like advanced and prestige classes) try to capitalize on that as well; making both available may be too generous in the eyes of some GMs, especially if not all characters will be being built along the same lines.

Fortunately, The Game Mechanics don't seem oblivious to these concerns. The first chapter has a variety of general rules for use in a martial arts oriented game. Among these are optional rules for folks like me who have particular concerns about the automatic nature of the school mechanic. Training rules allow the GM to require the character to purchase access to instructors to gain specific skills, feats, or to gain mastery, and/or the GM may require that mastery requires additional knowledge skills related to the school.

Other content in the general rules chapter includes additional grappling rules (expanding options the character may use during a grapple), losing access to feats or techniques if you lose prerequisites, altering classes to accommodate the material herein, and using shields in d20 modern. Finally, the general rules chapter has a sensible treatise on designing martial arts suites as described in this book (including feats, school masteries, prerequisites, and secret techniques.)

The second chapter includes the schools, the central edifice of the Martial Arts Mastery system. As mentioned, each school features three levels of mastery. Unlike Blood & Fists, the schools generally aren't named for real world martial arts styles. Most of them are given fanciful sounding names and have concepts that the text suggests might be appropriate for given real world styles. For example, the northern leg school is said to be appropriate for many kicking-based schools such as savate and some forms of kung fu and karate.

In addition to traditional unarmed fighting styles, the book includes schools involving bows, guns and swords. There are even two FX campaign oriented schools, Five Elements (which is for arcane spellcasters) and Third Eye (which is for psionic characters.)

The third chapter features new feats. As is typical for most books relating to martial arts, most feats here are special moves associated with certain regimens of martial arts training. A few of the feats are drawn from Blood & Fist's OGC, most notably Know the Enemy and Knowledge is Power, providing benefits against practitioners of a specific school (but using Martial Arts Mayhem's concept of a school instead of the one presented in Blood & Fists.) A few new (and replicated, as not all feats from the PsiHB appear in d20 Modern) psionic feats help support the concept of a psionic martial art school.

The secret technique feats are in a chapter of their own. As you might expect from feats with hefty prerequisites, many of them are very potent. However many of them charge an action point to use or some other cost like spells or psionic reserve points.

The fifth chapter details weapons (primarily melee, but with some thrown weapons as well) connected to certain exotic fighting styles.

The sixth chapter provides suggestions for campaigns using the rules herein, and is actually fairly sizable. This chapter is much like the section on campaign models in the d20 Modern book, providing the basics of several different campaign ideas. To accommodate these models, a number of campaign elements are laid out that you can use to help define martial arts campaigns, primarily fu level. This is basically a guide to which rules you should use (or ignore) depending on how cinematic you want the game, from "no fu" (where you use the training rules, enforces real physics as much as d20 allows, and assumes vigilantes can suffer full legal repercussions) to "crazy fu" (which churn out action points to stunts, ignore encumbrance, speeds healing, and causes vehicles to explode with ease.)

Each campaign model includes a description of the setting, roles for the PCs, department sevens involvement, key traits of the campaign, special rules, and sample NPCs made with these rules. The campaign models (with the brief description given) are:
-Apocalypse Tao: Wuxia action in a anarchic post apocalyptic world.
-Condor Team: Elite martial artist secret agents that respond to over the top threats.
-Gangland: The PCs are a few honorable warriors in a corrupt criminal underworld.
-Kumite: The crazy world of underground fighting tournaments. Nobody talks about fight club!
-War of the Masters: Characters are members of a prestigious school in the modern world, but who take the fight to rival schools whenever honor calls for it.

Conclusions

Blood & Fists remains my favorite martial arts resource for d20 Modern, especially in that I prefer the approach of using classes as a major component in the styles to "freebie feats" and prefer the more detailed modeling of real world arts.

That said, Martial Arts Mayhem's system is certainly well written and usable, and has a lot going for it that may put it on top for some potential buyers. First, it does a better job of following some existing conventions. It doesn't create a whole lot of new skills with strange rules, or create rules that don't mesh well with existing rules like the Blood & Fists block rules.

Second, for certain campaign styles, Martial Arts Mayhem seems preferable. In particular, campaigns in which you want a character's style to not be the sole definition of the character (like the Condor Team campaign cited above), the Martial Arts Mayhem rules may be preferable as it still lets you define your character as you please with the classes and lets you add the martial arts through the feat mechanism.

Overall Grade: B+

-Alan D. Kohler