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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011171" data-attributes="member: 172">Martial Arts MayhemMartial 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 LookMartial 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 LookThe 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.ConclusionsBlood & 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</blockquote>

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