Yakuza progression and powers

[Wicht]

I think the Honor powers and progressions has the support it needs - I gave some thought to the Yakuza path which is supposed to basically mirror the Honor path and here is what I got...

The Yakuza Path

Concept: The Yakuza are less concerned with things like good and evil and are more concerned with power, territory and dominance. They are greedy and often mean. Yakuza are sometimes loners but more often they find strength in numbers and gangs.

Ranks and Progression
White Belt: No ranks
Thug: 0-2
Gang boss: 0-4
Gang Lord: 0-6
Warlord: 0-8
Overlord: 0-10
Oyuban: no rank

Special Rules: Yakuza have a buffer rank below their 0 rank, called "Down on Luck," and a second buffer called "Out of Luck" A Gang Boss 0 who loses a fight becomes a Gang Boss-down on luck. Losing another fight will drop that same fighter to Gang Boss-Out of Luck and a third loss will drop them to Thug 2.

A yakuza who beats a yakuza of higher tier in a fight gains not 1 but 2 ranks. A Thug 1 who beats a Gang Boss 1 Becomes a Gang Boss 0 for instance. Yakuza who lose in such fights also drop 2 ranks from the loss.

Thugs who are out of Luck and lose another fight are killed in battle. 7th tier Yakuza who lose a single fight are knocked back down to OverLord 10.

Special Powers and Abilities
Thug: Signature Style, Dirty Trick, Gang Member
Gang Boss: Signature Location, Sneaky Trick, Gang Member
Gang Lord: Signature Location, Dirty Trick, Gang Member
Warlord: Signature Style, Poison Blade, Gang Member
Overlord: Signature Location, Poison Blade, Overlord
[bOyuban:[/b] Signature Location, Poison Blade, Cunning Defense

Explanation for powers:
Signature Style: As for Honor

Signature Location: Like the signature style, the signature location adds 1 point to a successful move. If stacked with a known signature style, the move generates 3 points. Unlike Signature styles, the location grants no immunity

Dirty Trick: A fighter may use a dirty trick once per match per dirty trick known. Doing so requires that the fighter post after their opponent. After the opponent has posted and before they generate their own move, the fighter may declare a dirty trick and force their opponent to generate a new move.

Sneaky Trick Once per match the fighter may change the location of the fight to give a little extra weight to their move. It is not entirely necessary however for the new location to match the latest generated move but it is generally how the power is used.

Poison Blade: Once per match per poison blade possessed the fighter may declare any generated move to be used with a poison blade. If the move is successful the move generates 1 extra point. Only one poisoned blade may be used per round.

Gang Member: When a Yakuza gains a new "Gang member" power they may opt to align themselves with a Yakuza of higher rank, that is of a higher tier. By doing so they may adopt one of their bosses signature locations as their own. As long as their boss and all his underlings have a winning record, the signature location works as normal. If the "gang" has a losing record, there is no effect from being a part of it and the signature location is useless. When the yakuza achieves the next rank themselves, i.e. goes from thug to gang boss, they gain the signature location permenantly. If a gang member wishes to switch gangs or join a new gang they must declare their intention to do so before the start of their next fight and revoke their knowledge of the old sig location. If they win their next fight they may join as normal and adopt a new location.

Overlord: An overlord may at the beginning of a match choose any signature location known by any of their underlings or their underlings' underlings, so on and so forth, and use it as their own signature location for the duration of the match.

Cunning Defense: All attacks against the fighter possessing Cunning Defenses do one less point if successful, i.e. a one point attack does nothing, a two point attack does 1, etc.

 

[graydoom]

Looks good, but I think the extra ranks gained for defeating other Yakuza would make inter-Yakuza strife very common. Is this intentional?
Also, Perfect Defense seems very powerful... do the other paths have abilities to balance it out? And Perfect Defense doesn't really fit the Yakuza, IMO.

 

[Darkness]

Interesting concept, RP-wise...

 

[sineater]

I think the part of having fighting amongst the ranks should stay. Since in the Yakuza they don't tolerate weakness. So hence they will fight to prove they are stronger in order to advance in the eyes of the father of the family (7th tier name).

Also I agree that the perfect defense is a little out of place. I can see it as maybe a path warrior but not a Yakuza. How about something along the oathbound concept.

 

[Jackal]

as far as the tier names: you call 6th tier High Warlord and 7th tier Overlord.

And it might be nice for new thugs to have a little space before getting killed. New players won't like getting killed off right away and want people to stick around. So maybe putting a second "Out of Luck" after the first one for a Thug. (or maybe call it something else. And if that fighter wins that fight he goes back to thug 0 just like the white belts.

 

[sineater]

For the Oathbound concept how about allowing the lower tiers to be oathbound with the 7th tier until they reach a certain tier.

EX: thugs, and gang boss are the only ones that can be oathbound in order to help them advance in rank. Once they reach gang lord they are no longer oathbound, so they can prove themselves worthy of the position. But when they are oathbound they can only fight outside the Yakuza, not within. If they fight within the ranks they loss there Oathbound with that person for good or until another comes along.

Just throwing an idea out

 

[Vanor]

as far as the tier names: you call 6th tier High Warlord and 7th tier Overlord.

And it might be nice for new thugs to have a little space before getting killed. New players won't like getting killed off right away and want people to stick around. So maybe putting a second "Out of Luck" after the first one for a Thug. (or maybe call it something else. And if that fighter wins that fight he goes back to thug 0 just like the white belts.

Personaly I both of these idea's... I think the Yakuza should get a few more buffer ranks, to make things a bit easier on them.

Over all what Witch listed out seems to work for me, I'll agree the perfict defense, does seem powerfull, but consider that a 7th tier honored fighter is throwing 2 point puches with every attack. Which basicly means the two powers cancle each other out. Even a 6th tier honored fighter is likely to throw out several 2 point puches durning a fight.... So it seems balanced to me personaly.

And I think someone in the 7th tier should have a large advantage over anyone below them.

 

[Wicht]

Okay - the above as I said was a rough draft type brainstorm so I am aware there are a few problems... here are some thoughts/fixes/etc.

Two Buffer Ranks - the First - "Down on Luck", The Second is "Out of Luck". Yakuza must advance out of this one at a time. Yakuza who fight fighters within their tier do not advance 2. Yakuza who can beat other Yakuza of a higher tier go up 2 and the loser goes down 2. Otherwise i got thinking two thugs could just start beating on each other and if they won every other fight or so they would advance way too fast. This rule is to simulate something that 47 once said and then, I think forgot - that if a thug beat up a gang boss they switched ranks (am I the only one remembers he said that to me back when I was the only gang boss). In crime the way to power is over the heads of your bosses. But Yakuza that do this too much will weaken their own selfs as the lower rank fighters will most often lose and eventually die.

As far as Perfect Defense - it is the mirror of Perfect Attack (which is also very powerful) I am not sure why it does not fit the Yakuza who are more interested IMO with staying alive and winning through cunning. It represents this cunning whereas the Honor are all about winning through sheer power, the Yakuza win by denying their opponents any advantage - viewed in this way it is fitting - but if anyone else can suggest a power of equal strength then we are open to suggestions would changing the name to cunning defense or something make it more palatable?

As far as oathbound - I didn't address it (nor is there any rule about adding others wins and losses to your record) because it seems such things could be role rather than rule oriented. Gang Bosses and war-lords are free to make any rules they want for their gangs and kick out any they don't want in - but not having followers will eventually hurt them. Those who remember Wichts rules for villains will also remember that every single villain for some strange reason followed them - I don't know why but its true. They did what they were told even though Wicht had no real in-game way to enforce his will.

But if others want there to be an in-game advantage to it then we can perhaps work on it Oh and there has to be an in-game advantage to the one recieving the oath - something I don't feel 47 really had in place - it seemed like the real winners were the ones taking the oath.

 

[sineater]

Wicht just thought I would let you know you are doing a great job with the paths so far. I'm sure i'm not the only one that thinks either. So keep up the good work. If there is anything I can help with let me know.

 

[MidKnight]

Seconded - excellent work!