Steve Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Lately I've been wondering how Mortal Kombat would work if it were redone as a post-apocalyptic setting, stripping out some of the more extreme fantasy aspects. I've been inspired by artwork on the web, gaming supplements like D&D's "Dark Sun" and maybe a bit of "Thundarr the Barbarian." Instead of alien races and magical realms, Shao Khan's empire is a place set on post-apocalypse Earth, peopled with mutant species of mankind, espers and the remnants of a high-technology society. "Magic" is actually a form of psionic power, some human subraces gifted with focused forms like cryokinesis and pyrokinesis. Once every twenty years, a great tournament is held at the capital, a martial arts form of "The Hunger Games." Fighters from all corners of Shao Khan's empire compete to become Grand Champion. That person is then given the right, but not the obligation, to challenge Shao Khan to become the new emperor. No one has succeeded so far, and the tenth tournament approaches, marking the end of the seemingly immortal Shao Khan's second century of rule. Characters will be built along constrained guidelines, using Speed as the control factor for other abilities (using a modified list taken from how Gestalt did it). The range of Speed will be kept small: 4 Speed: Heavy-Frame characters, built to deal out damage and take it, but lower dexterity and CV. 5 Speed: Medium-Frame character, mid-range on damage output, dexterity and CV. 6 Speed: Light-Frame characters, lighter on damage but highest in dexterity and CV Strength and damage maximums will be set by Frame Type/Speed: 4 Speed: 40 Strength/14 DC 5 Speed: 30 Strength/12 DC 6 Speed: 20 Strength/10 DC Defenses will be set to the same level as a frame's DC output (5 Speed=12 PD maximum). Characters may purchase additional defense as Nonpersistent, maxing out their total defense at 2x their DC allowed for their frame. I'm still working out specifics on Active Points, but this is what I have so far on build guidelines. Goro would be an example of a heavy-frame build, Johnny Cage a medium-frame build and Kitana a light-frame. Do my numbers look reasonable to simulate a Mortal Kombat feel for character design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 that would make a good ninja HERO campaign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueCloud2k2 Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Looks good to me. IIRC, the third MK game took place on Earth after Shao Khan invaded and started rounding people up for death camps. Might let some of that story into your background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 One thing I am seriously considering doing is toolkitting STR to half the normal chart's lifting capacity. That will probably be closer to the way things are in the video game. The other way I could approach it would be to shrink the STR caps, like this: 4 SPD: 30 STR 5 SPD: 25 STR 6 STR: 20 STR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueCloud2k2 Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I'm curious on your caps. Did you use the Rule of X from 6e? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 My original idea was to approach character building similar to how the superhuman setting Gestalt did things, tying character abilities to their SPD score. I'm revising that a little, trying to incorporate a "frame type" concept. Hulking bruiser types like Shao Khan and Goro move slower, but they inflict heavy damage when they hit. Kitana doesn't do as much damage as those two, but she is more graceful and nimble. I might lower damage and base DEF down to an 8-12 DC range, but 10-14 is probably okay. Additional DEF would be Nonpersistent, so finishing moves against a KO'd but somehow still standing foe could be done without boosting the DCs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 MORTAL KOMBAT!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat List of Mortal Kombat Characters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mortal_Kombat_characters Mortal Kombat: Legacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2539712377&feature=iv&index=1&list=PLZLTS4u9M_2rYRUMj5RoI016wS_JxRnGE&src_vid=ydfGuagKcYM&v=ydfGuagKcYM Test Your Might! FIGHT! QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2014 I've run the numbers, and stretching the increase for lifting capacity from doubling at every 5 points of STR to every 10 gives the following: 10 STR=100 kg 20 STR=200 kg 30 STR=400 kg 40 STR=800 kg If I set Goro at 40 STR, that gives him a reasonable lifting capacity. I don't recall him ever lifting anything really heavy in any of the cutscene movies. I'm still looking at my other guideline ranges, but I think Gestalt gives a pretty fair setup that I will modify a bit for each SPD category. 4 SPD Maximums 70 Active Points (14 DCs) 87 Active Points (including Advantages) 14 DEF (plus maximum of 14 non-Persistent DEF) 23 Dexterity 10 OCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) 11 DCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) 5 SPD Maximums 60 Active Points (12 DCs) 75 Active Points (including Advantages) 12 DEF (plus maximum of 12 non-Persistent DEF) 26 Dexterity 11 OCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) 12 DCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) 6 SPD Maximums 50 Active Points (10 DCs) 62 Active Points (including Advantages) 10 DEF (plus maximum of 10 non-Persistent DEF 30 Dexterity 12 OCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) 13 DCV (including levels, martial maneuvers, etc) Since CV is decoupled from Dexterity in 6th Edition, I could drop the CV numbers a bit. I am still playing with the guidelines and am interested if anyone has opinions on my first stab at balancing the different SPD categories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Interesting concept with speed and frame. But how many players do you envision? If you have several, you could all have the same speed but still have large frame lowest DEX and highest DC-perhaps highest DC manuever takes a delayed phase? Middle frame is of course the middle and the light frame has the highest DEX - perhaps lightning reflexes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Thus would probably work best with 2-3 players, so I don't envision a lot of overlap. Even if all players took a Brick with Speed 4, there should still be a fair bit of variety. Goro is certainly different from Shao Khan in construction, but I would place them both as heavy-hitting Speed 4 types. Many of the MK characters are probably in the Speed 5 category. Kitana, Jade and Mileena are what I would judge to be Speed 6 types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Steve do you have ninja hero 4th? If not I'll try to dig it up. The wild martial arts level seems to be close to what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 No worries. I have Ninja Hero for 4th and 5th Edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 They did Ninja Hero for 5th? Must have missed that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 It's available in the Hero Store, written by Mike Surbrook. Since it was written for 5th, it's selling at half price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Steve in 4th I like the concept that you can only max out in one category and the rest must stay in the recommended guidelines which I feel that you are going for. P.s. did I mention that I like your background. Reminds me of the movie for Tekken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueCloud2k2 Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Steve in 4th I like the concept that you can only max out in one category and the rest must stay in the recommended guidelines which I feel that you are going for. P.s. did I mention that I like your background. Reminds me of the movie for Tekken. Tekken had a movie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 two in fact the first came out a couple of years ago and the sequel came out last month it's on movies inDEMAND now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Since 6th Edition eliminated figured characteristics, Dexterity becomes easier to categorize. 4 SPD maxes out at 20 Dexterity 5 SPD maxes out at 25 Dexterity 6 SPD maxes out at 30 Dexterity These maximums would include any Lightning Reflexes a character might choose to take, so a 5 SPD type could have a 23 DEX and +2 Lightning Reflexes or just buy 25 DEX straight up. In regards to damage and defense, perhaps a better way to present additional Nonpersistent defenses is with Damage Reduction than Nonpersistent PD and ED. My reasoning behind using Nonpersistent is for finishing moves. This would let a character do heinous damage to a Stunned or KO'd foe without needing to boost damage levels. Applying an Advantage like Armor Piercing that only works versus a KO'd foe would allow for fatality attacks. I'm still working out the numbers in my head. With the above structure, slower characters strike less often but do more damage when they hit, and faster characters are the reverse. I could lower CVs by 1-3 points for each category, since relative CVs are what matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 two in fact the first came out a couple of years ago and the sequel came out last month it's on movies inDEMAND now Didnt know-I'll have to watch it. I enjoyed the first one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Steve with the damage reduction if you use the modifiers for combst luck should simulate what you want. (Again cool idea) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 If I require a minimum set of Limitations for Damage Reduction: Nonpersistent and Versus STUN Only, that would trim the cost down to a reasonable level. Of course, additional Limitations could be added on top of that, like "Requires a CON roll" or suchlike. With defenses set at 1x DC, allowing up to 50% could probably be allowable, but no more. Stunning becomes much rarer at 50%, so I would be more likely to top it at 25%. Armor in the range of 3-6 points of Combat Luck would probably work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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