Difference between revisions of "Quilone/MMAvsXMA"

Latest revision as of 00:57, 9 June 2010

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Mortal versus Supernatural Martial Arts

This section works on the Complex integration level, but it does not require you to use mortal styles at all. It could be worked into games as an addition to Exalts alone.

MMA at the Complex level make mortal Martial Artists very versatile and powerful. In return for a lifetime of study, they gain a versatile power, which might even rival the versatility of Exalts.
Exalts are intrinsically better than mortals, and they should have advantages. But if they simply used Mortal styles, even at a cost reduction, they would hardly be as superior as they could be. Yet, if the Martial Arts ability on its own was unable to give mundane powers such as punches and kicks, then mortals would have the advantage in mundane fights. The solution which appeals the most to me is to assign to each XMA style, a set of moves based on the MMA style set. Charms require initiation into the basic style. The difference with regular MMA is twofold - first, the movements flow with Creation a great deal more because of the user's intuition into Essence flows, resulting in insight into Charms, and second, because XMA are on the whole older than any mortal style could hope to be, these styles look much more exotic and impressive than even the most secret of Mortal techniques. An Exalt who remembers the moves associated with the Snake style of Celestial Martial Arts will be re-enacting movements lost to the majority of Creation for millenia. Similar to sorcerous initiation, the moves of each XMA's 'mundane' style unlock knowledge which leads to Charm knowledge. Because of this, each XMA could in fact have a prerequisite level with the 'mundane' style, similar to how MMA moves are linked to the level of the MMA. Mastery of the style would grant access to the Form charm - from there on, the character is building on study of the supernatural elements.

I suggest that the mundane styles associated with XMA should relate in power terms with the level of the XMA. Thus, TMA have Tier 1 mundane aspects, CMA have Tier 2, and SMA, Tier 3. To reduce the experience cost of gaining levels and skills of these mundane styles, I suggest making each level cost a flat number of experience points (probably 3-4), and grant the powers of each level automatically. Form weapons would be part of this. The pre-form charms would be unlockable at the 1-4 dot ratings, the Form charm at rating 5.
For balance purposes, associated mundane styles should confer fewer specific bonuses and focus more on enabling actual attacks. Also, Charms could work off the mundane abilities - for instance, Crippling Pressure Point Strike might augment, or replace, a comparable mundane move which would require a higher difficulty roll with a lesser effect. The practitioner of the mundane style could hit the opponent's pressure points at this higher difficulty; the Exalt who knows the Charm could do so as a normal Charm-augmented attack. It's comparable to a Melee specialist learning more about the way a weapon swings to then augment it with a dice adder Charm, except that because Martial Arts are more specific, they have their own particular prerequisite mundane abilities.