Konpeito/GatewayStyle

Gateway Style is the Ledaal House Martial Art, based upon the game that all Dynastic children learn. Like the game, use of the Martial Art requires a great deal of strategy and foreplanning.

Gateway Style is unique; the Strategy charms may be invoked as Reflexive charms unless another Strategy is in effect, in which case they are invoked as Simple charms, using the Martial Artist's dice action. For this reason, Strategies should not be lightly invoked, and the Martial Artist must think ahead.

Gateway Style is not compatible with armor.

Charms

Forward-Thinking Strategist Method
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. MA: 3
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None

The first thing a Gateway player learns is to think quickly and to think ahead. This Charm lets the Martial Artist turn this outlook towards battle, seeing through his opponent's moves and sometimes reacting to them even before they happen. The character's Martial Arts rating is added to his Initiative.

Dogs of War Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward Thinking Strategist Method

In Gateway, the most numerous pieces on the board are the Dogs of War. Though individually weak, en masse they can be dangerous, and their speed allows them to respond quickly all over the board. With this Charm, the Martial Artist may double his movement rate.

War Horse Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward Thinking Strategist Method

The War Horse is a strong unit, best utilized for breaking through the enemy's lines. This charm allows the Martial Artist's attacks to bypass (Essence x 2) of the target's soak.

Wild Boar Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward-Thinking Strategist Method

The Wild Boar is one of the strongest pieces in the game, tearing into the enemy's ranks with unrivalled ferocity. This charm adds the Martial Artist's essence to the number of damage dice rolled, pre-soak.

Yeddim Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward Thinking Strategist Method

The sturdiest of Creation's beasts, the Yeddim is the ideal piece for defensive strategies. This charm adds the Martial Artist's (Ess x 2) to his bashing and lethal soak total. This counts as natural soak for the purposes of soak negating charms.

Eagle Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward Thinking Strategist Method

The fastest unit in the game, the Eagle can soar over the enemy lines and attack targets directly; likewise, he can flee from an assault with unrivalled speed. This charm allows the user a limited sort of flight at the character's full movement rate. Once per turn, this can be used as a reflexive dodge at the Martial Artist's full Dexterity + Martial Arts pool; this is a hopping defense.

Dragon Strategy
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: (Essence) turns
Type: Special
Min. MA: 4
Min. Ess: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forward Thinking Strategist Method

The fiercest piece on the board, the Dragon's power is unmatched, and he is key to almost any successful game. With this charm, the Martial Artist's unarmed attacks do lethal damage.

Gateway Form
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. MA: 5
Min. Ess: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Dogs of War, War Horse, Wild Boar, Yeddim, Eagle, Dragon Strategies

Nobody can win at Gateway by pursuing any single strategy, of course. The key to victory is flexibility, and a master of Gateway can switch strategies at the drop of a hat. So, too, can the master of the Gateway Style change his stance. Upon assuming the Gateway Form, the Martial Artist chooses one of the Strategies. Once per turn thereafter, as a reflexive action, he may choose to switch over to a different Strategy. Furthermore, the Martial Artist may invoke any of the other Strategies as normal; this is the only way the Strategies can ever coexist. The Martial Artist cannot normally benefit from more than one form-type charm at once.

Advanced Variances

Hunting Cat
Cost:
Duration:
Type:
Min. MA:
Min. Ess:
Prerequisite Charms: Gateway Form

Guardian Gate
Cost:
Duration:
Type:
Min. MA:
Min. Ess:
Prerequisite Charms: Gateway Form

Spirit Frog
Cost:
Duration:
Type:
Min. MA:
Min. Ess:
Prerequisite Charms: Hunting Cat, Guardian Gate

Comments?

What weapons or shields are allowed with this style? Also is this a Celestial or Terrestrial style? Your Dragon Strategy for the added effect of Aggravated damage is to cheap, most others that do Agg damage cost 5 or 6 motes of Essence and a Willpower for an instant duration; yours allows multiple turns of Agg damage for 3 motes of Essence. DragoonDrake

You make a good point about the Dragon Strategy. I'm terrible at balancing crunch. It should probably do lethal, upon further consideration. Since it's a Realm House MA, it's Terrestrial, since having a non-Dragon style CMA is a good way to get the Immaculate Order on your ass. Finally, no shields should be compatible with it, and I have no idea what sort of weapons make sense for this MA. I mean...Gateway boards? I dunno. -Konpeito

Why not just make it unarmed. It is nice and simple, no armor, no shields, and no weapons. DragoonDrake

First, this is an AWESOME concept for a MA. As a Terrestrial style, though, it's not cool enough on its own to have NO signature weapons. In fact, the only canon style I can think of without any is Monkey, and at the end, you get ALL weapons. I like a staff. Not a seven-section staff, just... a staff. It's a really simple, potentially very cool weapon that's completely in keeping with Ledaal's scholarly idiom. Also, if you want to think about a crowd-control weapon that can be used strategically for things, it's a pretty good one. You might also want to consider postures, like in Crimson Pentacle Blade Style, and name them after different gateway arrangements. (Like in chess, there's there different openings and troop arrangements, like the Queen's Gambit or the Sicilian Defense.) I also have this thought of something like adding a WP to the form and subtracting the WP cost from all spells cast for the scene. Or maybe just adding the Exalt's Essence to all Intelligence rolls. Maybe I'm wrong or trying to do too much with a Terrestrial style. -Tardach

You could set it up so that each strategy uses a different sig weapon. Dogs of War uses shortsword, War Horse uses lance, etc. This would make it so that even more fore-thought is required because you'll have to think ahead about what weapons you'll want to use. In order to make it plausible, you can build it so that all of the weapons are small enough that a person could easily carry them, or have a special-multi weapon kind of thing. (i.e. a staff that you can pull a blade out of one end. Once the blade is out you could attatch it to the end to make a spear. Or you could leave the blade in and unscrew the other end and a chain pops out. That sort of thing.) Basically it would be a mundane version of an Infinite Weapon. The hardcore practioners would all use real Inifintie Weapons. This is all just a thought, it may be too silly and clunky to implement, though. --Ambisinister

Ambisinister, I think you might have something going with that idea, both the sig weapons and strategies, and the mundane Infinite weapon. DragoonDrake

Regarding Dragon Strategy and agg, I was just skimming around my DB book and I noticed that Five Dragon Fist (6 charms into Five Dragon Style) does agg. It costs 6m, 1 wp, and 1 HL, and is type simple and of instant duration. If you wanted dragon strategy to do agg and maintain the non-instant duration, here's my suggestion: change the cost to 6 motes, 1 willpower and 1 hl (to match for sake of fairness). Add into the description: "The health level (or willpower if you want, I think either would work) cost much be payed for each turn the martial artist wishes to maintain the Dragon Strategy. If the martial artist fails to pay this cost, then the Strategy ends." Another option is to make it so that Dragon Strategy gives you the option of doing agg. For the duration of the strategy, the martial artist's attacks do lethal. At any point while Dragon Strategy is active, the martial artist may pay 1 health level and 1 wp to enhance a single attack to do aggravated damage. A third option (and the one I like best) is make it so that when you activate Dragon Strategy, you get one aggravated damage attack that can be used at any point during Dragon Strategy's duration. If you don't use the attack, then it hits you. I'd say this option is the most fitting with the theme you're going for here. --Ambisinister

Just another Dragon strategy idea. Keep the cost around where it's at, maybe a couple more motes and/or a WP, increase the Min. Essence to 3, and have the strike do, say, their essence in aggravated damage on top of whatever normal damage they'd normally do as a separately soaked pool, keeping with multiple turns. People with armor will most likely soak the agg, but potentially take agg ping for a number of rounds... More importantly, if comboed with charms to reduce soak, such as War Horse Strategy, or if catching people off-guard, it can be devastating, but due to circumstance and strategy, not raw power. -Tardach