MartialArts/BestOfArchive

Best Of The Wiki: Martial Arts

[i]Note: These are the results of the first Best Of poll[/i]

The votes are in and counted... and the finalists are...

1. MartialArts/AmberHawkInFlamesStyle - By FourWillowsWeeping (19 Points)
2. MartialArts/CrimsonThicketOfBambooStyle - By Quendalon (17 points)
3. MartialArts/JadeFanStyle - By Mailanka (12 Points)
4. MartialArts/PersimmonOceanOfJoyStyle - By FourWillowsWeeping (12 points)
5. MartialArts/CrimsonTempleStyle - By Balthasar (11 Points)
6. MartialArts/TreadingOnDiamondsStyle - By FourWillowsWeeping (10 Points)
7. MartialArts/BraveDragonStyle - By Ikselam (9 points)
8. MartialArts/MonkeyStyle2 - By Mapache (9 Points)
9. MartialArts/DiamondWeaveOfDestinyStyle - By Quendalon (8 points)
10. MartialArts/FearsomeBarghestStyle By Thinker (7 points)
11. CharmRelay/Sorrow aka "Black Mourner Style" - by CharmRelay (7 points)
12. MartialArts/SpiderStyle2 - By Telgar (6 points)
13. MartialArts/HouseOfEndingsStyle - By FourWillowsWeeping (6 Points)
14. MartialArts/WolfAndRavenStyles - By Mapache(6 points)

I also included this one, bacasue it got a few votes but not many points. And it's cool:

1. MartialArts/AshenCalenderofSetesh - by haren (5 points)

The PDF

Here's the final PDF. PLease let me know if you find I have missed anything and there aren't any typos in the text.(Or mistakes like missing costs, diagrams not agreeing with text, no weapons noted, etc.)

http://www.voidstate.com/rpg/Exalted_Wiki_Martial_Arts.pdf

• Ok, a couple of the Charm Cascades are missing connecting prerequisite arrows between Charms. (In particular Fearsome Barghest, I think there were more here and there). Also, Still no mention of Style weapons for FB or Black Mourner. Great stuff though... - nikink

Comments

You can see the votes at MartialArts/BestOfOld. I took the top 15 because it gave a better spread of terrestrial, celestial & sidereal styles. - Voidstate

These are gorgeous! I'm so glad to have this. One thing that I noticed - an error I made in Persimmon Ocean of Joy. It's Sinking Topaz Essence Shape, not Seductive Nectar Strike, that should be the prerequisite Charm for the Golden Wine of Heaven Form. Also, on page 27 (Spider Style), some colums are breaking before Charm names, rather than after. - willows

Cheers Willows. I've made those changes. If anyone else notices any typos or errors please post here or email me(ferg at voidstate dot com). - Voidstate

I have to say I'm gushing today to see I got votes, much less in the pdf, which by the way Voidstate, is absolutely great. I love what you did with the look of Ashen Calander. This rocks. - haren

Can anyone suggest weapons/armour restrictions for the following styles: Black Mourner, Crimson Temple & Fearsome Barghest. And Armour restrictions for House Of Endings. Thanks. - Voidstate

When I used Crimson Temple, I used the khatar as its form weapon, but its ability to generate Essence weaponry makes this a little redundant. I suggest that the Black Mourner Style could use the staff, and Fearsome Barghest could use the dagger (It seems unwise to give it the same weapon as the Hungry Ghost Style). The House of Endings charms are deliberately written so that some permit armor (of any kind) and some do not. - willows

Actually, being as Black Mourner is Emo Fu, I would suggest wallet chains as form weapons. Anyway, I was going to print this out for my players to look through, but I remembered I'm running a Dragon Blooded game, and that would be silly. So, I think the next time we do this (ha!) there should be seperate voting for Terrestrial, Celestial and Sidereal styles each. ;P ~ Grandmasta, only half-joking

I was thinking maybe Black Mourner should have Flail (to represent the Censers bearing incense during funerals) as a Style weapon. Or maybe a WarFan to represent the fans used by the mourners... Just a thought. And I's give Fearsome Barghest Smashfists or Wargauntlets, if anything... - Nikink I cannot say thankyou enough, Voidstate... all your pdfs are so useful in my games...

Flails sound good to me. ~ G

There's an error in the flowchart for the advanced Diamond Weave Charms; Thread-Splicing Protocol is the second prerequisite for Clawing at the Weave. Also, I just fixed a mistake in Crimson Thicket of Bamboo Style... the prerequisite for Space-Stretching Gesture should be Crimson Chrysalis Technique, not Crimson Thicket of Bamboo Form. - Quendalon

Thanks for pointing those out. Iknew there's be some mistakes in there. I'll get them fixed tomorrow. - Voidstate

I'm actually kind of sorry I didn't vote for White Crane style instead. Oh well.  :)

I'ce made those changes to DWD style (the flowchart actually looks like a weave now!) and'll upload them on Monday (stupid work FTP restriction). As for White Crane, I think it's a shame it didn't make it. It's the kind of MA that a lot of characters could make use of in all different types of game. Maybe next time... :) - Voidstate

Comments moved here from the main page on 13 May 2008

[http://www.voidstate.com/temp/trees/ Here are the trees] - I'd really appreciate it if anyone could check I haven't messed up at all. - Voidstate

OnMartialArts/ThousandWoundsGearStyle, it should be "Wounds" not "Wound" (and "Razors" not "Razor") for consistency. --MF

Done it. Voidstate

Actually, you missed "Many Wounds Meditation." --MF

Actually, Voidstate is right. The charm refers to the style name, but is not limited by it. - Scrollreader

To have a Charm named "Many Wound Meditation" in a style named "Thousand Wounds Gear" is jarring to my ear, but you're the boss. --MF

Looking over the rest of the trees, they all look good at this point. I particularly like the fan thing you did in 5 Falling Butterflies. - willows

Me too, me too! It's very becoming...DeathBySurfeit

The Brave Dragon diagram has an error; Leaping Dragon Fist doesn't require Concentration-Disrupting Taunting Technique, and Courageous Self-Sacrifice Method requires Legendary Taunt. _Ikselam

Fixed! - Voidstate

I replied to your question re: the Unrelenting Automaton tree on RPGnet, but I thought I�d pitch in here as well - I corrected the prereqs, so the post-Form trees should be symmetrical now. - Argent

Landscape cover concept. I made the best I could of the landscape format and pieces of Melissa Uran's cover. Bah, landscape format... What's next, diagonal format? *grumble* Resplendence

That looks great, Resplendence, thanks. = Voidstate

Thanks. I'll tweak it a bit more and change the name if necessary. When do you need it finished? Resplendence

I'm aiming to have the pages done for the end of this week. Could you have it by then?

Hopefully. My Windows stopped working yesterday and I've been trying to save my data and maybe the hassle of a reinstall. If the world doesn't hate me I'll have it before Friday. Resplendence

I've been re-laying out the original Martial Arts this week (I'm an inveterate tinkerer), so Friday is fine. - Voidstate

OK, cover is tweaked and finished. It can be found at the same URL as above. What resolution do you want it in for the PDF? Resplendence

It looks beautiful, Voidstate, Not quite what I had in mind for its 'tree' formation... but it really does look nice. ^_^

Also, the cover looks nice. Next go around, we'll need to call it something grand... say... "Eternal Lotus Petals" or some such... or 'countless'... ^_-
Haku

Thanks - Voidstate

OK, the trees are done. Next I'll begin on the pages. Which reminds me, if anyone has any art I could use, now would be a good time to send it over, in B&W preferably. You can post a link here of email me at rpg AT voidstate DOT com. - Voidstate

Here's one picture that you can use wherever it feels appropriate. I'm sitting down this afternoon to try and do some that are specifically matched to styles. Are you putting all 25 in the new document, or only the new 10? - willows

I've got a few as well that you can use with no worries. They're old, yes... but you can use as you wish, as long as you credit them to me (edited out aka Haku) somewhere in the pdf.
Want some of this?, Your kung fu is weak, Calling on the power of the earth, super stunt pose!.
~Haku

WoW, great pics willows & Haku. As for how many I'll use, it'll depend on the page layout but I expect I'll include less pieces than there are styles. After all, people are going to have to print this out at home and I don't want to bump the page count up too much. Still, keep em coming as having a selection will help me be able to fit them into different size spaces. If possible if you're scanning them afresh, could you do it at at least 150 dpi. Ta. -- Voidstate

Whoa, I spotted an error in the text ofMartialArts/ArgentScorpionOfOppositionStyle. If you're still working on the text, please incorporate it! - willows

Urk. I have already layed out ASoO. What has changed? - Voidstate

It's a parenthetical statement added to the Decorum. It's not actually essential, just, like, the perfectionist in me talking.I believe the statement in question is, (all techniques with Essence prerequisite 4 or greater) added right after "from this point onward". - willows

Righy-oh. That's changed.

For anyone interested, I have now finished formatting anf laying out the martial arts. I just need to add art to some of them, check for orphans/widows and layout problems and put the cover in and it'll be finsihed. So far Resplendence, Phaide, Haku and Willows have all sent art over. If anyone else would like their pics included (and obviously to be credited for them), please send them to fergus AT voidstate DOT com within the next day or two. - Voidstate

Uk! There was voting? I missed it. Why does no one go way out of their way and cyber-stalk me to ensure that I find out about these things?  :-) - Quendalon

Bah. Quit wingeing. You already have three in the top ten. If you'd voted too, it would have just been mean. :p - Voidstate

Also, if you ever get a chance to fix the errors in the Crimson Thicket prerequisites, I'd be grateful. Totally my fault that they were there in the first place. I just love seeing my work presented so cleanly (thank you!), and so the errors make me grit my teeth. - Quendalon

These are the newer version. I think they should be right now (and a bit nicer to look at) - Student Techniques & MasterTechniques - Voidstate

Perfect! Thank you. - Quendalon

IT'S FINISHED! Thank you so much to everyone who wrote all these martial arts, and to those who took the time to vote. Thanks to Haku, Phaide, Willows and especially Resplendence for the art contibutions. I'm posting the link here for a day or so to give wikizens a chance to check through for errors or just to give general feedback. Then I'll post the link over on the WW forums and RPG.net.

So what you waiting for?

Voidstate

Hmm. Every time I try to download it, I get an error message from Acrobat. It might be just my shitty office comp, though; does anyone else experience this? - Argent

Nope, worked for me with Acrobat 7. : Resplendence

You need 7 because of the clickable links I think. - Voidstate

Great work! Some comments and nitpicks on the design and layout (because I'm anal that way - bear with me):

Cover: I like your changes overall, but the title is too hard too read. The knobbly field closest to the text should be of some other color, IMO. The effect looks nice though.

Thanks. I'll try the nobbly field in red tomorrow at work. It actually looked a lot clearer on my LCD monitor at work than on the one I have here at home. - Voidstate

Looks much better now. Resplendence

Illustrations: Ah, they really do make the text flow and look better. My guy-about-to-kick picture could've been masked better (never though of that, but I could've given you a transparent PSD) and the guy with two swords is blurry from low resolution. I didn't know you'd use it, or I would've dug up the sketch and rescanned it for you. I wish I had time to slap soem quick shading and tones on my other sketches. Without that or good inking they look kinda flat...

If you have a better resolution copy of the Immaculate with 2 swords that'd be great. Also, I will replace the current pics with shaded ones if you are willing to shade them. The shaded guy with the crane on his chest does stand out much better then the others. - Voidstate

Let's do that for next edition, shall we? I don't have the time now. :) Resplendence

Typography: The automatic kerning stretches some words very thin when they flow around some of the pictures. You could've tweaked them by hand or used automatic hyphenation, which in my experience help with this problem. The typefaces and formatting are all greatly improved, although the Charm titles look a bit strange, with uneven letter sizes in some places. I tcould be the font though.

WIll give that a go. As for the charm titles, it's the font. You'll notice that the mis-sizing disappears if you view it at 100% or print it. Serves me right for using free truetype fonts. I wish I could find the one that actually matches what WW use. - Voidstate

Resplendence

I know it throws off the beautiful fivefold symmetry, but White Crane is a Celestial art, not Terrestrial. - Quendalon

Noooo! My beautiful page numbers and index! - Voidstate

Diamond Weave style, Reality-Hardening Pattern: Looks like you got carried away with a search-and-replace. The word "cost" got bolded, capitalized, and followed by a colon and tab in three places in the charm text. - Q

Thanks for the catches... I knew there'd be some mistakes in there somewhere. WIll change them tomorrow. Anyone else see anything wrong?. - Voidstate

White Crane style: The last two words in the Plumage of White Jade charm text got rolled into the charm title for Feather Skims the Waters. Conversely, the 'The' in the charm title of The Faultless Heavenly Crane got rolled into the charm text at the end of Crane Awaits the Tiger. - Q

Void, when do you think that this will be all done and on your website??? DragoonDrake

Ignore me, I am stupid. DragoonDrake

Right - made all those fixes/changes. If no-one sees anything more that needs changing, I'll release the PDF later today. Also, Argent Scorpion of opposition looks a little bare, being so long without a picture. Anyone dare to take up the challenge of illustrating a martial artist with two tridents in one hand and grappling hook/seven section staff combination weapon in the other? - Voidstate

Here's the finished version - hopefully typo and error free. :D

Thanks again to everyone who helped out by contributing or voting. - Voidstate

Love your work! Thankyou so much for your efforts. - nikink

Using XP Pro SP2, Firefox 1.0.4 and Acrobat 7, just clicking on the link above gives me an error message, though I can view the PDF just fine if I save it to disk first. Perhaps a bad interaction with the Google link redirection? --MF

Can you read it in a browser if you paste the URL directly into the address bar? http://www.voidstate.com/rpg/25_Lotus_Petals_-_Exalted_Wiki_Martial_Arts_-_v1.pdf - Voidstate

Hmm. No. So it's not Google's fault. Updating to Acrobat 7.0.2 didn't help either. BTW, looks like you never fixed the error Quendalon pointed out, with "cost" being capitalized, boldfaced, and followed by a colon and a tab in three different places where it shouldn't. --MF

There's now an updated version, including a more thorough copyright disclaimer. Thanks Conrad.

==

There we go, all fixed up ~ haku who would like to have a lynch mob started up, please.

Just saw this, shows how much attention I pay! The pdf is very good I like it, well done to all involved. Eldmar