Yeah, it's all good.  I like that The Rifter #7 has more Martial Arts that I would potentially like to use.  I have personally trained in Eskrima (Silat as it's listed in the Rifter) and would like to maybe use that as an Art.
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Regarding Ninjutsu, most people know the 80's movie tropes and that it does not really exist as a modern art form (or so we are commonly told.)  I can see where in Feudal Japan being a ninja is your whole life and from that perspective it makes sense.  But I would expect true modern ninjas to evolve with the times and have more skills.  You can totally fudge it just to make things work with one of the other OCC's, but I'm a little disappointed with the design choice considering what I know to be the usual Palladium skill glut.

My original knee-jerk concept was to make a Miko, effectively a ninja witch, but I'm not sure I want to cobble it together because their isn't a Mystical Ninja OOC.
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I've met real Muay Thai fighters in Thailand and for many that is their entire livelihood, and I get that.  But the lack of skills kind of makes a really boring one dimensional character.
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Considering the current apparent racial balance of the game, I would like to add another non-white character.  But I have yet to settle on a concept that gets the creative juices flowing.

The concepts I am currently considering:
An Intelligence Officer using the Academy Officer OOC
A "Winter Soldier" style Cyborg Soldier, not a Man-Machine
Another Worldly Martial Artist to add to the whole Street Fighter, World Warrior vibe.
Or a Wandering Free Agent

I might have a mild case of character ADD.   :3

The book says that a martial arts power can be traded for a basic skill program. I would not be opposed to allow TWO martial arts powers to be traded for a non-basic skill program.

I like the Worldly Martial Artist since we could see another approach.

That wouldn't be a huge stretch since most Martial Arts here allow for swapping powers for "Basic Skill Programs (excluding physical)."

At the same time I kind of want to play this system/setting without fudging too much to see how it specifically works differently from other Palladium settings.  While skills are nice, the huge menu of Martial Arts is the selling point.

I'm kind of waffling on that point.

Unless I go Academy Officer to play a more skill/support role, I totally plan on having one of the "fancy" Martial Arts.

I got a post up regarding agency the players will be working for. There are a few things I'd like the players to decide upon.

• Name of the agency
• Cover industry of the agency (it makes a profit)
• Main HQ location
• Location of the other three field offices

Please also offer input and suggestions as well. I stayed away from the tier 5 and 6 options because I think they give the players too much. Basically as the GM I want the player to rely on their skills and abilities instead of having them shadowed by how much the agency provides in special gear, and weapons.

I want to see how much the martial arts powers change the dynamic of both H2H and fire arms combat.

K.I.S.S.  I approve of this approach

Most of them seem to be flat bonuses while some others are a little more mystical in nature.

Two characters are almost finished and I am going to shortly set up language groups.

On the subject of languages and Chinese dialects I am going the following route:

A character who has Language Chinese needs to also pick a dialect. When speaking in this dialect they have a +10% skill bonus.

EDIT: I went with this and is int he character creation thread.
Chinese and its various dialects: A character who has Language Chinese needs to also pick a dialect. The other Chinese dialects can be understood at -10% of the character skill level.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:52, Mon 26 Aug 2019.

Some good information for all of us.
Until Bruce Lee, trained in Wing Chun, Tai Chi Ch'uan, and Hung Ga Kung Fu, began teaching non-Chinese in martial arts, it simply was not done.  The official beginning of his martial art form, Jeet June Do did not happen until 1967, despite his hybridizing his martial arts skills over the years.  Ernie Reyes Sr, knowledgeable in Tang Su Do, Tae Kwon Do, Boxing/Pugilism, Eskrima, knife-fighting, and Kickboxing, did not co-found his West Coast Martial Arts with Tony Thompson until the late 1970's/early 1980's.  Chuck Norris won his martial arts championship in 1973, using Tang Su Do; he created Chun Kuk Do after studying Shōtōkan, Gōjū-ryū, Shitō-ryū, American Kenpo, Enshinkaikan, Kyokushin, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Arnis, Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do and Hapkido.

Do we have a team medic yet?  Or someone planning to be?

Not among the player characters (there is no Gizmoteer either).

I am making an NPC who can serves as a Medic, and vehicle guy. I did give this NPC the Military: Field Medic/Surgeon Skill Program from Rifter 25, but I tweaked it by removing the medical doctor and 1st aid skill, and added NBC warfare & Sewing. Although if someone were to take this and wanted the medical doctor skill, the skill program would cost 4 years.

Anyhow with 7 people working on characters we will probably end up with two field teams. So a 2nd a medic will be helpful.

1980's also led martial arts frauds this is from the later 1980's but is the tip of the problem including tons of fraudulent activity in the martial arts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k_7l_SrcD8

Honestly, Bruce lee exaggerates this in his books. It was true to some degree in the US but there were any number of men who traveled to learn Chinese martial arts well before the 60s and 70s.

The Anglo members of The Peking Police Force were virtually all trained in "Chinese Boxing" just after the turn of the 20th century. Irishman Micky O'Neill went on to train US and Canadian servicemen in hand to hand combat techniques influenced by Chinese Boxing. The Devil's Brigade were among those taught the O'Neill Method.

Wallace M. Greene and Samuel B. Griffith learned Kung Fu techniques from Chinese American Marines in the years after WW1 and included them in the Marine Corps H2H system. This system also included Judo which despite what N&SS says is the same martial art as Jujutsu (and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu as well though that system has evolved in it's own direction for decades)

Robert Smith and Christopher Casey both learned Chinese arts in Taiwan and wrote numerous books on the subject in the 60s and 70s.

What it boils down to is if people were willing to put in the effort they could learn but it was (and still is) more popular to take the easy route.

Yeah, I think I'm trying to get an angle on Medical Skills for my concept without being an Agent or Gizmoteer.  I'm already playing kind of a super nerd in 2 other RPoL games so I have no interest in Gizmoteer.

It's sort of killing me slowly as every concept I throw against the OOC's seems to only half work with the OOC in my head.  While I want help create and maintain a diverse group of PC operatives, part of me is just like, "dude, just make your ninja and let everyone else worry about the other stuff."

.....

PM to GM inc.

<= Is playing a Ninja.

Noted.

OK so if you look at the cast we have 8 player characters.

I have closed the requesting new players flag.

As players complete their character I'll get them into the game for role play purposes.

For the actual campaign I have written it is set up so the cast can split into 2 or 3 groups to investigate things.

Are we going to be an established cadre?  Or are we new to the agency?

It depends. One character just spent 20 years in a Chinese prison so for that character I’d like to role play his recruitment.

Decisions have been made and rolling has begun.  I'll be running an Asian Merc Commando with some medical skills.

Hello! If I take the oriental study skill program, may I take some temple/philosophy skills as part of the any 3 Oriental cultural skills?

Thanks

Thank you for asking. Yeah I don't think it'll be an issue.

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BTW for all of those players who are simply being called 'Ninja #' when you come up with a name let me know in a PM.

Also just an FYI, I will be adding a pair of posts to the character creation thread. This is going to require me to re-order some of the posts.

One post will be tweaks to OCC's and will be a place holder for now.

One post will be tweaks to the Martial Arts Forms. For example Ninjitsu lists a bunch of Japanese named weapons as Weapon Proficiencies but of course Palladium in its infinite wisdom didn't bother to create a WP skill for these weapons.

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I also edited the firearms rules

• Listed the penalty for wearing a gas mask when using a rifle.
• Had to cross out the ACOG scope, since the first ACOG model, known as the TA01, was released in 1987.
• Made notes about fore grips and lasers (they are probably not common in the early 180's)
• Added the tracer round rules
• Added how I prefer paired firearms to works. BTW I'm not a big fan of paired firearms since I've actually played around at the range with dual wielding pistols and found that it to be inaccurate as hell.

Considering laser sights in the 80's were about the same size as full size flashlights, yeah, not sure I'd want something that chunky on my guns anyhow.


Agreed.