GRIT Combat Reference Guide Version 3.1 Format by Aaron Peori with the much appreciated help of the following Steven Scougall Alejandro Melchor Scott Schimmel Jason Heavensrun Vince Tagle Chris McNeil (Blade) First, a general FAQ: 1) Why a new guide? Isn`t the old one good enough? As far as I`m concerned the old guide (version 2) was far too confusing and unusuable to fulfil the real role of the Combat Guide in GRIT. The format and system used within it gave too much of a codified RPG feel to it. In other words, it resembled more a set of rules and guidelines than suggestions and reference material. I created version 3 to be both easier to use and informative. 2) Okay, what is the combat guide for then? The combat guide only has three really useful applications, any other use of the combat guide is either inconsequnetial or a misuse. First, the combat guide serves as a method of judging the relative strength of one charactrer compared to another. In other words it tells whether one character completely overpowers another or whether the two are closer. Second, the combat guide can be used to give a breif and informative description of the abilities, strengths and weaknesses of a character in terms of there martial prowess, thus allowing other players to convey same when writing character other than their own in fight scenes. This is NOT meant to replace the ultimate method however, and that is TALKING to the RL (or creator or consultant or whatever) of the character being used. Third, the combat guide is a place to go and find out the names of a character techniques, how they work etc. Thus it keeps you from ever having to insert something like "Tarou fires a ki-blast" when Tarou does NOT in fact have that ability (or inclination) or ever typing "". 3) How do you write fight scens in GRIT? Put simply, almost any darn way you please. As long as you manage to keep the other combatants in a thread depicted in a "realistic" fashion (and by this I mean one that keeps their abilities in mind not a real martial arts perspective) no one is likely to yell at you. Try not to end a fight scene before you`ve given the others involved -some- chance to respond as this can evoke sour feelings. In a more complex sense, important fights should be handled by consulting with the other players involved (via private e-mail) and getting their thoughts on how the combat should proceed. With this in mind try and integrate as much of their ideas as possible into your posts. Don`t try and force the combat to follow your pre-set path but go with the flow of posts, if it is ABSOLUTELY vital that a fight end in a certain way you probably need to rethink your strategy of story-telling in GRIT. Otherwise tell those involved that you need the fight to end this way or that (in private e-mail if possible) with a little bit of why. Ussually they should be willing to accomadate you once or twice (don`t push the envelope however). *Also, try to remember that your character and the villian are NOT the only ones involved in a combat. The others can and should be used in your post as well.* 4) Why did you have asterixs ("*") around that last paragraph? Oh, throughout the text below I insert random comments that are made purely from my own perspective (in other words, I`m not trying to be objective). Some are helpful, others are not so. All are just my personal opinions and clarifications on certain things and can be disregarded at your leisure. 5) Where can I find the combat guide? It`ll probably be up at the Official Homepage sooner or later. I don`t have the space to store it myself at the moment so i won`t be able to post a monthly update like I used to with my old guide until I do. Some generous (and foolhardy) soul might offer to do so for me however until I get my own account again. 6) How does this combat guide translate to the last one? It doesn`t. Don`t bother using your old guide entry to try and figure out how your guide in this one should be made. The only possible thong your old guide would be useful for is the names of your techniques (if you`ve begun to forget them). 7) Are their any rules in place about how to create a guide entry? Aside from keeping to the format listed below, no. There are no character points to build characterer from, no pre-set power limits for begining players and no balancing act done to insure everything is fair. However, it is highly suggested you don`t have a character of Rank 7 or higher as these are REALLY high end powerhouses in GRIT. While possible to pull off, we generally tend to view people who start out as omnipotent as powerplayers. All the rank 7+ characters have -grown- that powerful over time. 8) What is Rank? Rank is a measure of your character combat ability as it relates to a normal untrained human. The higher your Rank, the more powerful you are. For more on this, see below where the combat guide description begins. 9) How often should I update my guide? -I- will not be responsible for keeping track of or collecting the information on YOUR character. I will try to keep track of an update the GUIDE as new entries, updates and overall information becomes available to me but you are responsible for keeping your own entry current and correct. Only update your guide when a significant chnage in your charcter has occured to warrant it. Don`t re-write your guide every time the character creates a new variant of an old move (unless it is a significant and powerful variant). A Rank increase should only occur after a significant amount of time (months or real time at least) and effort has been placed into showing the charcer improving themsleves and their abilities. Getting that significantly more powerful should be the result (if not always the focus) of a storyline or plot in which the character is involved to a great extent. Without further ado, here is the Combat Guide itself. ---- The Combat/Reference guide is a collection of individual guide entries, each detailing those aspects of a character that are related to combat and fighting. Each individual entry should (ideally) be placed in alphabetical order for ease of location and storage and contain the minimum ampunt of information neccesary to use that character in a fight or combat scene. *A fight scene is just any scene in which the character are attacking or being attacked by other characters.* An entry is divided up into four relevant sections, each of which is further divided into several significant sub-sections. The sections are: Info, Rank & Traits, Attitude and Specials which we shall deal with in order. ----- INFO This section is a rather small and simply one. It contains the character name, screen name, their RL (or consultant/creator if an NPC) and their RLs e-mail address (possibly also including ICQ adress or Instant Messenger name if the player wishes). ----- RANK & TRAITS This section is the meat of the guide. In it, all those things which rate how powerful a character is COMPARITIVE to other character is listed here. The first thing you will see in this section is the word "Rank" followed by a colon as such. Rank: This will be followed by a number (ussually 3 to 8 but 4 to 6 is the most common spread). This number is the character Combat Ranking (or just Rank) and it is the ONLY number than appears in the guide. As such it sums up and comprises of just about EVERY possible statistic that can be compared to or equated to another character. It goes without saying, that this is a very important number. *Of course, I had to point that out.* If a person has a Rank listed as higher than another person than they are quite simply more powerful than that person. In any fair fight the battle would ussually go to the higher Ranked fighter (upsets can and do happen). However, the difference from Rank to Rank is not linear. *This means that the differences are not the result of simply adding a set number at each level, thus making a relatively simply build-up in power that would be graphed as a straight line, ie, linear.* A Rank 0 character is a completely untrained human fighter. A Rank 1 fighter is a trained human fighter, a martial artist, soldier or athelete. Each Rank thereafter is as much more powerful than the last as it`s Rank number. Thus a Rank 2 fighter is twice as powerful as a Rank 1, but a Rank 3 fighter is three times as powerful as a Rank 2 (or six times as powerful as a Rank 1). As anyone with a grade eight math should be able to figure out, this means that the difference in power between two levels grows -exponentially- the further away they are. *A rank 5 character is 120 times more powerful than a Rank 1, while a Rank 8 character is 40,320 times more powerful than a Rank 1. Making a Rank 8 about 336 times as powerful as a Rank 5.* Due to the huge nature of the difference from one Rank to another a great many character will often fit into one Rank. This means that though some are more or less powerful than others (particularly in areas of expertise) they are not so significantly more advanced enough to warrant being listed as a whole Rank apart. *Eg, while Wing is a MUCH better defensive fighter than Steve, there Rank would be about the same because Wing is not also that much better in most other areaS, blancing the two characters out in the long run.* Deciding Rank is not done with complex formula or arithemtic. Simply consult the Ranks of various other GRITers and Ranma NPCs (a table is presented below for ease of reference) and then make a judgement call on where you think you character fits. *I find the best method to use is asking yourself three questions. Which character can I kick the crud out of? Which character can kick the crud out of me? Which charaters are a toss-up on who will kick the crud oout of who?* The following list contains many (not ALL) of the Ranma characters that have appeared or play roles in GRIT. I may have missed quite a few here, but I`ll updtae it when I have more time. Also note that the relative strengths of Ranma characters has changed significantly since Volume 38 (the last voulme) of the manga. Thus using the manga as a guide is sketchy at best. I will list a mnaga list directly below this one for newbies unfamiliar with the status of a few of their favorite characters. Rank Ranma Character 0 Akari 1 Nabiki, Kasumi, Gosunkugi 2 Maybe Soun, Nodoka 3 Genma, Akane, Tsubasa, Kodachi 4 Shampoo, Kuno, Ms. Hinako 5 Mousse, Ukyou (and Ukkyo) 6 Ryuu Kumon (currently), Konatsu 7 Ryouga, Happousai, Cologne 8 Ranma, Tarou The following ratings are based in the characters as of ther most recent appearance before volume 38 of the Ranma 1/2 manga, The anime is not used here due to the inconsistent nature of its portrayl of certain characters. Rank Manga timeline Ranma Character 0 Akari, Nabiki, Kasumi, Gosunkugi 1 Nodoka, Tsubasa, 2 Maybe Soun, Akane, Kodachi 3 Kuno, Genma 4 Shampoo, Mousse, Ukyou, Ms Hinako 5 Ryouga, Ranma, Shinnosuke, Lime, Mint 6 Herb, Ryu Kumon/w Yamasenken, Tarou, Kiima 7 Cologne, Happousai 8 Saffron (voume 38 adult form) *Note: Nabiki, Kasumi and Gosunkugi have improved to Rank 1 due to their sheer ability to survive amid the intense power spewing battles that erupt in Nerima on an almost hourly basis, Akari has not had that benifit due to being absent from Nerima a good deal of the time.* The effect of a Jyusenkyo curse on your Rank varies from individual to individual and from curse to curse. Minor transformations (like male to female) have no impact on Rank. Medium rank transformations (human to tiger or human to horse) MIGHT have an impact at low levels (1 to 4) but have no appreicviable impact at high levels (5 or higher). Significant transformations (human to little pig, human to giant biomechanical monstrosity, human to dragon) would have a HUGE impact at loew levels (1 to 4) a siginificant effect at higher level (5 to 7) but less impact at unnaturealy high levels (8 or over) Thus Tarou, altought he turns into a significantly more powerful cursed form does NOT really warrant a full increase in Rank in cursed form because it is not THAT much more powerful. While Ryouga may be only Rank 5 or 6 when transformed into P-chan, after all, even in the manga P-chan took a full straight punch from LIME (arguably the physically strongest character in Ranma 1/2) and was only dazed. In any case list only the Rank for the default form (the one the charcter will be in most often for combat) and list the other forms in the Advantages or Disadvatages sections as appropriate. After Rank a brief list of important Traits follows. The first set of Traits is Attributes. Attributes are NOT RATED. There is NO set list of attributes. There is NO set guideline on how to define attributes. To put it simply, write down a few adjectives you think best descirbe your character (such as Fast or Strong). This can include ones that note a weakness or ineptitude (like Slow or Weak). These really have no impact on Rank, or Rank comparisions except as window dressing. If you think it is important for other to know that your character is faster/tougher/stronger/nimbler than the norm than show that. Some notes on using Attributes however. Only use it if you think your charcter is above (or below) the norm in that area. Remeber, a typical Rank 6 charactercan punch a hole in two foot thick concrete without an significant effort, toss around cars like projectile weapons and take a point blank shot from an uzi without being hurt. So take the Rank of your character into account when deciding what to put down. For ease of description the word Chi can be used to say "has unusal amounts of chi" as i can find no single word which means that. Also Magic/Psi should probably be used in the same way. HOWEVER, if a character has no listed Chi/Magic/Psi skills listed and no reference to them in ther Specials section then the character is considered to NOT HAVE THOSE ABILITIES. Keep this in mind. A note on Intelligence: Your Rank rating does not really take into account your smarts and brains. While they are a part of it it should be noted that intelligence does not increase significantly with Rank. A Rank 0 person on the street is about as intelligent as your average rank 6 MADM and vice versa. Thus if your character is highly intelligent compared to the norm you may wish to note Intelligent in their Attributes. The same goes for all purely mental traits. If you have multiple adjectives listed for your attributes but think that one (or two) are significantly more (or less) developed than the others don`t use simple phrases or adjusters like "very fast" or "incredibly stupid" simply list the attribute as normal with a single plus ("+") sign appended to the end of it. Do this only in circunstances where one attribute is HIGHLY variant from the others however. *Intelligent+ would signify some form of super-human intelligence or knowledge. Most GRITers would NOT qualify form Intelligence+ to be placed on their sheets with the exceptions of a few like SKJAM!, Gaeld and so on...* Please use easily understandable words when describing attributes. While anything goes (From Lucky to Graceful) words which have ambigous meanings should be avoided (like Sharp for example). The next section contains the charaters listed Skills. Like in attributes there is NO ratings for Skills, there is no LIST of skills and NO set guidelines. However, unlike Attribute you are no assumed to default to the average for you Rank. Any Skill which you do NOT list your character is considered to be UNABLE to perform. This means you should probably include Martial Arts in your list of skills right away. Skill are designated using nouns or simple groups of nouns, ie Acrobatics, Martial Arts, Magic, Elemental Magic, Defensive Fighting, Chi Powers etc. A skill is considered to include everything that -logically- would fall under it`s sway (Super chi abilities such as fireball and flight do NOT fall under Martial; Arts). If a player lists two skills such that one covers another than the player is pointing out that his/her character has showed special prefereance in developing that area. This is window-dressing again and has little impact on the overall ability of the character in that field or the larger field. However, it may become neccesary to show the charcter has significantly more or less skill in one area than another. This should be done only in circumstances where the disparity is obvious and important, not for minor variation in overall skill level (ie; Wing would qualify, but not Steve despite his being better at Ryuuenki-blasts than hand-to-hand). Simply append a plus sign ("+") to dramtically imporved skills or a minus sign ("-") to dramatically reduced skills. Remeber, if you do not list a skill, you do not have it. ------ ATTITUDE The next section is Attitude, which is broken down into your Style section and your Methods section. In thestyle section you give a name to your characters martial arts or combat style, along with a brief description (no more than five lines please) of what that styles basic abilities are. * Make up one if you can't find an RL martial art that suites your taste, or use the Generic or Unnamed Style fallback if you feel like it. Do NOT exclude the description.* Eg: Aikido - a fluid graceful style that is better at defense than offense. Uses momentum and leverage to turn an opponents attack against them, as well as incorporating a variety of pressure point attacks, throws and locks. If you practice more than one style, use the term "Mix of X Style and Y Style" than describe only those aspects of the different styles that the character uses in combat. In the Methods section give a brief (no more than five lines please) description of how the character generally handles combat and martial arts. Eg: A berzerker who likes to rush into battle and beat the snot out of opponents. Or Eg: Tries to remain on the defensive at first, gauging an opponents weaknesses until he feels ready to atatck. At this point delivers an appropriate and devestaing strike, designed to take out foes in one shot. In some cases Style and Methods may overlap excessively. Tarou, for instance has very similar methods and style. In this case make the style section a general overlay and the methods section a more specific description of that person own interpretation of the style. ----- SPECIAL These are the strange and unusual things that make up the characters unique abilities and tell what sort of "niche" they fit in GRIT fighting styles. It consists of Advantages, Disadvantages and Techniques. Advantages are those things that give the character an edge over his fellow martial artists, and may compensate for weaker stats or poor tactics. Under the Advatages section list those things which are -not- covered under one of the other sections which will give your character an edge. An advantage is something the character always has and doesn't really have to think about for it to come into play. While the ability to teleport is advantageous, it requires thought and action to utilize it. *This basically replaces Powers, but it should contain more than powers as well. Allies, useful gadgets carried on the person and so on should also be listed as an Advantage.* Note: Unlesss the charcter list spell-casting (magical), psionic or super chi powers in their advantages they are considered to be UNABLE to use them. In fact, you should probably place a "Standard martial arts abilities" in this section to cover all those default powers most people take for granted, but that a few (like Nabiki or Nodoka) have no access to. This includes the martial arts superleap (generally from 20 to 40 feet depending upon the character) an slightly accelerated healing factor (about two to five times as fast as a human depending on Rank) and the ability to sense ki/danger (commonly refered to as the character Presence Sense, soemthing which all fighters in ranma 1/2 seemed to have). The Disadvanatges section is the exact opposite of the Advantages section. It describes what keeps the character down, what limits and constrains the character in combat. Disadvantages of a psycological nature might be listed here or under Methods (your choice). Don't be too breif, describe a disadvantage as fully as you would describe an advantage. *This basically replaces weaknesses from the old Guide. However I moved it up because it became annoying scrolling through some of the characters guides through rank upon rank of techniques to get to weaknesses.* Finally a list of Techniques. In this section you should list the names of all the characters various special attacks or abilities which they are likely to perform in battle. If the move has no special name, then the term Generic Ki Blast or Teleport or something similar will do. After this should come a brief description of the technique. -ALL- technique descriptions should contain the following information. How powerful the technique is (relative to the characters normal damage/abilities when not using it;), how the technique works, what the technique looks like and how easy/hard it is to use in combat. Anything after that is just fluff and should be snipped from the description. *In other words, no backstories on how the technique was learned, who first created it and so on.* Also, don`t feel the neccesity of listing every single -possible- technqiue that character could EVER use. List only the favoried or most important ones. Make a selection of techniques that should show the range of the characters abil;ities and don`t go overboard. Listing fifty different way to toss a fireball or block incoming attacks is unneccesary. Remeber, if your character uses a technique not listed in your combat guide entry then the rest of GRIT won`t kick you aroudn for a while. Just make sure that the ability falls within the stated parameters of the character. *This means that while it is possible to believe Ranma might devise a new Hiryushotenha variant in mid-battle, it is outside of his abilities to instantly teleport acorss a distance, it would be considered powerplaying if he did that.* Please send me your combat Guide entries BEFORE you post them to the group. I`ll look over it and send you my comments, then you can post to the group. I currently do not have the ability to archive the entries you send to me (I may soon, but that is another story altogether) so I will be forced to delete entries shortly after I have reviewed them. For this reason I would ask you to maintain a copy of your entry yourself until I can put together a complete guide and post it to the group (maybe by early september). I would appreciate the help of anyone willing to offer to keep all the entires in one place so that it can be easily refered to when needed. --------------- Epsilon