Unarmed Combat Maneuvers

The World of Darkness games include a number of combat options. In general, TowersMUX uses the following guidelines for unarmed combat:

• “General Combat Maneuvers” — specifically, Bite, Claw, Disarm, Flank/Rear Attack, Grapple/Hold, Kick, Strike/Punch, Sweep, and Tackle — are available to characters from all spheres.
• Most other combat maneuvers — in particular those listed under “Dirty Fighting” in Werewolf and Mage, some of which appear in the base list for Changeling — are not currently supported.
• The “Martial Arts” Merit allows characters to select from a subset of the “Martial Arts Maneuvers” found in the M20 Core Rulebook, pp.424-426. The selectable maneuvers are:
  • Counter Throw
  • Deflecting Block
  • Dragon Tail Sweep
  • Flying Kick — please note that the difficulty of the Flying Kick maneuver has been raised to 8.
  • Snake Step — please note that the difficulty of Snake Step is always 6, regardless of style.
  • Throw
  • Vital Strike
  • Withering Strike
• Other Martial Arts Maneuvers are not currently supported.
• Since we do not use the “Martial Arts” ability, substitute “Brawl” for “Martial Arts” in the listed dice pools for these maneuvers.

The maneuvers listed have been selected specifically because they provide alternative capabilities for characters in combat — either things that can’t be done with the standard combat maneuvers, or that offer (as with Flying Kick) a larger benefit in exchange for higher difficulty. We have intentionally omitted maneuvers that are just “kick, but better” or “punch, but better” — if what you want is for the character to consistently do more damage, the best way to do that is to raise the dice pool in question.

Please note that “Martial Arts” in this context is a game term, not an IC one; similarly, the names of maneuvers should not be taken to indicate that characters must perform them in the same manner. A character whose fighting style is more bar brawling than kung fu might take the “Flying Kick” maneuver and reflavor it as a “Haymaker” — both are high-risk, high-reward moves that are suited to their particular styles. As long as the flavor text fits the mechanics of the maneuver, it’s OK to use some imagination in fitting the move to the character.

Armed Combat Maneuvers

As with unarmed combat, TowersMUX supports some — though not all — of the armed melee combat maneuvers.

• Some of the basic maneuvers are common to both unarmed and armed combat; these include Disarm, Flank/Rear Attack, and Sweep.
• The “Fencing” Merit, similar to the “Martial Arts” Merit, allows characters to select from a subset of the “Weapon Maneuvers” found in the M20 Book of Secrets, pp.106-110. The selectable maneuvers are:
  • Bash
  • Curtain of Blood. A character must use an extra action to clear the blood from their eyes each round, but this carries only the normal multiple action penalty, not half their dice pool.
  • Great Blow
  • Jab
  • Riposte
  • Slash
• Since we do not use a specific Fencing Ability, these maneuvers use Melee instead.

As with the unarmed maneuvers, we have tried to select armed maneuvers that provide additional combat options — whether it be unusual effects or the option to trade higher difficulty for more damage — rather than being just-plain-better alternatives to standard weapon attacks. We have also tried to omit maneuvers that have complex or unfamiliar game mechanics or that are primarily useful against large numbers of NPCs.

As with Martial Arts, despite the Merit’s name, it is not restricted to characters who are expert in fighting with swords specifically. So long as the mechanics match reasonably well with the IC description, it can apply just as well to knife-fighters, quarterstaff experts, spear masters, and so on.