Friday, September 7, 2012

Combat Maneuvers in Volant

Klaxon came up with a whole bunch of these Maneuvers while he was extending the StarCluster Martial Arts rules into weapon-based Martial Arts. I took these special Maneuvers and rolled them into Volant. Now Volant uses a much broader skill definition than StarCluster, so I didn't import his MAs, just their Maneuvers.

Maneuvers are special attacks, perhaps with a penalty to achieve, which, when successful, produce interesting and desirable results. Each maneuver is tied to a specific weapon, and can only be used with that weapon. In Volant, characters gain one maneuver at age 18-21, one at age 22-25, one at  age 30-33, one at age 42-45, and a last maneuver at age 58-61.

Here are some examples:

Shield Maneuvers

Shield Strike
Suddenly punch with your shield, with two Small penalties to hit,  surprising the opponent and giving him a knockback.

Sword Maneuvers

Fast Strike
By using this maneuver, you will always strike just before the opponent. Roll, tell the GM you’re matching initiative, and take the penalty or bonus from the difference in initiative as required.

Maneuver Warfare
Each round assign yourself a penalty to your attack, and you can accumulate that bonus for every round you do so, spending it all in a massive Strike. If you miss at any time before releasing it, it breaks the chain.

Spear Weapon Manuevers

Hold Shift
You shift your grasp on the weapon from two hands on the end (Fullspear) to both hands spread near the middle (Shortspear). This maneuver gives 2 small penalties. Switching from Fullspear to Shortspear negates 10 points of damage reduction from armor per success. Switching from Shortspear to Fullspear doubles the weapon’s damage bonus.

Missile Maneuvers

Chance Flurry
You are able to strike many lesser openings in an opponent’s guard. Roll once for the whole attack - the first strike is at -2 TN, the second blow is at -4, and the third blow is at -6. All blows go in on the same attack, reading the same roll for each new TN.

Axe Weapon Maneuvers

Environmental Maneuver
You can use the environment to your benefit by rapidly changing your position and orientation. At the cost of two large penalties, you gain an extra round all to yourself.

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