Feng Shui Path of the empty bottle
From: eXceL111 Posted on: 8/6/2004 9:08 am
To: ALL
Message: 394.1
I am not very fond of this one as I do not find drunks heroic or villainous, just pathetic. The path itself is quite powerful though, at least if you are fast enough to get your dunken stance up before your opponent attacks you.

Anyway, as far as I can see, there is no limit to how much you can drink for the purpose of powering your fu schticks. In particular, when does one pass out from drinking?

Another somewhat related puzzle for me is how Capoiera (from Golden Comeback) works. It uses the path of the empty bottle replacing drinking requirements by dancing. Your dancing AV will limit all your martial arts AV with Capoiera. But what replaces the number of servings of alcohol which is relevant to some schticks?

From: Sensei Posted on: 8/8/2004 1:22 am
To: eXceL111
Message: 394.2
in reply to: 394.1
According to the alcohol rules under "Fights" (p. 165, Daedalus ed.), PCs suffer 1 point of Impairment for each drink within a 6 hour period. It doesn't say anything about passing out, just incremental Impairment.

You could use a house rule in which PCs make a Constitution check against the number of drinks they've had in order to keep from passing out drunk.

The rules state that 'drunken stance' PCs don't suffer any Impairment from the effects of alcohol in combat, though, so this doesn't matter... until combat ends. As soon as the sequence is over, the alcohol affects them just as it does other PCs. (Which means, if you're a nasty GM, have the fighting subside for a few minutes... it's possible that just after the drunken master PC slumps to the floor in blitzed slumber, the next round of mooks attacks... but the master's out cold! heh heh!)

As far as capoiera, you're right, that is a funky dilemma.
However, I'd say that the alcohol rules in the majority of the Empty Bottle Path don't need to be translated for their capoiera counterpart schticks. (For the schticks Drunken Fist, Wily Stupor, and Aberrant Spasm, the schtick decriptions just say you need to have drunk alcohol recently to use those schticks. The *amount* of alcohol doesn't affect the use of these three fu powers.)

It's only the first and last schticks, Drunken Stance and Spasmodic Leap, that the alcohol content of the PCs blood makes a useful difference in the power of the schtick.

So to convert those two schticks to capoiera, I'd just use the capoierista's Agility attribute for the opponent's Perception check difficulty, instead of the number of drinks consumed.

[Does that make sense?]

Edited 8/8/2004 1:38 am ET by Sensei (Sensei22)
From: Tiffany Posted on: 8/9/2004 12:16 pm
To: eXceL111
Message: 394.3
in reply to: 394.1

Have you SEEN drunken Master 2?

Drunken Style does lead to trouble of all kinds, but it quite awesome and very Feng Shui.

 


goddess
From: Queex Posted on: 8/10/2004 6:05 am
To: Tiffany
Message: 394.4
in reply to: 394.3
I've always fancied playing a Capoiera fighter from 2056 with his own Yuuzik rig (from Seeds of the New Flesh)... but I digress...

There are a few Fu schticks that seem too powerful. Even if you don't think the power is too high, they still have a 'blocking' effect in play. While the Path of the Empty bottle is a great concept, it has more than its fair share of such schticks. I've only ever seen munchkins employ Path of the Empty Bottle.

From: Bob the Dancing Monkey Posted on: 8/10/2004 9:40 am
To: Queex
Message: 394.5
in reply to: 394.4
That's odd. My least-Munchkiny player is in fact a Drunken Master - I find that if you have him have to deal with the downside of the bottle, the problem becomes far less pronounced.

Also, it allows for the occasional hard-boiled addiction plotline.

From: IronJester76 Posted on: 8/11/2004 8:40 am
To: Sensei
Message: 394.6
in reply to: 394.2
I liked the ideas in Golden Comeback for different M/arts styles but i did think that capoiera was a touch wrong. Two of my closest friends are capoiera practitioners and i've been lucky enough to see them show their stuff and talk through some moves.
While the dancing element of capoiera is very important, it's not going to stop someone from kicking you in the head if they haven't had 2 minutes to warm up with the 'Jenga', the rhythmic step from which forms begin. They play the game (kind of like good-natured sparring) at a slow pace, but watch 'Only the strong' with Marc Dacascos to see how 'street' capoiera is quick and nasty.
Although, if you're gonna let a capoiera mestre have 'empty bottle' schticks without the drinking then they are highly powered.
My solution? Make the player maintain a dance throughout the fight, or chant. Yes it's more about comedy than fairness in the rules, and doesn't really reflect the deadly character when the player is shuffling about in your dining room, but it will be a laugh for you!
From: Sensei Posted on: 8/11/2004 5:09 pm
To: IronJester76
Message: 394.7
in reply to: 394.6
Actually, ever since I read this thread, I've decided to just scrap the capoiera style as it's written in the book (as in, not base it off Drunken style). I'll just devise my own Path and fu schticks for it.

Although no one in my party plays a capoiera dude anyway.

From: Queex Posted on: 8/12/2004 6:21 am
To: Sensei
Message: 394.8
in reply to: 394.7
The power of the Drunken Master tends to hinge on the tone of the campaign. If it's mostly combat, then the Drunken Master is overpowered (because he can be soused permanently). If there's a great deal of talking, persuasion and infiltration then he's underpowered (because he's likely to be empty when the fight goes down). None of the other combat-based characters fluctuate this way.

I guess it comes down to needing a revision of the fu paths... or at least the way some of the schticks work.