Climactic Super Move: This move can only be used when a combatant has less than 10% (round up) of his Life Bar remaining, and all of his opponents must have 50% or more of their Life Bar left. It can also only be used once per combat. It does not cost FS or Super Energy, but a character with Super Energy accumulated must spend 10 (or all of it, if he has less than 10) to use this option.
The specific visual details of a Climactic Super Move can be modified each time it is used. A character may have either a Close or Ranged Climactic Super Move (chosen when the character first acquires the Skill). At Power Level 5, the character obtains the other form of Climactic Super Move (either Close or Ranged). A Close Climactic Super Move allows 2 Ranges of movement, or 3 Ranges at a cost of 1 FS.
It receives the normal bonus or penalty for attacking at Ranges 0-2. A Ranged Climactic Super Move does not allow any movement, but can be used at any Range. In either case, the attack has a –2 Accuracy penalty.
The character announces his intention to use this move before Initiative is rolled and spends an Action Point. The character is considered to be on Full Defense until the move goes off. If the character is
reduced to zero Life Bar before his turn, the move will not go off, but it does still occur even if the character suffers Hit Stun, is Knocked Down or is Stunned. The damage of a Climactic Super Move is based on a skill check. The DL is based on the percentage of Life Bar remaining in the opponent (round up).
A successful roll will immediately reduce the target’s Life Bar to zero and earns 10 Glory for the attacker.
An unsuccessful roll will do 10% of the opponent’s full Life Bar as damage (round up) and earn 5 Glory.
Debilitating Injury: This attack costs an Action Point. It is made as a normal Basic Move with a penalty to Accuracy equal to the target’s Power Level (minimum –4). If successful, the attack does no Life Bar damage. The attacker can choose one of two game effects: 1) The opponent loses all accumulated Action Points, or 2) the opponent loses the use of one non-combat Skill for the remainder of the combat. The attacker can target whatever non-combat Skill he wishes. If the opponent does not have the chosen Skill, the attack has no effect. If successful, such an injury must be carefully defined in narrative terms.
Final Blow: With this option, a combatant attempts to finish off his opponent in a single attack. The attacker spends an Action Point and rolls an attack as normal, with a –4 Accuracy. This can be a Basic Move or a Special Move. If the attack would hit against the opponent’s unmodified Defense skill, roll damage as normal. If the damage rolled would be sufficient to defeat the opponent, the defender gets no opportunity for a defensive option and is instantly defeated. If that is not the case, then no damage is done. A character can be the target of a Final Blow only once per fight. A successful Final Blow is worth 3 Glory.
Percentage of Target’s Life Bar Remaining
50% 4
60% 8
70% 12
100% 16
DL
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Flourish: In descriptive terms, a Flourish is seen in anime as a set of frames in a battle when both fighters launch a series of Basic Moves at each other rapidly, with nothing distinctive about any particular blow.
This dramatic action occurs in one of two ways.
First, if two characters have simultaneous Initiative, and the two Fighters are within Range 0-2 of one another at the beginning of the turn, a Flourish occurs. Otherwise, as an action, a character can ask an opponent to engage in a Flourish. In this latter
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case, the one extending the invitation spends an Action Point and also increases their Initiative die by one size on the following turn, whether the opponent accepts or not. If accepted, the Flourish is resolved on the same turn as the invitation. To resolve the Flourish, each fighter rolls a single unmodified d10. The combatant who rolls higher does a straight unmodified d10 of damage to his opponent and does 1 Range of Knock Back. This special form of attack cannot be defended against in any way. If the roll is a tie, the Flourish has no effect.
Freeze Frame Attack: This special attack form also represents a trope seen in anime combat scenes.
The visual effect is a “freeze frame” in which a fist, knee, or foot stays in contact with the opponent, usually while the opponent’s eyes bug out and he spews blood or teeth. This attack is made as a normal Basic Move. If it hits and does at least 4 points of damage, the attacker spends an Action Point and sacrifices 1 point of damage to generate the Freeze Frame effect. This earns the attacker 2 Glory. This attack option does not need to be declared beforehand.
Knocking an Opponent out of Combat: With a successful attack, a character may spend an Action Point to do less damage, but more Knock Back.
Each 2 points of damage sacrificed increases the Knock Back by one Range. This can knock the opponent beyond Range 5 and out of combat. This opponent may then either choose to rest (see
“Leaving Combat,” above), escape the scene entirely, or else must spend the next turn doing nothing but returning to combat (appearing at Range 5 from his former position). The attacker may effectively drive the opponent “further” away than Range 5. For each additional Range beyond 5, the opponent must spend one full turn running back to
the combat. This attack option does not need to be declared beforehand.
Property Damage: A character can spend an Action Point and use this skill in place of a normal attack. It can be used against an opponent at any range. The opponent defends as normal with either Defense or Evasion, but as thrown objects and debris can rarely hit a competent Fighter, the opponent receives a +1 to his Defense Total. Tactics cannot be used to defend against this attack. Damage is calculated as a Special Move with the Ranged Element, with Property Damage in place of the Ki Skill, and then modified by the attacker’s Strength and the defender’s Stamina. If the Property Damage attack hits, the attacker earns an Action Point.
Pulling Punches: Circumstances in a story might make a character wish to pull his punches against his opponent. Often this is the result of a friend being mind-controlled or two friends being forced to fight one another. There are two ways to pull punches.
The first is simply to spend an Action Point before damage is rolled to do 1/2 damage (round down) with an attack. However, if maximum damage is rolled, the full amount of damage rolled is inflicted instead.
The second use of pulling punches is to specifically break someone free from mind control. In this case, an Action Point is spent when a normal attack hits.
The successful attack only does one point of damage, but the full rolled damage is tallied separately. As soon as this tally reaches enough damage to “defeat” the mind-controlled character, he recovers (at least for this fight). The downside of this method is that the mind-controlled Fighter gets a +1 Accuracy on all attacks and a +1 Defense Total against all attacks when fighting any character that is using this method to free the character from mind control until a) he is knocked free of mind control, b) he defeats all the characters pulling punches, or c)
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the opponents stop pulling punches. If a character is freed from mind control in this manner, that character is also immune to mind-manipulating magic for the remainder of that combat.
Special Moves: A character can spend an Action Point to attack with a Special Move instead of a Basic Move. Each Special Move of a character can normally be used only once per combat scene.
However, all Special Moves receive an additional +2 Accuracy. If the move also has a signature call-tag that is shouted when the move is used (it is up to the Director’s discretion that a call-tag has always been a “signature”), the bonus is instead +3. In addition, the damage of all Special Moves is increased one die size.
When using a Special Move, if the attack fails to defeat an opponent, the Fighter does not receive an Action Point at the beginning of the following turn.
In subsequent turns, a character may use a specific Special Move again at a cost in Action Points equal to twice the Special Move’s level (e.g., an L3 Special Move would cost six Action Points to use a second time in the same combat).
These rules also apply to the use of Super Moves in the Dramatic Combat sub-system. Super Moves still require Super Energy to use in addition to an Action Point, and their use is still governed by the normal rules for Super Moves regarding Invincibility and Initiative.
Surprise Attack: If a character has an opportunity to attack from surprise at the beginning of a fight (Director’s discretion), he can spend an Action Point to do double damage with his first attack. It is appropriate to allow contested skill checks between Danger Sense and Stealth before giving this benefit.
Team-Up: Two (and only two) combatants can team-up for their attack. Each pays an Action Point
and the attack occurs at the lower Initiative of the two attackers. The defender can choose only a single defensive option, but the attackers each get a chance to attack against the same Defense Total. If either attacker hits, both attacks hit. On the following turn, each of the team-up partners does not get an Action Point. Furthermore, attacks cannot be combined two turns in a row. The Director can also rule that attacks cannot be combined for any reason.