Back when I started working on the Frontier Marshal's update, I realized I needed to work on the Way of the Rim, and if I was going to work on the Way of the Rim, I needed to work on the other Blaster styles in conjunction, so I could define some niches. And no blaster style attracts more interest from the community than
You can find them here
Combat Geometrics
I've wanted something like Gun Kata in Psi-Wars for a long time. After all, if it's "totally not Star Wars" then there's nothing stopping us from having gun-kata clerics fighting the Jedi, is there? I think that's very much the sort of thing we need if we want to make Psi-Wars more dynamic and accessible than Star Wars, because it gives us more "cool!" variety.
I originally included it as a part of Neo-Rationalism, and it remains deeply bound to that. But in this iteration, I've defined much more of the setting, including the creation of the Shinei, the elite bodyguards of the Shinjurai royal family, and they seemed the ideal place to put Combat Geometrics. But would that mean it was a pistol-only style?
As I worked on the styles, I noticed a lack of "tactical shooting," a lack of non-pistol styles. From this sprang Imperial Marksmanship, but I wondered: couldn't you apply the same lessons of Combat Geometrics to blaster rifles and unit tactics? What would it look like? Eventually, I settled on the idea of coordinated attacks and battle drills. If the "story" behind Combat Geometrics was deep, centuries long research into what wins a blaster fight, that would definitely apply to small unit tactics, and if you could make it completely reliable, then everyone involved would know what they were doing and could act in perfect synchronicity.
Thus, this version of Combat Geometrics evolved into the art of war of the Traders and the genetically-engineered Legionnaires of Xen, which suggests I might need some heavier "syntech" weaponry to arm those Legionnaires with! I also gave the style some tricks to help integrate others into their coordinated attacks, and the ability to vanish away (someone suggested it as a trick for the Shinei, but it's far more useful to someone with a sniper rifle; I won't tell if you sneak it over to Shineido, though).
Edit: "If that's supposed to be me, I specifically suggested it as a Geometricist trick... John Preston is like, the opposite of stealthy." Oh! My apologies! I must have had it confused. In any case, credit for pushing for this idea, and including it in Combat Geometrics, goes to Mavrick.
Shineido
With Combat Geometrics as the "small-scale tactics" version of the style, I was free to make the most elite pistol style possible. This draws much more obviously on Gun Kata, but I also integrated some lessons from my "Gunslinger survivability." They can now "parry" force swords with warding parries and gun fists, make viable feints (as well as resist them) and make deceptive attacks that bypass parry... but only when nearby enough to make it a fair fight with a space knight. The result is, I think, one of the most dynamic and interesting styles in the game. Certainly one of the coolest. It also makes it the definitive "anti-Space Knight" style.
As noted above, the recently invented Shinei serve as both bodyguards for the Shinjurai royal family and as the receptacle for this new form of Combat Geometrics. This allows us to create a highly specific legend about the style, and a sense of who wields it. It gives greater heft to the idea of the Shinjurai as a force in the galaxy, and makes the presence of the Shinjurai royal family a little more ominous, as you're looking past the painted face of a royal, rationalist princess to the stern gaze of her white-clad body guard behind her, certain he has two power-holstered blaster pistols ready to take you out.
The Ten-Thousand Battle Kata
The unifying "story" of both styles is this idea of centuries of research of blaster combat, and their distillation into a series of mathematical equations and mnemonics that allow the blaster fighter to perfectly understand the combat scenario in which they are in. This justified several united "concepts" across both styles (and there is a unified version of the style available in Combat Geometrics).
Combat Calculus
First, the idea of Combat Calculus. This is "just" a perk that allows Mathematics to be used as Complementary Roll to your ranged skill. The justification is that you're calculating trajectories, which is a real thing, of course; you might think of this as the highly cinematic version of Precision Aiming. I struggled with it for awhile, because while I like the idea, I hate excessive rolling, and this creates a situation where every blaster attack is also a mathematics roll for a +1. I had considered making it require an aim first, to cut down on the rolls, but the whole point of the Ten-Thousand Battle Kata is to dispense with time-consuming thinking and turn these into rapid responses, thus it should always be available.
Hmmm, perhaps I should create some alternate rules about allowing the player to gain a certain number of "free" bonuses per session to dispense with rolling. If we assume that at skill 10, you have one free "success" (+1) and the GM can force one "free" failure (-1), we can use this as a base for the rest of the skill levels. Skill 11 has a 2:1 chance of success to failure, so two +1s to one -1. Skill 12 has a 3:1 ratio, skill 13 has a 4:1, Skill 14 has a 9:1; at skill 16, you'll only fail once every 50 rolls or so. So we could say:
- If you have Mathematics 10, you can claim a free +1 once per session on your roll, but once per session, the GM can force a -1 to your skill.
- If you have Mathematics 11, you get 2 free +1s, and the GM still gets one free -1
- At Mathematics 12, you get 3 free +1s, and the GM still gets one free -1
- At Mathematics 14+, you always get a +1 to your Beam Weapon skill, except once the GM can eliminate the +1 and replace it with a -1.
- At Mathmatics 16+, you always get the +1 to your Beam Weapon skill, and the GM can no longer give you a -1.
Zen Marksmanship and Visualization
Someone asked about Zen Marksmanship. I don't think this is appropriate. A Kata-user is going to be swift, and often fighting close in. Zen Markmanship involves patiently concentrating and then it divides the range and speed penalties by a third. If you're fighting targets within 20 yards, you've just changed a -6 penalty to a -2 penalty, which is a +4, and you'll need to aim 4 or so turns to do that... which is also a +4. A Rim-Walker, who often wants to defeat a target in a single shot, and specializes at patiently aiming (and concentrating) with their weapon holstered to fire the one, single, perfect shot that takes your opponent out in a single, smooth draw-and-fire motion. That's a perfect example of Zen Marskmanship, and it's not something the Kata user will do.
The Kata-user, instead, will focus on the coming battle, thinking his way through all the Kata and finding the best fit, running the math through his head, and then launching into the battle. He focuses first and then proceeds to rapidly destroy everyone invovled. This is not Zen Markmanship. This is Visualization, which I've given the Kata-users as a Secret. Incidentally, while doing so, I created a modifier that you may find useful that imitates the design of the Cinematic skills.
Assuming a 1 minute base concentration (as Visualization has), if you want to turn it into a Cinematic skill, what you get is this:
- Reduced Time +20% (30 seconds)
- Reduced Time +40% and Hard to Use -5% (-1 15 seconds) +35%
- Reduced Time +60% and Hard to Use -10% (-2 8 seconds) + 50%
- Reduced Time +80% and Hard to Use -15% (-3 4 seconds) +65%
- Reduced Time +100% and Hard to Use -20% (-4 2 seconds) +80%
- Reduced Time +120% and Hard to Use -25% (-5 1 seconds) +95%
- Reduced Time +140% and Hard to Use -50% (-10 Instant seconds) +90%
If you add them all up and average them, which is (I believe) how Variable modifers work, you end up with +55%. This is folded into the trait as a modifier. I've not given any modifier for the fact that it does work in combat, only noted the rules found in Powers, where you use 1/3 your success margin, though I've gone with a "round-up" rather than "round-down" roll, so you don't need to succeed by 3 to get a +1!
Trademark Moves
Someone commented on the lack of trademark moves in my style. This comes, in part, because most gun styles don't have trademark moves. Or rather, most of their trademark moves look exactly the same, because what varies the most about gun combat is not your tactical options, but your situation, such as how far your target is. There are very few "Trademark moves" can think of in ranged combat when compared to melee combat, though the Mozambique Drill is definitely one (and I should totally add it to Imperial Markmanship Training).
However, based on this feedback, I gave the Battle Kata styles a mess of Trademark moves, and it's not just because I'm trend following. If there was every a style that should be predictable and overly formal, it is Combat Geometrics and Shineido. They repeat the same actions over and over again until it becomes a combat ritual. Thus, I borrowed the idea of a move that has many trademark moves from the Simple Form and integrated it into both.
The End...?
This concludes the major Gun Fu of Psi-Wars, and I think it gives us a pretty good handle on how various factions in the setting fight. That's not to say I'm done, though. I'd like to revisit Undercity Noir, which proved more popular than I expected and, as with all highly acrobatic styles, highly troublesome, so it needs to be cleaned up a bit. I also need some alien styles, such as how the giant dragon space marines will fight, and the discord has been chewing on some ideas about Keleni temple maidens inspired by the sisters of battle; they both might have some variation of One Man Army styles. So we might come back and expand the styles. But for this particular part of the project, I am done, and can move on to other things!
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