Rising Forces (In Transition)

"Rising Forces" is my personal take on a "Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game 2nd Edition." I'm running a campaign called "Project: Vanguard" which is something like "Street Fighter meets G.I. Joe", and to support the G.I. Joe portion the game needed a little tweaking. I thought I would take this as an opportunity to work on the system. This document contains the rules we will be using. Where there are gaps in the rules here we will be using the rules located in the Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game 20th Anniverary Edition (referred to as "SF20" in the rest of this document). Below is an outline:

• Character Creation
• Core Mechanic

To-Dos and Open Questions

• How does Firearm damage work? Is it normal, "Aggravated", bypass Endurance/Stamina, "Half-Aggravated"? The answer to this determines a number of things.
• Once Firearm damage is worked out, determine stats for each kind of firearm.
• How about Melee weapon damage? Is it normal or something else? (leaning towards normal I think?)
• Lay out the Special Maneuvers for Firearms
• Get a solid list of Melee Weapons together and stat them up. Look at what Street Fighter does, then fill in the gaps.
• Explicitly list the Special Maneuvers that can be used for each kind of Melee Weapon. They are purchased through their styles.
• Lay out any additional necessary Special Maneuvers for Melee weapons that aren't covered by the regular Special Maneuvers (this is a lower priority overall).
• Do I need to come up with a solution for Chi/Willpower? I'd been considering changes and I feel something is needed here.
• Longer term, though not necessary to start playing, get those Styles in order, and do the thing with the maneuver pricing.

Character Creation

Character creation is reasonably simple in Rising Forces. Below we'll summarize the steps required, then we'll provide details for each step so you know just what you're doing.

• Step 1: Character Conception - Ruminate on who your character is and what they might do. This will guide your decisions in each of the following steps.
• Step 2: Determine Attributes - Distribute 24 points across your Attributes with the following limitations: Minimum rating of 1, maximum of 5. No category of Attributes (Physical, Mental, Social/Spiritual) may have more than 10 points assigned to it at this time.
• Step 3: Determine Backgrounds - Distribute 8 points to represent your character’s talents, hobbies, profession, connections and privileges. No more than 5 points may be placed in a single Background at the time of character creation. [See below for details. Note that the Backgrounds in Rising Forces are different from the ones in Street Fighter and replace this section of the Street Fighter rules completely.]
• Step 4: Choose a Style - Select a martial art style best suited to the character you are creating.
• Step 5: Determine Techniques - Distribute 8 points across your Techniques, placing no more than 3 points in any one at this time.
• Step 6: Choose Special Maneuvers - You have 7 points with which to purchase Special Maneuvers.
• Step 7: Final Details - You are assigned a pool of 32 "Free Experience" to spend, you can spend this XP to exceed earlier limits in Character creation (taking Techniques above 3, Attributes or Backgrounds above 5, etc.). You also should record your Chi and Willpower, and fill out all of your Combat Cards or Maneuver Details.

Character Conception

The world of Rising Forces is open to a wide variety of character concepts. You can play anything from a Bruce Lee that is also into street racing to a Primatologist that got doused in irradiated chimpanzee DNA and is now a monkey man that can levitate. An elite military operative who is an expert at Arctic Survival to a street urchin child that is good with yo-yos and bounces off of people's heads to escape bad guys chasing him through the crowded city. You are free to make a character matching any concept, so long as it is not objectionable to the GM. You may find your character concept coming to mind right away, or it may come together as you move through character creation and browse the options available to you. Remember that you don't need rules in character creation in order to be something unusual, but you may find that certain Special Maneuvers help relay what your character can do across into the game. Also, remember that you can create Backgrounds to suit your concept as needed. Have fun, and try to make a character everyone would be entertained to see in play. Could you imagine buying an action figure of your character? What would the card say on the back about who they are? Would you want to read a comic book about them?

Attributes

All characters in Rising Forces have nine Attributes. These Attributes are defined along two axes containing three items each. Along one axis we have Attributes relating to Physical capabilities, Mental Capabilities, and Social/Spiritual capabilities. Along the other axis we have Attributes relating to Power, Accuracy and Resistance. Here is a table of them:

• Strength: The ability to produce physical power.
• Reflexes: The ability to quickly and accurately deploy what physical power one possesses. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Dexterity", instead use Reflexes]
• Endurance: The ability to resist physical stresses. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Stamina", instead use Endurance]
• Reason: The ability to process information over time and reach reasonable conclusions. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Intelligence", instead use Reason]
• Intuition: The ability to quickly sense or notice things and bring them into current focus. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Wits" or "Perception", instead use Intuition]
• Willpower: The ability to maintain and continue on a course of action despite obstacles.
• Aura: The ability to project a large social or spiritual presence. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Charisma" or "Appearance", instead use Aura]
• Influence: The ability to sway others in their decision making or beliefs. [Where Street Fighter refers to "Manipulation", instead use Influence]
• Stability: The ability to maintain your bearing or sense of self.

During the game, when you roll dice to attempt actions, usually you will be rolling a number of dice equal to the most relevant of your Attributes plus another of your traits (perhaps your rating in a Background or Technique).

[Character Creation: Distribute 24 points across your Attributes with the following limitations: Minimum rating of 1, maximum of 5. No category of Attributes (Physical, Mental, Social/Spiritual) may have more than 10 points assigned to it at this time.]

Backgrounds

In Rising Forces players play characters involved in the martial arts world, and they're pretty good at it. Backgrounds are about the rest of the character. Do they have a talent, hobby, or profession? If so, they should have a rating in a Background representing it. Does the character have an unusual nature, connections or privileges? Use a well named Background to represent it. Backgrounds are used to take a character's concept (outside of fighting) and give it mechanical weight. In addition to naming your background, you may wish to write up a couple sentences or a paragraph to flesh out what this means for your character. For activities in game that call for action resolution outside of combat (unless otherwise specified), Backgrounds are rolled combined with the most relevant Attribute to the task. Characters with no relevant Background may still normally roll their base Attribute in the roll. Some example Backgrounds are given below, but definitely use this as an opportunity to get creative and make your own.

[Character Creation: Distribute 8 points to represent your character’s talents, hobbies, profession, connections and privileges. No more than 5 points may be placed in a single Background at the time of character creation.]

• Chef: You’re a master chef and know all about cooking, ingredients, where certain foods are from and so on. You may know some other chefs.
• Race Car Driver: You know how to race a car, other race car drivers, and a bit about automotives in general.
• Werewolf: You are a werewolf, so you can probably track by smell when you’re a wolf, are hard to kill without silver bullets and are pretty scary.
• Yo-yo: You’re an expert with a yo-yo and know all the tricks.
• YouTube Celeb: You have sponsors and fans. Sometimes they’ll do you favors. Maybe you’re good with cameras and lighting and editing your own stuff.
• Skateboarding: You can grind those rails, and do all of the flippy-spinny things!
• Elementary School Teacher: You can handle and console kids, deal with angry parents, know your way around office supplies, and probably know how to do all of this homework.
• Vampire Hunter: One thing you can’t stomach about living in Santa Carla is all the damned vampires. You know all about vampires and stakes and Transylvania and stuff.
• Astronaut: Sure, why not? You’re an astronaut that can fly a spaceship, probably can name all of the planets, and NASA doesn’t mind when you drop by to visit them at Cape Canaveral.
• Secret Agent: Maybe you work for her majesty’s secret service, or just for any country’s or organization’s intelligence operation? You know the spy game and the spy tricks, and all the big players in the international spy game.
• Street Kid: You know how to survive, who is who, and what’s going on out on the street. Maybe you snag candy bars out of the corner store and never get caught, you slippery scoundrel!
• Wall Street Fund Manager: You know how to deal with finance and are probably pretty rich yourself.
• Playboy: You travel the world and are independently wealthy. You know where the high end parties are and maybe you have a boat. Like, a yacht!
• Ninja Clan: You grew up in a ninja clan and have learned the ways of the ninja. This covers all of the stuff ninjas do and know that isn't fighting. Pretty cool!
• Survivalist: Maybe you're a nut that lives out in a cabin in the woods, or maybe you recieved some kind of elite military survival training. Live off the land! Survive!
• Dedicated Martial Artist: You are good at identifying other martial art styles and knowing the culture and lore surrounding those arts. You are familiar with the both the public and esoteric martial arts world and the important people involved. Basically, anything relating to martial arts that isn't punching someone in the face!

This Background section basically excises Abilites (Skills, Talents and Knowledges) from the game, and removes the list of Backgrounds included in the Street Fighter RPG. Instead, this is made completely free-form. Whatever a player thinks is important to define for their character, they can just write it down and give it a rank. This, combined with the core mechanic, I believe is enough for a fully functional, flavorful RPG. The main mechanical heft in this game is in the tournament combat/martial arts bits, so I thought I would have the game focus on the one core thing and not feel the need to add a bunch of crunch outside of that. We'll see if my opinion on this changes as I continue to put things together... There is still more I can flesh out here though. A GM could rule in some cases that maybe a person without a Background could not reasonably roll their applicable Attribute to attempt a thing, or they may rule that they may do so, but at Disadvantage. Because of Rising Forces' crazy inclinations, I prefer GMs at least allow Attribute-only attempts at Disadvantage over just flatly denying attempts in most cases. To be semi-formal, standard Attribute-only rolls should be possible for things akin to the original game's Skills and maybe Talents. Attribute-only rolls at Disadvantage should be possible for almost anything else. Flatly denying a roll may be appropriate for calling up obscure knowledge in areas a character has no Background in. Ultimately up to a GM call. If a GM thinks a Background isn't quite right, but may have an outside chance of helping, they could allow a character to roll 1 additional die on to a normal Attribute-only roll (A character with "Olympic Swimmer" attempting to remember something about an Olympic ice-skater for example).

Styles

While this will eventually change in Rising Forces, for now select a Martial Arts style from Street Fighter as normal. (Styles summarized in SF20 p.26, full descriptions starting in SF20 p.71)

Techniques

Every maneuver in Rising Forces is associated with a primary Technique. Techniques perform two functions in Rising Forces: They are added to Damage when determining how many dice to roll when performing a maneuver, and they may also serve as prerequisites to learning more advanced maneuvers.

[Character Creation: Which aspects of fighting are you best at? Distribute 8 points (minimum 0, maximum 3) between the Techniques]

Standard Techniques

• Punch: Includes maneuvers that involve striking with the arm, be it fists, elbows, fingers or forearms.
• Kick: Includes maneuvers that involve striking with the legs, including the foot, shin and knees.
• Athletics: Includes maneuvers that involve the whole body, from charging slams to jumps and agile movements of all varieties, as well as throwing. [Where Street Fighter refers to the "Thrown Weapons" technique, instead use Athletics]
• Block: Primarily includes maneuvers that are about blocking, absorbing or redirecting attacks.
• Grab: Includes maneuvers that involve grabs, locks, throws and body slams.
• Focus: A wild variety of maneuvers that may involve the use of mystic, super, or otherwise beyond normal human abilities.

Melee Techniques

• Axes: All axes and hatchet-like weapons
• Chains: All weapons that use chains or lengths of rope. [Where Street Fighter mentions either "Chains/Whip" or "Flail", instead use Chains]
• Clubs: All weapons that involve striking an opponent with a blunt object. [Where Street Fighter mentions either "Blunt" or "Staff", instead use Clubs]
• Knives: All weapons that strike with a short blade.
• Spears: All spears and pole-arms.
• Swords: All variety of swords.

Ranged Techniques

• Archery: Covers bows, crossbows, slings, slingshots and even blowguns
• Firearms: Covers all man portable guns. Pistols, rifles, machineguns, etc.
• Heavy Weapons: Indirect fire weapons such as mortars and artillery, as well as rocket launchers and vehicle mounted cannons.

I have some documented ideas for changing the role of Techniques eventually in Rising Forces, but for now we are basically sticking with the rules as explained in SF20 with slight modification.

Special Maneuvers

Depending on your chosen Martial Art and your Technique ratings you are eligible to purchase different Special Maneuvers. For now, the available Special Maneuvers can be found in Chapter 8 (Special Maneuvers) of SF20 (p.114). If your character will be using ranged or melee weapons, Street Fighter never properly made Special Maneuvers for use with weapons. You may find my work in progress on this front below.

[Character Creation: You have 7 points with which to purchase Special Maneuvers.]

Final Details

You are assigned a pool of 32 "Free Experience" to spend, you can spend this XP to exceed earlier limits in Character creation (taking Techniques above 3, Attributes or Backgrounds above 5, etc.). You also should record your Chi and Willpower, and fill out all of your Combat Cards or Maneuver Details.

The Core Mechanic

The core mechanic of Rising Forces is rather simple. Determine which Attribute would be most applicable to the action being attempted. Determine if the character possesses any relevent Background or Technique. Add the ratings of these two things together and roll that many d6. One of the d6 rolled is of a different color than the others. This is the Wild Die.

[For example: Imagine a player is playing Roy the Boy, a Kung Fu Yo-yo champion. He wants to impress some folks in a show of Yo-yo expertise and has the Background "Yo-yo Champion" at 3. He would take his 3 in Yo-Yo Champion and add it to his 4 in Reflexes to roll 7 dice.]

When rolling dice, normally each die that comes up as a 5 or higher scores and if one or more of your dice score, the action you are attempting succeeds. There is a bit of nuance to this however. Here it is, point by point

• On a normal task, roll a pool of d6 equal to, generally, an Attribute + Background. One of the dice rolled is the "Wild Die" and is of a different color that the others.
• On a normal roll, dice that roll 5 or 6 score.
• On a roll with Advantage, dice that roll 4, 5 or 6 score.
• On a roll with Disadvantage, only dice that roll 6 score.
• If the Wild Die rolls a 6, it scores double.
• If a roll scores 0, the task is a failure.
• If a roll scores 0 AND the Wild Die rolled a 1, the task has been fumbled.
• If a roll scores 1, it is considered a Marginal Success, which may mean it comes with a small downside, requires a minor sacrifice, and can possibly be undone by an opposing force next round.
• If a roll scores 2 or 3, it is considered a normal, full success.
• If a roll scores 4 or higher, it is considered an exceptional success, and the rules or Game Master may specify an additional benefit to the character beyond what would be normally expected.

Combat

Here it is, the core of the game! It will all be very recognizably Street Fighter, but there are decisions, clarifications and re-wordings to be done. It might take me a while to get this just right, but let's jump into it! I'll start off bullet point style and see where it goes:

• Combat in Rising Forces takes place in Turns. At the beginning of a Combat Turn, each participant will secretly select a Maneuver from their list of available Basic and Special Maneuvers. When possible, it is recommedned that players make Combat Cards for their characters, using index cards or whatever they prefer, placing the information about the maneuver on the card, so that each participant in the combat can draw the card they plan to execute and it can be fairly seen when the card is revealed during the turn.
• Maneuvers all have at least the following ratings: Priority [a.k.a. "Speed" in Street Fighter], a number indicating when a maneuver may be executed, Power [a.k.a "Damage" in Street Fighter], a number indicating how powerful the maneuver is, and Mobility [a.k.a. "Move" or "Movement" in Street Fighter], a number indicating how far a character may move in the turn they are using this Maneuver.
• Other items of note about Maneuvers: They may have a cost in Chi and/or Willpower required to execute them. They may have special effects associated with them, such as knocking an opponent down, or being a grapple that may cancel an opponent's maneuver and so on, and they may have other miscellaneous rules and conditions. These will be specified as we go.
• There are two broad classes of Maneuvers: Normal Maneuvers and Special Maneuvers. Characters gain mastery of Normal Maneuvers as they increase their rank in the techniques. Normal Maneuvers they master are executed as normal. Any character can use any Normal Maneuver if they wish, however, even if they do not have it mastered, though it costs them 1 Stamina to do so. Special Maneuvers are considered more advanced techniques and can only be executed by characters that have purchased and possess the Maneuver.
• The Priority Value of a Maneuver is normally calculated as Reflexes + Maneuver Modifier. This value can be temporarily modified by conditions in the fight, such as knock downs or the Maneuver being part of a Combo. Also, unless otherwise noted, it is assumed the Powers-based Special Maneuvers have their Priority Value calculated as Intuition + Maneuver Modifier.
• The Power Value of a Maneuver is normally calculated as equal to Strength + Technique + Maneuver Modifier. While this applies to almost every physical maneuver, Special Maneuvers using the Powers Technique by default calculate their Power Value as equal to Reason + Technique + Maneuver Modifier, unless otherwise noted.
• The Mobility Value of a Maneuver can be determined in two ways. The primary way is that the Maneuver's Mobility Value is equal to Athleticism + Maneuver Modifier. The secondary way is that some Maneuvers have a Static Mobility. If a Maneuver is listed with a Mobility Modifier such as -2, +0 or +3, it will be calculated as above. If a Maneuver is listed with a Mobility written out using letters, this indicates that it has a Static Mobility that is unmodified by the character's Athleticism, such as "None", "One", or "Three".
• Specific maneuvers, both Basic and Special, are being detailed in the Maneuver Manual, but stick to SF20 and this document for now.

Expendables

This subject is both important and one I think will have the largest departure from the original Street Fighter RPG. I may change what name I refer to this part of the rules as, but by "Expendables" I mean values that can change during the course of a game session. In the original Street Fighter RPG these were: Health, Chi, Willpower, Glory, Honor and Rank. Rather than italicize this whole section, consider everything I write here to be tentative ideas and brainstorming. I will be mixing a lot of my thoughts in with the proposed tentative rules.

Health

Health in Rising Forces works very similarly to how it works in Street Fighter. Here are some details -

• PCs, as full martial artists, start with 10 Health.
• Other non-full martial artists start with Health equal to their Endurance.
• Health can be raised up to a maximum of 20 using Experience Points.
• Characters lose Health due to injuries they sustain, be it martial arts maneuvers, guns, car crashes, falls, fire, or anything else that might cause damage to their bodies.
• Upon reaching 0 Health, a character is knocked out and is unconscious. Without intervention, a KO'd character will remain unconscious for anywhere between 1 minute and 1 hour, at the GMs discretion. If another character attempts to rouse the KO'd individual, they can brought to consciousness and even get up and move, though they will be at Disadvantage on all checks until they get some time to rest.
• A character recovers all lost Health after 1 full round of rest, or 10 minutes. If a character is interrupted in their rest, a GM may allow them to have 10% of their Health restored per minute of rest they were able to obtain.
• If a character takes more damage than they have Health to absorb, they instead absorb the damage by burning Health. Health that has been burned recovers naturally at a rate of 1 per day. So, for example, if a character has 10 Health and sustains damage that would result in them having taken 13 damage, they will have burned 3 Health, meaning that they can only return to 7 Health that day, while the 3 Burned Health recover more slowly over time. The following day they would have 8 Health, and so on until all Burned Health is recovered and they can restore back to their normal maximum of 10 Health.
• This game does not specify that any particular level of damage results in death, though a GM or possibly a player might decide it is suitable to the situation to declare that death has occurred. If a character suffers so much damage that they have burned all of their Health, if not dead, they are at least in a coma for 1 day, plus a number of days their burned Health is below zero.
• There are more fiddly particulars to note about Health and its recovery that I'll detail later.

Rank

Divisions and ranks are really only relevent to RP, but it is kinda cool to think of the fight circuit having some official standings that seem to be based on sensible criteria. Really, there should be as many Divisions as make sense for the fight types (Pro Wrestling, Boxing, Duelists, whatever). Some fight types might have different rules and win conditions. That can be fleshed out later, but here is a general scheme for gaining and losing ranks in any given division...

A Fighter starts at Rank 1. To progress to the next rank, at least 5 fights must be fought at the existing rank. Once at least 5 fights have been fought, the character's fight record over the last 5 fights is evaluated as follows:

• 2 Points granted for defeating an opponent of higher rank.
• 1 Point granted for defeating an opponent of equivalent rank.
• 0 Points granted for a loss to an opponent of equal or higher rank.
• 0 Points granted for defeating an opponent of lower rank.
• -1 Point granted if defeated by opponent of lower rank.

Evaluation:

• If the total for the character's last 5 fights at the rank is 3 or higher, the fighter may chose to advance to the next rank.
• If the total for the character's last 5 fights at the rank is 1 or 2, they remain at their existing rank.
• If the total for the character's last 5 fights at the rank is 0 or less, they drop back down to the previous rank.

The above describes the standard way of advancing and dropping ranks. If characters are somehow able to convince promoters or other fighters at a higher rank to fight them and they are able to win, they may get the opportunity to score more fights at that higher rank. If the fighter is able to get in 5 fights at ranks higher than their existing rank due to convincing fighters of higher rank or promoters to enter them into tournaments versus opponents of higher rank, and the evaluation of those 5 fights mean that "they remain at their existing rank", then they attain the rank of the lowest ranked opponent they fought in those last 5 fights that had a rank higher then their own. If evaluation of the last 5 fights mean "the fighter may choose to advance to the next rank", then the fighter advanced to a rank 1 higher than the lowest ranked opponent they fought in those 5 fights that had a rank higher than their own.

Tentative notes that are not official rules. These will be either deleted or modified and placed above.

Combat

Combat in Rising Forces comes in three different forms:

• Hand-to-Hand Combat: Combat performed while unarmed. Maneuvers in Hand-to-Hand combat typically use the Standard Techniques (Punch, Kick, Athletics, Block, Grab, Focus)
• Melee Combat: Combat performed using weapons to strike in close/melee combat. Maneuvers in Melee combat typically use a Melee Technique associated with the weapon being used (Axes, Chains, Clubs, Knives, Spears, Swords), but in rare circumstances may use other techniques as well (Punch used with Brass Knuckles, for example, or Grab used with a Garrote).
• Ranged Combat: Combat involving attacks using projectiles. Maneuvers in Ranged combat typically use the Ranged Techniques (Archery, Firearms, Heavy Weapons), but can easily involve techniques such as Athletics (for thrown items) and Focus (for ranged mystical attacks, etc.)

While these forms of combat vary slightly in how they operate, the core of how the combat system works is that characters possess a number of specific Basic and Special Maneuvers. The first step of any combat has each participant secretly selecting one of their Basic or Special Maneuvers for the turn. Before play begins, players should have their maneuvers prepared and ready for play. There are two ways this can be done, and how you wish to prepare is up to you:

• Prepare Combat Cards: Set aside an index card or other blank card for each of your Maneuvers. On each card, record a Maneuver's Priority, Power and Movement along with cost and any other relevant rules information. You will use your cards together as a deck, privately selecting the maneuver you intend to use in the upcoming turn, only revealing it when you choose to execute the maneuver.
• Prepare a Combat Chart: Instead of using cards, you may instead create a chart containing all of your Maneuvers and their details on a single sheet of paper. If you do this, during combat you will have to record your selected maneuver for the upcoming turn each turn so that you can then reveal it when you choose to execute the selected maneuver.

The point of either method is to allow for secret selection of maneuvers, but either the holding of the card, or the recorded maneuver selected from the Combat Chart keeps the participants honest.

I kinda feel now like there are 3 classes of maneuvers: Default Maneuvers - These are maneuvers provided by devices or weapons. Basic Maneuvers - These are the basic maneuvers available to anyone with a rating in a particular Technique. Special Maneuvers - These are maneuvers that can not be performed unless a character has obtained them specifically (through Character Creation or Spending XP during a campaign, etc.) Why this idea of another class of maneuvers (Default Maneuvers)? Well, it seems like anyone holding an assault rifle, for example, should be able to fire single shots or a fully automatic burst, but not every firearm one might possess is capable of firing fully automatic. The ability is conveyed by the device itself, not training in a technique or locked behind some specially trained mojo. In other words, certain weapons or devices grant access to "Default Maneuvers" associated with the weapon or device.

Hand-to-Hand

Melee Weapons

Melee combat works very similarly to Hand-to-Hand combat with the exception that weapons add an additional layer of modifiers to the maneuvers. So, while a Hand-to-Hand maneuver's Priority is calculated as Reflexes + the Maneuver's Priority Modifier, a Melee weapon will also possess a Weapon Priority Modifier to be added as well. This is the same for the Power Modifier and Movement.

• Using Melee Weapons you have no Technique rating in: Use the character's Basic Punches, modifying them by the Weapon Modifiers. A character with no rating in the Weapon's Technique can not use any Special Maneuvers with that weapon, only the Basic Punches. Additionally, if a character weilding a weapon with which they have no Technique rating in ever takes damage while wielding the weapon, the weapon is dropped. Roll 1d6-1 to determine how far the weapon is flung (a result of 0 meaning the weapon is dropped in-hex), then roll 1d6 to determine the direction the weapon is flung (choose one hex face to be 1 and count clockwise from there).
• Aside from short melee weapons (daggers, knives, brass knuckles, cestus, etc., specified in weapon description), Melee weapons are at Disadvantage when used on an aware opponent in the same hex.
• Unless a weapon is already held in hand, drawing a Melee weapon applies a -2 Priority to the maneuver performed the round the weapon is drawn.
• A character wishing to stow or swap a melee weapon may do so at -2 Priority penalty to the maneuver performed the round the stowing or swapping occurs.
• Dropping a melee weapon may be done with no Priority penalty.
• Picking up a melee weapon may be done as part of any other maneuver so long as that character is in or traverses through the hex containing the weapon during the turn. Doing so puts the character at -2 Priority on the following turn.

Notes: These are some in-progress new rules. Street Fighter contained some rules for using melee weapons in combat, but they were half-formed, incomplete.

Ranged Weapons

Things about ranged weapons

Firearms

Some rules about firearms.

• The default Movement of all Firearms is None.
• Pistols & Sub-Machineguns are at Disadvantage when used while an opponent is aware and in-hex or adjacent.
• Rifles and other long guns can not be used on an aware opponent in-hex. They roll at Disadvantage when attacking adjacent opponents.
• Any attack made on an unaware opponent is performed with Advantage.
• Unless already held in hand (the Weapon card is on the table), Firearms take 1 round to ready. A firearm can be dropped for free. To swap or stow firearms (stow a rifle and pull a pistol, for example) also takes 1 round. A firearm can be wielded as a club in melee (but if the character has no Club technique, normal limitations apply).
• Firearms have a range. Shotguns may fire up to double this range at Disadvantage. Pistols may fire up to triple this range with Disadvantage. Other long guns/rifles may fire up to quadruple this range at Disadvantage (or further, as terrain and logic permits?)
• Reloading a firearm takes 1 round.

Ranged Maneuver Brainstorming

Just a place to dump ideas for ranged maneuvers. Running reload. Point Blank Shot. Leaping Shot. Tumbling shot. Shot from Cover. Gun Kata (from Warrior's Fist). Covering Fire. Aim (normal). Snipe (very far). Double tap. Snap shot. Default Maneuvers (dependent on weapon/device): Burst. Full Auto. Double-shot. Spread Shot.

Notes

Chi

Old: Characters start play with a number of Chi as set by their Style (Styles grant a Chi + Willpower of 7, divided differently by Style). Additional Chi can be purchased at character creation by spending "Freebie Points" (1 per dot), or by spending XP during play (costs current rating in XP to raise by 1), up to a maximum of 10 Chi. Chi is a pool of points used to power certain Special Maneuvers, especially Focus maneuvers. Chi is regained at the end of a story. Chi can also be regained after a fight by rolling Honor. The successes rolled on the Honor test can be used to restore Chi or Willpower on a 1 to 1 basis.

New: Here is what I'm thinking of doing instead of Chi -

• Chi is eliminated, replaced by "Spirit"
• A character's Maximum Spirit is equal to their Powers Technique.
• A character's Spirit refreshes at a rate of 1/turn of inactivity. During this inactivity, the character chooses to refresh either 1 point of Spirit or 1 point of Stamina (not both in the same round of inactivity). In combat, this means the character performed no maneuver, has not moved any hexes, is not currently stunned, and has not been successfully targetted by a maneuver during the round.
• A character's Maximum Spirit is restored at a rate of 1/hour of inactivity.
• A character may expend any amount of Spirit per turn, so long as they have any remaining to spend.
• There is a Basic Maneuver (Recenter) that can be executed to restore 2 Spirit instead of 1.
• Spirit is generally spent to perform Special Maneuvers that have a Spirit cost to activate.
• Maximum Spirit can be reduced by burning it. For example, if a character has a Maximum Spirit of 4, but their current Spirit is completely depleted, the could still use up to 4 Spirit, but Spirit burned in this way takes an hour per point to recover, rather than the normal one per turn. In theory, a character with a Spirit of 3 could spend up to 6 Spirit in just one round, at the cost of having burned it all and needing 3 hours to recover it.

One thing I like about the easier ability to recover Spirit, compared to Chi in SF, is that it allows powers based characters to more freely use their abilities, though they have to pick tactical moments to rest and get Spirit back. It's this trade-off, they'll tend to have less Spirit than a Focus-based Street Fighter would have Chi, but it comes back more reliably, and if they burn Spirit they can have a similar amount of Spirit as Street Fighters would have Chi, it's just more of a tactical choice now. Also, it circumvents that odd part in Street Fighter where villains had more difficulty recovering Chi due to it being based on a between-fights Honor roll. Another interesting feature I think, with the burning of Spirit, is the idea of Special Maneuvers that cost more than a character can pay with their straight Spirit. It leads to the possibility of powers that can essentially only be done so many times a day, as doing them ends up burning Spirit, which has to be recovered at 1/hour before perhaps the power could be used again. You can almost think of it in terms of wizards in a fantasy RPG that only have so many spell slots or spell points, but framed instead in terms of recovery. Also, there could be feats some characters can perform with their free Spirit that others would need to burn Spirit to perform, which is a kind of neat way of seeing a level of power expressed in game. A Special Maneuver that had a cost of 4 Spirit, assuming prerequisites are met, could possibly be performed by a character with only 3 Spirit, but they'd quickly tap out their Spirit due to burning it, wheras a character with 5 Spirit can perform the Special Maneuver, rest for just a couple turns, and do it again all day long that way.

Willpower

Old: Characters start play with a number of Willpower as set by their Style (Styles grant a Chi + Willpower of 7, divided differently by Style). Additional Willpower can be purchased at character creation by spending "Freebie Points" (1 per dot), or by spending XP during play (costs current rating in XP to raise by 1), up to a maximum of 10 Willpower. Willpower is a pool of points used to power certain Special Maneuvers, but it can also be spent to gain an Automatic Success outside of combat, or to add a die to your attacking die pool in combat. Additionally, it can be spent to activate an Abort Maneuver in combat. Willpower is regained at the end of a story. Willpower can also be regained after a fight by rolling Honor. The successes rolled on the Honor test can be used to restore Chi or Willpower on a 1 to 1 basis.

New: Here is what I'm thinking of doing instead of Willpower -

• Willpower is eliminated, replaced by "Stamina"
• A character's Maximum Stamina is equal to their Endurance.
• A character's Stamina refreshes at a rate of 1/turn of inactivity. During this inactivity, the character chooses to refresh either 1 point of Spirit or 1 point of Stamina (not both in the same round of inactivity). In combat, this means the character performed no maneuver, has not moved any hexes, is not currently stunned, and has not been successfully targetted by a maneuver during the round.
• A character's Maximum Stamina is restored at a rate of 1/hour of inactivity.
• A character may only make 1 expenditure of Stamina per turn.
• Spend 1 Stamina to roll an additional die in combat. (Or, what if instead spending a Stamina gave you Advantage on the roll?)
• Spend 1 Stamina to Abort to an Abort Maneuver (aside from Aborting to "Do nothing", which is free).
• Spend 1 Stamina to perform a Basic Maneuver your character does not possess.
• Spend (x) Stamina to execute Special Maneuvers that have a Stamina cost to execute.
• There is a Basic Maneuver (Recovery) that can be executed to restore 2 Stamina instead of 1.
• Being Stunned reduces a character's Maximum Stamina by 1.
• Being Knocked Out reduces a character's Maximum Stamina by 1.
• A character reduced to 0 Maximum Stamina is unconsious until an hour passes and restores them to 1 Maximum Stamina.
• A character can burn 1 Health in place of 1 Stamina. Health burnt in this way is considered "Aggravated Damage" which naturally heals at 1 per day. (optional idea...)

As with how I dealt with Chi/Spirit, I like how the ability to recover Stamina during a fight both eliminates that weird "Honor Roll between fights" method Street Fighter had, that made villains less scary, and it also provides a meaty choice when a character stuns their opponent. In SF, the choice was to attack the opponent when they are dizzied because it's a free shot, or just stand around or possibly show off for in game Honor or Glory reasons. These reasons still exist, but now you have the option of recovering some Stamina or Spirit while an opponent is stunned, and this can be an interesting tactical choice, in addition to the role-playing choices the game provided before. I'm still not totally settled on the idea of being able to burn Health for Stamina. It is more rules, and so maybe isn't needed. Still, I like the flavor of it, people possibly choosing to really hurt themselves to pull out wins.

Glory

Old: Beginning characters distribute 3 points between their permanent Glory and Honor (collectively known as "Renown"). Glory is rated from 0 to a maximum of 10. Temporary Glory can be purchased on a 1 Freebie Point to 1 Temporary Glory basis, but can not be purchased with Experience Points. During play, Glory is gained or lost based on the character's actions. If a character's Temporary Glory reaches 10 and the character maintains that 10 Temporary Glory for a full story, their Permanent Glory increases by one (up to a maximum of 10). Glory represents something like fame and respect on the fighting circuit. Gaining Glory tends to require an audience witnessing a character's glorious actions. The game has a chart indicating likely actions to gain or lose Glory both in tournament combat and outside it.

New:

Honor

Old: Beginning characters distribute 3 points between their permanent Glory and Honor (collectively known as "Renown"). Honor is rated from 0 to a maximum of 10. Temporary Honor can be purchased on a 1 Freebie Point to 1 Temporary Glory basis, but can not be purchased with Experience Points. During play, Honor is gained or lost based on the character's actions. If a character's Temporary Honor reaches 10 and the character maintains that 10 Temporary Honor for a full story, their Permanent Honor increases by one (up to a maximum of 10). Honor represents something like decent, self-sacrificing and fair behavior. Gaining and losing honor happens regardless of if the actions triggering it are witnessed by others. Characters may roll their Permanent Honor between fights and use any successes rolled to restore Chi or Willpower on a 1 to 1 basis. The game has a chart indicating likely actions to gain or lose Honor both in tournament combat and outside it.

New:

Notes: There is the possibility I axe the entire idea of Glory and Honor. Another option is that I somehow re-imagine the whole idea. In the original game, Glory only really had RP effects and Honor had mechanical benefits in regards to the recovery of Chi and Willpower. In my current thoughts, Spirit (Chi) and Stamina (Willpower) are recovered by different means entirely detached from Glory or Honor. The criteria in the original game by which Honor and Glory are gained and lost is somewhat reminiscient of Karma in Marvel Super Heroes. This means that I think I'm considering something along those lines now, inspired by Marvel Super Heroes. There would genre appropriate means by which "Karma" is gained or lost. Those "Karma" could be used as XP or kinda like Willpower in the original game (to grant Automatic Successes on out-of-combat tests). Maybe they could be used for even more than that? It might be possible to make something really genre-evoking and cool with this idea, but I really need to think it over. Would it be possible to have "Negative Karma", and what would that mean? Also, of course, I think about Golden Heroes and the Campaign Ratings, which work in somewhat similar territory. Without XP being acquired in some way along these lines, I was defaulting to something like 6 or 8 per session, which is just an OK but completely arbitrary rate of XP accrual.

Random Musings

Here are just unorganized thoughts that I will eventually either modify, discard, or sort into a section of rules. It's a combination holding pen/brainstorming dump.

• I have a spot rule for weapons I kinda like, because it emulates how often characters drop weapons in Beat'em Up video games. Any weapon can be wielded, even without having any technique dots, in combination with the basic punches, the weapon stats modifying those punches. If a character is struck and takes damage without blocking, and they sustain damage that exceeds their rating in the Weapon Technique, they are disarmed and the weapon flys off in a random direction (roll 1d6 for direction, 1d6-1 for distance the weapon flies off, dropping in-hex if a 1 is rolled).
• I need more details, but balance is a bit of a concern with weapons. Dials that can be worked include: While using a weapon, Special Maneuvers of different Techniques might have to be done with Disadvantage (wielding a Staff while attempting to Punch, for example), and alternately, perhaps weapons can be at Disadvantage to strike in-hex, or a long weapon might have a reach but be at disadvantage adjacent or in-hex, etc. This gives them interesting advantages but also ways to circumvent those advantages.
• Also with Weapons, part of their descriptions should include the list of Special Maneuvers they can have purchased for use with them. These would tend to be Punches I would think, but it all depends on what seems to make sense for the weapon. Whatever the case, the Special Maneuvers would be purchased substituting the Weapon Technique for the Primary Technique as far as Prerequisites would go.
• I'm thinking about standard time keeping units. Right now I'm working with Turn (everyone having taken an action), Round (length of matches, also kinda like a 10 minute DnD Dungeon Turn), Hour and Day. These are tied to the recovery of Spirit, Stamina and Health. Not sure how much more time keeping unit/rules interfacing I'll need to do than that.
• I haven't detailed Basic Maneuvers yet, but in a change from SF, every Technique has 3 Basic Maneuvers and any character in the game can execute these Basic Maneuvers for the cost of 1 Stamina. For each dot you have in a Technique, you have mastered one of its Basic Maneuvers, such that it does not cost Stamina for you to perform. Why have I made this change? 1.) I like how it makes non-fighters able to do a satisfying range of things in combat (as there are now more Basic Maneuvers than their used to be), but because they don't tend to have the Techniques, they tend to tire quickly. I think that's neat. 2.) Because I want Rising Forces to also be good at emulating Beat 'em Up games, it feels like this gives more variety to the various thugs that show up. A tough that always throws haymakers. A guy that blocks a lot. More variety on the low end.
• Honor/Glory I am thinking will be eliminated from the game entirely, at least in their SF form. On the Honor front, it seems like the source material is more about a Dark Side/Light Side of the Force kind of dynamic. Glory is basically like Reputation or Heat (in the Pro Wrestling sense of the word). They don't absolutely need to be mechanized, but it might also be cool to do so. I'd just need to decide in which way. Golden Heroes and its Campaign Ratings always enter my head when I start thinking about the possibilities of these kinds of mechanics, but I have absolutely nothing decided, or even really many ideas under consideration regarding this yet.
• Willpower: In White Wolf games, including SF, characters can spend a Willpower for an Automatic Success (outside of combat in SF). Because of how I'm changing things, it makes little sense to allow characters to spend Stamina for the same effect. So, can characters still get an Automatic Success under my version of the system, and if so, how? Right now I'm kinda leaning towards "Spend 1 XP for an Automatic Success." This may seem like a heavy cost, but it kind of depends on how much XP characters are expected to earn per session, I think. What I'm doing with the whole "XP" type of system is still all to be determined.
• While I currently have Basic Maneuvers at 3 per Technique, and anyone can use any of them for the cost of a Stamina, but otherwise characters have 1/Technique Dot Mastered (costing no Stamina) and I like some of the differentiation that provides, it is a bit more complicated that the original SF. A simpler alternative is to just say you have to spend a Stamina to use Basic Maneuvers you have no Technique dots in.
• A mechanic I considered for super powers, but maybe could be used elsewhere also: Unreliable Powers - A power has a cost to have at Mastery (say, 5 dots). If you have it at 1 dot it may be used, but if you haven't paid full cost you must "roll for activation", rolling your number of invested dots, needing to score a success (either by rolling or through something like "Willpower" expenditure) to be permitted to use the power. If you fail, you may either abort to a known abort maneuver, or are left doing nothing as the power fails to materialize/activate. This can be for full on powers/styles, or for individual maneuvers. The instigating thought was that often super hero style characters start with most of their powers and then learn how to use them over the course of their early career, and this is a way to model that.
• If I expand this game into mechanically being about things in addition to tournament fighting... The basic idea is that those areas would be detailed in the Techniques/Maneuvers/(Possibly Styles) kind of framework, even if in their own domain. Backgrounds continue to do their background thing of basically facilitating role-playing, in the "We are playing make-believe and this helps us answer questions" sense of the game. If it is in regards to character abilities engaged in "game as competitive game", it gets the Techniques/Maneuvers/(Possibly Styles) treatment.