Ken from Fist of the Northstar as a battlebabe.

So I'm recruiting a pal for our thursday game and I'm like "it's a rocking post-apocalyptic game", and he's like "can I play somebody like Kenshiro, from Fist of the Northstar in that game ?" and I'm like "Kenshiro is totally a battlebabe !"

I mean, crossing the wastelands displaying his awesome pectorals for anybody to see and starting shit left and right with style ? Totally a battlebabe. So I figured out how I'd do it:

I'd pick the set with Cool+3 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird-1 then I'd pick the moves ice cold and impossible reflexes. Now he's a bad mofo.

Then I'd consider making a custom move or two for his martial arts but then I'd think hey, martial arts are all about turning your body into a weapon, right ? So I'd just make a couple custom weapons and give them the implanted tag instead.

Since implanted is kind of a big deal (you can take that stuff from the character) i'd count as one of the two custom options. I'd take two hand weapons instead of one and one gun and since not getting a gun is kind of a deal, I'd throw in one option more.

I might give him his dim mak touch by taking a handle and making it 3-harm hand implanted (3 options). Then I'd give him some kind of super-duper technique that makes him a bit more credible in face of a small gang : starting with a staff, I'd make it 2-harm hand area implanted.

Legit ? It might be a big... big. 3-harm implanted seems like a great deal of harm character can dish out without a mean to take it from him.

Any other pop culture character you'd turn into a basic AW character type ?

If he wants to be all fighty fighty he should take the gunlugger.

Battlebabe are about starting trouble they probably can get out of easily or with violence.

Having hand that do 3-harm isn't gear, it's a bloody move. Now if you wanna give him extra moves, that you're thing but be sure to give a couple to the other people playing.

"Battlebabe are about starting trouble they probably can get out of easily or with violence."

That's more or less why I thought Ken was a battlebabe. Shit hits the fan shortly after he arrives somewhere, often because he pissed the wrong person off and when he leaves, damage was done on and by both sides. That screams battlebabe to me.

For the martial arts as implanted weapon, well, it doesn't do anything but back up threats the character might be doing ("...or else you'll feel the power of the okuto technique") or when he charges into battle. It's not like he's really a one man army. He's just very effective at using violence as a tool.  Since implanted is a legit tag, why not shoehorn it into the weapon creation rules ? Battlebabe weapons are highly personal and unique. You don't see them twice. Why not make them martial arts, simply by adding implanted to them ?

It's more or less the same as a move like

Okuto technique : when the player has nothing but her fist to fight, she can use them as a weapon : 3-harm hand.

(And I might add noisy or messy in there. The ma in Fist of the Northstar are pretty graphic).

But I feel it's more elegant as it follows the rules more or less as written without a big change like a custom move, and it does cost a weapon slot to the character. The thing is : is implanted really worth only one tag, or should it "cost" more, maybe a noisy or messy mandatory to the mix.

Sorry, I fucked that up.

It should read CAN NOT GET OUT OF EASILY WITH VIOLENCE.

Dang.

Sorry, I fucked that up.

It should read CAN NOT GET OUT OF EASILY WITH VIOLENCE.

Dang.

I got that, no big deal. I'm just trying to say : Ken is the kind of guy who stirr the shit up and leave the people who sheltered him to deal with it, when you look at it. The stranger who comes to a town that has a (sucky, but still) status quo and when he leaves it's revolutions and bodies and ruins burning and stuff.

Also, in the original post I totally meant

"Since implanted is kind of a big deal (you can't take that stuff from the character)"

Cool.

And the marshal arts stuff is a good custom weapon.

I don't know why I was feeling so snarky.

Cheers.

No problem Nathan, it didn't feel that snarky to me. And you're right  : swapping custom weapons for martial arts moves IS a custom move. Maybe something like

Martial art school
When you create a battlebabe, you can choose to take a martial art move instead of a custom hand weapon. Simply take the staff (kicks and large moves) or the handle (punches and short, quick moves) as a basis, and take the following option :
• Martial arts (+implanted)

The real question is : does this count for 2 options or not ?

A martial arts move (+implanted) isn't any better than hidden knives (+infinite). And the only option you can take for it is +1harm, which is kind of boring. So what about adding ap and s-harm?

Custom martial arts moves:

Tiger Strike or Arrow Fist (1-harm hand ap implanted)

Knock-Out Blow or Hands of Sleep (s-harm hand ap implanted)

Fists of Fury or Spinning Circle Kicks (2-harm hand area implanted)

Yeah, we can go wild, but I was trying to build the character with as little modifications to the game as possible. Still, like your moves !

A bit unclear about how NPCs react to s-harm. Is it in the book somewhere ? I don't have it around. They just go down stunned or something ?

Page 240.

While I would agree Ken isn't a Battlebabe I also realize FotNs isn't a AW setting off the bat.  Personally I'd think youd have to do some monkeying to reflect the sheer graphic brutality of the fiction. While it's focused on the main characters doing the main damage it seems like nearly everyone has fists that make shit explode. Lol.

Maybe Ken is a Brainer with a gunlugger move (NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH is ubiquitous in that setting). Or a gunlugger with Wierd moves. I agree that a custom set of gonzo-martial-arts moves is necessary to start.

-Don