Martial Artist newb questions

[MethosDarkblade]

I'm a newb only in the fact that I never investigated the Martial Artist OCCs even though I've owned the books for 16 years. I typically play the Operative Agent, the Wandering Free Agent, and the Veteran Grunt OCCs.

1) How many martial arts does the worldly martial artist get? It says it comes with a primary and 3 physical skills, but a primary also means that there's a secondary...or is my logic off on this one?

2) Dedicated Martial Artists start with 2 complete martial arts, that I get, or one exclusive, again, I get, but Ninjutsu and Te both count as exclusive and as 2 forms. Does that mean a dedicated martial artist starts with 3 forms or are the two forms exclusive because they count as two forms?

Thank you for answering such obviously newb questions.

[green.nova343]

I'm a newb only in the fact that I never investigated the Martial Artist OCCs even though I've owned the books for 16 years. I typically play the Operative Agent, the Wandering Free Agent, and the Veteran Grunt OCCs.

1) How many martial arts does the worldly martial artist get? It says it comes with a primary and 3 physical skills, but a primary also means that there's a secondary...or is my logic off on this one?

2) Dedicated Martial Artists start with 2 complete martial arts, that I get, or one exclusive, again, I get, but Ninjutsu and Te both count as exclusive and as 2 forms. Does that mean a dedicated martial artist starts with 3 forms or are the two forms exclusive because they count as two forms?

Thank you for answering such obviously newb questions.

1) They were leftover edits from 1st edition, when the DMA started with 3 (1 primary and 2 secondaries) and the WMA started with 2 (1 primary and 1 secondary). Apparently, it was thought that was too powerful, even though the DMA & WMA didn't have as wide of a skill selection as the agent O.C.C.s. A lot of people stick with the 1st edition rules, which allows a NInjitsu master to have a secondary skill. It's up to you how you want to interpret that.

2) "Exclusive" just means it can only be taken as a primary (i.e. Aikido is exclusive, so it has to be the primary form for a DMA [or WMA, see #1]; Shao-Lin Kung Fu is not an exclusive form, so it can be taken as a primary or a secondary form). Jujitsu & Thai Kick Boxing both count as 2 MA selections, & also happen to be exclusive (didn't realize Te also cost 2, will have to look that up).

[Nekira Sudacne]

I'm a newb only in the fact that I never investigated the Martial Artist OCCs even though I've owned the books for 16 years. I typically play the Operative Agent, the Wandering Free Agent, and the Veteran Grunt OCCs.

1) How many martial arts does the worldly martial artist get? It says it comes with a primary and 3 physical skills, but a primary also means that there's a secondary...or is my logic off on this one?

bad edit holdover. in the origional N&SS both dedicated and wordly martial artists had an extra martial art form, but this was deemed too powerful.

2) Dedicated Martial Artists start with 2 complete martial arts, that I get, or one exclusive, again, I get, but Ninjutsu and Te both count as exclusive and as 2 forms. Does that mean a dedicated martial artist starts with 3 forms or are the two forms exclusive because they count as two forms?

There were origionally supposed to have 3, and an exclusive form counted as 2, however the exclusive requirement of 2 was never fixed. this means the combo of Hwang-Do Karate and Moo-Gi-gong (an explicit exception to martial arts not working togeather), is actually impossible to have rules as written.

Only reasonable fix is to make it so exclusive forms only count as 1 style choice, but only dedicated martial artists can pick them.

These arn't newb questions actually. no amount of playing or experiance could tell you what the problem was unless you happened to have both editions and compared them.

[drewkitty ~..~]

1) One. (But can "go back to school to learn more)

2) Two forms. If a DMA Char chooses a Exclusive form...it has to be it's Primary MAF. (But can "go back to school to learn more)

[JuliusCreed]

Odd thought and I don't see anything in canon about this, but if a DMA can start with 2 MA forms, what's to stop the player, beyond the ruling of the GM, from taking 2 exclusive forms? Oh and sorry about a potential hijacking here, but since it's a 'newb question' thread I figured it might fit here. And despite my years of experience, I feel like a newb for having to ask

[MethosDarkblade]

Odd thought and I don't see anything in canon about this, but if a DMA can start with 2 MA forms, what's to stop the player, beyond the ruling of the GM, from taking 2 exclusive forms? Oh and sorry about a potential hijacking here, but since it's a 'newb question' thread I figured it might fit here. And despite my years of experience, I feel like a newb for having to ask

That's more along the lines of an ancient master from HU than a dedicated martial artist at level 1 LOL

[JuliusCreed]

Odd thought and I don't see anything in canon about this, but if a DMA can start with 2 MA forms, what's to stop the player, beyond the ruling of the GM, from taking 2 exclusive forms? Oh and sorry about a potential hijacking here, but since it's a 'newb question' thread I figured it might fit here. And despite my years of experience, I feel like a newb for having to ask

That's more along the lines of an ancient master from HU than a dedicated martial artist at level 1 LOL

True... but still, where does it say it can't be done? A DMA with the forms of, oh let's say... Aikido and Tien Hsueh Touch Mastery... aside from having to pay one heck of a skill cost in years (starting age 47) what's been set down, in canon, to keep a player from doing this? I know there's the thing about a DMA selecting 2 forms or one exclusive... argued down to Ninjitsu and Thai Kick Boxing being the only forms this applied to due to 1st edition editting. So... as long as I don't take either Ninjitsu or TKB...

[drewkitty ~..~]

JC: Yes, newbs, and everyone else, can make that mistake, or intentional flaws, when creating DMA chars. This is because of the conflicting text in the book. It is still the job of the GM to vet the chars of players before letting them into their games.

For those that have been debating this in the forums this is old stuff and most people fall into two camps about exclusives. Those that take one line of text and say that exclusives all take up two MAF slots (page 47), then there are others which take another line and say exclusives just have to be the Primary MAF.(page 81)

To complicate thing there are two Exclusives MAF that say they are able to combine their abilities when both have been taken.