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Here is a First Draft, still kicking around some ideas.



Also still looking at balance issues against other styles... any thoughts? does it balance out against the revised versions? 3 masters, 15 moves I think, a good mix of affects. definitely low on defense. but I think that is right for this style.

Comments welcome! I will update this post (unless it times out on me!)

Hook Hand and Peg Leg Combat Style Gloss

Developed for dirty fighting and playing to the crowd, this style was a creation of the hard life of seamen living in the docks quarter of Queensport, known as the Plunge. A locally infamous pit fighter known as Tobias Paine coined most of this style’s techniques. Scarred and maimed from years at sea, he became a crowd favorite using tactics that someone with his history could use. XXXXX was quickly imitated, and this Style, such as it is, was born.

Practitioners are required to have a Peg Leg and Hook Hand. The hook is used throughout the style for grabbing your opponent and for delivering some horrible wounds. The peg leg is used for kicking and stomping with surprising force. The Spring Knife version is particularly loved for obvious reasons. Also, this style requires the fighter to have spent some time on the seas of the Claw, though the last few years have seen this style showing up among the crew of the kingdoms’ Zeppelin Fleets as well.

Sea Legs – Only usable on the deck of a ship, barge, Zeppelin, or even a moving stage coach. If not at a location like this, it can be replaced with Trick without breaking Style. May choose to add the bonus die from the relevant history after the rolls have been made. Only adds the bonus die to one attack roll per round. The History is chosen when the move is first made.

Keel Haul – A crowd pleaser if there ever was one. Your target’s clothing and armor is ripped from shoulder blade to posterior. If you have a betting Audience (like Tobias normally did), those that bet on you, are rooting for you, count as your allies.

Hooked Deflection – Using your hook hand you bind up your opponent’s weapon, making it difficult to recover. Two hooked combatants trying this maneuver at the same time, have been known to get so entangled that they spent the rest of the fight tied together. +1 defense die size with mechanized hooks.

Real Hand Strike – One of the few strikes where you lash out with your other hand (typically holding a sword or dagger).

Stomp – Stomping with the peg leg. Causing surprising pain and making it difficult for your opponent to walk or even move. If you have a spring knife in your peg leg, this does even more injury.

Stump Kick – A swift and brutal kick with your peg left to their nether regions. Quickness damage lasts until next round, and only works on living humanoids.

Overboard – Inspired by grabbing your opponent, driving them off balance and to the edge of the ship (or zeppelin!) before throwing them over the railing. In the Pits of the Plunge, it is typically used for slamming your opponent up against the fence or wall. Both you and your opponent are Grabbed. If you do have a convenient ledge, a successful Environmental Trick will send them over.

Biter – Bite them! Typically on the hand or on the face. You must be grabbed with your target to use this maneuver.

Fish Hook – While grabbed, you use your hook to piece your opponents flesh (typically though the fleshy part of the neck). If you successfully hit, make a dChar roll against the Doom. If you win, your opponent’s allies (and backers) lose 1 Mood.

Spitting and Cussing – Typically spitting in your target’s eyes and cussing their ancestry, style, and preferences. Getting this off your chest is just energizing.

Lay About – Striking out with your hook, your peg leg, your off hand. It is wild and dangerous, but you leave yourself open.

Broadside – You throw yourself at your target, hoping to snag him with you hook, knock him off balance, and send him sprawling to the other side of the ship or ring. You end the hit all out of sorts.

Hook to Eye – To heal these two wounds they need to take a scar or use magical/alchemical healing. However, one Scar will heal BOTH wound points. Typically the scar should be a missing eye or a wound to the face. The Charisma damage heals when the wounds do.

Finally getting a few moments to get back to this.

First off, this is a lot of fun. I can see whipping out an NPC who is fighting in Hook Hand and Pegleg style and having the players all do wth!?! double-takes. That's a good thing.

The pattern is a little hard for me to follow. It has a lot of maneuvers (the goal in the new book is around 14). Maybe move Fish Hook over so it is off of Snag Clothing? The grab theme would work, and it would symmetricize the style (yep, I made up the word symmetricize :) ).

I feel it has a good unifying theme of "low damage but lots of gimmicky options, lots of grabbing and scarring." This matches the backstory in the gloss and the nature of hook hands and peg legs quite well, I think.

The -1 to enemy's attack die size next round with Hooked Deflection - techinically nothing wrong with that. I try to avoid effects like that thoug because it necessitates tracking conditions. I find it a lot easier to track your own conditions, so I'm not as averse to maneuvers that modify die sizes for you yourself next round. It's just when an enemy's maneuver modifies your die size next round that tracking things has the potential to be burdensome. But, in moderation, it's far from a dealbreaker for me.

Lay about - Not quite sure about this maneuver name. I can't picture how it's the gateway maneuver to the two mastery maneuvers.

Sea Legs - Really like this idea. I don't think I'd let it substitute a Trick if not in the right environment. Do you see tricks as a fundamental theme like grabbing and scarring? Hm, maybe so! But then I think they should be able to do it on ships too (especially then!). I think overall I'd ditch the Trick option (or else echo/double it somewhere else, but probably ditch it) and keep it as is otherwise. Nothing wrong with the style being more powerful on a ship than on land. Or, make it so the bonus History die only applies next round if on land but until forced to rebalance if on ship.

Hooked Deflection - At d10 defense with mechanized hand on a rebalancing maneuver, it's tied with Guardsman for best rebalancing maneuver defense die in the game. Not sure if that's the intent or not. Maybe it only works vs. one-hand weapons or smaller?

Also, the branding iron hook hand is awfully powerful with this style, adding 1 point of damage per attack if the opponent doesn't roll 5 or higher on his Quickness die. Of course, the branding hook hand is a wealth level... 8? item, so that's getting up there where powerful effects should come into play. So, maybe it's fine as is. When I wrote the branding iron hook hand, I was thinking that it'd be a basic attack or an unarmed style (like Five Seasons) attack.

Overall, this is a lot of fun. Like I said, I can see pulling it out in a fight and having the players react really strongly (and favorably) to it. Cool beans!