Friday, January 8, 2010

Mother-Freakin' Slam-Bam Wrestling Rules For D&D?

"....HERE ARE THE GUIDLINES FOR MY CAMPAIGN ‘REALMS OF THE FORGOTTEN” AND THE RULES I USE:...

...SPECIAL WRESTLING MOVES. DROP YOUR SWORD? NO PROBLEM, JUST CRUSH SOME DUDES WITH A HEADBUTT OR A PILEDRIVER (STRENGTH REQUIREMENT IN AFFECT, SO THIS ONLY REALLY WORKS FOR FIGHTERS)."

- From Joesky the Dungeon Brawler (thanks to Gnome-Bientus for turning me on to this!)
I was thoroughly amused by the above, giggling and all. But the idea stuck in my head. I'm not a wrestling "Fan" although I can enjoy it (especially small, local league matches), but the idea of a D&D Fighter having his sword eaten by a Rust Monster only to, without missing a beat, pick up said Rust Monster and pile-drive it's bug-eyed head into the stone dungeon floor!! is far too awesome to not experiment with. (yes, I know about the various "grappling" rules in various editions of D&D, they can fuck off on account of not Being Exciting/Awesome.) Plus I read this afterwards, which really motivated me to continue with this line of thought.

You know which genre characters were inveterate bad-ass wrestlers? Conan and Captain Kirk! (I also need rules for double karate-chop shoulder attacks...)

I also need something spontaneous, something that's not going to be a "magic bullet" weapon such as 3.5s sunder or trip/AoO combo, but something exciting.

I immediately thought of Zak Smith's (the master of awesome, simple subsystem rules) "Lucky Number Kung Fu," which seems an almost perfect fit, although I would change it so that Fighters and Fighter-types are the only ones with "lucky numbers", with perhaps the head-butt and grappling options from Sham's What Price Glory rule packets and perhaps something from this. And pile-drivers.

I'm going to put some more thought into this, look over the 1st-ed Oriental Adventures martial arts rules, and try some play-testing; but for some gonzo-stupid-awesome reason I am obsessed about incorporating wrestling moves into my D&D.



8 comments:

  1. Yes and YES! Methinks that my Cactoid might have to give this a try. Flying Elbow spine damage anyone?!

    Plus, just the idea of all the puncture wounds one could incur grappling with a savage Cactoid. Great!

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  2. Don't forget the rule that there will always be a fixture/tree branch above your head you can swing from to kick your opponent with both feet.

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  3. AGREAT POST!! THANK YOU FOR A LINK OF ME- YOU HAVE A VERY COOL SIGHT.

    WRESTLING MOVES REALY BRING A NICE FLAVOR TO YOUR FIGHT. KEEP IT SIMPEL....... REMEMEBR ALL THE PUNCH+KICKING RULES IN ORNIENTAL ADVENTURES OF D&D??? TOO MUCH. I JUST HAVE LIKE A DOZEN MOVES, EACH ONE HAS A ABILITY REQUIRMENT (HEADBUT ACTUALLY REQUIRES WIS OF 8 OR LESS BECAUSE NO ONE IN RIGHT MIND WOULD DO IT) AND A DAMAGE. TRIPLE XP IF YOU MAKE A KILL WITH A WRESTLE MOVE!!!!
    THANKYOU

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  4. Cool, having wrestling moves would ramp up the Pulp quotient even more.

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  5. Unrelated to post at hand: That clip art CD-ROM seems to have very dubious rights. IIt might have been an outlaw operation. I suggest tracking down Cathy Buburuz before you use her art.

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  6. Thanks for the links to those rock-em-sock-em rules. They go really nicely with the other stuff I had in mind for unarmed combat. :)

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  7. @Fat Cotton: I though Kalervo clipped his spines?

    @Joesky: Thanks for posting bro! Your site is awesome, you should post your wrestling moves rules rules next! Great cancer rules on your blog, I may incorporate them into my radiation poisoning rules.

    @Jeff: Thanks for the heads up, it would great to do a project where one got the rights to a bunch of her pieces and had adventurers written around them!

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  8. I wonder if this is any use - a Boot Hill/AD&D brawling mash-up:

    http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2008/08/alternative-hand-to-hand-combat.html

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