Roleplayer #25, August 1991
Just Watch This One!
Expanding the Acrobatics Skill with Maneuvers
by Steffan O'Sullivan
GURPS
Martial Arts introduces a subset of skills known as maneuvers.
These differ from the Maneuvers listed in the Basic and Advanced Combat
sections in that most of them can be raised independently of raising the
whole skill. Thus, you can have a Karate expert who specializes in Spin
Kicks, for example.
This concept can be easily expanded to the Acrobatics skill -- in fact,
some of the Martial Arts maneuvers default to Acrobatics already. I have
long thought that this skill was too comprehensive to be only one skill.
Using Maneuvers, we can expand the skill to the dimensions it deserves without
crippling the basic skill by dividing it.
I studied circus acrobatics for a full school year, but was never any good
at it. Nonetheless, I attended classes daily, doing my best, all the while
observing my teachers and fellow students, some of whom were excellent.
One of my teachers played the part of a Sasquatch (Bigfoot) in a two-hour
play. He wore strap-on stilts inside a heavy fur suit, yet ran and did rolls,
dives, and trapeze swings the entire play!
Next chance you get, study the acrobats at a circus. See how high they can
stack and voltige, watch the trapeze artists and tightrope walkers carefully.
You will probably find something useful your character can try in a game
someday . . .
Ground Rules
The Acrobatics skill includes all of the following maneuvers, at the defaults
listed. No one with Acrobatics needs to raise any maneuvers to
be able to try them!
In order to raise an individual maneuver, the character must have
Acrobatics at skill 12 or higher.
An individual maneuver cannot have more points into it than the character
has in Acrobatics itself. E.g., if a fighter wishes to put 4 points into
the Tightrope Walking Maneuver, he must have at least 4 points or more in
Acrobatics first.
Points in all Acrobatic maneuvers totaled cannot exceed twice
the points in Acrobatics skill. Norwood, the sample character at the end
of this article, would have to put points into Acrobatics itself before
he could put any more points into maneuvers -- he has 4 points in Acrobatics,
and 8 points in Acrobatic maneuvers.
All maneuvers have a ceiling of Acrobatics+4.
The cost to raise a maneuver is the same as in GURPS Martial
Arts:
Average Hard
Default 0 points 0 points
Default+1 1/2 point 1 point
Default+2 1 point 2 points
Default+3 2 points 4 points
Default+4 4 points 6 points
Further increases cost 2 points per level.
Please note that Tumbling is of Special difficulty. It cannot be
raised above the level of Acrobatics, since it is what people consider
Acrobatics for most game purposes.
The Acrobatics Maneuvers
Acrobatics is divided here into six Maneuvers -- individual GMs are free
to expand this.
Tumbling (Special) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics-0; Cannot be raised
above Acrobatics
Tumbling, also called Vaulting, includes such basic maneuvers as forward
roll, backward roll, diving roll, and others that most people think of when
they try an Acrobatics roll in a combat situation. This is the skill that
an Acrobatic Dodge (p. B 108) is rolled against. Likewise, diving through
a foe's legs, reducing falling damage, vaulting to the back of a horse,
diving through a window, etc., are all Tumbling skills. A basic acrobatic
maneuver that isn't included in the GURPS
Basic Set is a Chest Roll -- from knees to feet in one
second, ending in one or two hexes directly in front or directly behind
the acrobat. This amounts to a successful Acrobatics roll allowing the character
to get from knees to feet and end in a hex other than where he started the
turn. A Backward Chest Roll (toward the rear hex) is at -2.
Team Acrobatics (Hard) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics-0
Team Acrobatics involves more than one person. The simplest team acrobatics
maneuvers, such as a human pyramid, do not even require an acrobatics roll,
though they will be slow to build and clumsy without practice. A human column
is called Stacking, and does require all parties involved
to make a Team Acrobatics roll. This usually means one person standing on
another's shoulders -- the upper acrobat is called the top-mounter, and
the lower the understander. Two 6-foot acrobats can be 11 feet high if one
stands on the other's shoulders. (Add 2 feet for an average reach with arms
outstretched -- that is, the top-mounter could reach the top of a 13-foot
high wall.) They can walk around at Move 1 without needing to roll again,
but the top-mounter's weight must be within the understander's Extra
Heavy Encumbrance limit. They can reach higher if the top-mounter stands
on the understander's upstretched hands. The understander needs to make
a ST-3 roll as well as Team Acrobatics-3 roll. The understander also needs
to make a Team Acrobatics-3 roll for every step he wants to take.
A third acrobat can help hold up the top-mounter if all three make Team
Acrobatics rolls: no ST roll is needed, and Moving at Speed 1 is allowed
with no further Acrobatics roll needed.
In a shoulder stack, a third person may stand atop the second's shoulders,
adding even more height, but the rolls for all parties are against Team
Acrobatics-5. In addition, once the third person starts to climb, the ground
level acrobat needs an initial ST-3 roll, then a straight ST roll every
second, and may not move at all.
It takes 4 seconds to make a 2-person shoulder stack, and 8 seconds to make
a 3-person stack. Doubling these times gives a +1 to all rolls, except ST
rolls.
Voltige (yes, that spelling is correct) is basically people-tossing, but
not in a hostile sense. This is as much teamwork as stacking, but harder
due to the precise timing involved. All voltige maneuvers are at Team Acrobatics-2.
A simple voltige maneuver is where one person (called the cavalier, or tosser)
stands with knees bent and hands cupped, as his partner (called the voltigeur)
runs briefly forward, springing up to the cavalier's hands and jumping upward.
At the exact moment of the jump, the cavalier straightens up and heaves
his hands upward, imparting an increased momentum to the voltigeur. Add
the two characters' ST together to determine height reached in this way
-- see p. B88. You cannot use the 4-yard running start mentioned in the
Basic Set, but allow a one-foot bonus with a 2-yard
running start.
Example: two ST 11 characters doing a voltige maneuver with a 2-yard
running start could get the voltigeur's feet 64" (5' 4")
off the ground! If the voltigeur were six feet tall, he could grasp the
top of a 13-foot wall, since the arms stretched upward add two feet to the
reach. The advantage of voltige over stacking is speed: stacking takes at
least four seconds, while voltige is a single action.
There are other voltige maneuvers. Some are more complicated, even involving
three persons, such as one person being swung for momentum by two people,
then "tossed" upright to a stacking position atop the other acrobats'
hands, which are held straight up! Each member needs to make a Team Acrobatics-2
roll, but it takes only one second to prepare (if the voltigeur is already
lying down), and two seconds to swing into position.
Stilt Walking (Average) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics-0
An acrobat may walk on stilts with a successful Stilt-walking roll every
10 minutes. Skill dictates how high the feet may be off the ground: an acrobat's
feet may be Stilt Walking-8 feet off the ground for hand-held stilts (minimum
one foot), and Stilt Walking-12 feet for strapped-on stilts that do not
come above the knee (allowing both hands free). Other acrobatic feats while
wearing strap-on stilts are at -5; combat is at -3. Both hands are needed
to operate the stilts for hand-held stilts. Ladder-walking defaults to Stilt
Walking-3.
Aerial Acrobatics (Hard) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics-2
The Aerial Acrobatics maneuver includes swinging on ropes, chandeliers,
suspended rings, trapezes, etc. It is called Rigging Acrobatics in circuses.
Simple, straightforward swinging with the arms is rolled at Aerial Acrobatics+2
(defaults to Acrobatics), while anything involving active use of the legs
or flipping or twisting is at Aerial Acrobatics -- or worse, at the GM's
option. Aerial Acrobatics is the skill to use for any fancy maneuvers while
hanging by your arms or legs -- such as swinging up to a balcony you're
dangling from, for example, or imitating Tarzan.
Aerial Acrobatics effects are too complicated to give in detail here --
notice that rules for simple rope and chandelier swinging take up a full
page in GURPS
Swashbucklers. Multiple acrobats increase the difficulty
of a trick: -2 for two acrobats working together, -3 for three people, and
so on. (Alternately, the GM may make the acrobats roll against two
skills at no penalties: Team Acrobatics and Aerial Acrobatics.)
This modifier (or additional roll) is applied to each acrobat involved
in the stunt, but can dramatically increase reach. Figure that a person
hanging onto a trapeze with his knees has a reach equal to his height. Each
additional person can add up to eight feet in reach, and 3 yards in length
for leaping purposes.
Nine out of ten Aerial accidents in circuses occur because the rigging failed,
not the performer. See pp. B212-213 for weight-bearing capacity of rope.
Grapnel hooks and S hooks make lousy trapeze attachments -- swing the tiniest
bit out of rhythm, and off they come . . . and off you go . . .
Tightrope Walking (Hard) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics-2
Tightrope Walking can be very useful to an adventurer -- if you can get
a rope in the right place to begin with. Using a balancing pole adds +5
for a very long and limber pole, down to +1 for something rigid and short
like a spear. Slack-Rope Walking is at Tightrope Walking-3, and may be learned
as a separate maneuver if the GM is willing -- Acrobatics-6!
Gymnastics (Hard) . . . . . Defaults to Acrobatics
It is very unfair to lump so many different and beautiful maneuvers under
one heading. This "maneuver" includes the showy cartwheels, flip-flops,
walkovers, handsprings, somersaults, tinsikas, splits, balancing positions,
etc., that wouldn't be used in many game situations, but might be useful
in a performance. The GM may make any one of these types of skills into
its own maneuver, if desired. Certain types, such as the various somersaults,
might have a penalty to the default for difficulty. The maneuver difficulty
in general is listed as Hard, above, because it is assumed that for a performance,
the acrobat will be using only his best tricks. The GM should usually require
two skill rolls for Gymnastics: one against this maneuver for flawless execution
of the skill, and one against Performance skill to rate the showmanship
quality.
Sample Character
Norwood is a likable young Yrth mercenary who knows he wants to lead his
own troops someday. Smart enough to know he needs to learn more than just
how to use his sword to make it as a mercenary captain, he has been studying,
among other things, the acrobatic arts of the barbarian cavalry he has been
serving with. These nomadic people spend their leisure time vying with each
other to do physical stunts, many of them involving horses. Norwood, by
joining their games, has been accepted as a friend, and is learning quite
a few acrobatic tricks.
"Dif" means Difficulty level in the skill column. A Dif of MA
means that the skill uses the Martial Arts Maneuver progression, given above.
Attributes
(+10) ST 11
(+45) DX 14
(+20) IQ 12
( 0) HT 10
Basic Damage
Thrust: 1d-1
Swing: 1d+1
Punch: 1d-2
Kick: 1d
Advantages
(+15) Combat Reflexes
(+10) High Pain Threshold
( +5) Charisma (+1)
Disadvantages
(-10) Brontophobia (Fear of Loud Noises)
( -5) Curiosity
(-10) Honesty
( -5) Sense of Duty (Companions)
(-10) Sense of Duty (Employer)
Quirks
(-1) Congenial
(-1) Humble
(-1) Likes Children
(-1) Prefers Sleeping Outdoors
(-1) Wants to Learn to Read
Summary of character points spent
Points in attributes: 75.0
Points in advantages: 30.0
Points in disadvantages: 40.0
Points in quirks: -5.0
Points in skills: 40.0
Total Points: 100.0
Skills Level Pts. Dif
Combat/Weapon Skills
Brawling-14 1.0 P/E
Broadsword-15 4.0 P/A
Fast Draw: Sword-14 0.5 P/E
Fast Draw: Knife-14 0.5 P/E
Knife-13 0.5 P/E
Shield-14 1.0 P/E
Spear-12 0.5 P/A
Spear Throwing-13 0.5 P/E
Other Physical Skills
Acrobatics-14 4.0 P/H
Climbing-13 1.0 P/A
Riding: Horse-14 2.0 P/A
Stealth-13 1.0 P/A
Swimming-13 0.5 P/E
Acrobatics Maneuvers
Gymnastics-15 1.0 MA/H
Aerial Acrobatics-13 1.0 MA/H
Team Acrobatics-16 2.0 MA/H
Tightrope Walking-15 4.0 MA/H
Tumbling-14 0.0 MA/S
Mental Skills
Acting-10 0.5 M/A
Agronomy-10 0.5 M/A
Anglish-12 -- M/A
Area Knowledge (local)-11 0.5 M/E
Armoury-10 0.5 M/A
Bard-10 0.5 M/A
Camouflage-11 0.5 M/E
Detect Lies-9 0.5 M/H
Diplomacy-9 0.5 M/H
Fast-Talk-10 0.5 M/A
First Aid-12 1.0 M/E
Leadership-11 1.0 M/A
Naturalist-9 0.5 M/H
Nomad Language-10 0.5 M/A
Performance-10 0.5 M/A
Survival: Woodlands-12 2.0 M/A
Tactics (land)-12 4.0 M/H
Teaching-10 0.5 M/A
Tracking-10 0.5 M/A
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