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Chapter One: The Way of the Warrior gives master lists of both Ranged Martial Maneuvers and the much larger list of Hand-to-Hand Martial Maneuvers. For those not familiar with the format, they are printed with the following stats: (maneuver) Name, Phase (how long it takes to throw, usually a Half Phase Attack Action), Points (how much the maneuver costs) OCV (modifies your chance to hit), DCV (modifies your chance to get hit), Rng (range modifier, if the maneuver is for a ranged weapon) and Damage/Effect (usually damage modifier).
The Hand-to-Hand Maneuvers can in some cases be used with weapons (in cases like Fencing the maneuvers are weapon-based by default), so page 8 gives a table of which weapon types will work with certain maneuvers (sometimes depending on if the maneuver for a given style is a 'Punch' or a 'Kick'), assuming of course the style teaches weapons use.
In HERO System, learning a given Martial Arts style is defined by certain achievements: One must buy at least 10 points of Maneuvers from that style, one must have at least an 8 or less roll in the Knowledge Skill (background knowledge) of that style, and one must take the Complication of a Distinctive Feature for his martial style (which makes his style easier to recognize and counter if one has the right skills). This last is usually optional in a non-martial-arts-genre game, or the GM can allow a PC who already has his quota of Complications to exchange the Style Complication for one of his existing ones (the Style Complication is 10 points value, as defined later in the book). A “black belt” in these terms is someone who has at least 15 points of maneuvers in a style, at least an 11 or less roll in its Knowledge Skill, and at least one 5 point Combat Skill Level with the style. Note also that some styles may have other natural prerequisites; obviously Fencing requires Weapon Proficiency with Blades, while Aikido requires having Breakfall skill.
The Introduction goes over some permutations of all this, like how much time it should “realistically” take to learn a style (defined in terms of how many points the GM lets a character spend per game), how you can learn maneuvers outside that style, and how you can become more versatile thereby- like, if you bought a style that uses weapons and then started learning another style with weapons, you could apply your original art's maneuvers to those other weapons, or you could confound someone's attempt to exploit your Style Complication by using maneuvers in a different style. (How that works is that someone who has Knowledge Skills for two martial arts could use 'duplicate' maneuvers from the other style without having to buy the maneuver twice, which is a common situation given how many styles are mechanically represented in the game with similar lists of maneuvers.)
After all this little detail, Chapter One gets into the meat of things with the book's list of Real-World Martial Arts, HERO System's official list of historical martial arts styles in game terms. So, how many martial arts styles does this book cover?
A LOT.
The original Hero martial arts sourcebook, Aaron Allston's NINJA HERO, had a very wide-ranging list of martial arts styles in itself, but was exceeded by Steve Long's 4th Edition book The Ultimate Martial Artist, which he further refined and expanded in 5th Edition. HSMA, in addition to covering all the stuff from TUMA 5th Edition, also describes:
-Baritsu (the Victorian Era school that attempted to synthesize Japanese and Western styles, famously referred to by Sherlock Holmes after his combat with Moriarty);
-Brazilian Jiujutsu (under the substyles of Jiujutsu);
-Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (a development of Commando Training 'also known by such nicknames as Semper Fu, MC Slap or MCNinja');
-and Mixed Martial Arts (as a sidebar).
Each style description includes not only a history and set of maneuvers but variants (especially with Jiujitsu and Kung Fu), any required or optional skills, how the Hit Location for a given maneuver is rolled, and “Special Abilities” defining the mystical (or at least cool) advanced capabilities of the style's masters. In HSMA, the latter are defined in terms of powers that are fully described in Chapter Three.
After this list of actual styles, including some mentioned only in passing ('The art of fighting with a saucepan lid'), you have a shorter list of Fictional Martial Arts Styles, some of which are feasible developments in the real world (like Gun Fu), some of which are genre variations of other martial styles (like Thunder Dragon Kung Fu) and some of which are simply developments of Powers that Champions superheroes could get (like Enerjutsu, a Ranged Martial Art that an Energy Projector can use with his innate powers). Unfortunately there are no adaptations of styles from prior fictional sources, such as Ti Kwan Leep.
Finally, there is a section about how the fictional arts are examples of how a GM or player can invent his own martial art. This includes concepts such as the style concept, whether it was meant to address a certain need (some styles were created as development of, or in opposition to, other styles), whether the style uses weapons, how many maneuvers it has (in HERO System a style can have no less than three maneuvers), and what other Skills are required or recommended for the practitioner. It also goes over Extra DCs (Damage Classes) which expert martial artists can buy to increase the damage class of their maneuvers by +1 die or +5 STR per 4 character points. The subject of developing one's own art leads naturally to the next chapter-
Chapter Two: Martial Maneuvers in which the book elaborates on how the Maneuvers are built in HERO System so that you can come up with new ones.
In the ancient days of Hero Games, there were two types of martial arts. In Danger International (a TOP SECRET/action hero-type game) there were a few martial arts packages of a specific cost which had a few maneuvers each, usually not quite as effective as what we have now. As opposed to Champions, which used a generic martial arts skill that had exactly FIVE maneuvers: Martial Block, Martial Dodge, Martial Kick, Martial Punch and Martial Throw. Your base Martial Arts cost was equal to your Strength rating because the damage maneuvers were a multiple of STR: The Throw was STR plus the velocity of the target, Punch was 150% of STR and Kick was x2 STR. So if you were a human vigilante with a Olympic-level 20 STR, your base unarmed damage is normally 4d6 in Hero, but with the old Martial Arts you paid a base 20 points to get a 6d6 Punch and 8d6 Kick. Needless to say, “Brick” heroes with 40 STR or more could never afford Martial Arts, and no sane GM would let them get it if they could.
It wasn't until Allston's original NINJA HERO that Hero got not only a full list of martial styles (in the format described above) but also the rules for how the maneuvers are actually designed so that you can see why they cost what they do, and design new examples.
In this system, the main restriction is that no single maneuver can cost more than 5 points or less than 3. A maneuver must have at least one Basis (plural: Bases), reflecting what it is supposed to do. Some are Exclusive, meaning a maneuver cannot have more than one of them, whereas others are Non-Exclusive and can have more than one of such. Most Maneuvers are Exclusive, and the Bases are usually self-explanatory (Strike means you attack a target). There are three Non-Exclusive Bases: Exert (STR bonus for non-damaging purposes like resisting a Grab), Grab Opponent (self explanatory) and Throw (puts the target on the ground, which creates certain combat situations). In some cases this means you can combine an Exclusive with a Non-Exclusive Basis (such as an attack that Grabs and does damage in the same action). The Bases do not themselves cost points.
A Maneuver costs points when you throw other modifiers into it according to the charts on page 94. Some of these are Helpful (they cost) and others are Restrictive (they reduce the cost). For instance adding Normal Damage to a Strike maneuver is 1 point per +d6 for the first two d6, then 2 more points for each d6 to a maximum of +4d6. Thus buying a Strike maneuver with the maximum +4d6 is 6 points, one more than allowed. So you have to buy it down. You can buy down OCV (or DCV) at -1 point per 1 point modifier and then OCV is also one for one. In HERO System an Offensive Strike (usually a Kick) is bought as +4d6 (6 pts.) with -2 OCV (-2 points) and +1 DCV (1) bringing the cost up to 5 points, reflecting a high-damage maneuver that is difficult to pull off but keeps the attacker at a distance. The OCV/DCV mods can also be reversed to create a “Sacrifice Strike” for the same points, reflecting a strong offense that leaves the attacker open.
This chapter also gives “strictly optional” rules for putting Power Advantages on Martial Maneuvers. The Base Cost of the Maneuver is based on a table on page 106, but in the case of most Strike (damage) maneuvers is equal to the maneuver's total DC times 5 (so a 20 STR character who bought 4 DCs with his martial arts and has an Offensive Strike does 12d6 with it, so the Strike is 60 Active Points for purpose of applying Advantages). The aforementioned OCV and DCV mods (-2 and +1 respectively) apply a flat 5 point adjustment per +1/-1, so the adjusted Active Points are actually 55. So in this case if you apply the Armor Piercing Advantage (+1/4 value) to the 55 point value attack, this is 14 points, so that's what it costs for the character to apply Armor Piercing to his Offensive Strike. However that's 12d6 against half defenses.
This chapter also presents the option of actually buying one's martial maneuvers as Powers, the way various martial-arts stunts are. One cool thing about this is that you get examples of how Power Limitations are applied to imitate Restrictive elements of a maneuver; for instance if a Throw-type maneuver takes the You Fall element (attacker falls down in the same hex as his target) this is represented as a Side Effect for -1/2 Limitation value.
Chapter Three- The Secrets of the Masters: Martial Arts Abilities goes over all those various cool martial-arts abilities martial artists have which aren't actually Martial Arts. These are usually built as Powers, or as Talents under different names. As in Surbrook's version of NINJA HERO (see below) these are organized on a general power level: Realistic, Cinematic, Wuxia, Video Game, Anime and Ninja, the latter being simply the list of abilities attributed to the Ninja. The format of each ability is similar to that of other Hero System books, listing its name, general effect, target area, range if any, END Cost, Skill Roll Penalty (if the ability is based on a Skill), full rules description and any options for customization (like 'Master' option for getting rid of that Skill Roll Limitation).
In terms of the distinction, Realistic abilities are intended to represent extra abilities attributed to martial artists in the real world. (For instance 'Battlefield Punch' is an example of one such stunt for Karate; it means the character has purchased the Autofire Advantage for his Martial Strike (punch) maneuver.) Cinematic abilities of course are examples of how physics work in Hollywood action movies and some Chinese and Japanese films. “Five Ways Cutting”, allowing a swordsman to strike foes with an Area of Effect attack, is one example. Wuxia abilities are named for Wuxia cinema but also include the more fantastic abilities attributed to real styles like Kung Fu, Pentjak-Silat, and so on. One example of such is the Self-Propelled Arrow Technique, in which the character sticks a length bow into the ground, pushes his feet against the bow string and goes off. Video Games are those flashy abilities in Street Fighter and other video games, such as throwing Ch'i Fireballs. (It is noted that in order to maintain the 'feel', the GM may require Video Game heroes to take the Incantations Limitation on their powers, otherwise known as 'The Sailor Moon Rule'.) Anime martial artists are actually more ridiculous than that, with attacks using lots of dice and affecting lots of targets, such as the “Wave Motion Blast” that is probably better known as 'the Kamehameha Wave'. Finally Ninja abilities are mostly realistic or cinematic but include more esoteric stuff like mind control or the ability to throw flames.
Chapter Four- Training For Perfection: Character Creation goes over how the standard character creation rules work with all this, and what options are best for a martial-arts-genre character. It starts by going over some typical and not so typical archetypes (some of which like the Buddhist Warrior-Monk, Samurai and of course Ninja, are given their own skill templates). Next there are the Skills often used by martial artist characters and how they can be expanded for usefulness in combat. Acrobatics, for instance, allows a character to minimize the effects of being thrown or prone and represents Jackie Chan-type stunts like running up a wall to flip behind a target. This section also defines how the Analyze skill gains bonuses when used to analyze an opponent's style, and gives a new Skill, Feint which when used successfully gains a combat bonus on the opponent who's been faked out. (Well, it's new in 6th Edition, it was previously in The Ultimate Skill.) This chapter also goes over appropriate Powers, although in great respect it just goes back over how some martial arts “techniques” are designed as per the examples of the last chapter. Finally Chapter Four reviews some of the Complications appropriate to a martial artist; again the primary example here is the Style Complication, reflecting how a character with a recognizable style can be taken advantage of in combat (in game terms it gives a +2 to another character's Analyze Style roll), and also how students of a rival style can be antagonized when they recognize the character's allegiance. Mechanically the Style Complication is bought as Not Concealable, Always Noticed And Recognizable, Detectable Only By Large Group (other martial artists). This is worth 10 points.
Chapter Five: Martial Arts Genre By Genre simply gives example characters for each HERO System genre of play. These provide different methods for character creation, for instance a villain created by an evil cult uses a “Fist of the Death Dragon” which is actually a set of Hand-to-Hand attacks in a Multipower rather than a set of martial maneuvers. In the Fantasy genre, it's also pointed out that the old Irish tales had heroes who could perform various feats on par with the eastern Wuxia or Anime stories; however such a character isn't presented here, instead the Fantasy example is a female fencer.
Chapter Six- Blood And Steel: Martial Arts Combat details how these rules intersect with the core combat rules, specifically Chapter Three of the core Volume II ('6E2'). In many cases, such as Grab, the martial maneuver is based on a core maneuver that is given extra bonuses or elements by the martial style. There are also some very relevant rules and reminders for certain combat situations, like being in cramped quarters or being bound.
This section also has a list of Martial Arts Weapons, with game stats and various notes as to their historical origins and uses. So not only do you have conventional weapons like the Cutlass but also the Kama (an Okinawan sickle, used mainly for fieldwork but also one of the primary weapons of the original Karate style) and the Iron Mandarin Duck. (It's a piece of iron used as a throwing weapon. It's shaped like a duck.)
There are also rules for armor, mainly for old samurai armor and modern Kendo armor, which take Limitations for having half or no value vs. gunfire (which is realistic, but it begs the question of why most armor isn't like this, or why most guns aren't built as Armor Piercing).
Chapter Seven- Ninja HERO: The Martial Arts Genre is a GM advice/background chapter. It directly parallels the text of Mike Surbrook's NINJA HERO (the more recent one, written for 5th Edition) which unlike its predecessor was not a pure martial-arts sourcebook so much as a genre book for various types of Martial Arts media. Again, these media (mainly movies) are classified largely by power level: Realistic, Cinematic, Wuxia, Video Game and Anime.
As in other genre sourcebooks, this one gives a brief list of genre “bits” such as Ninja (or the local equivalent), Eunuchs (mainly in Imperial China settings) and the Rivalry between martial arts schools.
In gamemastering a NINJA HERO game, the book advises that one start in terms of the PC's power level and plan accordingly; a Realistic hero might be able to face two or three opponents at once, but a single Anime hero or even Wuxia hero can fight through whole armies of opposition. In such cases the only thing the PC has to fear is a martial artist of equivalent level. The subject of gamemastering also touches upon those various genre bits- the drive to gain greater mastery by means of seeking out legendary masters or secret scrolls, for instance, will set the course of various adventures.
This chapter also describes how the GM should use various PC Complications; for instance it's mentioned that the Dependent NPC should often be taken as a “Floating DNPC” given how often supporting characters tend to die in these stories. The same thing applies to Hunters- especially given how many of these stories are a plot of villains bully hero, hero either escalates or takes no action, either way villains respond by striking at the 'DNPC' and the hero has to respond by killing the villains. Another option here is the Group DNPC - a character the whole group is somehow sworn to protect (that is, every PC takes that same character as a DNPC). This option is recommended as a means of naturally bringing PCs together, for instance everyone is trying to protect the true heir to the throne. There is also a very important sidebar for the Environment listing the defenses and BODY of various objects you would expect to see get used or broken in a martial arts fight scene, like Japanese paper walls, rakes, pool cues and “Statue of Buddha, Giant, Bronze.”
After discussion of the genre's main NPC and villain types, which again parallels the last NINJA HERO, there is a Bibliography which is actually a combination Glossary of common terms, a long list of Asian Names for the main eastern nationalities, and an actual bibliography, including not only non-fiction books but a few comic/manga examples and most importantly, films. Then there's the Index.
SUMMARY
HERO System Martial Arts is a high-quality book for martial arts concepts, real-world styles and fancy maneuver/superpowers. If you already have the 5th Edition NINJA HERO and The Ultimate Martial Artist, it may not be that useful, given that it goes over much the same ground. However, it is, like the original NINJA HERO, both a rules book and a genre book, so you get a concise, go-to source of material, and one updated for 6th Edition HERO.
Style: 3
The book doesn't have all the gloss of Hero's new hardcover books, but it has a lot of those great quotes.
Substance: 5
HERO System Martial Arts is the next development of a martial arts system that ranks up there with and probably exceeds GURPS Martial Arts and Palladium's Ninjas and Superspies.
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