04 Apr Pan-Pacifica Preview #3 – Martial Arts

This week we take a look at one of Pan-Pacifica’s signature abilities: Vitality Powers.  However, remember that these previews cover work that is still in testing and the development stages, and don’t necessarily represent the final text.

Meanwhile…

Art by Henry Tantiado and Mitch Mueller

An Inner Vitality

Many natives of Pan-Pacifica and Marketplace learn to control their breathing, and become mindful of their body, which allows them to tap into Marketplace’s World Laws and enhance their natural abilities. These Vitality Powers (formerly Ki Powers) are activated by expending Shock to gain a benefit. Only one Vitality Power or Technique can be activated in an action, unless they are made into a combo.

To do a combo, the hero picks the Techniques he will use before making the roll, applying a -2 Multi-Action penalty to the attack for each additional Technique after the first. This is an exception to the normal rule prohibiting Multi-Actions using the same skill. All the Techniques must be made against a single target (unless otherwise allowed by an ability like the Combo Expert Perk).

Here’s one of the new Vitality Perks:

Paths and Techniques

Art by Henry Tantiado and Mitch Mueller

There are different paths that martial artists and other Vitality Power users can take, each represented by a Perk. The benefits of a Path Perk depend on the number of adds in the Path’s skill, and each Path includes eight Techniques (though those which require 6, 7, or 8 adds can only be gained by also taking the Mastery Perk in that skill). Only one Path Perk may be selected (unless the character takes the Multi Disciplined Perk).

Although unarmed combat is the most common Path skill (e.g for Path of the Foot and Fist), Path skills also include melee weapons (Path of the Sword), stealth (Path of Shadow), fire combat or energy weapons (Path of the Gun), and even more esoteric skills like kinesis (Path of Unification), faith (Path of Palan), and even streetwise (Path of the Hero).  Here are a couple of examples:

Coming Soon!

Over the next several weeks we’ll be highlighting different parts of the Pan-Pacifica Sourcebook including new Perks, psionic powers, power suits, miracles, and Threats. Additionally we’ll preview bits from the adventure: Operation Soft Sell, and Infiniverse Update! If you have any questions or would like to discuss this preview, head on over to the Ulisses Spiele Discord server!