help with Martial Arts Game

characters will be martial arts people.

I want:
different styles (Karate, Kung Fu, Ninjitsu, Tae Kwon Do, etc.)
different weapons (nunchaku, sword, spear, staff, mace, etc.)
different moves (uppercut, flying knee, tiger claw, etc.)

...

it needs to be simple and playable by 6 year olds.
any suggestions?

Hey Dete,

That's a tall order. Combining styles, moves, and weapons ratchets up the complexity pretty quickly. Even Munchkin Fu -- a great suggestion for a source game -- is beyond most 6 year olds.

My suggestion would be to make a super-simple base game with an add-on pack that includes more complex features.

For example, in the basic game you get a pack of character cards and associated miniatures. The character cards list color-coded styles and modifiers. For example:

"Bob the Ninja"
Taijitsu (the name for the ninja hand-to-hand fighting arts) -- listed in black.
Weapon -- Katana (listed in white)

"Dale the Kung Fu Master"
White Crane Kung Fu (white)
Mantis Style (red)
Tiger Style (yellow)

"Phil the Black Belt"
Tae Kwon Do (blue)

etc.

Every character has 3 "hit points" (a character's current status is shown by numbers 0-3, one on each edge of its card. You just rotate the card so that the current number of hit points is at the edge).

Every character can move 3 squares during his turn.

Every character can attack once per turn, any time during its move, as long as there is an orthogonally adjacent character. Once you attack, your move is over.

To resolve an attack, you roll 3 color dice. You score 1 point of damage for each color that matches one of the color-coded powers on the attacking character card.

That's pretty much it for the basic system. 6 year olds should be able to grasp that, though it still might tax their attention spans.

To expand on this simple framework, you could introduce "action decks" with cards like:

"Crane Stance" -- play on any character with a white style. Reduce damage by 1 point for each attack.

"Pole arm" -- play on any character with a weapon skill. This character may attack diagonally adjacent characters.

"Dim Mak" -- discard during any black-technique attack. Double damage from black pips that round.

You'd need some additional rules: never more than 1 stance at a time. Never more than one technique used in a single attack. Never more than one weapon in use by a character at one time.

You can increase the complexity and depth of the game by introducing various "deck building" mechanics.

The "Action Decks" are too involved for 6 year olds, but should give older players a reason to get the bare-bones version of the game.

You're working on a neat idea. I can't wait to see how it develops.

Kreitler

That would be Capoiera and it's definately NOT a grappling martial art. It's more acrobatic than kick boxing, though they are in a similar line.

Your Greco-Roman should be a grappler style since that is ENTIRELY grappling. You also might want to incorporate Krav Mga (Not sure how to spell it). It's a soviet martial arts whose emphasis is on efficiency of moves and power.

I also have a martial art game in my game draft list. In my game, each player has a set of customizable cards and they fight each other. There is no board in my game. It looks more like the WWF Rawdeal CCG.

There is various information of the cards but one of the info is a letter ranging from A to E. Moves can be chained together by either making series of letter ex: A.B.C, C.D.E, etc. This create combos. Power move are created by combining the same letters ex: D+D, A+A. Which mean that could make a 2 move combo with a power move using a serie like : C.D+D.

I won't get in all the details but for example, some special effect cannot take effect by them self, you need 2 or more cards. For example, if you have the ability "Knockdown 1/2" on a card, you need another card in the series with the same ability for the "knockdown" ability to take effect.

There is also counter move card from where you can start making combo. I am thinking on an initiative and priority system, there is also a gauge that can be filled up to perform special move. In other words, I really want to make it like a fighting video game.

Still, I am not sure if I am going to place unique move names on each card since I don't know much about martial art. If I do put name, some letter combos could seem weird if you tried to do exactly the same move in real life. I don't want to make a martial art simulator.

I don't mind having an "anime" style game. I am just not sure if I am going to place supernatural stuff like fireballs and hadokens.

Like I said in a PM, I am going to use a point system like in the Video game Fighter's Destiny on the N64, which will make the game somewhat look like a sport. But I do not necessarily want something more serious because there is a point system.

Of course, I want to make a generic game system that could be played in different ways like: tag team, survivor, etc.

From what I can see now, all the cards will be made with permutations of numbers, letters and special ability. There won't be many unique rules, because since it it a direct CCG, the area of effect of a card is really limited (hand, deck, discard, played cards). In WWF rawdeal, most unique text on cards will only make you draw, lose or recover cards, there is not much possibilities.

But even if I only use stats permutations for creating cards, I must find a way to make the deck creation interesting. From now, I have 3 customizable card game ideas that use stats permutation and the deck configuration is always boring.

Um, here's a way out idea...

The game's for six year olds right? And involves simple dice rolls that resolve according to a paper scissors rock (PSR) mechanism?

Well why not have the little scamps literally play real PSR? Invent three physical MA moves or however many you need (say 'chop', 'block' and 'punch').

Then have the cards/styles whatever resolve which move beats what for a given match up.

Adding a physical aspect to the game has to appeal to little kids. And if you added more 'moves' in advanced packs, then they have something to learn and get good at. You could even appoint one kid a referee who judges whether a 'move' was performed legally.

Just in case anyone misunderstands this, I'm not suggesting they hit one another, just invent some cool MA moves to replace the familiar palm/fist/fingers moves of the classic PSR.

If you're not worried about realism, I would suggest the possibility of not using RLMA (real life martial arts) as your basis for combat. Shucking that particular restriction would allow you to define the combat style ("Chuck Yu Fu is only useful against grappling styles" which can reenforce your Rock/Scissors/Paper win/loss conditions) and not leave any confusion, anywhere, that this is a kid's game.

The reason I suggest this is two-fold.
1.) 6 year olds won't care if the styles aren't real. Look at Sponge-Bob... lives in a giant ruttin' pineapple.
2.) If you utilize real-life styles, you will be pitting your interpretation against the preconceived notions of everyone who picks up the game. By making your own styles, and perhaps giving them cute names, you automatically place your game outside of the realm of "real life" and remind people that it's for fun... without the need for a written apology anywhere in the rules.
Summarized: it's an automatic caveat that let's you do what you want and nobody will mind.

Just a point. Might have already been made.