One of my favourite Youtube channels is Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting. So many informative videos, he talks about how the Frame is a playground, have fun. For example the wonderful:
One of the things Tony talks about in the above video is how Jackie’s characters have to desperately struggle from an underdog position. In addition to using a lot of wide shots, Jackie and is team are often framing the scene, foreshadowing character using the environment and objects present. Jackie also often uses the tactic of setting an opponent up, to trap them by repeating a strike but then switching it up.
In the following fight video, GSP kept using low kicks then trying to land a head kick. In the post-fight interview, which the video doesn’t include, GPS explained how he tricked Hughes by regularly glancing down whilst performing the low kick: “I look down, then I kick him in the head”. This is more than basic feinting; this is about repeating patterns, then the opponent has to figure out whether there is a combination, or part of a larger tactic.
As always tinkering with a system carries risks, but so far I’ve found the following interesting: Framing a Feint. The initial few ideas were overly complicated; I was not trying to convert The Riddle of Steel for SFRPG. After a bunch of playtests I came to a more simplified version, one that did not slow things down too much. In addition to adding extra fight psychology, part of the reasoning was to make Basic Maneuvers both more appealing to choose and interesting when played. This is an interesting area of the game, part of the design included recognising that Street Fighter’s abstraction of combat can be said to include feinting and the subtleties of combat tactics. Whilst I mostly agree with this answer, I feel that this variation on a combo pattern is not represented well; there is one reference to feint in the system with Reverse Frontal Kick.
Frame Feint (SFRPG)
Pre-requisites: Technique at 3+
Players have two special Frame Feint cards: Feint & Not Feint.
At the end of the turn, after playing a Basic Maneuver, that player can choose to place one of their Frame Feint cards face down. This indicates that the player is possibly setting-up their opponent next turn, but they don’t have to play one of these Frame Feint cards, leaving themselves free to choose any Maneuver next turn, even a Basic Maneuver. Cannot be used as part of a combo, thus no speed bonuses, or damage towards dizzy. This cannot be paired with Chain Combos (Issue 11 of Warrior’s Fist / Punho do Guerreiro).
Next turn, if a Frame Feint card is in play, after players have chosen their combat card, but before speeds are declared, the opponent can choose to declare: Prepare for Feint or Call Bluff. The Frame Feint card is revealed and the following damage modifier is applied to their Basic Maneuver for that turn. No modifier to the other player for simplicity sake and speed of play.
| Prepare for Feint | Call Bluff | |
| Feint | -1 damage -1 speed | +1 damage +1 speed |
| Not Feint | +1 damage +1 speed | -1 damage -1 speed |
So 50/50 chance of predicting a Feint or not, in either scenario, 50% chance of getting a bonus or a penalty, so why bother? Some players like the extra dilemma, and the fact Basic Maneuvers feel less basic.
Should there be a separate roll to accommodate characters with an appropriate ability, like Subterfuge + Technique versus Alertness/Insight + Technique? Possibly, but I felt that slowed the game down too much.
The idea of this requiring a Special Maneuver to unlock defeats the idea for me, for things like this, I do not want to have to redesign the vast number of NPC fighters. Plus, if players have it, World Warriors do. 😉 Another idea was to require the attacker have played at least 2 Basic Maneuvers in a row previously.
I feel like this needs more playtesting, maybe the penalty for being successful predicted should be bigger? Maybe you’d like to experiment with it.
Other Peoples’ Answers
Anthony Boyd @Runeslinger
Charles Etheridge-Nunn @charlie_en
Bob Freeman @OccultDetective
Geek-Life Balance @cybogoblin
Paco from GMS Magazine @gmsmagazine
Melestrua @Melestrua
Kehaar @DissectingWrlds
Paul Baldowski @deesanction
Sue Savage @SavageSpiel
John M. Kahane @jkahane1
Ben Erickson @darkcyril
This is a non-exhaustive list; I still have many posts to read today, so I might be adding more links. I’d recommend searching the hashtag and judge those great answers for yourself: #RPGaDay2020, some people use #RPGaDay.
Batjutsu 