2nd Edition: Style Change - Part 1
Christopher
Multiple Styles: This Quality is a specific version of the Technique Quality (see below) and can only be taken at character creation; it is not available when the Fighter gains Qualities at higher Power Levels.
A Fighter with this Quality has the ability to switch between two or more different fighting styles, each with their own Special Moves that are generally only accessible when fighting in a single particular style. The character must take this Quality one time for each additional fighting style he possesses. Therefore, a character who takes this Quality once has two different styles, while a character who takes this Quality twice has three different styles. The Director may limit how many times a character may take this Quality; more than three styles is certainly possible, but is extremely rare in the source material. The rules about making and using Special and Super Moves in multiple styles are found in Chapter Four.
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Building Multiple Styles
When a character with Multiple Styles builds a Special Move or Super Move, the move costs one more Move Point for each additional style the character knows. However, this cost allows the character to acquire one Special Move or Super Move for each style. Each of these moves is built individually. Each of a Fighter’s styles should have some thematic consistency, though how much this is required is up to the Director.
Example 1: Hiro has the Multiple Styles Quality, meaning he has two different styles. He chooses to build an L3 Special Move, which would normally cost 3 Move Points. Because he has the Multiple Styles Quality, this instead costs 4 Move Points. However, he then gets to build a separate L3 Special Move for each of his two styles.
Example 2: Suzuka has taken the Multiple Styles Quality twice, as she has three different fighting styles. She chooses to build a powerful L5 Super Move. Instead of costing 5 Move Points, this costs 7 Move Points, as she has taken Multiple Styles twice. For the cost of 7 Move Points, she gets to add a unique L5 Super Move to each of her three styles.
Fighters with Multiple Styles obviously have many more Special Moves than other characters, but they are limited in two ways. Because all of their Special Moves cost more Move Points, such characters will tend to have fewer higher level Special Moves (e.g., L4 and L5 moves), which somewhat limits their ability to use more powerful or more complicated moves.
More significantly, a character with Multiple Styles can only access the moves from one style at any one time. Regardless of how many styles a Fighter possesses, one of them must be defined as the character’s Base Style. A character always starts a fight in his Base Style. In order to switch Styles, the Fighter must use the Style Change move as an action on his turn. This is an L2 Command Move.
Style Change: L2
Keywords: Utility, No Damage, Normal Move, Instantaneous
Combo: This move can be used in a Combo. It is not considered a Special Move when placed in a Combo.
Special: This move costs 2 FS to use, with the exception of using it more than once in a single turn. In this latter case, it costs 2 FS to use the first time and then 1 FS to use each subsequent time. If the character has no FS remaining, he can still use this move, but he cannot use it in a Combo. As the cost of this move is 2 FS, this does mean that a PL 1 character, even though he may have two or more styles, cannot switch styles from his Base Style in combat until reaching PL 2, as a character can only spend FS equal to his PL on any given instance.
In some cases, a character might want to have access
to the same Special Move or Super Move in multiple styles. Instead of the default rule above, with the
Director’s permission, the character can choose how many extra move points to
spend in order to determine how many styles gain new moves.
Thus, a Fighter could build a move at no extra cost in Move Points to add a move to a single style, even if he possessed more than one style. A character with three styles could choose to spend only one extra Move Point to add a new move to two styles, but not all three. This means the cost to add a new move is increased by one for each extra style that will also receive a new move. This also means that a Fighter could have a “style” that has no moves at all in it, subject to later advancement. The character’s Base Style, however, must have at least one Special Move in it at character creation.
If a Fighter wanted to add the same Special Move or Super Move to all of his styles, he would pay a number of extra Move Points equal to his total styles minus one (Styles-1) and then place the exact same move in each of his styles. Such a move is called a Cross-Style Move.
There are some limits about building Special Moves in multiple styles, especially in how they interact with one another. Cross-Style Moves are not subject to these limitations.
1) A Special Move from one style cannot affect a Special Move from any other style (such as with the Power Enhancer Element).
2) Any ongoing effect on him generated from a move in one style automatically ends when the Fighter switches to another style.
A character with multiple styles earns Glory for moves at a slightly different rate than other Fighters. Any move defined as a Cross-Style Move earns Glory as normal, once per fight (not once per use in each style). For all other Special Moves, the character divides the normal Glory earned for a move by the number of non-empty styles he possesses, rounding up. This applies even if the move is available in more than one style, but not in all styles. Glory is earned the first time the move is used, as normal. If the Glory earned is modified (e.g., by Increased Glory), then the normal Glory award is calculated first before halving it.
Example: One of Suzuka’s styles has an L3 move that has Increased Glory on it. Such a move would normally earn 5 Glory. However, because she has three styles, the move only earns (5/3, round up) 2 Glory.
