quote:
"You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. You don't know what I am made of or what I am capable of. You don't know where I come from or where I am heading. You know nothing of my highs or lows. You don't know how strong I am, how fast I am, or how resilient I am. You don't even know my name but you will."
- Olympics ad from the 2012 games
Let me start off by saying why I am looking for what I am. Everybody looks for something in games that they can't in real life. Adventure for some. Romance for others. Some look to Adult games for intimacy (polite way of saying it *wink, wink*) because they can't get it in real life for whatever reason.
I find myself in an a similar situation these days. I used to be a fighter. Boxer, kickboxer... you name it I did it and I can't anymore thanks to a mostly useless leg. What I want is to be able to play that. To be able to play something I know and love. And I'm not asking to be a ninja or fly around wires either. I'm not asking to be a Roman gladiator. So let me lay out what I want.
I want to play in a Western Styled martial arts game focused around professional fighters working towards a championship. Inspired by such classics as Rocky and Raging Bull as well as newer sources like Warrior and the anime Hajime no Ippo (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...g_Spirit_(manga))Let me start off by defining what I mean by that.
When I say Eastern or Western I am not referring to the actual martial arts involved but rather the tone of the game. I am speaking of the Eastern take being heavy on the mystical, chi, and mind-over-matter, of-course-our-fight-is-on-a-wire-rig-but-we-won't-say-that styles, etc, and Western being heavy on the physical work of mastering the moves and warrior-succeeds-despite-all-odds-through-sheer-grit-and-determination-as-opposed-to-mastery-of-some-mystical-skill resolution.
System wise I am open to suggestions. I would suggest Contenders but no one ever wants to play or run that except for me. Wushu could be cool. Burn Legend (Shards of the Exalted Dream) would work nicely. Gurps 3e (I don't have 4e) would do it well. Street Fighter could do it if you cut out the mystic elements. NWOD could it if Fighting Styles were used. Maybe use a few options from Mirrors. But I'm open to most anything that isn't Hero, Palladium, or 4e.
Setting is harder. A modern setting would be preferable but I could see a steampunk or sci-fi setting working too. Pure fantasy... not so much. I want to keep the characters and the fighting as down to earth as possible. Cinematic but not beyond the realm of human accomplishment.
Now I have asked for games like this before but never once have I actually gotten to play it without being a gm in it. Not a single time and I would dearly love to do so. The martial arts and fighting were my life. Now I can't do it and I would like to reconnect with it in some way through a game like this.