Today we're going to finish the Combat Maneuvers, including the cooler Martial Arts maneuvers, then we'll start on damage.
The next combat maneuver is the Move Through. Unlike a Move By, where you're striking a target as you go by them at high velocity, this time you're running right through them. It's another full-move action, and you end the phase in the same hex as the target. If the target knows you're coming, your OCV takes a penalty of -1/5" of movement. If they are unaware, you take no penalty. Assuming you hit, you deal out your STR damage (1D6 per 5 points) plus 1D6 for every 3" of velocity you hit him with. That can add up, but there's a catch: You take half the damage yourself against your own PD.
So, let's say Quicksilver is doing a Move Through on the Toad. Assuming the maneuver is successful, and QS has a STR of 15 and a speed of 25", he's going to do 15/5 = 3D6 of damage from his STR score, plus 5D6 for his velocity (25/5), for a total of 8D6 damage to the Toad. However, Quicksilver will himself take 4D6 damage from the impact. Hopefully his own PD will protect him.
And that's it for the basic maneuvers. All characters can use these regardless of their combat training. However, the next set of five maneuvers are only for people who bought the Martial Arts skill. Later editions of the game would incorporate many other maneuvers, allowing players to pick different maneuvers to simulate specific styles of martial arts. However, in this early stage, everyone has the same five maneuvers to pick from.
First up is the Martial Punch, which is the same as a normal punch except that you get a +2 bonus to your DCV, and you do an additional 1/2 of your STR damage. So a character with a 20 STR and Martial Arts would do 20+10 = 30/5 = 6D6 punching damage.
Next is the Martial Kick, which has, like the normal Kick maneuver, a -2 OCV penalty. However, it comes with a +1 DCV bonus rather than a -2 penalty. In addition, the damage is now double your STR, so that 20 STR would now do 8D6 damage with a Martial Kick.
The Martial Block is the same as a normal block, except that the blocking character gets a +2 bonus to both OCV and DCV. There's a damage multiplier of x2 on the chart, but I'm going to call that a typo since there is no damage when you block.
The Martial Dodge is an improved Dodge maneuver, giving a DCV bonus of +5 rather than +3. Otherwise, it's exactly the same.
Finally, there's the Martial Throw. Everyone in comics knows jiu-jitsu, apparently. This one is very useful when someone is running at you. You get a bonus to your OCV of +1 for every 5" of velocity your target has. This means that if they're not actually running at you, you don't get an OCV bonus. But in the above Quicksilver-Toad example, if the Toad has Martial Arts, he could try to Throw Quicksilver before he gets hit, and he'd get a +5 bonus to his OCV thanks to Quicky's speed. The thrower also gets a +1 DCV bonus. If he hits, he grabs the target and launches him into any adjacent hex. You can abort to this like a block. And if you are successful, the target takes your STR damage plus 1D6 per 5" of movement. So, assuming Toad has a 20 STR, Quicksilver's rushing attack could end in disaster, since Toad will Martial Throw him for 20/5 = 4D6 (Strength) + 25/5 = 5D6 (velocity) = 9D6 damage total. That will leave a skid mark.
Since low rolls are preferred for combat (you're trying to roll under a target number), rolls of 3 are automatically hits, and rolls of 18 are automatically misses. GMs are specifically encouraged to treat these like 'critical hits and misses', so give an advantage for rolling a 3 (such as additional damage dice) and a disadvantage for rolling an 18 (you're off-balance for a phase, so you take a DCV penalty).
Next up are Surprise Attacks. If you're caught off-guard and unaware out of combat, your DCV is 0. If you're in a fight already but someone surprises you, you're still able to defend yourself at 1/2 your normal DCV. So, it's risky, but not deadly.
Next up is the Surprise Maneuver. This is basically a 'impress the GM' catch-all where if you do something that startles or surprises your opponent enough, the GM can give you a bonus to your OCV of up to +3 (or, if it's insanely good, even higher). Basically, it's a way to encourage creative play. Of course, villains get to use surprise maneuvers, too...
And that's it for trying to hit someone in Champions combat. However, once you do hit them, you still need to do damage. We've already gone over the basics of that way back in the introductory material, but here we get a more in-depth discussion of the subject. Damage is random, but somewhat reliable; the more dice you roll, the more likely you'll get an average or nearly-average result.
The basic rule is that for every 5 points in a power or STR, you get 1D6 of damage. So, a 40 STR and a 40-point Energy Blast do the same thing: 8D6 damage. You roll the 8 dice and add them up to get the total STUN damage. Then you count the BODY pips on the dice you just rolled as follows: if you rolled a 1, the die does 0 BODY. If you rolled a 6, count 2 BODY. Any other number results in 1 BODY. Add them all up to get the total amount of BODY done by the attack. So, Spider-Man (40 STR) punches the Scorpion in the face and hits him. He rolls his 8D6 damage as follows: 2,6,4,4,1,5,4,3. The total STUN is 29. The BODY is 1 for each die except for 6s (there's one) and 1s (there's also one). The total BODY on those dice is 8. Note that you do not reroll the damage; the STUN and BODY are both calculated off the same roll of the dice. So, Spider-Man's damage roll is 29 STUN and 8 BODY.
What happens next? We'll just have to find out next time, because that's it for this page. How's that for a suspensful cliffhanger?
