Batjutsu

Following on from a question in the Street Fighter Facebook about Favorite Moments in a campaign, https://www.facebook.com/groups/sfstg/permalink/2878669785670342/  I checked through some old chronicle notes and I replied with a summary of events leading up to my favorite moment. This post has a bit of extra information.

My first chronicle was set in Chicago (building upon the group’s familiarity with the city due to many Vampire: the Masquerade games). The party had many PCs, the game had a few regular players and several that would turn up when they could, so it could almost be classed as a West Marches campaign. There were two teams, ‘Force of Honor’ and ‘Chicago Hope’, plus several independent fighters. Each team had their own gaming session, in which they were the focus. In reality there was only a few moments of cross over, although more had been discussed. The fighters had the backing of Franklin Thomson, a retired boxer and body builder, who now ran Excalibur Productions, plus the gym that the fighters lived in. Main support was Ms Jessica Byers, sports psychologist (Best of the Best inspiration), agent to the stars and manager of fighters. Excalibur Productions also had a sizeable investment in The Focus Club (a bit of inspiration from Vampire Succubus Club). A serious part of the money for Excalibur Productions had come from a PC, William Cheung.

Force of Honour team leader was William Cheung (KF). He was a movie star, in the game almost the star of Point Break 2, later he indeed gets to shout at someone “I am an F.B.I. agent!” William was heavily conflicted, often overly serious, almost image obsessed, wants more fame and money so was pondering a return to the movies, but also wanted to be seen as a serious fighter. He also admitted to someone that he wanted to soon become a wise and patient Sifu. William was caught between Patience vs Impatience. External material obsessed, but yearned to become more Internal focused. Other player characters for Excalibur Productions:

• Lang Shan Po (TK) – Child prodigy fighter, now adult honorable warrior
• Furuinoshi Hanzo (Ninja) – Air Elementalist and mysterious one, mostly full of crazy plans, but once in a while a genius plan
• Tagas Osari (TK) – x-pro Muay Thai, comedy obsessed
• Chuen Thai (WS) – a Chun Li clone?!
• Dean Peters (WK) – x-gang member, now shop worker
• Leung Bok Cho (JKD (KF)) – ‘Konfident’ Kung Fu Kid
• Brad Kingston (KJD (previously WK)) – x-Cop, now DEA
• Dillon Blayne (WS) – entertainer (triple threat)
• Nathan De Agostini (SF) – x-military now FBI
• Philipe Palcaro (Cap) – pro dancer
• ‘Inferno’ Sheng (Kab) – spiritual man who is also a gambling addict
• Cazkin (Ninja) – Street Punk
• Jake Union (JJ) – pro athlete turned fighter

A few moments that stuck with the Force of Honour team.

1) Minor but funny: After the trip to Las Vegas and liberating the Kraken Files, the team returned to Chicago. However, team member Lang Shan Po had got noticed by both Shadoloo and the Mafia. As a distinctive Thai Fighter, partly due to his impressive dreadlocks, there was an awkward conversation between William and Lang about disguises that resulted in Lang deciding to cut his dreadlocks off. Before a few hours before this event, another player character, Tagas Osari had already initiated what had been a trivial comedy bit. Tagas was also Thai Fighter with a similar build and look to Lang, but had a shaved head. Tagas was a bit of prankster and comedy obsessed, so had decided to cash in on their similar looks and got William’s movie hairdresser to assist with getting fake dreadlocks. His intention had been to pretend to be Lang, but exaggerate Lang’s mannerisms to 11. A few hours later, whilst Tagas was on his way back to the gym to impersonate Lang, some Mafia heavies came to interrogate Lang and tried to grab him, but of course it was Tagas. Tagas managed to escape and got back just as Lang arrived, with his freshly shaved head. William had near meltdown. A wonderful bit of anime-like fun.

2) Days of annoyance occurred at Excalibur Productions with someone who was trying the Stable out. This was Jean Claude Van Davros (SF). (JCVD meets Davros from Dr Who with a touch of the Merc with a Mouth. This character was originally played in a Palladium Ninjas & Superspies game, but was so loved and hated, a SF version was created.)  JCVD was an x-military cyborg, egotistical joking chatterbox. A good looking and charismatic jerk, who likes to string people along, always look for a way to socially climb over people. The real reason JCVD was there was try to get a fight with William Cheung, who was a rising star on the local circuit, and had become hard to get a fight win. JCVD had been annoying everyone so much that he was sure he would get a fight. Eventually the ruse was revealed and everyone was so sick of JCVD there was a verbal confrontation. William gave a stunning takedown of JCVD, ending with “We all know you are a fake persona, only playing at fighting. You have no honor.” William then turns nasty, “Sadly, you are beneath me! If you can beat my student, only then can you fight me.” Of course this was a ruse, unbeknownst to just about everyone, the student, Cheun Tai, was secretly a Chun Li clone that had escaped from a mad science project; she was far more powerful than her youthful appearance. She had not fought in public yet. A quick win for Cheun Tai, plus a rare Perfect. Out of character (OOC), it was some outrageous good luck for Cheun and bad luck for JCVD, but In Character (IC) the one sided beat down stunned everyone.

3) After JCVD vs William, the Mafia and Shadoloo problems got worse. After several escalating incidents, some people from Excalibur Productions were hospitalized. William had previously been approached by friendly local business man and Kung Fru practitioner Li Pan (partly inspired by Big Trouble in Little China’s Lo Pan). Li had been trying to get William to help out with fund raisers, business connections, but was secretly a high ranking member of Shadoloo. At once fundraiser William was affected by Purple Haze and some serious damage was the result. Afterwards William’s conflicts led to him initiating a few backup plans, in case things went wildly one way or another, including an exit plan.

William had grown sick of all of the problems that were getting in the way of his numerous plans, plus the threats to his business and friends, half of whom he pondered if they were a liability. Even Franklin Thomson and Ms Jessica Byers could no longer talk with William without arguments. Publicly, William had become a bit of a party animal. Estranged from his team members. Rumors were abound about William belittling Tagas and Lang. That Cheun had left. There were even rumors that William was going to shift his focus away from fighting and to The Focus Club, to party full-time.

Of course this was all a cunning plan. The party had secretly chosen to work with a few government agents, but on the hush to prevent any leaks. So, after a while of Li Pan trying to corrupt William, a special meeting was set up. Li was of course lying, which William and the team suspected. William was a great actor, which they knew that Li knew, so both sides over compensated with backup plans. Some serious support was arranged to storm the meeting. The meeting was of course rearranged several times. Finally, the meeting goes ahead, most of the support teams on both sides, having to travel some distance to catch up. Li with some of his team are talking to William, with the other members of Force of Honor in the background. Secretly Cheun Tai was also present, hiding in the rafters. The party ninja had arranged all of this ahead of time, predicting Li would likely use this isolated location. Li reveals his plans for William, William plays it cool, staying in character. When Li demands that William join him and fight his teammates to prove his commitment there is silence … a second passes… (OOC everyone knows what the plan is, why is William waiting) … William turns to look at his teammates (Ian the player turns to the party) and winks … as William turns back to Li, Li says, “Join me and I will teach you Dim Mak.” Now, Dim Mak was a path that William had previously obsessed over. (OOC the other players freak out, suspecting William is about to legitimately betray them.) IC another second passes. William looks up to where he knows Cheun Tai is hiding, he knows she had also wanted to learn Dim Mak. Suddenly all the plans radically shifted, would Cheun betray them? If only William changed sides, maybe they would still lose. If William didn’t betray, but what if Cheun did? It would be a close call either way. OOC all the players are quiet, Ian looks at his character sheet for a few seconds, then lifts his head and is back in character, “I am an F.B.I. agent!” Bam, big fight erupts. William had concluded, that since Cheun was sort of his protégée, she would stick by him and the team, the only people that had been nice to her. Li Pan is defeated. All is great IC.

After the gaming session, the other players are buzzing, they say to Ian that they were suddenly sure that William would betray them and therefore Chuen would as well. Ian just grins and replies, “You sensed it, because I almost did. But, I really wanted to say the line.”

Replies to questions on the Facebook group: Sadly, William never learned Dim Mak, but he did learn Dragon Kick, which was one of his goals. 😃 Unfortunately the player moved away a few years later, so William’s great story was never finished. Maybe, one day 🤷 🙂

In those sessions, the Chun Li clone, Cheun Tai, was an NPC. The character originally started out for a gaming session that was just fighting, so everyone had a chance to experience fights, then design their characters. The clone angle did not grant her additional character points. Although she was not as broken as the original books fully allowed, but she did have Cartwheel Kick 😉 Oddly, the rare times she needed to roll for something, it was often freakishly good dice results, which were rolled in front of everyone.
Just to add when I was Storytelling, Cheun Tai was not played as a bad DMPC (power trip with invulnerability).

Funny tangent, Ian, the player of William, in an old Cyberpunk 2020 game was constantly getting outrageous dice results, but people using his dice didn’t, very quirky. Whilst another friend had constantly bad luck in that campaign, yet in the Vampire Giovanni Chronicles, that player had incredible luck. Isn’t randomness funny.