STREET FIGHTER ALPHA IN THE STREET FIGHTER RPG

Chapter One: Miscellaneous Stuff

By Chris Hoffmann

Things that have been changed

The new specialty backgrounds introduced in The Player's Guide (Animal Hybrid, Cybernetics, and Elemental) have been changed into Merits and are detailed on the Merits page.

Psycho Crusher and Repeating Fireball have been changed into Super Maneuvers and are no longer available as Special Maneuvers.

Acid Breath, Ice Blast, Yoga Flame, Inferno Strike, Shock Treatment, and Sonic Boom are now only available through the appropriate Elemental Power. In addition, they are available to anyone with the appropriate power regardless of Style.

The Books

The Games

By the same token, here are all the street fighter games (with abbreviations) that I may try to convert to SF:STG
Street Fighter (SF)
Not likely, I haven't even seen this game in over a decade
Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers (SSF)
White Wolf beat me to it
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SSFT)
Since Street Fighter Collection came out for PlayStation, this is now a real possibility
Street Fighter Alpha (SFA)
About a third to halfway done
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (SFA2)
Another possibility thanks to Street Fighter Collection
Street Fighter EX+Alpha (SFEX)
Possible, but not until I finish SFA
Street Fighter EX 2 (SFEX2)
Not sure if it's even in America yet
Street Fighter 3 (SF3)
I haven't even seen this game (but I heard they came out with a championship version already)
Street Fighter vs. X-Men (SFXM)
Not very likely. I have little hope for the PlayStation translation
Street Fighter vs. Marvel Superheros (SFMS)
Same as above

Tech Hits

Tech hits are escapes from grab maneuvers that reduce the damage done by half.

When two fighters both use standard (ie. the maneuver doesn't cost Chi, Willpower or Super Bar) throws or holds and the speeds are within one of each other, a tech hit results. The faster fighter does his move as normal but only inflicts half the damage shown by the dice (round-up). If this maneuver is a hold, then only the first hit connects at half damage and the fighter escapes immediately after.

A tech hit doesn't cause a knockdown. Although a thrown fighter will still wind up in the same hex as he normally would, the fighter lands on his feet.

Example: Zangief is fighting Honda in the World Warrior Tournament. Since they are in the same hex, Zangief attempts to suplex Honda (Speed 2) but Honda grabs him and Throws him (Speed 3) six hexes. Honda rolls 6 dice for damage and gets 5 successes. But since this is a tech hit, Honda only causes 3 damage (5/2 is 2.5 rounded up is 3) and Zangief is not knocked down.

Bonus Rounds

Yeah, I know SFA and SFA2 don't have bonus rounds, but the other Street Fighter Games did. So here they are.

Nearly any move can be executed except for grab maneuvers.

There are four different types of bonus rounds used in Street Fighter

Destroy a car in three rounds (30 seconds)
The car has twenty health, a soak of 3, and covers 2 hexes (hey, that car in SF2 looked really puny). Once the first half is demolished (10), the warrior has to attack the second half.
Destroy a stack of blocks in three rounds
Similar to the car, except that their is a double stack of blocks in one hex, and two single stacks adjacent to it. Each stack has five health and a soak of three. You are not allowed to attack the center-bottom stack until the top one and at least one other stack is destroyed.
Destroy a stack of flaming barrels in three rounds
Almost identical to the previous event, except that the barrels occasionally shoot gouts of flame. Each round one random stack of barrels (not the bottom one unless the top one is destroyed) will shoot a gout of flame with a speed of five, a (Unaggravated) damage of 5 and causes a knock down. The flame does no damage. The damage given is only used to compute dizzies in a similar manner as the heart punch(Sc). Multiple flame hits will combine like a dizzy combo. The flame will hit only if you attack the flaming stack with a slower move (it interrupts your move to hit you).
Destroy twenty falling barrels in twenty rounds
One barrel(with 3 health and five soak) will fall each round with a speed of five. If a barrel interrupts your move, it will hit you with a damage of 5 and cause a knockdown. Again, the damage is only used to compute dizzies and combine for a dizzy combo. The barrels are considered aerial opponents. This event is an exception to the above rule that disallows grab maneuvers. Both Zangief and Chun-Li are quite adept at performing Air Throws on falling barrels.

These are merely the standard bonus round, the tournament sponsor (aka the storyteller) can beef up or water down these events as much as they desire. (No one will forget the time Zangief had to destroy a Sherman tank in 30 seconds, or the time Blanka was insulted by being told to demolish a tricycle.)

By the way, these bonus rounds are usually reserved for World Warrior level tournaments, where they are used as an alternative to fighting on the by. If a given warrior can defeat the bonus round then he advances to the next round, otherwise he is disqualified from the tournament.

Test Your Might

Of course, some GMs may decide on a more tradional bonus event, like breaking blocks. To break various materials reqires a strength + apropriate technique (usually punch, although kick would also work, and at a stretch, athletics) check. In mystical campaigns, the GM can opt to make the test Focus + apropriate technique. The number of successes needed is equal to the number of blocks waiting to be smashed (or in later cases, the thickness of the material).

The difficulties for various materials are listed in the chart below.

MaterialDiff
Wood4
Stone5
Steel6
Ruby8
Diamond9
The materials would start with the easiest (wood) for the first bonus round and work their way up to the hardest (diamond) for the last.

Maintaining Challenge

During the course of a campaign, the players accumulate experience points, backgrounds and generally becomes more powerful and skilled. But it doesn't make sense that everyone else in the campaign world (especially the world warriors) is just static and unchanging. To simulate the growth of npcs assign them to one of three categories.

Normal People
These are your average Joes off the street. Accountants, Students, Construction Workers, etc. are real world examples. In the game world they could represent managers, promoters and other recurring support characters. At the end of each adventure, they receive one quarter of the total amount of experience points the players could have received from the adventure (5 per chapter and 3 at the end of the story).
Warriors
These are people who fight for a living and/or have a dangerous lifestyle, and are threats, but are not in the same league as street fighters. Examples include Armed Forces personnel, gang members, cops, etc. They receive half of the potential experience points that the players could get.
Rivals
These are people like the World Warriors, recurring villains and major rivals. They receive three fourths of the experience points that the players could get.

No Energy

Often in fighting games, I get someone down to zero energy and they then proceed to nuke me on high (I know they had zero energy because they got no points for vitality). To represent this comeback ability in SF:STG, when you have exactly zero health, all of your maneuvers are done at +1 Speed. In addition, you no longer go unconscious until you take more damage than your health (meaning you will automatically take aggravated damage when you loose a fight). It is the aggravated damage that knocks you out.

New Renown Modifiers

Tournament
SituationGloryHonor
Super Finish+5+0
Special Finish1+1+0
Alpha Counter Finish+2+0
Taunt (Round of Showing off)2+1+0
Super Taunt3+1+0
Win a Bonus Round+2+0
Loose a Bonus Round-1+0

1 A Special Move is any move that requires chi or willpower.
2 Taunting can be done as many times in a round as a fighter is able, however, the benefits are gained only once. If the Fighter has the merit Glory Hound then the benefit is gained each time the taunt is pulled off. The Bonus is given only if the taunt is not interrupted.
3 The Super Taunt gives the user one PERMANENT Glory

New Styles

Bushin

The style of Bushin is a branch off of ninjitsu. In fact, it is the style of ninjitsu often portrayed in Anime (such as Ninja Scrolls) and other fiction. No one living knows (or at least is not telling) when or why Bushin branched off from Ninjitsu, but some people believe that it was an attempt to deceive people about the capabilities and limitations of true ninjitsu, thus giving them an advantage. Others believe that it split for the same reason Karate, Kung Fu and others split, namely new techniques replace old ones.

Until recently, Bushin Ninjitsu was not considered a serious fighting style (much like sumo wrestling) by most people. Instead it was thought to be more like gymnastics or dance, rather than a martial art. That changed the day Guy achieved World Warrior status and now there are a number of people signing up for classes all over Japan.

Bushin has been compared to Capoeira, in that they are both very athletic styles, use dance and gymnastic techniques in their styles, and have similar histories (one is a dance that became a martial art, the other is a martial art that became a dance). However, Bushin concentrate more on aerial maneuvers and kicks rather than on punches and grabs.

Schools: Schools in Japan are as common as Kung Fu or Karate schools elsewhere. Outside of Japan, they are rarer, but most major cities have at least one.

Members: Most students of Bushin are Japanese dance students, many of whom didn't even realize that they were leaning a martial art.

Concepts: Dancers, Ninjas, Acrobats

Initial Chi: 2
Initial Willpower: 5

Quote: "You can't beat, what you can't touch."

Special Maneuvers

Punch:
Neck Shatterer (1 pt.)
Rekka Ken (5 pts.)
Shuto (2 pts.)

Kick:
Air Hurricane Kick (1 pt.)
Backflip Kick (2 pts.)
Double-Hit Kick (1 pts.)
Heel Stamp (1 pt.)
Hurricane Kick (4 pts.)

Block:
Deflecting Punch (1 pt.)

Grab:
Air Throw (2 pts.)
Back Roll Throw (1 pt.)
Bushin Air Throw (3 pts.)
Disengage (1 pt.)

Athletics:
Air Elbow (3 pts.)
Bushin Dash (3 pts.)
Bushin Dash Crescent Kick (3 pts.)
Bushin Dash Slide (3 pts.)
Drunken Monkey Roll (2 pts.)
Flying Heel Stomp (3 pts.)
Rolling Attack (3 pts.)
Vertical Rolling Attack (2 pts.)
Wall Spring (1 pt.)

Focus:
Balance (3 pts.)
Entrancing Cobra (4 pts.)
Sakki (3 pts.)
Shrouded Moon (1 pt.)
Speed of the Mongoose (3 pts.)
Teleport (5 pts.)
Zen No Mind (3 pts.)

Ni-Jihan Desu

The Warrior known as Sodom created this style by combining aspect of many Japanese martial arts. Shotokan, Kempo, Sumo, and even the Bushin Ninjitsu of his hated rival, Guy, indirectly contributed to his style.

As Sodom is the only teacher of this style, it is likely that only he and members of his Mad Gear gang will practice it. Thus, it should only be available to players if they are (or were) members of the Mad Gear gang.

Ni-Jihan Desu makes great use of the Jitte, a small dagger with a blunt prong running parallel to the blade. The Jitte are revered by students of this style as much as the Samurai revered their Katana. The Jitte are used as much for defense, by parring and catching a weapon or arm between the prong and blade, as offense, making this a fairly versatile style.

Note that this is a very new style and is still being perfected. Sodom will add more maneuvers as he creates or discovers them.

Schools:There is only one school for this style, Metro City's Mad Gear gang.

Members: Sodom exclusively teaches members of his gang this style.

Concepts: Gang Member, Former Gang Member, Under-Cover Cop

Initial Chi: 2
Initial Willpower: 5

Quote: "Your fist and feet fly fast, but not fast enough."

Special Maneuvers

Kick:
Slide Kick (2 pts.)

Grab:
Butsumetsu Buster (3 pts.)
Daikyo Burning (5 pts.)
Grappling Defense (3 pts.)

Athletics:
Breakfall (1 pt.)
Tengu Walking (3 pts.)
Super Roll (2 pts.)

Focus:
Stunning Shout (2 pts.)

Jitte
Jigoku Scrape (2 pts.)
Power Stab (1 pt.)
Riptose (1 pt.)
Tendon Cut (2 pts.)
Uppercut (1 pt.)

Guns

In Martial Art Anime and films guns almost never hit, but when they do, they seriously inconvenience the victim. While guns almost never kill a martial artist, they can certainly slow them down.

To make it more difficult for guns to hit, add the target's Athletics to the damage Target Number (maximum of 9). If the target has a super-human Athletics (6 or higher) then the maximum is 10.

Now the question arises, what if the shooter is a Gun God? That is, a major villain or important character? Then the shooter subtracts their Firearms Technique from the damage target number (to a minimum of 6).

Example: Saturday Night Special (Firearms 2) is taking pot-shots at Chun-Li (Athletics 6). Add Chun-Li's Athletics to the Target number (6) and you get 12. Now subtract Special's Firearms from the Target Number and you get 10. Special is just as likely to hit himself as to hit Chun-Li. This is known as the Storm Trooper Effect.

Now Special's backup comes along, Sniper Joe (Firearms 7), and he's taking aim at Chun-Li. Add Chun-Li's Athletics to the Target Number and you still get a twelve. Now subtract Joe's Firearms and you get a 5. However, the Target Number can't go below 6, so it stops at 6. Joe's got a pretty good chance of at least hurting Chun-Li before she gets to him.

Now for making gun's more damaging. The first thing to do, is make guns aggravated damage (it takes 1 day to heal 1 point of aggravated). The second is optional (I mean, even more optional than anything on these web pages). Add additional effects to the damage depending on where the victim was hit. For example, a head shot (almost always a graze) could cause an automatic dizzy or even a short (two or three rounds) black-out. A chest shot could cause a knock-down. An arm or shoulder shot could temporarily lower grab, punch, and weapon techniques. And a leg shot could have the same effects as the wounded knee maneuver.

Remember, the focus of the game is on Martial Arts, not guns. If you find that these rules cause the World Warriors to be mowed down by a 5-year old with an Uzi, then drop or change them. You might only want the damage rules to apply to the Gun Gods.

Remember also, these rules are completely optional. If you drop them or change them, I won't be upset or angry (although I would like feedback).

Fireball Cancelation

Quite possibly my biggest gripe about SF:STG is that there were no rules for fireballs hitting each other and evaporating. Thus the classic Ryu/Ken Fireball battles were impossible (and due to each warrior having a finite amount of chi, still are, but it's a step in the right direction). So I eventually came up with some simple rules to allow Fireball Cancellations .

To see if they cancel, take the number of hexes between the two projectilists and halve them (rounding down). Compare this number to the difference in the fireball's speeds. If the first number is equal to or higher than the speed difference, then the fireballs cancel. Otherwise, there is no cancelation and play is continued normally.

One exception to this is that there is no cancelation if the warriors are in the same hex.

Example: Ryu (speed 3) and Ken (speed 2) are throwing normal fireballs at each other. If they are in the same hex, then there can be no cancelation. If they are two or more hexes away however, then the fireballs cancel out (with Ken throwing out the fireball just in time).

The merit Quick Reflexes and the flaw Slow Reflexes still apply if the speeds tie, but only if the fighters are in adjacent hexes.

Incidently, just about any chi-type projectile will cancel each other in this way. Acid Breath, Flying Fireball, Ice Blast, Improved Fireball, Sonic Boom (all from SF:STG), Air Blast, Drain, Drench, Push, Stone (all from PG), and Chi Push (C) are all examples of chi-type projectiles.

Yoga Flame, Inferno Strike (both SF:STG) and Fire Strike (PG) will negate a fireball without being negated.

Super projectiles, like Repeating Fireball and Sonic Break when hitting another projectile loose one "hit" that normally would have gotten through. If they hit a Yoga Flame, Inferno Strike, or Fire Strike, then they loose two hits and negate the Yoga Flame/Inferno Strike/Fire Strike.

Each projectile from a Sonic Break will negate two hits from a Repeating Fireball or Force Palm. Each fireball in a Repeating Fireball will negate a hit from a Force Palm.

Spontaneous Learning

In anime and manga, it doesn't take weeks or months to learn a new maneuver, it takes focus, a soul at peace with itself, and often times, desperation. One examples is in the first Street Fighter manga by Tokima which is summed up below. Another one is during the second Fatal Fury anime, where Krauser learns Terry's Hurricane Punch during their fight.

Chun-Li was loosing badly in her fight with Vega. As he prepares his final strike, Chun-Li lets loose with her fireball, a move she had never used or even learned before.

Here are the rules to simulate this in the game:

I hope you enjoy---

staredown@rocketmail.com
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