White Lightning Productions

Were-Hadouken? , sorry but as a Dan cos-player I am officialy a bit jealous at the moment...

As fo Kalindo , well , something tells me that Dr.Abe is more of an Akido-kai...

Sorry but after seeing sensei , I have come to a ( questionable? , I dunno... ) realisation that only those skilled at misdirection , and redirection of an attacker's blows would dare to use something as "seemingly harmless" as the sunday edition...

Then again , sensei could put a "world of hurting" on you , if you dared to inturrupt class , or intrfere with him when he was doing the New York Times crosswords... so , although Initialy it may not seem like much , but in the right hands a newspaper can HURT!...

Two words:

"Crazy big-boobed she-wolf style!"

*Ba-yooooing!*

Well, to examine what's necessary for the WW moves above to be effective:

(1) Transformation must be instantaneous, effortless, and energy-cheap.

in PitW changes can be, depending on practice, very brief- as witness Peter's back-and-forth a few pages back- but if PitW were animated, each change would take a couple of seconds, which in martial arts is eternity. Without practice, or under special circumstances (night of full moon for changing into human, day of new moon for changing into wolf), the change is much slower and requires dedicated concentration.

With a split-second transformation, the adjectives "horrible" and "gruesome" wouldn't apply, because the human eye wouldn't really perceive more than the briefest blur between forms. (The adjectives may apply to the final form, but that's different.)

Also, if the change is wearying on the were involved, transforming is counterproductive. In a fight, you want to conserve your energy while making your opponent expend his- unless you have a means of immediately rendering him incapable of further resistance. Anything that wears you out and doesn't wear out your opponent more is only an advantage if there's no other way to avoid getting laid out right then and there.

(2) There isn't any appreciable difference in durability and/or regenerative factor between forms.

In PitW the werewolf form is vastly stronger and more durable than the human form. Although even in human form werewolves have enhanced strength, reflexes and resistance to injury, the hybrid form is far superior in all these categories. Given the unpredictable nature of combat- especially where more than two parties are involved- there are very few things indeed that can justify deliberately making oneself more vulnerable while at grips with the enemy.

At least one of these two items would have to be true in the White Wolf setting for the moves to not be, well, pretty damn stupid. I don't know whether they are or not, because all the other trappings of WW annoy me so much I've never bothered to delve into the books in any real depth.

Now, for PitW canon: there's not an organized martial art related specifically to lycanthropes. Many lycanthropes study the standard martial arts- and Butch Cramer is such a student. Incorporation of tooth or claw into these arts, though, is strongly discouraged- not so much for their deadly nature to other weres as to the very definite hazard of turning humans into thralls. (There's also the issue, as Sarah demonstrated, of instinct; once teeth and claws come into play somebody's going to go for the throat, REAL fast. Butch is VERY lucky that Sarah was only establishing dominance and not actually trying to kill her at that point...)

Oh- I should also point out that Con Nero, in his younger days, routinely carried around a hidden jacknife with a silver blade, until he got tired of having to sharpen it daily and replace the blades three times a year...

... and he carries two clips of silver bullets in addition to his standard ammo, even today.

Fighting's not about martial arts- it's about whatever takes your opponent down fastest.

My only "sensei" was my father, who wasn't very successful in the skill side of fighting.

He contradicts your sensei on most points. If you end up in a situation where someone's attacking you, don't run, he said. If you run and your attacker is faster, you're screwed, because now your back's to him and you can't block anything he can throw at you. Instead get anything, ANYTHING you can find to give yourself an edge- fists don't cut it. Get a stick, get a rock, if you've got a knife or a gun GREAT, but fill your hand with SOMETHING and attack and don't stop attacking until the other guy is DOWN.

And fuck* fighting fair. Dirtiest fighter always wins. (Exception: if you go for the crotch, make sure you take him down with the next strike- because for about ten seconds he'll be locked up in pain, but after that he'll be aiming to KILL.)

That was the advice of a former Navy SEAL and a trained police officer. He survived, so I guess there's something to it.

* I get to say it. I'm the admin.