Review of Rifter #7: World Warriors
Rifter Article by Ben Cassin Lucas
Summary
Yes, it's the review you've all been waiting for, my coverage of Rifter #7's highly popular styles. This article rates 1 out of 10 possible stars.
General Review
Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the vast majority of Rifter styles can be studied in half the time that the style from N&S can. You have to wonder why that is.
Brazilian Jiujitsu. Automatic Roll, poorly abbreviated as "Auto-Roll" is erroneously listed as an Escape Move.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Throws are listed separately, instead of in Special Attacks where they belong.
Body Lock...Since this is actually a Body Hold, it's inclusion as a Lock is pointless.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
The lack of the correct wording in Martial Art Powers could be interpreted to mean that the character could select more than two powers.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Critical Strike from Behind listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Automatic Body Flip/Throw, lazily listed as "Auto-Body Flip/Throw" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Critical Body Flip/Throw is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills, and has no natural number listed.
Death Blow is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Capoeira. Thankfully this actually gets listed as Exclusive.
Automatic Roll, poorly abbreviated as "Auto-Roll" is erroneously listed as an Escape Move.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
The note about "no Auto-Parry until 3rd level" would have been more useful if the author actually listed the combat move and then the note.
Multiple Dodge is lazily listed as "Multi-Dodge."
Maintain Balance is an Escape Move, not an Advanced Defense.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Throws are listed separately, instead of in Special Attacks where they belong.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
The lack of the correct wording in Martial Art Powers could be interpreted to mean that the character could select more than two powers.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Critical Strike from Behind listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Elbow attacks are listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Circular Parry is listed in LABs but not Combat Skills (twice no less).
Automatic Dodge is lazily listed as "Auto-Dodge" in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Death Blow is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Jeet Kun Do. The author couldn't even spell the name of the style correctly.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
"KO punch" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but screwed
things up.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
"Jump/Leap Attack" is erroneously listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Critical Strike from Behind listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "KO punch" in the LABs).
Multiple Dodge listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Axe Kick, Jumping Reverse Turning Kick, Reverse Turning Kick, Breakfall, Power Power, Wheel Kick, Elbow, Knee, Forearm, Circular Parry, Body Flip/Throw all listed in the LABs, but not
Combat Skills.
Kick Boxing. I like the reference to "Muay Tai" myself.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
Jump Kick erroneously listed in with "Foot Attacks."
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
"Jump/Leap Attack" is erroneously listed in Modifiers to Attack.
"KO strikes" are listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but screwed
things up, even better, he couldn't maintain coherency with the previous style's usage.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "KO strikes" in the LABs).
Critical Strike from Behind listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Combination Parry/Attack, Elbow, and Forearm listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Krav Mahga. Somehow, I'm not surprised the author misspelled this name either.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
Power Block/Parry erroneously listed as "Power Parry" in Advanced Defenses.
Elbow and Forearm erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
"Jump Attack" is erroneously listed in Modifiers to Attack, with no explanation on what the hell it is anyway.
"KO" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but screwed things up,
even better, he couldn't maintain coherency with the previous style's usage.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Critical Strike from Behind listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Circular Parry and "Auto Body Flip/Throw" listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Critical Body Flip/Throw is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills, and has no natural number listed.
Take special note of the huge range of natural numbers for all the fun attacks.
Munen Muso. Look, another reference to "Muay Tai"
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
Automatic Roll, poorly abbreviated as "Auto-Roll" is erroneously listed as an Escape Move.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
Auto Flip/Throw is lazily listed instead of Automatic Flip/Throw. Ditto for Auto Hold/Lock and Power Parry. I should also note that officially neither Auto BF/T nor Auto Hold/Lock belong in
Advanced Defenses (despite the fact that they are).
Parry/Lock erroneously listed without the "Combination" qualifier.
Elbow erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
"Palm" listed in Hand Attacks, laziness or stupidity, take your pick.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
"Knock-Out Strike" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but
screwed things up, even better, he couldn't maintain coherency with the previous style's usage.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "Knock-Out Strike" in the LABs).
Death Blow listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Pancracean. Oh look, another misspelled style name.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
Parry/Throw erroneously listed without the "Combination" qualifier.
Elbow erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
"Palm" listed in Hand Attacks, laziness or stupidity, take your pick.
Knee erroneously listed in Foot Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
"Knock-Out Strike" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but
screwed things up.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "Knock-Out Strike" in the LABs).
Axe Kick, Neck Hold, Knife Hand, Forearm, Reverse Turning Kick all listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Knee listed erroneously in LABs.
Death Blow listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
There's a lovely reference to "Tai Kick Boxing" in the LABs which is even better, the author couldn't correctly spell a style from N&S.
Pro Boxing/Pugilism.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
"Strike" listed in Hand Attacks without any qualifiers.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Knock-Out blows is the new combat move we get in Modifiers to Attack, but the author screws this up as well, claiming it doesn't need to be declared (which is ironic since copying the
original note from the boxing skill would have fixed that problem).
Punch-Pulling added to Modifiers to Attack, but is pointless, note the references to Knock-Out and Death-Blows despite neither of these moves being available to the style.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "Knock-Out blows" in the LABs).
Knee listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Death Blow listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Critical Strike from behind listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Command Sambo. Yeah.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
Automatic Roll, poorly abbreviated as "Auto-Roll" is erroneously listed as an Escape Move.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
"Strike" listed in Hand Attacks without any qualifiers.
Elbow erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
Auto Parry/Attack. No description of this new move is given. However, I'm actually glad for that, since this munchkin piece of crap turned a combination move into an automatic move, giving
the character two moves (one being a free attack) for the price of none!
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
"Jump/Leap Attack" is erroneously listed in Modifiers to Attack.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills.
Critical Body Flip/Throw is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills, and has no natural number listed.
Auto-Disarm listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills. No description of the new move is given.
Death Blow from Behind listed in LABs, but not Combat Skills. (The description of this move is ironically covered in N&S, though not specifically.)
Savate.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
Automatic Roll, poorly abbreviated as "Auto-Roll" is erroneously listed as an Escape Move.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
"Strike" listed in Hand Attacks without any qualifiers.
Elbow erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
Jump Kick and Jumping Reverse Turning Kick erroneously listed in "Foot Attacks."
Trip/Hook lazily listed instead of Tripping/Leg Hook.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Double Kick Technique is erroneously listed in Special Attacks instead of a Jumping Kick Attack.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
"Jump/Leap" listed in Modifiers to Attack with no reference as to what it is supposed to be.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
"Knock-Out Strike" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but
screwed things up.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Multiple Dodge listed in LABs but not Combat Skills.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "Knock-Out Strike" in the LABs).
Petjut Kilat Silat/Arnis. Actually two different styles, the first listed is spelled incorrectly. For the record, Arnis is Filipino, PKS is not.
Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact.
There is no entry for Attack Moves.
Automatic Parry is lazily listed as "Auto-Parry."
Power Block/Parry erroneously listed as "Power Parry" in Advanced Defenses.
"Strike" listed in Hand Attacks without any qualifiers.
Elbow erroneously listed in Hand Attacks instead of Special Attacks.
"Palm" listed in Hand Attacks, laziness or stupidity, take your pick.
There is no entry for Jumping Kicks.
Body Hold is erroneously listed as "Torso Hold" in the Holds/Locks.
Weapon Skills are erroneously listed in the Combat Skills section.
W.P. Short Blunt listed with no description.
Special Katas are erroneously l.isted in Combat Skills
There is no entry for Weapon Katas.
Critical Strike is not listed in Modifiers to Attack.
"Knock-Out Strike" is listed in Modifiers to attack with no description on how this new combat move works. Obviously the author was thinking of Knockout/Stun, the correct entry, but
screwed things up.
Pull Punch is erroneously listed as "Pull Punch/Strike" in the Modifiers to Attack.
Death Blow is listed in Modifiers to Attack instead of Special Attacks (ironically, since Erick considers a Death Blow both a Special Attack and Modifier to Attack, this is almost moot).
The lack of the correct wording in Martial Art Powers could be interpreted to mean that the character could select more than two powers.
Critical Strike on a 20 is erroneously listed in the LABs.
Auto Body Flip/Throw and Auto-Disarm listed in LABs, not Combat Skills.
Knockout/Stun, erroneously listed as "KO" is listed in the LABs, but not Combat Skills (still true because it doesn't say "Knock-Out Strike" in the LABs).
Aerobics. An alright skill.
Anticipation. How about we just call this Uber-Munchkinism and leave it at that. Breaks the basic combat system/
Dieting. A decent skill.
Kick Boxing. Ironically, standard "Muay Tai" misspelling aside, this skill is done better than the official version of the Boxing skill.
Plyometrics. I'm more included to lump this skill, with it's high level PP and PS bonuses into the munchkin category.
Qi Gong. The bonuses are ridiculously overpowered.
Tai Chi. The Chi bonus is way too high, considering it's at two thirds of the full blown style's bonus to Chi. Roll is erroneously listed instead of the correct Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact. Other than that, it's an okay skill.
Yoga. Another skill with a ridiculous Chi bonus.
Deception. Mis-classified as an Art of Invisibility. Should have dumped the Chi cost, spent an attack, and either made it a Special Kata or Martial Art Technique.
Mandinga. Chi Mastery Ability, NOT Martial Art Technique. Dump the Chi cost and make it a special kata while throwing in some penalties.
Reflex Training. Body Hardening Exercise, NOT Martial Art Technique. Nothing to recommend this super bonus option either.
Initiative Modifiers. Ignore these, they make no sense.
Overall Review
Appearance: Flashiness impresses the uneducated, but those people who have actually read N&S will find these styles to be poorly done. The author put together styles, skills and powers
without demonstrating a working knowledge of the system, displaying laziness as well as poor research and fact checking and generally was more concerned with how "kewl" he could make the
style rather than trying to provide a professional article. This article represents one of the key benchmarks on how any one can get printed in the Rifter with some thrown together garbage.
Artwork: Mike Wilson provides artwork better than the article.
Structure: Organized logically in terms of placement of things within the article.
Editing: Hah! This article needed so much editing it wasn't even funny.
Continuity: Beware munchkins preferring these superpowers for their characters. Bad balance and playability really hurt this article. However, with some work, several of the skills are useful
additions to N&S.
