Hand to Hand: Ukora
By Brett Hegr

The D-Bees known as the Ukora (oo-kore-uh) have brought to RiftsR Earth a martial art form that is both graceful and effective. The Ukora are generally honorable, hard to find, aged, and keep to themselves. However, most will be happy to teach their combat style to a willing pupil. The classes are small and exclusive, typically two to four students who the master feels have honor and dedication. Many Crazies and a few gladiators, bounty hunters, and Juicerstm have learned this style of combat. Borgs, Titan Juicerstm, and heavy/large beings do not excel at this combat form and almost never know it.

Ukora has elements of Eastern martial art forms, making many scholars wonder if the Ukora have visited Earth in the past. An Ukora adept (a person who has learned the combat form) uses only his legs to attack, uses only his arms and upper body to parry, and does both with great quickness and agility. The fighting style looks like combat gymnastics on speed. The adept typically attacks five to seven times in a melee with a variety of kicks. The kicks are usually performed in a spinning motion, making Ukora similar to Taido (and obviously kick boxing). The adept is also able to handle multiple attackers with his automatic dodge and large number of attacks. Ukora is extremely similar to Thai kick boxing, but has greater emphasis on defense, is somewhat easier to learn, and has a more fluid and graceful fighting style.

The character has the ability to kick straight overhead (whether from a jump or a standing position) and can do the splits (equivalent to the Body Hardening Exercise of Chagi). The character can also jump 8 ft long or 4 ft high from a standing position, double that with a running start. This jumping ability is useful in closing combat distance and in performing kicks.

Skill Cost: Equivalent to Hand to Hand: Karate, Jujutsu, or Commando. It costs one more "other" skill than Hand to Hand: Martial Arts. Not suggested for any genre besides Rifts, but it counts as four secondary skills or one skill from the Physical skill program and one secondary skill if used.
Skill Requirements: Must have the Physical: Gymnastics skill.
Attribute Requirements: P.P. of 12 or more.
Techniques Known at First Level: Automatic parry, dodge, pull punch (or in this case, pull kick), roll with punch/fall/impact, back flip, and break fall. Attacks include a punch (1d4 damage), snap kick (1d6 damage, a low and fast kick), kick attack (2d4 damage), wheel kick (2d6 damage, a swinging of the leg completely around the body results in a strong kick that can only precede and follow either a snap kick or kick attack, normally cannot precede or follow any kicks but this martial art form is a little different), crescent kick (2d4+2 damage, a swivel hipped kick that sends the foot in a sweeping arc) and a tripping/leg hook (no damage, causes knockdown, and must be dodged). Maintain balance is part of the training of this combat form, and the character does not lose a melee action like others normally do. The character can also use their gymnastics skills (back flip and cartwheel) to supplement their combat abilities.
Limitations: Due to the emphasis of the martial art form on kick attacks, no more than one-third of the character's melee attacks may be used to attack with the hands or hand weapons. This means the character is limited in the number of times a gun can be fired or an axe can be swung. Secondly, if the character is carrying more than one-fourth of his maximum carrying weight reduce the attacks by two and the character suffers a -2 penalty to strike, damage, and dodge. Also apply these penalties if the character is big and bulky, like a borg, or is wearing heavy armor or power armor with less than superior reaction speed. Lastly, whenever hand strikes are delivered halve all bonuses to strike and to damage.

Bonuses: +1d6+2 S.D.C., +1 to P.P., and +1d6+2 to Spd.

LEVEL ADVANCEMENT BONUSES
Level 1: Three attacks per melee, +3 to parry, +3 to dodge, and +2 to maintain balance.
Level 2: +2 to pull punch, +2 to roll with punch/fall/impact, +1 to back flip, and +1 to cartwheel.
Level 3: Automatic dodge, +2 to strike, and +1 to damage.
Level 4: Backward sweep (no damage, causes knockdown, must be dodged, and can only be used against someone behind the character) and +1 attack per melee.
Level 5: +1 to break fall and +1 to damage.
Level 6: Critical strike on an unmodified roll of 18 to 20 and knockout/stun on an unmodified roll of 18 to 20.
Level 7: Backhand (1d6 damage), +1 to strike, and +1 on initiative.
Level 8: Power kick (double the damage from a kick and add P.S. bonuses, but it takes two attacks to do), +1 to back flip, and +1 to cartwheel.
Level 9: Jump kick (special - does triple damage plus P.S. bonuses, can be done with an axe kick, roundhouse, snap kick, or karate kick, causes knockdown, must be the character's first attack, and the jump kicker cannot attack for the rest of the melee), +2 attacks per melee, and +2 to damage.
Level 10: +1 to parry, +1 to dodge, +1 to pull punch, and +1 to roll with punch/fall/impact.
Level 11: +2 to strike, +1 on initiative, +2 to break fall, and +2 to maintain balance.
Level 12: Axe kick (2d6 damage, a kick that goes up over the opponent's head or shoulder and comes down, must precede and follow either a snap kick or a kick attack, normally cannot precede or follow any kicks) and roundhouse (3d6 damage, causes knockdown, a total turning of the body and hips to deliver a powerful kick, and the only other kicks performed in a melee can be snap kicks and kick attacks, normally it can be the only kick used in a melee).
Level 13: Triple kick - this is a special attack, where the character delivers three rapid kicks to one or two targets standing close. The character gets no strike bonuses (natural roll) and the damage bonus is halved, but the victim's bonus to defend is cut in half due to the speed. The first kick must be a snap kick. The second (and third, if desired) kick can be either a snap kick or a karate kick. The last kick can be an axe kick, crescent kick, power kick, or wheel kick but the special rules for those kicks still apply. This can only be done once per melee, and cannot be combined with a death blow or knockout/stun attack.
Level 14: +1 attack per melee, +1 to pull punch, and +2 to maintain balance.
Level 15: Death blow (counts as two melee attacks, this is commonly a kick so strong it crushes the skull, breaks the neck, or caves in the rib cage of the victim), +1 to strike, and +2 to damage.

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