Dragonball ZX
By Christian Conkle
(conkle@mecha.com)
Gamemasters should choose how many points starting
characters may spend on Characteristics based on the level of campaign they
wish to play. Consult the chart to the right for the amount appropriate for the
starting character. The recommended default values are 40 Characteristic
points, 50 Skill points, and 400 Power Level.
Compare beginning characters with those below to build a
character of appropriate power and ability.
|
Character |
Char |
Skill |
Power |
|
Bulma |
23 |
39 |
16 |
|
Chiaotzu |
31 |
56 |
530 |
|
Chi Chi |
36 |
38 |
0 |
|
Master Roshi |
39 |
71 |
350 |
|
Yamcha |
46 |
57 |
1600 |
|
Gohan |
48 |
47 |
2800 |
|
Krillin |
56 |
82 |
1770 |
|
Yajirobe |
57 |
64 |
500 |
|
Tien |
58 |
78 |
1830 |
|
pre-Fusion Piccolo |
75 |
102 |
3400 |
|
Vegeta |
79 |
154 |
7500 |
|
Frieza |
87 |
197 |
500,000 |
|
Goku |
92 |
160 |
8000 |
|
Radditz |
95 |
57 |
1250 |
|
Trunks |
100 |
632 |
7 mill. |
All characters begin with a Power Level of 400. A character may exchange Power Level with Health or Characteristics. One Health equals one Power Level. One Characteristic Point equals 7.5 Power Levels.
Expanded Skills
The following is a new
expanded skill list with new skills available to characters (new skills are in
italics):
Dragonball ZX Expanded Skill List
Awareness (perception, observation,
detection)
Body (all physical skills, running,
jumping, climbing)
Control
(driving, piloting, animal handling)
Evasion (dodge, evasion)
Fighting (fighting, martial arts,
blocking)
Mind (sciences, knowledge, history,
current events)
Performance
(acting, disguise, singing)
Power (ki powers, inborn powers)
Ranged
Weapon (guns, cannons, lasers, bows, crossbows)
Social
(bribing, persuasion, etiquette)
Technical
(engineering, vehicle repair, robotics, computers)
Weapon (knives, swords)
With the GM’s permission, players may spend Experience
Points on raising a character’s characteristics as well as skills. Use the following cost table for spending
Experience Points:
Dragonball
ZX Expanded Experience Point Table
Combat: 200
XP per +10. WITH GM PERMISSION ONLY!
Physical: 150
XP per +10. WITH GM PERMISSION ONLY!
Mental: 100
XP per +10. WITH GM PERMISSION ONLY!
Move: 50
XP per +10. WITH GM PERMISSION ONLY!
Hits: 10 XP per +10 up to 1000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 1000.
10 XP per +100, 1000 to 10,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 10,000.
10 XP per +1000, 10,000 to 100,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 100,000.
etc.
Defense: 10 XP per +10
Skills: 10 XP per +10
Power Level: 10 XP per +10 up to 1000
100 XP extra fee to reach 1000.
10 XP per +100, 1000 to 10,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 10,000.
10 XP per +1000, 10,000 to 100,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 100,000.
etc.
Power Up: 10 XP per +10 up to 1000
100 XP extra fee to reach 1000.
10 XP per +100, 1000 to 10,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 10,000.
10 XP per +1000, 10,000 to 100,000.
100 XP extra fee to reach 100,000.
etc.
For example: Tak Eon’s
player wants to raise his character’s Power Level from 400 to 1000. This costs
600 XP plus the 100 XP fee for reaching 1000. He now wants to raise Tak Eon’s
Power Level from 1000 to 1500. This costs 50 XP (10 XP per +100). To go from
1500 to 10,000 costs 850 XP (10 XP per +100), plus the 100 XP for reaching
10,000.
When converting DBZ
characters or scenarios to or from Total Fuzion, 1 DBZ XP = 10 Total Fuzion XP.
Initiative
In the real world, action usually happens simultaneously and with much confusion. Adventure games, however, must keep things simple by imposing order on the chaos, forcing characters to wait their turn and act in order. Each Phase, the character with the highest Mental Characteristic gets their action first. Other actions occur in order of descending Mental Characteristic until everyone has acted. If two characters have the same Mental, the character with the highest Combat characteristic goes first. If they are still tied, both act at the same time.
A character can act out of order by declaring an Abort Maneuver. An Abort Maneuver is a panicked defensive action such as Block, Dodge, Dive for Cover, or even some Powers if used Defensively such as Deflection or countering one Energy Blast with another. Abort Maneuvers must be called before any dice have been rolled for the other character’s action. Abort Maneuvers can also be used to intercept an attack intended for another target, such as Krillin taking Garlic Jr’s blast intended for Gohan. By performing an Abort Maneuver, the character is forfeiting their upcoming action from either later that Phase or from the next Phase.
If a character Aimed, Blocked, Dodged, or Waited on the previous Phase, they act first in the next Phase, regardless of Mental. If more than one character performed any of these actions the previous Phase, then those characters act first the next Phase in normal order of descending Mental. Once they have acted, all the other characters may act.
For example, Lady Ninja is fighting Bugaloo. Lady Ninja has a Mental of 5, Bugaloo
has a Mental of 3. Lady Ninja fires a ‘Focused Chaos Beam’ at Bugaloo. Since
Bugaloo hasn’t acted yet this phase, he aborts his upcoming action in order to
fire a ‘Electro Mega Blast’ to counter Lady Ninja’s beam. Bugaloo rolls first
to manifest the power, then rolls to attack, rolling a 25. Lady Ninja then
rolls her attack. If she rolls less than 25, Bugaloo’s beam hits Lady Ninja’s
beam and acts like a deflection (see Energy
Blast below). If she rolls higher than 25, she fires her beam first and
hits Bugaloo before he’s ready.
Similarly, if Lady
Ninja were attacking Fan-Boy, Mental 4, with her sword, Fan-Boy can abort his
upcoming action to Dodge or Block.
Aiming
A character may increase the accuracy of their attack by
taking the time to aim carefully. For each full consecutive uninterrupted Phase
spent aiming, the character receives +1 to attack, up to the character’s attack
skill. A character may act first on any Phase following an Aiming action,
regardless of Mental. While aiming, a character cannot move or take any action.
If the character is hit by any attack, all bonuses gained from aiming are lost.
For example, Silver may carefully aim her Heavenly Thunder
Strike energy blast for up to seven consecutive uninterrupted Phases in order
to receive a +7 bonus to strike. When she finally does strike, she will act
first that Phase, regardless of her Mental.
Holding Action and Waiting
Characters need not act when their turn comes. Characters
can hold their action until any point later in the Phase, even interrupting
other characters’ actions. Interrupting another
character must be called before any dice have been rolled for the other
character’s action.
If a character decides, after everyone else has
gone, not to act at all, then that character may act first the following Phase
regardless of Mental.
Shockwaves
Huge Energy Blasts and impacts are likely to cause massive shockwaves and
explosive effects, if no real damage. To determine the shockwave effect of an
Energy Blast, use the following optional rule.
Each 10 dice of damage done by the blast does 1 Move
knockback at ground zero, minus 1 Move per 2 meters (1 Hex/Move) away from the
epicenter. When a ranged attack misses, it misses by 2 meters (1 Hex/Move) per
difference between the attack AV and the target’s DV.
For
example, if a
100 dice EB missed by 6, the target takes 9 Move knockback (minus their
Physical + 1 die).
Fighters who throw heavy Energy Blasts will have to be
careful. If they were only 5 Move away from their target, they'd take 4
Knockback from the shockwave of their own blast.
Direction of the knockback is determined by the direction of
the blast impact. The location of the impact from the intended target is
determined by a random roll:
1: forward left
2: left side
3: rear left
4: rear right
5: right side
6: forward right
Keep in mind that this brings a whole new level of thought
into play for your games. For fast and dirty combats, keep to the simple rules.
It's best just to ignore reality in some situations.
Throwing and
Leaping
Thrown objects and leaping characters don’t always land immediately. Use
the following table to determine the amount of time spent in the air. Simply
determine how far the object was thrown or the character leapt. The table then
indicates how fast they had to be to travel that far and how long they remain
aloft. At the end of the allotted time, the object falls back to Earth and may
take falling damage. It is assumed that the object travels a vertical distance
equal to one-quarter the horizontal distance traveled.
|
Distance |
Height |
KPH |
Hexes |
Hexes/ |
Aloft |
|
5m |
1m |
25 |
3 |
3 |
1 sec (0 Phases) |
|
10m |
2m |
40 |
5 |
5 |
2 sec (1 Phases) |
|
40m |
10m |
75 |
20 |
20 |
3 sec (1 Phases) |
|
80m |
20m |
100 |
40 |
30 |
4 sec (1 Phases) |
|
100m |
25m |
110 |
50 |
30 |
5 sec (2 Phases) |
|
1/2 km |
125m |
250 |
250 |
75 |
10 sec (3 Phases) |
|
1 km |
250m |
360 |
500 |
100 |
14 sec (5 Phases) |
|
5 km |
1.25 km |
800 |
2,500 |
250 |
30 sec (10 Phases) |
|
10 km |
2.5 km |
1150 |
5,000 |
333 |
45 sec (15 Phases) |
|
20 km |
5 km |
1600 |
10,000 |
475 |
64 sec (21 Phases) |
|
40 km |
10 km |
2250 |
20,000 |
666 |
90 sec (30 Phases) |
|
80 km |
20 km |
3185 |
40,000 |
952 |
127 sec (42 Phases) |
|
160 km |
40 km |
4500 |
80,000 |
1333 |
180 sec (60 Phases) |
|
300 km |
75 km |
6175 |
150,000 |
1829 |
247 sec (82 Phases) |
|
Into Orbit |
250 km |
28,800 |
5 million |
8530 |
Planetary Orbit |
|
Out of Orbit |
250,000 km |
36,000 |
5 billion |
10,663 |
Solar Orbit |
|
Out of System |
Infinite |
360,000 |
5 trillion |
106,630 |
Interstellar Space |
Rear Attacks, Surprise Attacks, Blindsiding, and
Backstabbing
Characters defending from an unexpected quarter could suffer a negative
modifier to their evasion rolls. When attacked from behind, the defending
character must pass an Awareness skill test vs. a DV equal to the attacker’s
AV. If the test is successful, the character rolls Evasion against the attack
normally. If the test is failed, the defender suffers a penalty equal to the
difference of the attacker’s AV and the defender’s Awareness test to their
Evasion roll for that attack.
For
example, Lady
Ninja attacks Bizarre from behind. Lady Ninja rolls 35 to attack. Bizarre makes
an Awareness skill test, rolling a total of 20. This is 15 less than Lady
Ninja’s attack roll, so Bizarre suffers
–15 to his Evasion roll to evade Lady Ninja’s attack.
Abort maneuvers are also affected by rear attacks. When
attacked from behind, the defender must pass an Awareness skill test as above.
If successful, the Abort maneuver is performed normally. If the test is failed,
the defender is not able to perform the Abort maneuver, in addition to
suffering the aforementioned Evasion penalty.
Characters may define their Martial Arts maneuvers. A basic
maneuver provides no bonus to hit or initiative and does the character’s
Physical plus Fighting skill in dice of damage. Maneuver characteristics can be
re-arranged to create custom maneuvers.
For
example, a
maneuver might have –1 to hit, -1 to Initiative, but +2 dice of damage, another
maneuver might have +2 to hit, +3 to Initiative, but –5 dice of damage.
Also, Ki can be spent on creating powerful custom maneuvers.
Ki-Powered maneuvers require a Power skill roll to manifest like other Ki
Powers. In addition to the list below, any Energy Blast Special Effect can be
added to a Ki-powered maneuver. Ki-powered maneuvers may call upon Ki powers
the character may not normally know, but the powers are only available to that
attack.
For
example,
Bugaboo wants to create a Powered maneuver called "Electric Tiger
Smash" that does +30 dice of damage, +10 to hit, and +4 to initiative.
This maneuver would cost 200 Power to perform, would require 1 Phase to
prepare, and would take up one of Bugaboo's allotted powers (see Ki Powers below).
Expanded Maneuvers Costs
Dice of damage: 5 Power per +1 dice of damage
Modifier to Initiative: 10 Power per
+1 initiative for that maneuver only. Requires 1 phase preparation.
Modifier to Hit: 1 Power per +1 to
Hit for that maneuver.
Modifier to Evade/Block: 1 Power per
+1 to specific Evasion and Block maneuvers.
Grab maneuvers are under-developed in DBZ. To correct this, here are expanded Grab information.
Grab
A basic grab is reaching out with your hand(s) and clutching your opponent,
either around the chest or around an appendage like a leg, ankle, wrist, or
arm. A Grab can also be used against an opponent’s weapon, loose clothes, or
any device they might be holding. To resolve a Grab, the attacker must pass a
skill test using Combat + Fighting + 3d6 – 2 for the AV vs. a DV equal to the
defender’s Combat + Fighting (Weapon is grabbing an item) + 3d6. If the
attacker wins, the defender’s appendage or item is grabbed. The defender may
immediately try to break free. To break free, the defender must pass an opposed
skill test using Physical + Body + 3d6 vs. the attacker’s Physical + Body +
3d6. If the opponent wins, he breaks free of the Grab. If the attacker wins, he
has hold of the opponent at the beginning of the next action or phase, or, if
he was grabbing an item, has wrested the item away from the opponent.
If the opponent is successfully Grabbed and held (see above), the attacker may choose to continue to hold, pin, choke, or throw the opponent.
For example, Bizarre tries to grab Lady Ninja around her shoulders. He attacks with
his Combat + Fighting + 3d6 – 2 for a total AV of 41. Lady Ninja attempts to
evade with a her Combat + Evasion + 3d6 for a total DV of 39. She is grabbed!
She immediately tries to break free, rolling her Physical + Body + 3d6 for a
total AV of 27 vs. Bizarre’s Physical + Body + 3d6 for a total DV of 35. Lady
Ninja is grabbed.
Hold
A held character takes damage equal to the attacker’s Physical + Fighting
in dice. While held, both the attacker and defender suffer –3 to all evasions
when attacked by others. The held character must use an action to break free.
To break free, the defender must pass an opposed skill test using Physical +
Body + 3d6 vs. the attacker’s Physical + Body + 3d6. If the opponent wins, he
breaks free of the Grab. If the attacker wins, he has hold of the opponent at
the beginning of the next action or phase and the defender takes the attacker’s
Physical + Fighting in dice of damage. If the character has multiple actions in
a Phase, he may attempt to break free once per action. The character is held
until either he breaks free or the attacker lets him go.
While held, the attacker may forego damage in order to force the defender to move a certain direction. The attacker can force both character to move a distance equal to his Move minus the defender’s Move.
For example, Bizarre has successfully grabbed Lady Ninja. On his action, he foregoes doing damage and tries to move her towards a waiting paddy wagon to capture her. He may force her to move Zero hexes (his Move of 5 minus her Move of 5), so they struggle and get nowhere. On Lady Ninja’s action, she attempts to break free, rolling her Physical + Body + 3d6 for a total AV of 29 vs. Bizarre’s Physical + Body + 3d6 for a total DV of 32. Lady Ninja is still held in Bizarre’s mighty arms. If they were to be attacked that Phase, they would both be –3 to their evasion attempts.
Pin
Whereas a hold allows the attacker to maneuver his opponent, a Pin stops
all movement, holding the opponent immobile on the ground. To pin an opponent,
the opponent must be successfully grabbed, then the attacker must pass a skill
test using Combat + Fighting + 3d6 – 3 vs. the opponent’s Combat + Fighting +
3d6. If the attacker wins, the target is pinned and suffers –3 to escape. The
defender Both attacker and defender are immobile, suffer –3 to all evasion
attempts, and the defender takes the attacker’s Physical + Fighting in dice of
damage. The defender will remain pinned until the either he escapes or the
attacker decides to let him go. If th