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GTB VII Character Creation

“You are placed in an open space arena. The ground is flat and dirt-rough. There is a single raised circular platform in the center made of stone that measures sixty feet in diameter and is three feet tall. The walls surrounding the area extend ten feet high with spectators of all walks of life watching from the safety of their seats. It is a cloudless beautiful sunny day with moderate temperatures and low humidity. The perfect day for an arena brawl.”

Overview

GTB, The Gaian Tenkaichi Budokai fighting tournament, is a one versus one combat tournament where fighters fight in a bracket-style competition to see who comes out in first place. Making use of their martial arts and/ or supernatural skills, they will attempt to come out the number one champion among 31 other competitors. All fighters who enter are here to prove whose martial art is the best. As a result, this is a contest of physical strength. This does not mean that powers like magic is disallowed. It mostly means that the tournament is orientated around hand to hand combat and melee weaponry, which will make pure power users left at a disadvantage due to both the limitations of the arena, allowed powers, and allowed equipment.

Physical Restraints

Height: Minimal of 3 feet and a maximum of 8 feet.
Weight: Maximum of five hundred pounds.
Max Lifting Strength: 1200 pounds.
Max Running Speed: 35 mph.

Physiology: Fighters that enter must have a standard physiology make up similar to a human. That means having a near bipedal structure, though an extra set of legs and an extra set of arms is allowed (but only up to four arms are allowed total). The fighter must have a brain and a circulatory system to allow conventional damage capabilities. Although we allow multiple races to compete, after many years of experience, we have decided the tournament will run better with a more restricted body standard. In addition, we no longer allow undead or anything that is not a living creature. Constructs count, too.

Equipment Restraints

Melee weaponry, whether mundane or magical, are allowed. However, due to how unfair some equipment is in a 1v1 melee tournament, the following are disallowed:

• Firearms, which include pistols, rifles, rocket launchers, are any automatic technological device that automates massive destruction with little effort.
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Anything else will have to be judged on a profile by profile basis.

Armor will not be allowed this year. This is a contest of physical competence and, as such, armor has been removed to increase the emphasis of this. You can very well enhance your body protection through powers, but it will likely come with restrictions to make it not a permanent thing.

Powers Restraints

The following powers are either banned or have restrictions to keep a fair environment between fighters:

• No summoning, whether beastly or object-based.
• No teleporting. This includes no phasing abilities (becoming incorporeal or entering a gas state).
• No powers can instantly happen at a certain space. They must have a physical state to show their spatial coverage. For instance, wizards are known to create fireballs within a certain distance of themselves. In this tournament, the fireball would have to travel from the caster’s body to its destination for use. For area of effect powers, there must be a significant visual indication and significant time of its presence before its activation. This time and indication scale depending on how powerful the ability is.
• No molecular manipulation micro-abilities.
• No planar attacks, which means no attacks that involve messing with another plane of existence.
• No black holes or other equally powerful space manipulation abilities.
• No mind control.
• No reality manipulation abilities. Sorry, Fate/Stay Night enthusiasts.
• No God-level abilities, like scrying or manipulating fate, etc.
• No time altering abilities. This rule is soft-banned, meaning if you happen to convince me that you can bring in a balanced time ability, I’ll allow it.
• No healing abilities. This includes passive regeneration that would have an effect over the course of a match. Charged up healing spells. Medical kits. Stimpacks. Draining health from the opponent to add to your own, and so on.

How To Build a GTB Fighter

For the first time, you will not be able to just bring a character profile into this tournament and have it be your standard profile. Instead, you will be taking a character of yours, whether new or already created, and adapting it to the GTB’s new character profile system. This system was made to create a more concrete power standard between all fighters by adapting everyone to the GTB’s system. We call it: the Melee Elite Tournament Arena, or META. Don’t worry, this system is designed to be as light as possible so adapting your character shouldn’t be hard as long as you follow a few rules.

Let’s first define…

META Power Standard

The META Power Standard is the measured line of power that defines what is considered the average GTB fighter. The average GTB fighter is considered stronger than your normal human. This standard assumes the fighter is competent in all aspects of relative melee combat. Think of this line as the regular fighter who isn’t exceptional, but isn’t weak, either.

So what is this standard? Well, let’s explain the Stats first. That’s right, META has stats, but I assure you, you won’t have to mess with any numbers.

Meta Stats

Strength

Strength is the physical power of the fighter. It represents how much they can lift and how hard they can punch. Stronger fighters usually have bigger muscles and do more damage with each attack.

Agility

Agility is how well and how fast the character can move around. It pertains to how nimble they can be, the ease of escaping holds, and how speedy they are. Agile fighters tend to be thinner and have more precise attacks. They don’t do as much damage with their attacks, but they deliver them a lot faster and accurately. Strong characters can be fast in one direction, but agile characters are versatile in all directions. They can perform better acrobatic feats and switch directions a lot easier.

Body

Body represents the constitution of the fighter. It shows how durable they are, how well they can handle illnesses, and just how much of a beating they can take in general. Those with better Body stat tend to be bigger and have more mass. They also tend to have higher stamina and can last in a fight longer. Won't become as winded in short bursts of activity.

Tiers

Tiers give each stat a descriptive general power level. They act as a guideline, and it’s how you describe it in your profile that is usually the most important.

Average Tier

This is underwhelming compared to most fighters. It means it’s either average compared to a normal run-of-the-mill joe or less.

Standard Tier

This is the level of competence of most fighters for this tournament. Standard is considered the default for everyone’s starting profiles. Prized fighters tend to hold this tier in their attributes, aka champions of the fighting world. The GTB acts on a higher standard thus everyone is assumed to be exceptional fighters in the world.

Superior Tier

This tier is reserved for the champions above champions.

Legend Tier

Belongs to those who are practiced in their art. They’re exceptional and considered “legends” and heroes.

So how do these tiers describe each stat?

Strength
• Average – Likely can lift no more than fifty pounds. Your office worker. Your average joe. Punches feel like rubber to anyone not a skeleton. At the high end, the person may be able to lift a hundred pounds but it would be a challenge. Or they are novice fighters learning the ropes.
• Standard – The level to compete on in the GTB. Trained and fit. Can lift around one hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds. Maybe a little more if they are built for it. Their punches hurt and they can wrestle around guys their size and a bit more if they’re trained for it.
• Superior Tier – Mike Tyson. Sugar Ray Lewis. Their punches will send you falling with the right hit. Can lift two plates (180 lbs) with ease, and considers 3 plates standard. If they have the right functional strength, can go up to even six hundred pounds of lifting power. Has great anaerobic power.
• Legend Tier – Can likely hit the 1200 lift limit more than anyone else. Punches could knock your jaw off with one good landing. Hell, a grazing can leave you winded. Will throw around anyone who isn’t as strong or heavy enough to resist it.
Agility

• Average – Their run is more like a jog. Has little mastery in bodily mobility. Will probably trip if they even try to perform the same cross-overs as Allen Iverson.
• Standard – Can move around efficiently. Has a good sense of feet mobility and body movement. Nimble on their toes. You have to be at least this tier to even have the agility to move around with other fighters properly.
• Superior Tier – These people are very flexible and versatile when it comes to bodily movement. These are the kung fu masters you see performing multiple flips in the air and having great control of their wild moves. Their moves are fast and are a blur to the eye. Master parkour people are on this level, those who have the mobility and expertise to move about and adapt to environments with little effort. This person can run very, very fast. At least 25 mph. That’s Usain Bolt level.
• Legend Tier – The 35 speed limit is normal for them. The yoga masters of the world. Or the martial artist with the quickest body movements. Very difficult to keep up with every individual move they make.

Body
• Average – Fragile. Whether fat or skinny, have little protective mass. Can’t take too much punishment. Will get winded after running for a few seconds.
• Standard – A good fit body. Conditioned enough to take a beating from your typical prized fighter. Can last quite a bit in a fight with good stamina. Can survive a burst of activity before needing a breather. Considered healthy for those who exercise daily. Immune system can take on the common cold.
• Superior – You’re starting to reach the Ronnie Coleman level of bodily structure if the fighter is built for it. Or they’re an accomplished sumo wrestler with a superb level of muscle coupled with fat. Can take a beating and still remain standing. Harder to knock down due to their body core mass. Can last longer in a fight and survive a couple bursts of activity before needing to take a breather. Can likely hold their stomach better if they smell something bad.
• Legend - Unbelievably tough. Body conditioned to the point that hits don’t even feel like much anymore save for the very strong ones. Can fight or move around for extended periods of time without rest. Examples of people like this is the martial artist who took trained punishment over the years to increase his body toughness, like the iron body technique.

Now don’t get too excited. You won’t just be able to turn the dial to Legend on all these stats. There’s actually a system for adjusting these stats properly. You’re going to be spending META Points to buy these. Or MP for short. Not to be confused with the anagram in CRPGs. This system will be explained soon. We still need to explain Powers and Equipment, as these will also be something you “purchase” under the MP system.

Powers

This is the magic, the chi, the chakra, or whatever superpower that the fighter possesses. Anything considered beyond normal world capabilities goes in this category. In previous GTBs, we allowed people to bring in whatever they came up with. This time, we’re creating a list of available powers you can take. Because of the wide breadth of the list, there’s a good chance that if you’re bringing in an existing character, you’ll likely find their capability here, or at least a very good equivalent of it. This isn’t meant to restrict you to the very literal definition of the term. As long as you describe how your character uses it in your profile, it’s more of just a way to categorize your power for META for comparison to everyone else. In addition, you will apply the same power tiers you used for Stats to this, and will also be scaled by use of the MP system.

Broad Usage vs. Specific Usages

There’s something we need to get out of the way first before we get into the list of powers. Let’s assume for example that a character takes the Fire Elemental power. This represents that the character has the power to use a fire element power. If they have a broad use of this power, it means they have great versatile control over these flames. A fire elemental would be in this category. They tend to be able to create any form of fire, control how hot it is, and many other variables standard to these type of users. On the other side, you have a wizard who doesn’t necessarily control fire broadly, but instead has a spell or spells that conjure specific forms of fire. One may be a simple ball of fire and another might be a full flamethrower in a cone shape.

In META, we do not care if the character uses it broadly or in more specific formats. If they can use fire in any shape or form, put it in your character profile and give it the tier that best describes the highest potency of the ability. If they just have minor uses of it, just give it the Average Tier. But if the fire power is capable of great feats of power, then Standard or higher is better. The higher tier, the more expensive in MP the ability will be to have. This will naturally balance the character ability list because if you choose to specialize in one ability, you won’t enough MP to purchase anything else around that same scale.

Physical Skills

These represent the more bodily and realistic skills that the character has. It's basically everything that you can already do in the real world. The person is trained in it at a basic level if they choose Average. For instance, anyone can try to improvise jumping around gym bars and such, but a trained Acrobat can do it without hurting themselves depending on the severity of the situation.

NOTE: It is just as important if your character doesn't have a skill as much as if they have it. These skills count as universal skills for physical bodies. And as a result, if your character doesn't have it, it assumed everything they do is untrained in said physical skill. So for instance, if you buy no H2H skill, that means your character doesn't know a lick about proper form or how to throw physical attacks effectively. They'll just be brawling free style hoping to hit something. This means it'll be easier for more skilled characters to dodge your attacks. In the same sense, if you don't take a weapon master purchase of a specific melee weapon, it means your character will pick up a weapon like a sword but only use it in its basic swinging form. They wont know the proper forms, the techniques, or anything a trained practitioner would. Basically it means they'll be sloppy in its use. Mind you, you can still react to attacks from strange weapons, like a sword even if you arent trained in it, but don't assume you know how to perfectly dodge a technique you never seen before if it's not telegraphed from a mile away. There's general reacting and then there's on-the-dime reacting from techniques you never knew before. This will count against you in the fight.

Concentration is also an important stat to NOT have. If you don't have it, that means your character will not be able to get off their skills or powers at 100% in a stressful situation. This can be something like being in a punch and dodge situation or if you're being attacked heavily by a barrage of attacks. So if you don't have it, it means your character loses their cool pretty easily.

List of Skills

Acrobat

The skill of being able to leap around, balance, flexibility, and overall adapt to many situations dealing with mobility and unorthodox movement. For instance, maneuvering through a web of moving security lasers.

Weapon Master

How skilled one is at use of a weapon. NOTE: You must purchase a Weapon Master skill for each type of weapon the fighter can use proficiently. Anything not taken is assumed untrained. IN ADDITION, do not forget to buy a Weapon in the Equipment section. Otherwise, this skill would be wasted if you don't have a weapon to go along with this. Vice versa, you can however buy a weapon and not have to buy this skill, like a backup knife or smoke bombs. You don't really need special skills to use those (unless you want to be a knife master or a smoke bomb specialty fighter).

Hand-To-Hand Combat

Represents how good the fighter is at a specific fighting style. This can be as simple as "free style" or "street brawling", or as sophisticated as "Ninjitsu" or "Jujitsu." NOTE: You must purchase this skill for each fighting style the character knows. Anything not taken is assumed untrained.

Enhanced Senses

Shows how well adapted the character's senses. This is commonly used for increased reaction speed visually. NOTE: Must purchase Enhanced Senses for each sense the character wants to enhance.

Concentration

This represents how well the character can focus. This skill is important for the fact that in dire or hectic situations, stress can cause one to lose their calm and act more on impulse. This is very important for people who use more magic-heavy abilities as they require great mental focus to use these skills effectively. This skill is important if you want a character who can endure fighting while channeling their focus. Or if you don't want them to overall lose their cool.

Berserker

The ability to let the emotion of anger overtake ones senses to increase their power, stamina, adrenaline, whatever they choose it to be. The soft version of this just makes one get a little power boost without the repercussions and can last longer. The more potent versions of this allows a much higher state of power at the cost of one's sanity and thinking processes, usually doesn't last long, and leaves the person exhausted after use. An All or Nothing ability, basically. This would be considered power, but since it's something that can be done in the real world consciously or unconsciously, it's a skill here instead.

MP Shop

We're finally here. The fun part. How to build your character with the cost system. The way this works is that you buy a power or stat upgrade by their tiers. If you want a power, you purchase it based on what tier you want, and that tier determines the cost of the ability. In addition, some powers, skills, and equipment will have different costs based on how "powerful" they are. For instance, Time or Gravity abilities are going to cost more simply because they offer very versatile and powerful capabilities when used right. As a result, you'll have to put quite the investment in them in order to build your character around them. Offers a nice balance as you may end up making your character weak bodily and will risk losing very quickly if you get into one bad situation.

So, how many starting points will you get? The answer:


Seems like a lot, but it's going to go away real fast based on what you decide to get. Will you specialize into one or two areas, or will you spread them out for a more versatile fighter? Do not feel like you have to spend all the points, either. Sometimes, your character doesn't have many specialties.

There's one way to increase your MP resource: that's by lowering a stat to Average. Since everyone starts at default Standard in all Stats, this is a significant disadvantage to take. This will give you 25 extra MP. It will allow you to spend more points in other areas. Just be aware that by taking Average, you are limiting your character's physical competence, which will decide the outcome of judge calls during and after the fight. Choose wisely. You can only do this for the Strength, Agility, and Body Stats.

Without further ado:

STATS

Strength
- Superior (60)
- Legend (80)

Agility
- Superior (60)
- Legend (80)

Body
- Superior (60)
- Legend (80)

POWERS

Fire
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Air
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Earth
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Water
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Electricity
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Magnetism
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Gravity
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Sound
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Thermal
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Kinetic
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Light
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Darkness
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Chi Manipulation
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Ethereal
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Poison
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Plant Manipulation
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Time
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Force Field
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Energy Absorption
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Shapeshifting NOTE: One must be bought for each form that can be shifted in. Each form must also follow the same character creation limitations of size, weight, etc. The character may move about as a four-legged creature, but the limb limit remains the same.
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Alchemy
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Power Negation
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Luck
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Emotion Control
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Psionics
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Illusions
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Super Speed
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

Protection
- Average (40)
- Standard (60)
- Superior (80)

PHYSICAL SKILLS

Acrobat
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Weapon Master
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

H2H Combat / Martial Arts
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Enhanced Senses
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Concentration
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

Berserker
- Average (20)
- Standard (40)
- Superior (60)

EQUIPMENT

- Average (10)
- Standard (20)
- Superior (40)