New guild:Monks

[xerxes]

I think there should be a monk guild. It would have mostly hand-to-hand skills but also a few magic skills that would increase str etc. And be able to find herbs, and brew salves and such. I'm open for criticism

[Marauder Moe]

:shock:

I'm not sure where to start...  :roll:

[Ghost]

I rather took it serious.

Training a monk requires a HARD work.  You take a child at his early ages, and at your best bet, when he is 17-20 he becomes good enough to be a monk initiate.   Studying their arts all the time in their temples.

Now, in Zalanthas, there are no temples dedicated in training someone for the perfection of mind and body.  The only known temples, well..They raise something similar to monk when it comes to the terms of skills, but not the idea:  Templars.

Templars have both combat abilities, they lead armies, and it is not uncommon seeing them hurling magick fireballs as well.  But templar is not a "guild" in the Zalanthan's commoner view point.  It is something to be scared of.  
I recommend you reading the docs.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Sounds really cool, but it's never going to happen.

[Agent_137]

It doesn't exactly fit anywhere in the world here.

Read the docs more, play more, once you get a hang of the world here, you'll be able to pump out some more ideas that are more aligned.

[WarriorPoet]

Rather than create a new class for this niche of character, simply create a warrior, shun weapons, and roleplay it as you see fit. That is, don't run around saying "Yeah, I'm a monk." Because I doubt most people would probably just stare at you blankly.

True, it wouldn't be the classic fantasy monk, but there you go. After awhile, with -alot- of attending roleplay and logs of it sent to the staff, you may even be able to get your hand to hand skills boosted or something.

Roleplay is everything here. If you want to create a Zalanthan-ized version of an Ikko-Ikki monk, do so. You don't need a 'class' to support it, exactly. There are a number of guilds and subguilds that would fit the monk skillset, spells aside. It is quite possible to play a hand to hand fighting, very spiritual character, which to me, defines the idea of the 'monk'.

Don't think that just because the code doesn't support something that you can't make it happen with a little imagination and a lot of hard work. Our staff are great about helping characters with things like this, or discouraging it if they feel it's necessary. So, you might want to mail the staff at mud@ginka.armageddon.org with a few of your ideas. The staff will probably be able to offer a few tips and guidelines for making such a character, as well as point out any problems you might face, solutions for them, etc etc etc...

-WP

[creeper386]

I say. You start a young character. Become a hand-to-hand specialist. Learn to meld your mind and body into a superiour form of whatever ... Continue your life and create some sort of ideoligy or whatever. Develop a following. Maybe after your characters a good 70-100 years old and you've developed a following and your own place and all this you can get the guild insituted ICly.

Hard work yes, but nicer then just instituting a new magick using killer and just cramming it into the game.


Creeper

[fearwig]

Sounds really cool, but it's never going to happen.

You are so kind.

But really what I think it comes down to is that the "monk guild" wouldn't fit anywhere into the world of Armageddon, nor its style of play. It's something that lots of similar-but-very-different games implement, but it's really not appropriate.

[Cuusardo]

When you think about it, we already do have some manner of martial arts skills implemented into the game.  Parry, disarm, kick, bash, subdue...  If you really really really wanted a monk type character who only fights hand to hand, you can always play a warrior who never uses a weapon.  (I admit, it would be awesome to have some sort of coded combat skill that would make punches more effective.)

[creeper386]

Monks also don't have to be unarmed. It's not too uncommon to use some sort of weapons. Staves being the only thing coming to mind right now. Sure, may not be an uber unarmed monster, but you'd have to greatly out-skill someone with a weapon to defeat them unarmed. Also considering I think it was finally decided that unarmed combat doesn't have much place in Zalanthas. It was just something that never got developed beyond your average fist fighting.

Discipline is the major thing that'd set a monk apart from your average warrior. More developed belief system. Probably some other things too.

Sure it's possible to do it with the code, and perhaps after time you could even make a large impact on the MUD if with RP and such you develop different skills on your character and you lead others on the same path, sooner or later it'd be easier to just make it a class.

Creeper

[Socko]

As-is, the Templarate are already the sort of people you're talking about-- they're just a little bit more like crazy Nazi monks rather than pacifistic vegetarian sutra-chanters or abbey-dwellers. They've dedicated their lives to a deeply spiritual cause, and they've also melded their minds and bodies and "souls" in order to better serve their city. They use their belief as power-- their power stems from their city, so they're all tied in together nicely.

That said, there's definitely room to take it a step in another direction: As was stated a few posts up, make up a character with some kind of dedicated abstract mindset, and give him a distinct set of rules and fighting style. He could be a full-on warrior, or he could be a performance magicker. It'll be a hit if you can pull it off.

I don't think it should be made a guild, because it's making a character class that really dictates a little too much. Guilds should be broad things that let you go with a lot of room to warp and twist to suit your needs.

[Angela Christine]

A Warrior/Physician could do most of what a monk does.  Not the magick, of course, but in this setting a LITTLE magick would probably be worse than none.  If you know magick a good chunk of the world wants you dead, and the other chunk wants you to be a virtual slave to the templarate.


Another choice for an ascetic who works to balance mind and body might be Psioicist.  I don't know how well they do in hand to hand combat, but it probably doesn't matter since it takes at least 300 years to get Psionicist karma.  


AC

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Like most have said, a Warrior would suit your needs just fine. But you need to realize that going into serious combat without a weapon puts you at a major disadvantage. With that said, unarmed combat does have its uses. Mainly, the major stun damage a succesful hit does, plus the ability to quickly move into a subdue attempt. I recommend you keep a staff handy (pretend its a broken pool cue if it'll make you happy) in case you get over your head. Bludgeoning weapons and fists can be very powerful, at times, espicially considering most people have less stun points than health points. After all, an unconcious enemy is as good as a dead one, if not better.
Also, if you want him to be all pious and shit, fine, but please realize there isn't much religion in the Known World, minus tribal beliefs and/or a devotion to one's city-state. Personal beliefs would be more along the lines of a code of ethics or a philosophy than a full-fledged religion with a pantheon of gods and weird rituals.
If a touch of magick is utterly vital to your concept of what a 'monk' should be, then it might please you to know that there is at least one magicker class out there that would work very well for a monk concept. I won't say which, however.
Oh, and a final note. Don't go around calling yourself a monk. Monks don't really exist in the Known World. You'll confuse people ICly and frustrate them OOCly.
Anyways, good luck, young grasshopper.

[wizturbo]

Umm....no.

If you enjoy the spiritual warrior role however, there used to be a player made tribe that was sorta cool I guess, but their name eludes me.  I'm sure a player will be able to fill in the gap.

Edit:  Urep'ktarr.  Thanks Boinker.

[RunningMountain]

Er - a psionic boxer....sick..

[Spoon]

I gather, from previous threads, that the players of Armageddon like to keep an element of realism when it comes to things like combat.

This is why I think choosing a warrior and shunning weapons is the way to go. You really -should- get your arse kicked.

Most of the time people aren't fighting other humnoids, either. Just imagine trying to punch a giant insect. A scrab would eat Bruce Lee in four seconds flat.

[Cuusardo]

Not everyone who plays a combat character hunts, you know.  Some of them stay and work strictly within cities.

[jhunter]

I would like to see warriors have an unarmed combat skill. Of course, unless you got really good at it you'd get your ass beat by someone with a weapon. And I think that there should be something put in the helpfile that it's not very realistic to attempt it against non-humanoids.

I see nothing wrong with there being an unarmed combat skill for use against humanoids.

[Agent_137]

Just don't barefist it. Find a small weapon that isn't really a weapon, but eliminates the coded disadvantage to not having a weapon.

Something like brass knuckles, or a broken beer bottle, or something.

[Spoon]

Ok, the point I was making was that a highly skilled unarmed fighter is not going to be able to stand toe-to-toe with something like a scrab, but a  far less skilled fighter with a weapon could.

It would be a nice novelty, I have to admit, but in any world, escpecially Zalanthas, it's highly impractical. This is why I think that the warrior class would work for this idea, because no-matter how good you became at unarmed combat, in a real combat situation you'd be useless. Men invented sharp sticks so that they could kick the arse of the ones who hadn't.

[Savak]

Although such an idea could, in theory, be implemented in a believable fashion, I have to agree with the sentiment that it just doesn't fit the theme of Armageddon very well.

By and large we quite intentionally give the world a low-fantasy, gritty feel.  Almost everyone looks for the quickest, cheapest advantage, often without considering morality -- everyone ELSE dies young.  We minimize magick to very significant persons and events -- we want it to be relatively rare, "cool," and scary rather than the everyday norm.  Mystical or overtly spiritual/morally bound people are similarly uncommon, by design.

The very name "monk" implies ALL of these things we're trying to make rare.  Further, while the coded implementation could theoretically work, some elements of it would require a lot of toying around to really take full advantage and make it as believable as possible -- primarily with regard to unarmed combat versus the various racial types and opponents with various weapon types.  Not something I would expect to see happen without very, very compelling reasons.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to attempt such a character, some of the above suggestions using existing guilds could get you started.

-Savak

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I would like to suggest the monk class as well. However, allow me to give you my vision of it, to Armageddonize it.

I think that a monk should be a class accessable only to those with Karma. A Monk would specialize in one aspect of either war or magick exclusively.

A warrior monk would be an unarmored student of a specific weapon style with three aspects, as in dual-wield, slashing, parry, or two-handed, bludgeoning, disarm or slashing, shield, parry or backstab, peircing, sneak and so on.

A mage monk would be a master of one to three specific magic spells, and one to three aditional skills. So, he may have fireball, slashing, parry or fireball, ice shards, shield, or darkness, backstab, hunt and so on.

The remainder of the skills that these monks would have access to would be very mundane, such as cook, languages, and so forth.

The idea, of course, is to be so into your chosen field of study as to forget all else, and to live your life around those three skills alone. These skill limits are maxxed, but they are really the only three you have. And so this is a class only for those with Karma, who really wanna try their luck, and who really have dedication.

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

Just imagine trying to punch a giant insect. A scrab would eat Bruce Lee in four seconds flat.

I was thinking of somethng along the same line. But if Bruce Lee is dumb enough to pick a fight with a scrab...

I think someone with weapons has a coded advantage over another using fists.

While we are at it, can we get paladin as well? Feels kinda diabolish or baldurish.

But I must say I wouldn't mind more guilds. In the end, six types of magickers are still one guild. And race is not really guild. Even if you can play it differently, a hunter is still a hunter. And although I had never any subguilds maxxed, from the posts floating about, they seem to have a cap which is not very high. Meaning if you try to play with a subguild as a main job, it works but prepare to destroy a lot of things.

[Tlaloc]

There is a class, playable by PCs, which probably fits peoples ideas about what a 'monk' is. I'll leave it for you all to find out IC about it, though, either through learning in-game, or playing one yourself.

I'll note, though: Most of what a 'monk' is that people are refering to would be an anacronism on Armageddon. Yes, there are martial artists, but its doubtful that anyone on Zalanthas would believe in Zen buddism, etc. Magick is still feared and hated by just about everyone in the Known World, and so, learning 'magickal abilities' probably wouldn't be something that people are looking to go do. Also: magick works in very specific ways on Armageddon, and its doubtful that you could see anything of the Shaolin Soccer variety, without having to defile the spectators in the audience, and turn the field to ash.

Just a few thoughts.

[Anael]

Just a quick note to the 'unarmed combat' part of this thread:

Cestus.