Animal Hybrids for Street Fighter

Animal Hybrids are characters that have purchased the Animal Hybrid background. The Player’s Guide lists multiple ranks of this background, starting attributes, and other rules. For the sake of balance I’m throwing all of that out. Below you will find an alternate rule set meant to keep hybrids in check both in and out of the ring.

Yes, the nerf hammer has swung hard on Animal Hybrids and for good reason. They were poorly balanced for the overall game to begin with. Street Fighter is a game heavily dependent on combat for advancement. Handing out tons of combat bonuses just for buying ranks in one background is thus inviting disaster. My goal is not to completely destroy the value of making hybrids but to keep the playing field level with human street fighters.

How are Animal Hybrids created?

The answer to that question will be answered by the GM but the most reasonable method is through genetic manipulation. Sure it might not be an explanation that jives with modern science but it’s an easy handwave most people will accept and run with. In a campaign with lots of magic hybrids can represent half-human, half-other creatures. They also serve as stand-ins for Garou and other changing folk of White Wolf's World of Darkness product line.

Animal Hybrid Background:

Each rank in this background provides the character with 2 points which are spent to buy hybrid elements (listed below). A character with more ranks in this background will thus have more such traits and look more bestial as a result.

It is important to decide what animal the character has been fused with. Only one animal is allowed. The character’s form will remain humanoid but they might gain fur, claws, hooves, fangs, wings, or a tail from the process. Whatever it is, the character will stand out in a crowd.

A hybrid is likely to be misunderstood and mocked by society in general. They are still rational human beings for all intents and purposes.

Before moving on there is an optional addition to these rules. If the GM wishes to incorporate Merits and Flaws into the campaign Animal Hybrids may take any Flaw concerning Willpower and gain an additional point for it.

Attributes:

Hybrids as starting characters are limited to 5 in their attributes just like normal humans. If they want to transcend they will have to work for it. However, during the process of spending Freebie points the costs for all attributes are modified as thus: Physical attributes cost 4 Freebies per dot, Mentals are the standard 5 per dot, and Social attributes cost 6 per dot.

This does not affect increasing attributes through experience points.

Abilities:

Unchanged from basic character creation.

Advantages:

The primary benefit is the ability to purchase the following Hybrid Elements. Use the chart below.

Element Name:	Cost:	Effect:

Heat Resistance:	1	You are not bothered by heat up to 110° F. In hotter environments you would be advised to seek shade and drink plenty of fluids like other people.
Cold Resistance:	1	You have a thick fur or a layer of fat that insulates you from cold. You need not make stamina rolls to endure cold up to a temperature of –20° F. Any colder and you must take measures to guard against hypothermia.
Flight:	1	You must also have wings to have this ability. Combat flight speed is limited to half your Athletics technique in hexes. This is a slow, careful flight strategy. Otherwise you may fly at three times your Athletics score per round. However with fast flight your soak total is reduced by one. You cannot block while flying and must land to attack with anything other then basic punches and kicks.
Water Breathing:	1	You have functional gills and cannot drown in water under normal circumstances. If the water has been stripped of it’s oxygen content (for a real life example see the dead zone out in the Gulf of Mexico) you will suffocate.
Scales:	1	Hardened scales cover your body. This is an extremely obvious sign that you aren't a normal human and cannot be concealed in close quarters. Your soak totals against slashing and piercing attacks is increased by 1 point due to this armor. (This entry also applies to hybrids who have chitinous skin.)
Back Sail:	3	Thick plates run down your back. Anyone trying to grab you from behind (as foolish as that is) suffers an automatic three health levels of impact damage.
Tail:	1	You have a tail. You can also purchase any of the following modifiers: Spiked (1): Dexterity + Athletics to hit, Strength + 3 piercing damage if you impale a target; spikes break off if you botch an attack roll Stinger (1): Dexterity + Athletics to hit, Strength + 4 damage on a successful strike; a stinger can deliver poison as if it were a biting attack Prehensile (1): can hold objects with your tail; it has half your Strength score, rounded down, for use in strength checks Massive Coils (3): A tail of this size is reserved for hybrids who lack legs (cost is already calculated into the cost of this entry). You can, on a successful Dexterity + Grab to-hit roll, place one target in a constricting hold. This maneuver costs 1 Willpower, has -2 Speed, 1 Move, is a sustained hold, and inflicts Strength + Athletics + 5 crushing damage each round. Add three extra dice when maintaining this hold. The downside of Massive Coils is that without legs you cannot perform kicks nor can you use the Light Feet special maneuver.
Pincer:	2 or 4	For the two point version you have a set of massive pincers instead of hands on two arms. As you have no opposable digits on your pincers you lack any semblance of manual dexterity. However they are razor sharp. An attack with a pincer grab is Dexterity + Grab to hit and Strength + 4 slashing damage if you get ahold of a target. For the four point version you have a single, massive pincer at the end of a long tail (taking the place of any other appendage that would be there). You can make the same pincer strike as outlined above, on any adjacent hex - not needing to enter the hex due to your tail's length - or a pincer hold. The hold is a Dexterity + Grab check to hit with, costs 1 Willpower, has -2 speed, inflicts Strength + 8 damage initially, Strength + 4 every round thereafter in crushing damage, and is a sustained hold. Once the hold is established you may move the held victim with your tail. You can forego the damage roll to draw the victim toward you for a basic punch, bite, or claw attack.
Feathers:	1	If you have wings and want to fly you also need to have feathers or your flight is restricted solely to gliding.
Fur:	1	This is an un-concealable anatomical feature. Fur provides an additional +1 soak against cold, including ice-elemental maneuvers.
Fins:	2	You have noticeable protruding fins on your arms and legs. Movement while swimming is increased by two hexes per round.
Horns:	2	You have one or two horns growing from your head. You can attempt to gore opponents in combat via Dexterity + Athletics roll and they inflict Strength + 3 damage if they connect. On a botch one horn breaks off.
Beak:	3	Instead of a normal human skull you have one of a bird with a large beak front and center for all to see. Speech is awkward at best. This can be used for hybrid biting attacks.
Wings:	2	You have a pair of enormous wings.
Massive Jaws:	2	Your jaw is large and predatory with great teeth for slicing apart your meals. Human speech is very difficult because of the jaw's rigid structure. The damage ratings of your biting attacks is increased by 1.
Rodent Teeth:	1	You lack canine teeth and instead have a pair of matched incisors that grow continuously throughout your lifetime. These teeth are built for gnawing. Given sufficient time you can work your way through anything but the hardest materials.
Claws:	1	You have claws and may use claw maneuvers.
Hooved Feet:	1	Instead of hominid feet your have a pair of hooves.
Animal Ears:	1	Instead of normal human ears you have a pair that are distinctly of another race like those of a cat or dog. You have + 1 to your auditory Perception checks.
Stripes or Patterns:	1	Usually combined with fur you have distinctive striping or patterns covering your body. This helps you blend in with underbrush giving you an additional die on Stealth rolls when you have such cover to hide against.
Bony Ridges:	1	The cost of this trait is 1 per pair of limbs armored. Thickened hide or bony growths within the limb help shield you from injury. They are resistant to damage both from blows and blades granting you an additional point of soak when consciously blocking with the armored limbs. This bonus is not extra Stamina.
Projectile Spit:	1	You have specialized muscles in your jaw for spitting venom or mucuous. This does nothing on it's own. Instead it increases the range for maneuvers such as Acid Breath by an additional three hexes.
Extra Arm or Leg:	4 per	The cost of this element is per set. Each additional pair of arms increases your weight by 30 lbs and gives you an additional die for sustaining holds. Each additional pair of legs adds 60 lbs. and gives you two extra dice to resist knockdown.
Improved Healing:	5	This hybrid ability stacks with the Sanbo rank 3 school technique. Each day you heal an additional two points of incapacitating damage and one point of aggravated damage. For stacking purposes this is an effective increase in stamina.
Nightvision:	3	You have reflective corneas that gather dim light at night and amplify the image so that you can see in the dark. This does not allow you to see where there is no light. In a dark area your eyes will glow with reflected light.

The character may also purchase maneuvers that list Animal Hybrid or Inhuman in their power point lists at that cost. If they practice a martial art also listed they may use the lower of the two numbers to learn the technique. It is important to always keep in mind the physical limitations that maneuvers exclusive to hybrids have. A hybrid who did not gain a tail cannot learn tail strikes, for example.

Frenzy:

Forget this was ever mentioned in the Player’s Guide. An Animal Hybrid is governed by the same emotional rules that normal humans are. If the character wants to tap into their rage there are special maneuvers that can do that.

Hybrid Maneuvers and Aggravated Damage:

In the interest of game balance bites and claw slashes do not cause aggravated damage. It should be noted that Acid Breath as written in the basic rules doesn’t cause lethal wound levels either despite it’s description. A player may opt to deliver lethal damage with such attacks if they want to.

Do Claws add to Punch damage?

No, they do not. Using claws requires a slashing motion which would mean the hybrid was no longer punching. Only Leaping Rake gets a damage bonus from claws.

Does Bite add damage to Head Bite?

No. Head Bite was written before Bite and other hybrid rules where and already took such bite forces into consideration. Head Bite is a move Blanka debuted with. If he doesn’t get a bonus to his bite force on Head Bite other hybrids don’t either. It is already a sustained hold that does decent damage.

Do Horns add damage to Headbutt?

No. Headbutt is exactly what it sounds like. It is presumed that while Headbutting the hybrid wouldn’t be striking with their horns which, when compared to the skull, are quite fragile. Rams, for example, use their horns to entangle the horns of other rams in combat and strike one another using their thick skulls.

Hybrid Maneuvers and Technique ratings:

All references to using the Animal Hybrid background in lieu of a combat technique have been deleted from the maneuvers lists. Each maneuver belongs to a martial category and uses that technique for base damage unless the maneuver’s text says otherwise.

Animal Hybrids and Animal Companions:

There are no free points in Animal Companion. This is because most animal hybrids will be a fusion of man with predatory, solitary species and it makes no sense that a normal animal will give up it’s usual lifestyle to live with a much larger and more dangerous creature just because that person was hybridized. If the character wants a companion they must buy Animal Companion like everyone else.

Cyborgs

Ugh, can’t we just pretend these things were never added to the game? Please? Not only do they reek of Sci-Fi that doesn’t blend very well with the world of Street Fighter but the rules for them were poorly thought out and the artwork is super cheesy.

Come on, just take one look at Icepick in the Player’s Guide and not laugh. I dare ya.

Cyborgs are referenced in Street Fighter the Animated Movie by a scientist working for M. Bison. However this is a case of getting terminology mixed up. The units that appear in the movie are fully synthetic machines used for not-so-covert reconnaissance. A cyborg is a person using a mechanical device to augment themselves. Anyone who depends on glasses is already a cyborg by definition …

*sigh*

Alright, here are the rules governing cyborgs.

Cyborg Background:

For each dot in the Cybernetics background the character has had one limb replaced with a prosthetic one. This makes the maximum cap of the Cyborg Background 4: two arms and two legs. The human brain is simply ill-equipped to deal with adding any additional limbs and so these are not allowed.

Just like with Animal Hybrids above there is an additional caveat. If the GM wishes to incorporate Merits and Flaws into the campaign Cyborgs may take any Flaw concerning Chi and gain an additional point for it.

Attributes:

Just like with Animal Hybrids above during character creation dots in physical attributes cost 4 Freebie points each, mental attributes cost the standard 5, and social attributes cost 6 per dot. Increasing attributes through experience costs the same as everyone else.

This means that Cyborgs gain a small advantage in the physical department with a small sacrifice in the social arena. Because Street Fighter is not a game really geared for social roleplaying large penalties to that area often get ignored which warrants reducing the benefits significantly.

Abilities:

Unchanged from basic character creation.

Advantages:

A new cyborg starts with 12 health instead of the standard 10. The cyborg will never suffer bleeding damage or detrimental effects based on bashing damage to cybernized limbs. However, damage from Acid Breath is increased by 1 every round for a cyborg as it eats through the outer sheathing and destroys sensitive parts. Certain elemental abilities are more effective against Cyborgs. Metal elementals in particular love to fight Cyborgs. Funny how that works.

Each individual limb can sustain up to 20 points of aggravated damage before being rendered inoperable. An artificial torso can sustain up to 50 points. This damage cannot be recovered using healing special maneuvers or rest and must be restored by being repaired by a skilled technician. If an artificial torso is disabled this way the character will die without immediate medical attention.

Focus Maneuvers:

These functions exactly like they do with any other fighter. Maneuvers that use Chi still use Chi.

Honor:

In exchange for their increased physical abilities all cyborgs sacrifice a bit of their humanity and souls. All cyborgs begin with a permanent Honor of 0. They may not invest starting points into Honor but this score can be raised during character creation by results on the Heritage and Life Path tables.

Street Fighter has no built-in system for measuring this loss of humanity. However another RPG does: Cyberpunk. In that game each character has an Empathy attribute which when multiplied by 10 yields a humanity score. Adding cybernetics reduces this humanity score by a throw of the dice. This randomness ensures that players think carefully about what cybernetics they want.

As the cyborg loses humanity they become increasingly cold, distant, and psychotic until eventually they snap and go on a rampage. At that point law enforcement will do whatever is necessary (and they have sufficient firepower in Cyberpunk) to end the rampage. Prior to that the character can be forced to deactivate their implants and undergo psychiatric treatment. For the most severe cases the only option is Braindance. The cyborg is plugged into a powerful computer and their entire personality and memories are erased and replaced with whatever the operators desire.

To simulate this humanity loss in Street Fighter each point invested in the Cyborg background permanently reduces the character’s maximum attainable Honor by 1. Additional cybernetic enhancements further erode this cap by a set amount per piece. If the cyborg decides to discard their enhancements they will slowly regain their lost Honor (provided they actually try to be decent human beings) at a rate of 1 temporary Honor per month. Yes, this is very slow and deliberately so. It takes time to recover lost empathy.

Alternate system: Cyberpunk does fairly well but isn't always fair or representative so here is an alternate take. Instead of sacrificing Honor cyborgs put their Chi and very bodies on the line. Each dot of the Cyborg background reduces their permanent Chi cap by 1. In addition to this there is a certain risk in having such powerful electronics wired directly into the human nervous system. Whenever a major cybernetic part (limbs, torso, power source, etc.) sustain damage equal to one half their maximum health levels or more the Cyborg must make an immediate Stamina roll versus difficulty 8. They suffer a number of aggravated wounds from electrical feedback equal to 3 minus the Stamina successes. If the roll botched the part has suffered catastrophic damage and must be completely replaced.

Cyborgs and Animal Hybrids:

An Animal Hybrid who becomes a cyborg gains no extra benefits from their new machinery but may continue learning hybrid maneuvers as outlined above. Animal Hybrids may have synthetic versions of their tails, wings, etc. And are fully capable of handling them because that is normal for them. Like a human cyborg a hybrid cannot have a new limb attached to them. Their brains and bodies are not built to handle such changes.