MACE: Martial Arts Card Engine
MACE is a game for 2 – 4 players. MACE simulates the fantastic martial arts battles common to fighting games and anime. Each player is represented by a Fighter, a master of the martial arts complete with vicious Strikes and powerful Blasts of energy. The goal is to Knock Out all other players Fighters, with the last one standing the winner.
MACE uses a deck of playing cards, a hex sheet and some tokens, so is easy to play and requires no book keeping. MACE also features a unique order mechanic called Momentum, which allows you to choose when you act.
If you are interested in anything anime or martial arts and like a fun simple system, then check out MACE!
Place one deck of playing cards in centre of play area. When a player plays a card from their hand, draw a card to replace it. All cards played are discarded to the discard pile next to the deck. If a player cannot draw a card because the deck is empty, shuffle discard pile and place as new deck.
Tags: Aaron White
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
North Atlantic published a book on the history of martial arts training manuals, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo that makes your point. Pre-modern military manuals that teach fighting focus on armed techniques, not unarmed fighting.
There was an article by Douglas Ware in the November 2007 edition of the Journal of the Asian Martial Arts where he makes the same observation as you – that martial artists were not widely used in the military, but it isn’t immediately clear what he’s basing it on.
I don’t have my copy of Marrow of the Nation handy, but my understanding is that the Nanjing Central Guoshu academy was used to train soldiers for the anti-Japanese resistance. I learned some xingyi from a student of William BP Chan – who was a prominent teacher in New York in the 1970s – who learned Xingyi in the 1930s training to fight the Japanese.