Final Stand is a martial arts role playing game with a flavor that reminds me of the fighting compuer games like Mortal Combat. to resolve combat in this game, each player draws on a dice pool to execute specific moves.
Characters are created by choosing a stereotype, plus a fighting style and form.
Here’s an example of combat from the game:
Lightning Feng has got into a fight with Boom Takashi, a formidable Burning Mantis master. Feng and the GM roll their action dice. Feng has six punch actions, and rolls these first. He sees that punch actions succeed on a 2+. He rolls his six dice and gets five successes (five of the dice come up 2 or better). He then rolls his two kick dice and two throw dice, repeating the procedure (this time needing 3+). He gets two throw successes and zero kick successes. After discarding the failures, he has five punch moves and two throw moves. As he was doing this, the GM was rolling her own dice.
Now the actual fight starts. Feng has a total of seven moves, and Takashi ended up with eight moves; Takashi has more moves and so starts as the attacker. The GM decides to throw a light punch first. It costs her one punch move, which she takes away from the pile in front of her. Feng does not want to risk too many of his moves on such a weak technique, so decides to try only one block. He takes one of his punch moves and rolls it. He gets a 5: a success. Feng narrates: �Takashi darts forwards and throws out a jab, but I easily deflect it with my forearm�. Feng gets to keep the move he risked, and now becomes the attacker. He takes no damage. Feng declares the special Tiger technique of �Gouging Fingers�. He discards two of his five punch moves to pay for it. The GM, getting a little worried now, decides to try two blocks. She rolls two punch dice, but gets a 1 and a 3; two failures. Feng narrates: �I lunge at Takashi with my right hand, my hooked fingers driving into a key nerve point on his torso. He loses his breath and staggers back�. Takashi loses the two punch dice the GM risked on blocking, takes one damage (loses one energy) for the technique, and, as a special condition of that particular technique, must discard one move of the GM�s choice. The GM tosses out a throw move. Feng is still the attacker, and will now choose another technique. If, at the end of the round, they both still have energy left, they will probably fight another round. At the start of that round, they roll their original action dice allotments again.
