Rising Attacks in Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game

A few years ago, I wrote up some short analyses of the special maneuvers in the core book. I used to have these online elsewhere (and they're still up), but I thought I'd move them over here to put everything in one place.

I'll start with a short comparative analysis of rising attacks, such as the Dragon Punch, Thunderstrike, etc., in Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game. 

Here are the rising attacks in the original game rules in summary format:

Name	Cost	Spd	Dmg	Mv	Effects
Punch
Flaming Dragon Punch	w, c	-1	+6 x2	-2	KD, KB, Air, Dodge
Dragon Punch	w	+0	+6	-2	KDA, KB, Air, Dodge
Kick
Dragon Kick	w, c	-1	+6 x2	-2	KD, KB, Air, Dodge
Flash Kick	w, c	-1	+7	No	KDA, Air, Dodge
Flying Thrust Kick	w	+0	+6	-2	KDA, KB, Air, Dodge
Flying Knee Thrust	w	+1	+2	+1	Air, Dodge
Grab
Air Throw	w	+2	+5	+0	vs. Air, KD, Mv-Hit-Mv
Athletics
Jumping Shoulder Butt	-	+0	+3	-1	Air, Dodge
Thunderstrike	-	+0	+5	-1	Start adjacent, in-hex, Mv-Hit-Mv, Air, Dodge
Vertical Rolling Attack	w	+0	+3	+0	KDA, Air, Dodge

Dragon Punch is mechanically identical to Flying Thrust Kick, and Flaming Dragon Punch is identical to Dragon Kick, aside from being based off different techniques. This reduces the number of unique “rising attacks” to 7. It’s worth noting that Flaming Dragon Punch and Dragon Kick only hit twice if the fighter is adjacent to his opponent at the start of the round.

Dragon Punch, Flying Thrust Kick, Flaming Dragon Punch, and Dragon Kick all cause Knock Back, potentially useful when fighting a grappler.

Some of these maneuvers do not cause Knock Down, even on Aerial opponents—a fact that had escaped me in spite of years of playing the game. Among these are Flying Knee Thrust and Thunderstrike.

Thunderstrike is interesting. It is fairly powerful due to its lack of a Willpower cost, but it does suffer from some limitations not shared by other rising attacks: 1) it does not cause Knock Down, even on Aerial opponents. 2) The fighter must start the round adjacent to his opponent and must enter the opponent’s hex in order to use Thunderstrike. These drawbacks are offset by a nice benefit: after dealing damage, the fighter can finish their movement.

Compare this with Flash Kick, which has a number of weaknesses. While it does +7 damage, the highest in the game, it is costly (1 Chi and 1 Willpower) and has no movement.

Now, let’s look at the maneuvers from Secrets of the Shadoloo, and the Storyteller’s Screen.

Name	Cost	Spd	Dmg	Mv	Effects
Kick
Forward Backflip Kick (Storyteller’s Screen)	w	+2	+1 x2	two	vs Air, KDA
Tiger Knee (SotS)	2 w	+3	+2	+0	KD, Air, Dodge
Grab
Air Suplex (SotS)	-	-1	+4	+0	vs. Air, KD, end turn in-hex
Choke Throw (SotS)	-	-1	+2	+0	vs. Air or Stand, KD, end in-hex

Forward Backflip Kick and Tiger Knee seem like good additions to the game—they work differently and are not overpowered. Tiger Knee is incredibly fast and causes Knock Down, but its stats are offset by its high Willpower cost. Forward Backflip Kick is excellent if you catch the opponent in the air, but it isn’t a complete loss if the opponent doesn’t go aerial.