Monkey Rules
Fulfillment Has Begun!
Inventory is still underway, but a small batch of fulfillment started yesterday (more on that in a moment) with more as the week progresses. There are 450 more books to open and verify, which should be completed tomorrow. So far everything is in order and has been packed extremely well; only two items were damaged in shipping.
GORILLA WARFARE!
Monkey Boxer by Steven Wu
We had a small gathering with food, drinks, fists, and fiends yesterday. A tiny celebration to mark the beginning of the book release and a chance to hand out a tiny batch while inventory is being finalized. It was an amazing experience to watch — the joy on everyone’s faces as they opened their books, and seeing the excitement they exuded to get to the table and play right away. It didn’t take long before the boxes were replaced by boxers.
The format for the day was a Player vs Player tournament. This allowed people a chance to play without me, so I did not hold up the fun with social interactions, book distribution, or food supplies. I did get to sit in and watch some of the matches though, and it was a blast! The final battle was David (Cotton Boxer) and Nierika (Monkey Boxer). David was the reigning champion trying to keep his title, and Nierika was the underdog.
Side note: the Monkey Boxer design and development took me a long time to get right. An early version went so far as to cause a player to have an aneurysm[!] at the table during my first convention playtest a few years back. While I have since dialed in the monkey boxer, and seen the finalized version played numerous times since, these instances/scenarios were always — the players against the bad guys in the game (who are typically untrained). Watching the ‘boxer versus boxer’ this time however, showed the true intricacies shine. It was a joy.
Nierika had trouble engaging at first, but once she was on the ground David could not take advantage of one of his more powerful stunts that he rolled. Instead, he had to step down to a weaker stunt or forfeit his stunt points altogether that round. Nierika did take damage from this, but she was able to get the grapple on the next round and even secured a choke on the cotton boxer. David spent the next few rounds unsuccessfully trying to get out of the choke and back to his feet, before eventually having his teeth knocked out from the choke, followed by full on asphyxiation the next round. In the end, the cotton boxer had no answer to battling the monkey boxer in their dominion — the underworld (ground fighting).
RANGE MATTERS!
Range is one of the key principles of fighting, and one of the defining strategies on any battlefield, large or small. A warrior, soldier, general, who does not account for range, will find themselves without an army. In the US Army, the King of Battle is Artillery. In ancient China, the long spear was known as the king of battle. The ability to hit an enemy before they can hit you, an absolute advantage. Modern fighter planes with advanced radars are designed with just such a purpose — kill the enemy fighter or bomber before they ever know you are there. In martial arts, it is no different, e.g. an MMA ticker tape matching fighter stats before each match, has ‘reach’ as one of the attributes.
Let’s take it further -
A Catch Wrestler, or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler versus a striker: if the grappler can never grapple, and the striker keeps them at bay their skills are nullified. However, if the grappler gets them on the ground, the fight is over without a doubt!
A Judoka versus a boxer or kickboxer: the same problem erupts. If the judoka can close the gap and get grips on the boxer, then it is all over for the boxer/kickboxer, but they have to get through the onslaught of punches and kicks before that can manifest into a reality.
A Kickboxer versus a 3 section staff wielder reverses this role: the kickboxer must risk getting clubbed by the 3 section staff in order to fight in ‘their’ effective range.
A 3 section staff versus a matchlock then causes problems for the staff wielder for the same reason.
On an on this goes, from the micro to the macro. Range is crucial. What made yesterday so amazing was seeing this principle translate to the tabletop wargame, without it being overly complicated, or slowing the turns to a crawl, beating the opponent through sheer boredom alone.
