Editing Mano a Mano:Design Decisions

[[Category:Mano a Mano]]
These concepts have influenced [[Mano a Mano]] development.

== Simplicity == 

Mano a mano should be simple, cheap and portable - so it can be played informally, even if you don't have any materials except what you have memorized and things most people have on hand.

*6 sided dice are used because they are easy to find. (They can even be made by hand.)
*Only one type of die roll (success rolls)
*Character sheets are designed to fit on 3x5 cards.

== Flexibility ==

*Mano a mano can be used for almost any genre

*Most things can be modeled as a character (people, animals, vehicles)
**"Race" packages replaced by the more abstract "Character Template" concept
**Character size can be extremely variable

*Modular system with lots of optional rules
**ideally "core rules" are optional too, though more strongly recommended
**Examples provided for things not covered in the rules (abilities, equipment ...)

== Realistic Martial Arts ==

*Mano a Mano can do many other things, but it's main focus is fighting.
*The rules strive to model what happens in full contact martial arts competition.
*When you get hurt, you slow down and become less dangerous than you used to be.
*The rules also model armed combat and combat between different sized opponents.
*Character and equipment stats are based on physical properties.
*Character size is a very big deal in this role-playing system.

== Player-focused ==

*In combat, the player chooses (or constructs) individual moves for each situation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_fly on the fly], as opposed to selecting from a menu of combat options each turn.
*Instigators and targets of actions are equal participants in a collaborative story. (A kind of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_lib "ad-lib"] - literally "at liberty")
*Character points are more strongly associated with players (CP/Character Points.)  Players could control more than one character, or CP could balance two unequally-sized groups of competing players.
*Character generation and development is very open-ended.
*Generalizations like "class", "level" and "alignment" are avoided.

What Player-focused is NOT:

*GM-focused - action and characters totally conform to the GM's description and schemes
*setting-focused - action and character development defined by the adventure or campaign material
*genre-focused - action and character development models stereotypes and archetypes

== Real Time ==

The relationship of the turn-based gameplay to real time action adds to the realistic action and martial arts of the system and makes it possible to apply the Mano a Mano system to real time computer simulations: action games as well as more strategic games.
(Here "real time" refers to both the information systems concept of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time Real-time], and realistic representation of time in the game fiction)

*In combat, characters are assumed to be continually moving
*Players take turns controlling their characters in a fixed order
*Time is measured from a player's turn until their next turn
*Some actions cannot be performed every turn (example: "wind up")
*Characters can perform more than one action in a turn
*Some characters can do more things per turn than other characters
*Sometimes a player's character can act on another player's turn