Drawing Down on Ridiculous
So I accidentally turned a pun about exertion into a silly, full-blown combat tradition—then I added some in-world lore with more serious undertones, and now I’m having an existential crisis.
What’s Chuck got to do (got to do) with it?
The TTRPG scene has a longstanding tradition of silly-serious design, especially when April 1st rolls around. “The ecology of the piercer” comes to mind, and is the perfect example of an absurd premise essentially becoming canonical and turning into something much bigger than itself.
A bit of background, I wrote the Hatchetman > Axeman > Headsman synergy feat chain for PJ Coffey’s Crafting Personalized Feats. In the process I may have gone a silly when naming some of the subfeatures (e.g. Axe-pertise, Axe-tra Attack) but mechanically sound. So when these feats came up again recently in conversation, naturally I was inspired to take it to the next level, and thus the Axe-Hurt-Shin combat maneuver was born.
A few frenetic design sessions later, the Tahnguar Hard-Fight combat tradition was finished. 15 maneuvers, 5 degrees, and as many martial arts pop culture references I could fit in with the thinnest veneer of seriousness.
I decided to pair the tradition with some catfolk gifts (for the pantheran heritage in GPG#28) and started building out a culture to tie it all together for a cohesive release. And that’s when my mind’s need for things to make sense kicked into overdrive. I needed a way where it would be at least somewhat believable to use the maneuver names in a campaign world.
Having just binged Warrior on Max, I wondered if I might model aspects after the historical fiction in the show: “Crossing the salt” to escape difficult conditions in their homeland. Fighting for a place to call their own in a foreign land. Using language barriers as a tool of secrecy and agency rather than just being a disadvantage. The name Tahnguar and the fact that they are a secret society is a nod to the tongs of Chinatown in the series. And in that context, the lore and overall tone of the Tahnguar very quickly takes a more somber turn. Gang wars, rampant racism, starvation, violent riots, and blood in the streets certainly weren’t a part of my initial thought process when I came up with maneuvers like Higher-You-Can (saying that one in Ryu’s voice from Street Fighter helps).
At the end of the day, Secret Society of the Tahnguar is lighthearted and not meant to take itself so seriously. Phonetically speaking, it’s “tongue-war” which plays into the idea of using language and words in unexpected ways to make silly puns and jokes. So whether you’re bashing a monster’s face in with Axe-A-Lot-Heel or earning a days wage in the fighting pit with Sand-To-Claws or saving your party member’s behind from the BBEG with Enter-Drag-Gone, you can rest assured that you’ve chosen the right maneuver (and combat tradition) for the job.
So what does Chuck Norris have to do with anything? Well for one, if a mullet signifies business in the front, party in the back, then a Chuck Norris mullet signifies serious campaign lore in the front, hilarious shenanigans in the back. Plus, everyone knows that when Chuck Norris plays D&D, the dice are afraid he’ll land the wrong side facing up.
Check out the full Secret Society of the Tahnguar release on DTRPG!
Two ways to get it:
Art free version (PWYW, suggested price $1.04)
Art included version ($4.01)
