Training

What is a story within the Dragon Universe without training? Refining oneself through pushing themselves to the limit, gaining greater strength, and then showing it off is quintessential to the Dragon Ball experience.

Training: The Basics

Training in DBU is usually an activity that is engaged in for prolonged periods while outside of combat, but it can come in many forms. Training can be physical exercise, practice with skills, refinement of Techniques/Transformations, or otherwise.

When engaging in training, there are various rewards you can give to your players – though, you should give them options for which ones they like to focus on in the given situation (aside from Power Levels, which may be given in addition to any other benefit from training). You should consider giving more rewards in relation to the narrative importance and factors influencing their training (such as gravity and the influence of a mentor). These are potential benefits from training:

• Power Levels are the safest bet. They show a general increase in power and skill.
• Transformations. They may be awoken by training, or given as a reward for overcoming challenges. Results of Training is a great Awakening to give if the Character isn’t training for any particular new Transformation.
• Mastery, to show time spent refining a Transformation.
• Gravity Acclimatization, typically done during training at high gravities.
• Signature Techniques, Unique Abilities, or perhaps even the creation of a Dramatic Finisher.

If you want the benefits of training to be particularly potent and have a lasting effect throughout the remainder of your campaign, consider the Limit-Breaking Training Optional Rule.

Training Bonuses

When coming out of training, a Dragon Ball character may seem profoundly more powerful in the immediate battles after training. To represent that, you may offer your players a Training Bonus. Training Bonuses are temporary effects that grant heightened powers to players for a short period.

Offering a Training Bonus. When finishing their Training, you may have players select a single Training Bonus from a series of Training Bonuses that are offered due to how the training is roleplayed (typically 2~4). You are encouraged to come up with unique and interesting Training Bonuses that apply directly to the circumstances brought about in that Training (and why they are training). It’s useful to remind players of the purpose behind their Training, if it’s to reach a new Transformation or for the specific purposes of learning to counter a particularly dangerous Adversary.

Length of a Training Bonus. When a player gains a Training Bonus, they will only maintain that for a length of time that depends on the ARC. There’s two ways to approach this:

• Climactic Battle Limit. The Training Bonus may last until a particular Combat Encounter, typically a climactic battle between the players and an Adversary.
• Time Limit. The Training Bonus lasts for a set amount of time, such as several days or weeks in game. During that time, the Character maintains the Training Bonus, but once the time has elapsed, they will lose it. Representing the effects of training dwindling without constant upkeep.

List of Training Bonuses

Below is a list of various Training Bonuses, but you should consider these as a set of more generic options, or as a guideline. Granting unique Training Bonuses that suit your campaign will likely create a more memorable experience for your players.

Energizing Training: After training in a healthy way with plenty of breaks and time to recover, this Character feels energized and ready to face any threat.
–Effects: Increase your Surgency by 2(bT) and you may use the Surge Maneuver an additional time during each Combat Encounter.

Survival Training: After training in a harsh environment and pushing themselves to the limit, this Character has refined their strategies for survival and is ready to engage even the most dangerous threats.
–Effects: Increase your Soak Value by 2(bT), the Dice Score of your Steadfast Checks by 1, and your Maximum Life Points by 2 for each Power Level reached.

Speed Training: After training to push their speed to its limits, this Character is ready to chase down those faster Adversaries and keep them on their toes.
–Effects: Increase your Awareness and Defense Value by 1(bT) and your Boosted Speed by 3(bT).

Battle-Focused Training: After training in a manner focused on enhancing their skills in combat, this Character has a lot of new combat experience fresh in their mind.
–Effects: Increase your Combat Rolls by 1(bT).

Transformation Training: Unlocking a new Transformation has made this Character more than ready to push their limits and make the most use of it in combat.
–Effects: Increase your Stress Bonus by 2 and increase your Attribute Modifiers (FO/MA) by 1(T) while in a Form or Transcended Enhancement.

Post-Training Confidence: After training, you feel unstoppable.
–Effects: Increase your Saving Throws by 1(bT) and you cannot gain the Impediment Combat Condition.

Ki Control Training: After training, you feel a deeper connection to your ki and are able to refine its control.
–Effects: Reduce the Ki Point Cost of your Maneuvers by 1(T), and you cannot gain the Drained Combat Condition.

Training: Engagement

How you handle training is completely down to what you feel is something that your players would have fun with. If you want to play it out, or have it be something that occurs ‘off screen’ and be skipped, both are valid options!

For those who want to do the former, however, here are a few suggestions:

• Consider this a time to reward Karma Points. Those players who really put their all into this training session with amazing roleplay that connects to the story the Character has been going through may deserve a Karma Point for this Training.
• Consider potential alternate benefits. You could give your players a multitude of Challenges, with the Characters being tested by a master, and that master may bestow their Signature Technique or prized Weapon to the one who stands out the most. It could also be a general show of Challenges to each be rewarded with a unique gi to show that they have been acknowledged by the master. Be careful with this approach, however, some players may feel left out if they roll poorly and don’t receive a reward as a result. Always make sure to know your table and what your players would be okay with.
• For those at a more hardcore table, you could consider applying Combat Conditions (for perhaps a single Combat Encounter) or Injuries to those who fail multiple Challenges through the Training. Of course, this is only for tables with players willing to deal with such risk!
• Training doesn’t have to be just Challenges, you could mix a Combat Encounter in there. Sparring between players, or a match against their teacher. These kinds of Combat Encounters can be ended under unique conditions, such as getting the teacher to below their Bruised Health Threshold or forcing them to Transform.

Ultimately, make training as fun as possible so that your players can walk out of it feeling like they’re ready to dive back into the campaign’s story with newfound readiness.

Training: Downtime

Long periods of time, usually measured in months, that can occur between arcs of your campaign are usually met with the idea of Downtime. During this, you can have Characters change up their builds (see — Style Change), or have them spend time to ‘catch up’. If one Character was obviously stronger than the others at the end of a story arc, you can have other Characters gain Transformations, Mastery, or Power Levels, so that they feel equal and ready to take on the next arc of your story. It may feel a little anticlimactic, but it’s a good chance to review the balance of strength between your players and make sure that everyone is able to feel just as important as each other before the next story arc begins.

Example Training Session

Son Goku must reach King Kai’s world by running across Snake Way. A multitude of Challenges testing his physical abilities take place, with the reward being shortening the time it takes to arrive and begin his training. Unfortunately, he has failed enough of these Challenges that with the training, he will still not be able to arrive for the initial confrontation with the Saiyans.

Having arrived, Goku has his most difficult challenge yet before he can undergo training: he must make a joke that the self-declared comedian King Kai will find funny! Fortunately, he’s able to make a joke that appeals to the ‘dad joke’ humor of his trainer and therefore he gets immediate approval.

The long-awaited training begins in earnest. Son Goku undergoes various Challenges to catch Bubbles while coping with the heightened gravity of King Kai’s world (resulting in him gaining a Gravity Acclimatization of 1). In catching Bubbles quickly due to succeeding at multiple Challenges, Goku has earned King Kai’s respect and thus will obtain an additional Unique Ability (Energy Gathering) and King Kai’s strongest Signature Technique, the Dramatic Finisher: Spirit Bomb! Both will come without costing any TP on Goku’s part due to his success in the various Challenges to this point.

With several more Challenges and roleplaying descriptors of his remaining training, Goku finally finishes it and heads off to face Vegeta and Nappa. His final rewards of this training come in the form of increasing his Power Level to 4, the Kaioken Enhancement, the Enhanced Special Quality being applied to his Gi (in the form of King Kai’s symbol), and being able to choose a Training Bonus.

Given a choice between Battle-Focused Training (due to the nature of his training with King Kai), Speed Training (due to the gravity), and Transformation Training (due to learning the Kaioken), Goku chooses the latter to ensure he has the best chance in using the highest Grades of the Kaioken Enhancement. Just in case he needs to push to a higher Grade when facing Vegeta.

Since he was training for the sake of fighting the Saiyans, Goku was given a Climactic Battle Limit of the Combat Encounter against Vegeta for his Training Bonus.