Here's the basics for my video game/Road House beat em up rpg.
It's about hurting people with martial arts power, seeking out people to hurt, and why you seek out people to hurt.

About hurting people
This is the core mechanic area. Base rolls a number of six siders equal to your skill with the chance to reroll any dice lower than you attribute.
Initiative is governed once at the start of combat instead of every round for handling time purposes. You may reroll by spending an action.

Since this is game of smacking people down instead of juggling resources there are no chi guages that limit how many times you can electrify your fist when you hit someone. There are super combo meters (reluctantly at the request of playtesters) that are governed by your fighters Driving forces.

Seeking people out to hurt is the function of tournaments, since they are a place where beating someone down is considered acceptable in our society. Each arena has its own rules. This part is the least fleshed out of the game.

Why we beat people up are described by five driving forces.
Honor. Glory. The Fear. Rage. The quest for Enlightenment.
All fighter have a rating in each drive, and select a primary drive which governs how they perform Super Moves.
Honorable fighters charge up by taking their hits like a man and giving up the oprotunity to take cheap shots. When powered up they become more accurate and more damaging to the corrupt.
Glorious fighters charge up by showboating and demonstrating their superior skill.
Fighters motivated by the Fear can launch fast and damaging attacks out of desperation when they are severely injured.
Fighters driven by Rage charge up when they get hurt or when they are mocked. At full power they are more damaging.
Fighters who seek Enlightenment through combat power up by demonstrating a knowlege of human nature that lets them predict their opponent's moves. When powered up an transcendental fighter gains bonuses for chi moves.

Ok, I think I'll migrate my interest in Men of Teak over, even though gamist resource-juggling isn't part of it ;) Honestly, if it has martial arts plus, well, just about anything, I'm in.

So, here's what I'm interested in-- the driving forces. Does a character have one driving force or a rating in more than one or all of them? To what extent are they meant to involve exclusive behaviors that differentiate them from the other driving forces? I'd like to hear more examples what kinds of specific game behaviors fall into each one.

Honorable: I think I get this one. But specifically (maybe crassly as well), as a player, how do I create the opportunity for my character to take a cheap shot so that he can pass it up? Is both the additional accuracy and the additional damage limited to the corrupt, or just the limited damage?

Glorious: Ok, again, what kinds of system specific behaviors constitute showboating? Can I just describe myself as showboating, or do I have to sacrifice dice/actions in order to do it?

Fear: This one is probably pretty straightforward once I know what the game definition of seriously injured is, so I don't have many questions about it.

Rage: How much do they have to get hurt? Is it comparable to fighters motivated by fear? Less? Is getting mocked basically a roleplaying-based behavior? Does showboating count as an insult, so a glorious fighter might showboat and that motivates a rage-driven fighter to rage?

Enlightenment: What do I do specifically to predict an opponent's move?

Rich

Yes, each character has a rating in each of the forces and chooses which one they want to derive their Hyper Moves from on a case by case basis.

Honorable fighters get the opprotunity for cheap shots by stunning the opponent with massive damage and knocking a character down so you don't kick them when they're on the floor.

Showboating is mechanically specific. You've got to take penalties. Wildly inaccurate windmill punches or knocking someone over with a tap when they're realing would be showboating. So would sacrificing an action to trash talk.

Rage fighters get powered up by being hit, not be being weak and cornered the way fighters with the Fear do. And yes, nearly everything a glorious fighter does to charge up will charge up a Rage driven opponent.

Predicitng an opponents move is a matter of writing down what the opponent is going to do on a card. If the opponent does that for one of their actions that round hold up the card and feel the charge. Fighters with higher perception skills may write down more than one move and charge up if any of the moves are played by the opponent.

It's also worth noting that damage charges up Raging fighter so they may unleash their Hyper Strikes. Once you let loose you have to charge up again.

Fighters driven by the fear don't have to worry about charging up. When they get beat down hard enough they fight like a cornered rat until they get better or go down.