Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
I do not see the necessity or realism of this. Speaking as someone who trained as a martial artist and who has known many martial artists, developing new techniques is simple and straightforward. You really only need a sparing partner or three and a few weeks of dedicated work. Now, making a new style could take years or decades, so I can see that being an 'invention', but I do not see it benefitting from the invention rules.
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Alright. I see your point. But can I make a counterargument? For the record, I'm going to make a few assumptions here based on my personal experience with martial arts (8 casual years of Wado Ryu Karate, 2 casual years of SCA training at HEMA) and what I've read and studied about martial arts. I'm assuming you have more experience and can correct any incorrect assumptions I make.
So say I want to invent a new combative technique. I want to keep it simple. I don't have a lot of experience with grappling and what little experience I have indicates that it's techniques are likely more complex than strikes. So I'm going to try to invent a new strike. Specifically I'm going to try to invent a new way to strike with my hand/arm that may have distinct benefits and drawbacks compared to the standard karate punches I was taught.
I'm calling this a simple invention. So I have to roll IQ based Karate at -6 to come up with a good idea. Fortunately, it seems next to impossible to come up with an entirely new type of arm based strike (only so many striking surfaces and only so many ways to get leverage into it) and I've already been taught all of the basic ones so I'm really just modifying an existing punch to try to do something else, or be slightly more useful in specific circumstances. The new type of strike will not be new to the campaign, in fact it will probably very much exist in the world. Existing in the world but lacking a specific working model (I know people
do practice strikes with the first joints of their fingers instead of their knuckles, but I've never done it and don't have anyone who knows how teaching me) is worth +2. Modifying an existing standard strike is worth up to a +5. I'm now rolling on IQ based Karate at +1 (understanding how the shock will transfer into my arm and up my arm is more important than having good muscle memory at this phase.)
So I've come up with a concept. Now with 1d-2 days (min 1), 8 hours a day, for an average of 20 hours of work I can refine it, practicing with my buddies and punching bags, until I've got it.
Naturally I'll break my wrist when I go to test my prototype. Sounds like a greater bug to me. Need to fix that. Let's move on to the testing phase. With four weeks of practice and my buddies I've worked out the kinks and can now use it.
So that about lines up with your "few weeks of dedicated work" right? I'm sure there are all kinds of flaws with the specifics of that example, but my point is that a "simple invention" that's a modification of an existing technique (which is mostly what you'll be doing)
does boil down to a few weeks of dedicated work with your sparing buddies... and $50,000. So the idea of using the invention rules, minus the cost (or replace the costs with something else?) DOES accurately mimic the creative development process.