Quote:
Originally Posted by Toptomcat
To my eye, the unarmed curriculum seems to be derived largely from Japanese and Korean karate styles contemporary to Nguyễn Lộc's initial period of training in the late 1930s, with scattered material from jujutsu and Northern Chinese systems. The predilection for flying scissor takedowns is the only thing plainly from neither of those two influences, and may show the influence of silat or something natively Vietnamese. Scholarship and practice of Vietnamese martial arts predating Viet Vovinam, from which it is supposedly partially derived, is really thin on the ground: I suspect an analogy to Korean martial arts, where the claim to have been synthesized from both foreign and native components is almost surely more of a political thing playing on patriotism than anything historically verifiable.
I can't say I've ever seen or heard of Vovinam being practiced in a manner that would justify purchase of the full combat version of the skill, rather than (most commonly) Art or (quite rarely) Sport, and I don't think Vovinam schools teach anything recognizably like the Indochinese kickboxing styles.
No comment on the armed curriculum: I don't have the expertise, beyond noting that I'd either stat out the armed portion as a separate art or arts in GURPS terms or stick them in Optional Skills to match what the book does with Chinese and Japanese styles that traditionally contain both armed and unarmed material.
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Interesting.
I didn't even consider that Japanese styles might have been popular in 1930s colonial Vietnam.
I'll be featuring a family of Vietnamese who moved to Houston in 1976 in the campaign. The oldest lineage holder is deceased when the campaign is set, but his son and several grandsons are NPCs.
It's actually okay that Vovinam is usually practised as an Art, as the sole PC to study it in the campaign is doing so as exercise and for mental health reasons, looking more for the discipline, philosophy and wisdom of the teacher than any useful combat benefits.
On the other hand, more or less any style of martial art can be practiced in a pragmatic version and the fact that at least one grandson raised in the style is currently serving in the US Army Special Forces means that at least one character trained in the style also knows modern military combatives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toptomcat
Mechanically, I think Akijutsu+Taekwondo+Wushu would be a good place to start trimming from, plus either Technique Adaptation (Scissors Hold defaults from Judo) and Scissors Hold or allowing a Using Your Legs version of a Sacrifice Throw. (The scissor takedown seems poorly represented by the book's Scissors Hold to me, being more of a single-motion, one-instant throw that relies partially on momentum and either succeeds or fails in an instant rather than being possible to use in the methodical 'first establish hold, then throw with it' way enabled by Scissors Hold. But I'm not sure what else Scissors Hold could possibly be meant to represent.)
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As Vovinam is primarily an Art style, as you say, I think it's reasonable to model the scissor takedown as an All-Out Attack (Double), allowing the grapple and throw in the same turn.