Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Thayne
Dungeon Fantasy Martial Artists are a bit of an odd man out. The other "core" professions all have roots in fantasy fiction and RPGs primarily (if loosely) based off Medieval Europe. The Martial Artist, on the other hand, has its roots in Chinese and Japanese martial arts. Sure, the barbarian template also represents an exotic foreigner—but often one from a mere few hundred miles away, as opposed to several thousand miles away. So I'm wondering about historical precedents for something that could justify using the mechanics of the Martial Artist without feeling so out of place. One thing that comes to mind, oddly, is to portray them as a sort of cinematic version of ancient Olympic athletes. But it might be that people know of other historical precedents. Thoughts?
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It sounds like you are mostly talking about unarmed martial arts, because we already have an abundance of weapons-based non-Asian martial arts. Two things that come to mind are wrestling and boxing. Pugilists throughout Western civilization have competed in these forms of unarmed combat throughout history. There are probably a few H.E.M.A. enthusiasts that focus on the history of these topics and those resources could be mined for ideas.