'Teaching down' with martial-arts skills

[Toptomcat]

Would you permit a PC with Karate and the requisite teaching skills to teach an easier, simpler skill like Boxing or Brawling to another character by employing an intentionally simplified curriculum?

Would you permit someone with Smallsword to teach Shortsword, or someone with Main-Gauche to teach Knife?

And okay, sometimes there are advantages to 'lesser' skills that others can't reliably replicate. Because of the Strength bonus and the ability to function while encumbered, Wrestling is not an exact fit for someone with Judo to teach. But would you let someone with Judo, Power Grappling, Armor Familiarity, and perhaps Skill Adaptation (Scissors Hold defaults to Judo) teach Wrestling?

Would you permit someone who *lacked* one or more of those Perks to teach Wrestling and give their students a Quirk or two (Wrestling does not provide a default to Scissors Hold technique, Wrestling suffers encumbrance penalties)?

[AlexanderHowl]

People can only teach skills that they know. Boxing and Brawling are different skills that Karate and Sumo Wrestling and Wrestling are different skills than Judo. Of course, I do not think that it would be unreasonable to allow the striking skills to default to each other at -4 or the grappling skills to default to each other at -4 since they have some overlap, but you need to have points in a skill to teach it.

[Phantasm]

Boxing and Karate I'd permit overlap, teaching-wise. Boxing has footwork but no kicks; Karate has much the same footwork plus kicks, but much of the same hand strikes. So I'd permit Karate to teach Boxing, but not vice verse. No Brawling, though.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Boxing and Karate I'd permit overlap, teaching-wise. Boxing has footwork but no kicks; Karate has much the same footwork plus kicks, but much of the same hand strikes. So I'd permit Karate to teach Boxing, but not vice verse. No Brawling, though.

Boxing has upsides that Karate lacks, primarily the ability to ignore Encumbrance while enjoying the footwork bonus, but IIRC other stuff too.

[tanksoldier]

I could see a simplified, self-defense striking art use Brawling... doesn't really teach weapon parries or complex techniques.

Also, arts that use Judo could dumb down to wrestling... instead of Judo Throws it would be dumbed down to takedowns.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

Would you permit a PC with Karate and the requisite teaching skills to teach an easier, simpler skill like Boxing or Brawling to another character by employing an intentionally simplified curriculum?

No. Because those are not simpler forms of those skill. You can't teach skills you do not have but are sort of similar to ones you do. You might have a point with Main Gauche to Knife, though I think GURPS handles that poorly (for legacy reasons) or Physician to First Aid.

I suppose you could teach the skill you do have with limitations if you wanted, though the GURPS rules aren't really good at modelling that. It's related to the concept the Self Defense or Trained by a Fraud lenses (Martial Arts p145) are attempting to get at, but those aren't developed much. Still, that's where I'd start thinking about building an inferior training package. The other approach would be Optional Specialization - though you'd need to develop your own optional specializations of Karate - they wouldn't be just Boxing or Brawling, those include stuff Karate does *not*.