11-04-2019, 12:23 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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[Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
Imagine a subculture whose members are always equipped with a sturdy, hardcover book.
Suppose they have a martial art Style centered on the book as a primarily two-handed weapon. What GURPS elements should make up such a Style? |
11-04-2019, 12:46 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ft Collins, CO
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
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11-04-2019, 05:12 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
They get laughed out of the dojo except in a silly setting. In a silly setting, it is whatever you can justify to the GM. Now, a martial art that uses paper in general might be possible in a powered setting (with each power having Environmental, Paper, -40%).
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11-04-2019, 06:24 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
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See the anime (and related works) Read or Die for an example of paper powers. |
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11-04-2019, 06:45 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
I imagine aggressive parry would be a good one with finger-rapping and forearm parries featuring heavily.
In such a literate/bookish society, would Kiai or Rapier Wit be common? Perhaps with some kind of limit that they only work on folk of the same literary background? If it's usable as a shield, flail, and club, then grip mastery is in order. |
11-04-2019, 06:50 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
It is not meant to shut down anything, it is an observation concerning genre. Such a martial art style would be highly impractical in a realistic genre, probably inappropriate in a cinematic genre, and perfect for a silly genre. It just depends on the genre of the campaign.
The problem with the style would be the nature of the weapon. While books can be reinforced, hands and feet make better weapons than most books. Anyway, most books would be one-handed weapons rather than two-handed weapons. So, a reinforced hardback book would weigh around 1 lb, deal thrust crushing damage, and would have a reach C or weigh 2 lbs, deal thrust+1/swing-1 crushing damage, and would have reach C-1. The former would require ST 5 while the latter would be ST 7. In either case, they would be DR 1 and have HP normal for homogeneous objects of their mass. |
11-04-2019, 09:18 PM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: earth....I think.
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
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So instead of insulting and shutting them down, and then bringing up a different power/style than what they asked for, you could (without being condescending) bring something useful to the table, or not post. EDIT:: Also, John Wick 3 begs to differ with the lethality of a book in a genre where it can happen. ----- Back on topic ---- Techniques: Thrust/neck (Jabbing the book into the neck. Thrust/vitals (jabbing the corner of the book into the kidneys from the back or the liver from the front) swing/skull (using the edge of the book to land a hard skull cracking hit) Aggressive parry, as mentioned, would be really good too for the style. |
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11-04-2019, 10:34 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
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ETA: Thought I might find a compilation on YouTube, but there's just this scene from Bourne Ultimatum. ETA2: For that matter, training with a book, in kali, another style, or this book vs knife training video. Should give you some technique ideas.
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11-05-2019, 02:51 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
Throwing (Book), if used for law enforcement.
Is this intended for some sort of "fightin' scholars" martial art? If so, it's a pretty amusing idea!
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11-05-2019, 09:02 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: [Martial Arts] Style building - book fighting
Thanks for the great help so far, and the laughs.
I'm writing up my build and will post it for comment, but wondering -- are there any general rules about what happens when you use two-hands vs one hand with a weapon? |
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book as weapon, weapon training |
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