[Martial Arts] Are styles that require two sword skills a bad deal?

Michael Thayne · 05-31-2020, 11:21 PM

Many historical martial arts styles teach using a big sword in the dominant hand and a smaller blade in the non-dominant hand. Examples include pairing the katana and wakizashi, or rapier and knife. But GURPS seems to treat these styles rather poorly--you'll generally be better off learning one sword skill with the Off-Hand Weapon Training perk, which will generally be necessary anyway unless your second sword skill is Main-Gauche. And Main-Gauche itself will usually not be a great deal, since Off-Hand Weapon Training will be cheaper than raising Main-Gauche to a decent level. The one exception I can think of is using Main-Gauche to get a fencing parry while using a non-fencing weapon in the main hand. Am I missing anything? There's possibly an issue here with GURPS not accurately modeling the downsides of trying to fight with two longer swords (two katanas, two rapiers, whatever) at once.

05-31-2020, 11:21 PM	#1
Michael Thayne Join Date: May 2010	[Martial Arts] Are styles that require two sword skills a bad deal? Many historical martial arts styles teach using a big sword in the dominant hand and a smaller blade in the non-dominant hand. Examples include pairing the katana and wakizashi, or rapier and knife. But *GURPS* seems to treat these styles rather poorly--you'll generally be better off learning one sword skill with the Off-Hand Weapon Training perk, which will generally be necessary anyway unless your second sword skill is Main-Gauche. And Main-Gauche itself will usually not be a great deal, since Off-Hand Weapon Training will be cheaper than raising Main-Gauche to a decent level. The one exception I can think of is using Main-Gauche to get a fencing parry while using a non-fencing weapon in the main hand. Am I missing anything? There's possibly an issue here with *GURPS* not accurately modeling the downsides of trying to fight with two longer swords (two katanas, two rapiers, whatever) at once.