Martial Arts styles based on historic fighting manuals

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

I have GURPS martial arts and most of the historical styles within are allaghams of all manner of manuals and techniques more akin to what modern re-enactors do than what would have been done historically. While I understand that breaking down the weapon systems by period and language would have been too cumbersome for a work of the book's scope it would be nice to have styles for i.33 sword and buckler or Hutton sabre (actually there's no sabre styles in the book beyond modern sports sabre) as opposed to just generic weapon styles, especially in a historical game.

I'm not sure this is a problem. While some styles in MA are generic (Dagger Fighting, Sword and Shield), none of them is intended to represent a single teacher's art but a martial tradition (so "Longsword fighting" represents German longsword in general, not the version in one manuscript; "Nito Ryu" is that tradition not the exact way Musashi used it at any one point in his life). And historically, students often trained with several teachers, so narrowing a style description too much can be unrealistic too.

That said here is a write up based on one source and training in the tradition it is part of. I have a few more half-written ones, but I don't intend to polish them without a game I can use them in or someone paying me.