What else can we define as a 'style'?

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but I think we want to watch out for "style creep." Nothing has to be a style.

Why do we need to avoid 'style creep'? As far as I can tell, there's no real downside to statting any damn thing as a style.

The existance of a vast number of martial arts styles hasn't led to anyone feeling the need for every martial artist character to have them. There are plenty of official templates published since Martial Arts came out which include extensive hand-to-hand skills without buying a martial arts style.

There doesn't seem to be much of an issue mixing characters with styles with those without. I don't even see a problem mixing the two approaches for a single character (for instance, I might make a US Marine character with the MCMAP style, but just use normal skills for his firearms training).