Drunken Martial Arts

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Dammann

That works for cinematic, but the OP is talking about the actual style, I think, which is not practiced drunk. I never learned it (I was a vanilla tiger-crane guy), but the man I knew who did use it demonstrated a style that looked off balance, erratic, and generally deceptive. I'd say it used something like All out Defense (Dodge), Feints, and tons of Retreats- I would almost call them Acrobatic Retreats, as there was some tumbling. I wish I'd seen him do it more, but he was actually trying to teach me less exotic fighting styles.

I've often thought that GURPS could use an "Evasive Parry" option of some sort. That is, you have to opt in against a specific attack, you roll it against your skill/2+3, it uses up a parry (probably for all of your limbs), but the result is to avoid interposing something in the path of the attack - i.e. it *looks* like a Dodge. It seems balanced enough - yes it allows you to avoid the Hurting Yourself rules or effects that trigger on contact, on the other hand it doesn't work with Aggressive Parry, set up throws etc.

For the rest of it Feint and Deceptive Attack seem to work fine. You could allow a feint based on Acting or Performance ("he's too drunk to be a threat") if you think that actually applies. One Task Wonder (Acting, to appear staggering drunk) would synergize nicely with that.

Oh, and if you wanted to go halfway toward the cinematic version, I've allowed a Drunken [skill] perk that doesn't give you any bonuses at all but does negate the intoxication penalties for that particular skill - for skills that don't involve any deep thought or fast reflexes it might even be borderline realistic. The RAW perk is seriously unbalanced - it's essentially a Talent (applies to a bunch of skills) with a preparation required limitation (get drunk), that ought to be worth about 8 points.