Why learn a martial art?

[MrGreezy]

Ok. So, I understand that the point values next to each style in the MA book refer to the skills and the style familiarity point...then what? Say you spend 4 points to get Boxing. You're buying the skills, then the style point to make it official. Then do you get those techniques for free? What level? Or are they now simply available for you to learn? What about the Perks? Are they awarded by knowing the style or are they things you just additionally buy?

If the techniques and perks must be bought, why learn a style instead of buying the skills you want?

[theothersarah]

It only really matters, I think, if the GM wants you to justify how your character knows the techniques and has the perks listed as part of the style. If they're letting you pick and choose anything you want, it doesn't matter as much, though the perk itself has some small benefits.

[z0boson]

Originally Posted by MrGreezy

Ok. So, I understand that the point values next to each style in the MA book refer to the skills and the style familiarity point...then what? Say you spend 4 points to get Boxing. You're buying the skills, then the style point to make it official. Then do you get those techniques for free? What level? Or are they now simply available for you to learn? What about the Perks? Are they awarded by knowing the style or are they things you just additionally buy?

If the techniques and perks must be bought, why learn a style instead of buying the skills you want?

You do not get anything for free (There is no free lunch in GURPS). If you spend 4 points on boxing you get the three skills and the style familiarity perk. That's all. As you say, having "officially" the boxing style allows you to learn the other skills and techniques of the style and the other style perks.

Indeed, asides from the style perks, which could not be learned normally, there is no real advantage (in game mechanics) of learning martial arts styles. However, the styles give you a better idea how you character is behaving in combat. They simulate better which kind of attacks followers of a certain style would use. This adds substantially to the color and role-playing of combat.

In addition, depending on the campaign (GM decision), certain skills (especially cinematic ones) might only be available to followers of certain styles.

[vicky_molokh]

Properly picked Style Perks are pretty desirable, actually. And you only get one per 20 points in martial skills if you don't have a style.

Plus, you get rid of needing to justify buying this or that desirable Technique.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by MrGreezy

Say you spend 4 points to get Boxing. You're buying the skills, then the style point to make it official. Then do you get those techniques for free? What level? Or are they now simply available for you to learn? What about the Perks? Are they awarded by knowing the style or are they things you just additionally buy?

You have to buy them additionally. But [anybody] with a skill can use any of its techniques (except a few Unique ones) at default.

Edit: And to answer the likely follow on question of why list any techniques with the style when you can use them all: the list is of the ones you can learn above default anywhere you can find instruction in the style, and it's also a list of the ones you have drilled into your reflexes and should consider using first to portray a realistic practitioner of the style. You *can* use something not on your style's list, but while doing that all the time isn't strictly forbidden by the rules, it is questionable roleplaying in a campaign that is bothering with defining styles in the first place.

If the techniques and perks must be bought, why learn a style instead of buying the skills you want?

Because nobody will teach you? There is no reason the GM has to allow instructors that will teach you to use a particular weapon outside the framework of a style to exist. But sure, in a setting where you aren't required to have a logical story of how you learned something, you absolutely could buy whatever you want instead.

Realistic advanced martial arts students do this sort of thing all the time, working with somebody trained in another style to pick up a few new moves. But they don't generally *start out* that way (because in reality a la carte is actually not a very efficient way to learn the basics of something), and they do have a good story ("I live in a culture where there are schools teaching a dozen different martial arts in every city, and I made friends with somebody trained in a different one") for why they can.

[PK]

Originally Posted by MrGreezy

If the techniques and perks must be bought, why learn a style instead of buying the skills you want?

Learning a style is just buying the skills of that style (plus the Style Familiarity perk). So if you don't want those skills, then you probably shouldn't learn that style. Think of a style as a mini-template (or lens) -- it's a collection of skills that you should buy if you want to play a PC who's a master of <X> style.

In other words, you should learn the Muay Thai style because you want to play a PC who's great at Muay Thai! If that sounds cool to you, then GURPS Martial Arts exists to show you which skills you should buy to realize this character concept. Just like if you wanted to play a knight, you could use a "knight" template to know what skills are appropriate and useful.

The only real difference between "I know these skills" and "I've learned this style" is that the latter means you also bought Style Familiarity. That perk is pretty cool -- it gives you a lot of minor benefits for just a point -- but it has the prerequisite that you can't take it unless you first take all of the primary skills of the style. So that's the one true game-mechanical benefit of "learning a style" -- you get to buy Style Familiarity for it.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by PK

The only real difference between "I know these skills" and "I've learned this style" is that the latter means you also bought Style Familiarity. That perk is pretty cool -- it gives you a lot of minor benefits for just a point -- but it has the prerequisite that you can't take it unless you first take all of the primary skills of the style. So that's the one true game-mechanical benefit of "learning a style" -- you get to buy Style Familiarity for it.

I thought that you had to be in a style to be able to improve the techniques of that style above default. Am I wrong here?

And of course the cinematic techniques and skills usually need Trained by a Master and the master in question may be picky about who, how, and what he teaches.

[MrGreezy]

Thanks for all the responses, guys, it's really clearing things up.

Last question (potentially, ha!): what does the Style Familiarity point do other than officially recognize the style? The book makes it seem like that's all it does.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by MrGreezy

Last question (potentially, ha!): what does the Style Familiarity point do other than officially recognize the style? The book makes it seem like that's all it does.

Quite a few things. See Martial Arts p49.

[Pragmatic]

From what I understand, if you've got combat skills, you GET to BUY one perk for every 20 skill points you have in combat skills.

If you've got a martial arts style, you GET to BUY additional perks (from those listed within the style) for every 10 points you have in that particular style's techniques and required skills.

So if you have 20 points in various combat skills, you get the privilege of buying one martial perk.

But if you put those same 20 points into a particular martial arts style, you get to buy one martial perk (any of the "generic" ones, IIRC). AND you get to buy two of the martial perks associated with that combat style.

You STILL have to spend your character points on the perks (nothing is "free" in 4E). You don't have to buy the perks.

And if you have multiple styles, there's rules (somewhere... I'm just browsing the PDF for the book right now) as to how you earn style perks across multiple styles, and how you can spend them within individual styles.

Note that this is all predicated on the "limited perks" (I think it's a maximum of 1 generic perk for every 25 character points, and 1 combat perk for every 20 points in combat skills). If characters are allowed to buy as many perks as they want, this is all moot.