Why learn a martial art?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Depends on your striking Strength and your Dexterity, since if you've got no Martial Arts Style at all, that's unskilled striking (not even Brawling); personally I'd rather have access to the relevant damage bonuses and techniques. The various unarmed combat skills (and some armed ones) always tie into a "style", even if it is something as simple as "Self-defense"... which was included largely to avoid this issue in the 3e version of GURPS Martial Arts.

This is not the case. You can have brawling, boxing, karate, wrestling, judo, and sumo skills without having any style.

What this represents is fairly obvious...someone who's picked up the skill without studying any school (or even 'school') and thus whatever quirks their idiosyncratic style might have, nobody is going to be familiar with them.

It's slightly perverse that that character could then learn a style and in the process become predictable to all practitioners. I wonder if an additional perk would be enough to buy away the 'recognizable style' penalty.