Medieval re-enactment as martial arts styles

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Dangerious - you need to remember they all have rules.

Anthony - What are you calling 'maneuvers'?

Sorry, techniques. In any case, most of the time you're talking about 1-2 points max spent across a couple sport skills. Yes, there are people who spend years working on being better, but the vast majority don't, and there probably isn't a sufficient critical mass to create a high skill sustained sport culture.

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Anthony

In any case, most of the time you're talking about 1-2 points max spent across a couple sport skills. Yes, there are people who spend years working on being better, but the vast majority don't, and there probably isn't a sufficient critical mass to create a high skill sustained sport culture.

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who thinks of GURPS the way that I do. Sometimes, on the forums (and I know that I'm replying to Anthony, but this is really a general comment not especially true of him) it seems like people respond to these queries as if GURPS were some sort of "reality engine" and not a tool for playing a game.

My answer to the OP is "it depends upon what you're trying to do". For me at least, my approach to "how to represent SCA fighting styles" (SCA is the only re-enactment group with which I have more than passing familiarity) would depend greatly on the game that I was running.

Am I running a bunch of modern people transported via the Banestorm to Yrth? If I am, then my re-enactors probably will be as Anthony describes -- just 1 or 2 points in Combat Sport and leave it at that. In this setting, they will probably need to learn genuine combat skills ASAP and the fact that a character was an accomplished SCA fighter would soon fade to background.

On the other hand, if I were running (for some reason) a game where the characters were SCA heavy combat fighters and the game centered around the characters attending SCA events and fighting, then I would expect many more of their points might be spent here. It would be much more important, in this case, to have their SCA sport skill serve as a point of differentiation between the characters, and their fighting styles and preferred techniques would be relevant to play.

In my way of thinking, the same real-world ability might be represented in GURPS by different traits (and skill levels) depending on the setting. Am I the only one who thinks this way?