Rakshasa Martial Arts

[whswhs]

Just a small note, only partially relevant: When I ran my campaign set on the Pearl Bright Ocean from GURPS Cabal, the rakshasa character had the Kalaripayit style from GURPS Martial Arts. You've probably already looked at this, but if you haven't, it may give you ideas.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Just a small note, only partially relevant: When I ran my campaign set on the Pearl Bright Ocean from GURPS Cabal, the rakshasa character had the Kalaripayit style from GURPS Martial Arts. You've probably already looked at this, but if you haven't, it may give you ideas.

Indeed, I did look at Kalaripayattu, but with the space constraints in GURPS Martial Arts, there's not a whole lot of detail on the way each individual armed and unarmed aspect of the art works. There aren't really any notes on how a stylist fights with the different batons, with sword and shield or how the other weapon skills are combined with each other.

Not to mention that Kalaripayattu is one martial art style from a whole subcontinent. It's suitable for Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu, but Indian śastra-vidyā is a much broader field.

What I want to emulate are fictional and mythological depictions of Indian martial arts, such as those from the Mahabharata and Rāmāyaṇa, but also the characters of Rana Sanga, the Rajput king, and Raghunath Rao, the Panther of Maharashtra, the Wind of the Great Country, the Shield of the Deccan, both of David Drake's and Eric Flint's Belisarius series.

[Icelander]

GURPS Martial Arts p. 72 lists the Eye-Rake technique. As human hands do not actually have effective Claws, the technique does not actual damage except on a Critical Hit.

If the same kind of raking attack to the eyes is made by a character with the Claws Advantage or using a bagh-nakh inside his palm to rake with, how would one write that up as a technique?

It should do the usual damage for Claws or the bagh-nakh, but should also have a chance of blinding, as with the normal Eye-Rake technique. Would it be unbalanced to allow it the same chance of blinding as the normal technique, but doing full damage?

[Icelander]

For a ST 23 rakshasa rathi (knight), I want an iconic-looking Indian sword for him to use alongside his clawed gauntlet. I'd like something that looks like the khanda, but not having a point at all sounds like a sub-optimal choice for a weapon meant for actual combat use.

The patissa is another choice, but suffers from a similar problem.

I was considering the kirash.

Is there any Indian sword that would have GURPS stats in line with a Greatsword with Reach 1 or a heavy Broadsword?

[Icelander]

For the Naztharune rakshasa, which makes more sense, to use two shortswords, two katars or one of each?

Game mechanically, there are interesting benefits to using a Large Katar and a Shortsword together, with the shortsword in a regular grip useful for parrying and the katar in its weird grip for high damage attacks.

Is there any real world style using two katars or a katar with another, parrying weapon?

I'm having trouble visualising using katars in a two-weapon style, but maybe that's because I can only imagine a few limitated motions with something held like a katar.

[Icelander]

The Chakram in GURPS Low-Tech p. 77 appears to be a large diameter, heavy version of the weapon. I'm looking for a version that is more easily carried by a stealthy bodyguard or assassin, concealed under clothes. There seem to have been such weapons, referred to as chakri, which were sometimes worn as bracelets.

According to Googling, Chakram were usually 5-12 inches in diameter. Extant examples that fall in the middle range of the size range, i.e. 8-11 inches, seem to range from 160-280 grams in weight, which is about 0.3-0.6 lbs. That means that a 1.5 lbs. Chakram, like the one listed in Low-Tech, is probably a very thick 12+ inch diameter one, designed for heavy-duty warfare and monster slaying.

I noted in my Googling that brass chakrams were cast in a very aerodynamic shape, which the period methods of constructions did not allow for steel chakrams. As a result, brass chakram fly about twice as far as steel ones. I suppose that this could be reflected by allowing a special Fine modifier that doubles Range for Chakrams, Airfoil (+3 CF), but note that this requires Bronze (+3 CF) at lower TLs and if available for steel chakram at post-TL4, will be at least +9 CF.

What I'm wondering about if what sizes seem like good cut-off points for lighter, less damaging Chakrams?

For something that does thr cut and has Range x3/x5, should it be ca 5" in diamater and weigh 0.5 lbs.? Or more like 8" in diameter and 1 lbs.?

What about thr-1 cut and Range x2/x3? How small and light could such chakri be?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The Chakram in GURPS Low-Tech p. 77 appears to be a large diameter, heavy version of the weapon. I'm looking for a version that is more easily carried by a stealthy bodyguard or assassin, concealed under clothes. There seem to have been such weapons, referred to as chakri, which were sometimes worn as bracelets.

I'd just use that stats for shuriken.