Martial Arts: Points vs. Ranks

[Jareth Valar]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Also of note is that you aren't required to, and should not, put points in every technique of a martial art.

Personally, to me, this is very subjective. For the most part, I agree, especially from a mechanics perspective, however that really depends on the guidelines of the game IMHO.

Example: It is almost always better to raise your skill instead of several different techniques, from a CP perspective, just like raising you DX can be better at times.

However, one of the last games I was involved in was a more grounded supernatural style game. We used KYOS and had accepted benchmarks for things. Att. of 11 was above average, 12 meant people noticed it, 14 meant "why in the world are you in THIS department and not in some special government center..." Skills at 12 were expected from most professionals and higher than that was noticeable. GM set a skill cap at creation to manage breadth of character and to keep the superhero level skills down at first.

This type of game, mechanical optimization would come second to maintaining setting expectations. We all agreed to it and, at least for us, it was far more entertaining/enjoyable than the games we've had playing too much with CP efficiency.

Now, that being said, back to the OP. If belt levels and ranking are important, then I agree with the one idea of a type of Courtesy Rank. However, if a mechanic is preferred, you could always set it up like the way Martial Arts tracks your access to Style Perks. Associate every X number of points in style skills, advantages and perks as opening up the opportunity to "rank up" as you will. You can also set minimum Skill level requirements as well to qualify, say Skill rank of 12 or possibly DX+2 as minimum for 1st or 2nd Dan, etc. This way, no two ranked Dan will necessarily have the same exact abilities, but can at least meet a minimum level of requirements that you set.