[MA] Best dirty-fighting style for a callous weakling?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Which is, of course, something GURPS should permit. However, it will cost you a bunch of points.

I agree.

I may think that it should cost slightly more points than it does, but that's a quibble.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Well, if he has a certain level of skill and physical development. Superior skill matters, and degree of superiority matters, it's just that in the real world there's pretty strong limits to just how good you can actually be, and in general speed is heavily correlated with muscle development anyway (there's a reason track stars and gymnasts are solid blocks of muscle).

I have no martial art training to speak of and my physical development mostly consists of getting fatter and more out of shape. ;)

But that doesn't change the fact that during an exhibition of self-defence for women, the ca 120 lbs. kumite champ trying to demonstrate her moves on me without asking me to cooperate first found herself simply unable to do so.

Skill allows one to apply force more efficiently, but that doesn't help much of there isn't all that much force to draw upon in the first place. If my one hand is enough to pin her without much effort, she can't arm lock me or throw me without my willing cooperation. And if she wants to impede me by punching me in the solar plexus, neck or nerve centres, she'll need more muscle behind her punch.

Maybe if she was supernaturally faster and had precognition, I guess, but at typical human levels of skill, it's just not going to happen. The size and strength disparity is simply too telling.

And that's while I was unwilling to strike back or do anything except hold her still with one hand. If I'd been prepared to hurt her, I doubt it would have improved her chances.

This is one example where the weaker party has about fifteen years of intense training in a sparring sport and teaches self-defence for women and the stronger party is a sedentary gamer without any formalised martial art training. If that's not enough of a skill disparity, I simply don't know what could be.

My opinion, at least, is that in the real world strength matters far more than skill or speed. Unarmed, at least.

Weapons are designed to change that, by allowing a weaker person to defeat a stronger one. But until weapons which were independent from muscle strength were developed, it was still vitally important to be stronger.