[Dungeon Fantasy] Non-East Asian inspirations for Martial Artists (and Ninja)

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Infornific

What distinguishes the DFRPG Martial Artist from other fighter types isn't strictly speaking "martial arts" or fighting skill but the access to special chi abilities. So I would focus on alternate ways of justifying accessing chi abilities.

If you want to link to a fantasy version of ancient Greeks, you could treat it as lost secrets of ancient pagan philosophy. Maybe call it Arete instead of Chi, or something similar. Possibly look at Pankration as their core combat training. If your Clerics are knockoffs of Christianity, that could lead to Clerics and Martial Artists regarding each other with some suspicion. That could also tie Martial Artists closer to Wrestlers. Personally the Wrestler template always makes me think of the old Hercules films.

"Now, you will stay by my side and I'll teach you to fight. But not only with your hands. And some day, your friends and enemies will honor you and name you the wise." - Hercules (1958)

This is very much in line what I'm looking for. Maybe their particular brand of Meditation is contemplation of the Platonic forms? (Or perhaps "universals" to avoid referencing a specific real-world philosopher.)

[martinl]

Originally Posted by tbone

"Gninja". Heh. : )

psst, tbone: go here
(edit) - tbone was the first person to comment on the original thread. lol (end edit)

Ob Mainthread:

The modern "unarmored, often unarmed badass" martial artist is at least in part due to folks who had to fight when fighting equipment was restricted. So they don't use armor and specialize in weapons that are also tools and outright unarmed combat. A reputation for being outright supernatural doesn't hurt either. (For genre reasons, we make this a more feasible strategy compared to weapons and armor than realism would dictate.)

If you want to justify this in your DF game (and to be clear, justifying anything in DF is optional) you can duplicate the above circumstances quite easily.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by martinl

psst, tbone: go here
(edit) - tbone was the first person to comment on the original thread. lol (end edit)

I have no memory of seeing that before. Scary!

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by tbone

Friar Tuck is a pretty good inspiration for a martial artist character who's not a knight, gladiator, etc.

I seem to recall that St Benedict promoted the idea of teaching boxing to youths so they'd have a way of defending themselves, and if they really insisted, settling disputes, without carrying and habitually drawing knives - teenage male groups with a lot of knives having a rather tragic death rate. One could imagine an alternate history where that led to a legend of monasteries full of fist-fighting monks in the (Swiss) mountains.

I forget where I saw the idea, but gladiators might be the best candidates to take the role of monk-substitutes in quasi-classical dungeon bash campaigns. Continual combat training, check; enforced ascetic lifestyle, check; lighter armour than is available to close combat fighters in their setting, check; gratuitously weird and exotic combat styles compared to the run of sword-and-board fighters around them, check...

For mystical powers combined with and related to combat training, I guess there's the relationship that apparently existed between Spanish fencing schools and the Hermetic tradition - all very formal and ritualistic. And for that matter, candomblé and capoeira may have some links, I understand.

[Michael Thayne]

One other thing that occurred to me is that in Dungeon Fantasy, Meditation is mandatory for Martial Artists. It's also mandatory for Shamans as defined in DF9. What if Martial Artists used Shamanic meditation techniques?

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

One other thing that occurred to me is that in Dungeon Fantasy, Meditation is mandatory for Martial Artists. It's also mandatory for Shamans as defined in DF9. What if Martial Artists used Shamanic meditation techniques?

Making Martial Artists a type of shaman could work; they're imbued with powers by animal spirits, but they have to fight in ways that symbolically emulate the animals, which means lots of bare handed fighting and weapons chosen for aesthetic reasons.

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

For mystical powers combined with and related to combat training, I guess there's the relationship that apparently existed between Spanish fencing schools and the Hermetic tradition - all very formal and ritualistic. And for that matter, candomblé and capoeira may have some links, I understand.

For those who have studied their Agrippa, and their Agrippa.

[dcarson]

While much later in general you do have the Muscular Christianity movement. That promotes sports, exercise and physical development as supporting moral development. Is/was big on boxing for example.

[Willy]

The european middle ages have some nice examples. Besides the use of swords, shields and other better known weapons, a lot of other skills were taught.

Brawling was very common, but also refined skills like "Leibringen mit dem Dolch" wrestling with daggers, and a good deal of other skills, like groundfighting techniques. Sadly most of this skills and techniques, as well as the books that thaught them weren´t fashionable later and sometimes completely forgotten.

Most of the old Fechtbücher tell a bit about hand to hand and self defense, it was fairly common knowledge of the time. Anyone trying to attack a unarmed knight or professional fighter of this time is in for a very rude surprise, if he thinks just having a black belt is enough to win. That´s more the Hollywood and movie reality of medieval fighting, or computer games to be a bit more modern.

Here a bit from the source of all knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martia...n_martial_arts

Maybe you look at the names and try to find some of their stuff at https://www.gutenberg.org/ so. There are also some good vids from reenactment groups in the web.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Other "European" names for chi:
* Aether
* Odic force
* Elan vital
* Vril