What Infinite Worlds worldlines or GURPS setting work for martial-artsy characters?

[girllich]

I must say, I would be strongly in favor of a Xianxia world and/or crunch book. My idea of doing that is further improving Imbuements, but I can see other ways

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by girllich

I must say, I would be strongly in favor of a Xianxia world and/or crunch book. My idea of doing that is further improving Imbuements, but I can see other ways

Imbuements would work (probably with limitations like 'Chi Projection, -10%'), though I think it would also expand Martial Arts a bit, perhaps adding some new Cinematic Skills and Techniques. Might also benefit from having a chapter on some specific eras of Chinese history that Xianxia tends to use.

[girllich]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Imbuements would work (probably with limitations like 'Chi Projection, -10%'), though I think it would also expand Martial Arts a bit, perhaps adding some new Cinematic Skills and Techniques. Might also benefit from having a chapter on some specific eras of Chinese history that Xianxia tends to use.

Brainstorming thread? I can't imagine an official source coming any time soon. I have some ideas about each realm coming with a tiny amount of injury tolerance etc.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by ehrbar

Spellboxing is nonlethal wizard spell dueling, not a martial art.

Regular boxing is a nonlethal form of dueling, but still potentially fatal. Karate is an actual combat form, but it has been adjusted to a nonlethal dueling form.

A minor adjustment to sport spellboxing, and there you go, a real combat form.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by girllich

I must say, I would be strongly in favor of a Xianxia world and/or crunch book. My idea of doing that is further improving Imbuements, but I can see other ways

I think wuxia would work better than xianxia. Xianxia worlds are pretty honestly horribly wacky, in a manner that I don't think GURPS or other systems could really replicate.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

If I'm in an Infinite Worlds game and I want to play a super, a centurion out of time, a steampunk inventor, or several different kinds of combat robot, I have a fair number of worldlines to root them in.

If I want to play a cultivator, super-ninja, or other superhuman martial-arts expert from a place where martial-arts schools, sects and temples are powerful and influential organizations which play a seriously important role in world politics- or at least have more cultural cachet than stip-mall McDojos- is there a ready-made worldline or GURPS setting I can claim that they're from and use to fill out their background, or do I have to work from scratch?

If you are looking for the specific political setup found in the xianxia genre, you run into the problem that xianxia was (virtually?) unknown in the Anglosphere until very recently. We're talking quite a few years after the vast majority of the canonical Infinite Worlds material came out, save Nightreign and a couple super-short books that were part of larger kickstarters. That said, "chi powers"—not just cinematic skills but things like Crushing Attack, Enhanced Move, and Super Jump are canonical for Banestorm (see the lens on p. 210 of the 4e book). I think the Götterdämmerung setting from Pyramid #3/102 also has canonical chi powers, but I can't check at the moment due to technical difficulties with the new Warehouse23 website.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by warellis

I think wuxia would work better than xianxia. Xianxia worlds are pretty honestly horribly wacky, in a manner that I don't think GURPS or other systems could really replicate.

Infinite Worlds has plenty of wackiness—I think some people miss that because of the deadpan tone, but it's still very wacky.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Shikaku-Mon, of course. Can't have Cyberpunk Japan without cool martial artists (and Gun-Fu!).

Cyber-ninjas were more a figment of V.R. & The Tapestry than reality on Shikaku-Mon, where no real assassin would ever dream of using medieval weapons.

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Regular boxing is a nonlethal form of dueling, but still potentially fatal. Karate is an actual combat form, but it has been adjusted to a nonlethal dueling form.

A minor adjustment to sport spellboxing, and there you go, a real combat form.

Yes, sure, casting Body Control and missile spells using the default GURPS magic system, with intent to kill, is a perfectly fine approach to GURPS combat.

My point is not that spellboxers cannot participate in combat, but that spellboxing is not a "martial art", as that term is used by either the OP or in GURPS generally, any more than laser tag is a "martial art" as used by either the OP or in GURPS generally.

Of course you could respond by arguing that by definition laser tag counts as a "martial art" (after all, military MILES training is elaborated laser tag, and it quite obviously is training for martial endeavors), but if you did that, you'd be completely missing the point.

Spellboxers are just GURPS wizards casting spells, not practitioners of a martial arts style. They are completely irrelevant to to the OP's post.