Martial Arts as templates.

[Sam Baughn]

It occured to me that martial arts styles might make quite good small templates, which can be easily added to any other character template. Here are a few examples.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in any form of martial arts, so these templates probably have little connection with the real styles they are based on. My primary source of information was GURPS martial arts second edition and poking around on the internet. These templates are meant to be used for PCs, so they may include significantly better abilities than you would expect from the average practitioner. Templates were adjusted to meet point totals, for the sake of convenience. All techniques used are from the fourth edition Basic Set, so these styles may be missing important techniques due to my unwillingness to convert them to fourth edition.

House Rules: Combat Art skills have been replaced by a single skill called Combat Art, which is an average skill, roughly equivalent to Stage Combat and is specialised by style rather than by the equivalent combat skill. For instance Aikido would normally have several seperate combat art skills which are condensed here into a single skill, called Combat Art (Aikido). The same thing has been done with Combat Sport skills, except they are now rolled into the normal Sport skills. In most cases, this is easily reversed by putting the points back into the old skills. Only a small amount of points were put into these (and other less practical) skills, in order to keep the templates attractive to players who are concerned with effectiveness.

Aikido – 50 points.
Attributes: HT +1 [10].
Secondary Characteristics: Per +1 [5] or Will +1 [5].
Advantages: One of Enhanced Parry (Bare Hands) [5]; Fit [5] or Flexibility [5].
Primary Skills: Acrobatics (H) DX [4]; Judo (H) DX+1 [8].
Secondary Skills: Combat Art (Aikido) (A) DX [2]; Knife (E) DX [1]; Staff (A) DX [2]; Two Handed Sword (A) DX [2].
Background Skills: Meditation (H) Will-1 [2]; Savoir Faire (Dojo) (E) IQ [1]; Theology (Shinto) (H) IQ-1 [2].
Techniques: Arm Lock (A) Judo+2 [2]; Disarming (H) Judo+1 [2]; Retain Weapon (H) Knife+1 [2].

Capoeira – 50 points.
Attributes: DX +1 [20].
Primary Skills: Karate (H) DX [4]; Acrobatics (H) DX [4].
Secondary Skills: Dancing (A) DX [2]; Judo (H) DX-1 [2]; Jumping (E) DX+1 [2].
Background Skills: Fast Draw (Knife) (E) DX [1]; Knife (E) DX [1], Musical Instrument (H) IQ-1 [1]; Streetwise (A) IQ-1 [1] and one of Shortsword (A) DX-1 [1] or Staff (A) DX-1 [1].
Techniques: Feint (H) Karate+3 [4]; Ground Fighting (H) Karate-1 [4]; Sweeping Kick (H) Karate-1 [3].

Escrima – 50 points.
Advantages: 15 points chosen from among Ambidexterity [5], Combat Reflexes [15], Enhanced Parry (Smallsword) [5/level] and Striking ST [5/level].
Primary Skills: Smallsword (A) DX+2 [8] and Knife (E) DX+3 [8] or Main Gauche (A) DX+2 [8].
Secondary Skills: Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]; Judo (H) DX [4].
Optional Skills: Two of Dancing, Shortsword, Staff, Whip, all (A) DX [2] or Thrown Weapon (Knife) (E) DX+1 [2].
Techniques: Arm Lock (A) Judo+2 [2], Elbow Strike (A) Brawling [2] and Dual Weapon Attack (H) Smallsword or Knife [5] or Off Hand Weapon Training (H) Smallsword or Knife [5]

Goju-Ryu Karate – 50 points.
Attributes: ST +1 [10] or HT +1 [10].
Advantages: One of Enhanced Parry (Bare Hands) [5]; Fit [5] or Striking ST +1 [5].
Primary Skills: Breath Control (H) HT [4]; Karate (H) DX+2 [12]
Secondary Skills: Flail (H) DX-1 [2]; Jitte/Sai (A) DX-1 [1]; Staff (A) DX [2]; Sport (Karate) (A) DX [2]; Tonfa (A) DX [2].
Optional Skills: Choose any three from among Esoteric Medicine (H) Per-2 [1]; Intimidation (A) Will-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Dojo) (E) IQ [1]; Theology (Taoism) (H) IQ-2 [1]; Thrown Weapon (Shuriken) (E) DX [1] and Two Handed Sword (A) DX-1 [1].
Techniques: Elbow Strike (A) Karate-1 [1]; Ground Fighting (H) Karate -2 [3]; Knee Strike (A) Karate [1]; Sweeping Kick (H) Karate -2 [2].

[Diogenes]

Well done, just like a steak :) !

Honestly, this should be the way of representing martial arts if there ever will be a GURPS Martial Arts for 4e.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

Honestly, this should be the way of representing martial arts if there ever will be a GURPS Martial Arts for 4e.

What are the odds of that happening?

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archives....006&m=May&d=10

[Diogenes]

Don't know. According to the GURPS page on SJGames.com, it's on the schedule, but quite low on the list. I think that layout has to be done, and there's the printer, too...

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

There are a couple problems with these templates.

First is the high cost - 50 points demands that your central character concept is a martial artist. They don't leave much room for dabblers or people who crosstrain styles.

Second, you have a lot of techniques on them. This is very point inefficient - Hard techniques are costed such that buying more than 2 isn't cost-effective over raising the core skill. Buying even 2 demands you make an investment beyond the base level or you are still getting less than buying a +1 in the base skill would get you.

The templates are a good idea - no, this isn't quite how we do it in MA4e - but you need to pare them back to include a lot more optional choices, and make the techniques a choice of rather than a mandatory buy list.

Just my 2 yen.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Diogenes

Don't know. According to the GURPS page on SJGames.com, it's on the schedule, but quite low on the list. I think that layout has to be done, and there's the printer, too...

You said "if there ever will be." These are questions of "how long." It WILL happen. SJ isn't gloating over a outline proposal, but over a first draft.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

There are a couple problems with these templates.

First is the high cost - 50 points demands that your central character concept is a martial artist. They don't leave much room for dabblers or people who crosstrain styles.

Well, that depends on the points level of the game you are running. I was thinking about running a superhero game at some point in the future, so I designed these templates to around the same price as a basic super power (like the sample attacks from GURPS Powers). If I actually wanted to produce templates for all kinds of martial arts campaigns, I would probably make them more similar to the styles from third edition, so that you could buy multiple levels at a reasonable cost per level. Also note that these templates generally include at least ten points in generally useful things, like attributes, so not all of the points go towards close combat skills.

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

Second, you have a lot of techniques on them. This is very point inefficient - Hard techniques are costed such that buying more than 2 isn't cost-effective over raising the core skill. Buying even 2 demands you make an investment beyond the base level or you are still getting less than buying a +1 in the base skill would get you.

Yes, you are quite right. I just totally forgot that for some reason. If I re-write them, I will try and make them more point efficient and include more optional stuff.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Perfect Organism

Well, that depends on the points level of the game you are running. I was thinking about running a superhero game at some point in the future, so I designed these templates to around the same price as a basic super power (like the sample attacks from GURPS Powers).

Ah, makes sense. You could always try to reduce it to a core of required skills and optional advantages, and suggest the stat bonuses instead of requiring them. When designing characters I tend to set stats first, so I would buy a package like this and then drop my stat back down to where I originally intended it to end up. But if you are aiming for 50 points for a high-powered game, there isn't much reason to cut down the costs. I would just make them a bit more flexible.

But it does seem like you spend 50 points to get, say DX in 1-2 combat skills. 50 points in Aikido as a package is fine, but if you just dropped 48 points in Judo you`d be a total terror. I would be more tempted to just do that if I was given the choice.

[Hamsterminator]

My Assumptions for an modern mystery Game. Reprensenting serve trainnig but not a main aspect of the character.

Aikido 10pts

Skills: Acrobatics (H) DX-1 [2]; Judo (H) DX [4].
DX [2]; Two Handed Sword (A) DX-1 [1].
Savoir Faire (Dojo) (E) IQ [1];
Techniques: Arm Lock (A) Judo+2 [2]; Disarming (H) Judo+1 [2];

Capoeira 10pts
Skills: Karate (H) DX-1 [2]; Acrobatics (H) DX-1 [2].
Dancing (A) DX-1 [1];
Techniques: Feint (H) Karate+2 [2]; Ground Fighting (H) Karate-2 [2]; Sweeping Kick (H) Karate-3 [1].

Escrima 10pts
Skills: Smallsword (A) DX [2] and Knife (E) DX [1] or Main Gauche (A) DX-1 [1]. Brawling (E) DX [1]; Wrestling (A) DX [2].
Techniques: Wrestling (A) Wrestling+2 [2], Elbow Strike (A) Brawling [2]

Goju-Ryu Karate 10pts
Skills: Karate (H) DX [4] Boxing(A) DX [2]
Techniques: Elbow Strike (A) Karate-3 [1]; Knee Strike (A) Karate [1]; Sweeping Kick (H) Karate -2 [2] Feint(Karate) Karate+2 [2].

Grow up on hard turf 10 pts

Skills: Brawling (E) DX +1 [2] Knife (E) DX +1 [2] Running (A) HT [4]
Techniques: ElbowSstrike (A) Brawling-2 [2] Kneestrike (A) Brawling-2 [2]

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

What are the odds of that happening?

Better than average?

heh