Four Arm Martial Arts - Page 2

Sorenant · 06-09-2019, 03:46 PM

The thread about tentacles got me thinking about this and wanted to hear what others have to say. What kind of martial arts would a race with multiple arms would use? And related to it what kind of weapons would they prefer?
To reduce the scope of question, let's assume a very human-like race with two pairs of arms (let's ignore the wonky anatomy for a second). In GURPS terms, just a basic Human template [0] with Extra Arms 2 [20].
A few thoughts of mine:

With only a pair of arms choosing between an one-handed weapon with a shield and two-handed weapon is an important choice. A race with 4 arms could use both at the same time, increasing their options by quite a lot.
However two-handed melee weapons requires some clearance to use, so a shield might get a bit on the way. If such style was used by this race, coordinating shield position to not interfere with the weapon might be a big part of its martial arts.
Similarly, a cavalryman could use both lance and bow at the same time, though I'm not sure if the amount of training required to be adept at both would be feasible or worth.
On the other hand, it's possible that they would develop weapons that takes advantage of their arms thus requiring all of them to be used. I'm no inventor so I can't think of anything too alien at the moment, but I think simply larger polearms requiring the strength of all four limbs might be a possibility. Speaking of which, is there any official rule about the effect of using more than two hands to handle a weapon? I don't recall one.

06-09-2019, 03:46 PM	#1
Sorenant Join Date: Jan 2015	Four Arm Martial Arts The thread about tentacles got me thinking about this and wanted to hear what others have to say. What kind of martial arts would a race with multiple arms would use? And related to it what kind of weapons would they prefer? To reduce the scope of question, let's assume a very human-like race with two pairs of arms (let's ignore the wonky anatomy for a second). In GURPS terms, just a basic Human template [0] with Extra Arms 2 [20]. A few thoughts of mine: With only a pair of arms choosing between an one-handed weapon with a shield and two-handed weapon is an important choice. A race with 4 arms could use both at the same time, increasing their options by quite a lot. However two-handed melee weapons requires some clearance to use, so a shield might get a bit on the way. If such style was used by this race, coordinating shield position to not interfere with the weapon might be a big part of its martial arts. Similarly, a cavalryman could use both lance and bow at the same time, though I'm not sure if the amount of training required to be adept at both would be feasible or worth. On the other hand, it's possible that they would develop weapons that takes advantage of their arms thus requiring all of them to be used. I'm no inventor so I can't think of anything too alien at the moment, but I think simply larger polearms requiring the strength of all four limbs might be a possibility. Speaking of which, is there any official rule about the effect of using more than two hands to handle a weapon? I don't recall one.