Martial Arts: Points vs. Ranks

[Varyon]

A lot is going to depend on what sort of feel you're going for. As noted, realistically, the requirements for getting to certain ranks is less dependent on skill and more just on time (and money) invested - and also may involve non-combat skills like Savoir-Faire (Dojo) or even more traditional Influence skills. In something more like shounen anime where the episode's Battle Commentator watches someone fight and says something like "His skill is on a comparable level to a 7th dan blackbelt," you're probably looking more at something where the total points invested in a skill and its techniques are what matters (or, rather, the total points a character with DX 10 would have invested to get where you are) - offhand (using karate ranks and going at least a little cinematic), you might have something where those who haven't invested a full point (but may have it as part of Dabbler; this would be those with effective skill 7 or lower) are no-belts and white belts, those with a point or two (8-9) are yellow/gold belts, those at 10 are green belts, 11 are purple belts, 12 (professional level) are blue belts, 13 are red belts, 14 are brown belts, and 15 (expert level) are first-degree (sho-dan) black belts. Beyond this, every further +1 to skill is a further degree, to a maximum of skill 24 for a tenth-degree (ju-dan) black belt. Investing in Techniques can get you to a higher rank at lower base skill - basically figure out what your skill would be if you had just invested those points in raw skill instead (so someone with Karate 15, Kicking (Karate) at 15 [3], Targeted Attack (Karate Kick/Face) at 13 [4], and Counterattack (Karate) at 15 [6] has invested enough points in Techniques for a +3 to skill, so they are considered to be a fourth-degree blackbelt).