Martial Arts Specialization? Options

[Shrike30]

That's cool, no offense taken.

Styleless Unarmed (or Brawling, if you wish) could be represented as being a specializationless skill (simply up the basic skill level) or you could simply pick what aspect of brawling the character is good at.

I've been in a few fights, and honestly, I'm not a big fan of letting the other guy take shots at me. I'm not "quick," but I'm fast on my feet, pretty muscular in the legs and upper body, and weigh a little over 200 pounds at 6' tall, with my "Brawling" (since I've got no real formal style) being something which you could best represent by a specialization in Grappling (with a low skill level but decent STR and BOD); I try and get in close, tangle him up, hit with my knees or elbows if I have to, and bounce people off hard objects. Put me in a fight with someone who knows what he's doing, and that's going to get me hurt... with that spec in Grappling, I'm not going to be able to defend as well as I could if my skill were simply that high (and I'll admit this... getting close enough to someone that I'm trying to hurt them like that, my goal is to minimize damage to myself by ending the fight quickly or making the other guy give up). Just trying to flat-out beat on someone with a straight-out attack isn't my strong point, either... again, elbows, knees, and nearby objects, rather than fists or feet. As for cyber-implant weapons, well, I don't have any.

So, yeah. I could say I've got "Unarmed (Brawling) 1(+2)", but it'd just as easily get represented by "Unarmed (Grappling) 1(+2)." Trying to represent something real with a game stat is simply a case of approximating it as best you can.

[ogbendog]

Isn't "subdual combat" grappling?

maybe it's simply

parrying
subdual combat = grappling = "soft martial arts"
martial arts = punching/hard martial arts
cyberimplant

the key might be to not allow specialization in a martial art that is both stricking and grappling.

[PBTHHHHT]

FYI, when you use the term 'soft martial arts', it generally relates more to the 'internal' martial arts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neijia

I've taken xing-yi (hsing-i, or however you call it), it's a 'soft' or 'internal' martial arts and it's still a striking martial arts. Actually, taiji, bagua, and xingyi while all are known for their soft style in terms of focusing your internal, they're also boxing styles. I took one of the most straight forward ones, xingyi and it's the most agreesive of the three internals chinese martial arts.

[Lord Ben]

A couple Elves in the group specialized in whatever martial arts form they could think of for essentially +2 to everything while using unarmed. I just took a +2 specialization in "Street Brawl Fury" style Martial Arts which looks exactly like punching and kicking in a drunken brawl while mad. Just because I don't want to be a martial artist doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to get +2 all the time.

[Findar]

[Apathy]

So, if you wanted to make specializations of unarmed that weren't specific martial arts styles, what do you think those specializations should be?

• Offensive, Defensive?
• Grappleing, Offensive Striking, Defense?
• Grappleing, Punching, Kicking, Defense?

[Azralon]

Cyber-Implants, Martial Arts, Subdual Combat, Parrying.

[Shrike30]

[Azralon]

I hope so; I liked the SR3 martial arts rules.

[ogbendog]

[Spider]

We've opted for the martial art (offense or defense) specialisation.

Simple and fast.

Of course we wrote down the style and i'll sometime give situational advantage for a certain style in a certain situation(judo for throwing, Boxe for punch etc.)

-Spider

[Shrike30]

Hey, if you want to have an actual martial art, just rename "Unarmed Combat" to "Judo" or whatever. Then just make up really cool-sounding descriptions. If you want to show how your particular martial art is good at something, roll that in as your specialization.

Rather than expressing Aikido as Unarmed Combat (Aikido) 3(+2), you could simply write it Aikido (Subdual Combat) 3(+2). Maybe you're a student of the Razorfist school... Razorfist (Implant Weapons) 3(+2) it is. Just because the system calls it a "Martial Art" doesn't mean it has to actually do something wacky.

[Kavok]

I tried to get my GM to let me spec in the Captain Kirk Combo but he wouldn't let me. :(

*chop* *punch*

[Critias]

Wasn't that *chop* then *punch* then *mate with alien princess*? You can't forget the finishing move!

[Taki]

[Squinky]

I'm suprised no onw has noticed this, but isn't taking something like blades:4 (Spurs+2) that same thing? I'm pretty sure a person with spurs will have them most of the time, so is that specialization muchkined out too? Another cool bonus of this skill would be that you would never need to fight unarmed, or the skill....

[Shrike30]

I think they may actually be talking about those snap spurs (you know, the non-cyber ones) you can get as forearm-guard-style weapons. Given that there's a specialization of Unarmed specifically for cyberweapons, I'd rule that you had to use Unarmed for cyberspurs, and that the Blades (spurs) covered the external weapon.

[Taki]

I did understood the unamed skill was only used for cyber weapon as very short ones (cyber shockpad), otherwise I would recommend to use EDIT : BLADE (spurs).
It isn't alway cool to have to draws hudge claws to fight when you need discretion ...

I have always find the bone lacing a good choice for Munchkin (and you only need one skill whatever append)

[Shrike30]

Bone lacing's a nice deal in terms of getting a physical damage rating and being good to go, but sometimes (like, say, if you want to cut rope, punch through something hard without shredding the soft tissues off your arms, or hold someone at knifepoint) having an actual cyber bladed weapon helps out.

I could also see an arguement for the Cyberweapon specialization being what you'd use for fighting with bone lacing... strikes specializing in using the (now reinforced) bony parts of your body, especially now that you're less worried about them breaking.

[Taki]

Your right for the sharp things. Cyber blades are just nastier and cool by the way !

For the bone lacing fight, you need a training in muay tai : that martial art is already based on striking with the hard parts of the body (the part with bones - exactly the ones that become deadly with lacing). Specialise in low or high kicks :)

[Squinky]

[Taki]

If you want to stop someone in the street, you could do that using unarmed combat.
Use your "always there" cyber spurs, and you will have a lot of troubles.
Bone lacing is unfair !

[Shrike30]

If bone lacing is unfair, what about the shock hand/gloves? No need to get your whole body laced with something that can show up on a metal detector if you get the heavy variants, and it does a lot more stun damage than most characters punches will...

[Squinky]

[snowRaven]

Cyberweapons as a specialization exist under several skills - for instance, all bladed cyberweapons fall under Blades(Cyberweapons). It's fairly well-specified in the book, if you read all the descriptions.

As for Martial Arts specialization, it applies when none of the other specilazations do - that is, when you aren't Parrying, Subduing, or using a Cyberweapon. At first I thought this was an unbalaned specialization as well, but I find it much more balanced than Pistols (SemiAutomatics) atm (since there aren't very many burst-fire capable pistols in the BBB)