So i was just taking a look at martialarts, do i have to buy the quality and then pay for the specialization as well?

the rules say i can take multiple martial arts and overlap their bonuses, does that mean i can say take 4 different ones and all apply it to my unarmed for like say +4dv? i know this is pretty power gamey but i was interested in if you still get the normal one specialization per skill thing or if its an exception and u can have Unarmed 4 (+2 karate teakwondo muay thai and kung fun) type thing

if this was the case it really wouldnt be hard to make a character that punches people for about the same amount as a HE missle fired out of a rocketlauncher

The bonus DV from the martial arts qualities is capped at +3, per the errata.

Also, the vague and poorly defined specialization "Martial Arts" for Unarmed Combat and the quality "Martial Arts" are completely different unrelated things with no connection that happen to share the same name.

You buy the Quality "Martial Arts" for 5 BP per level.

With this, you gain one of the advantages from any of the listed martial arts (like the +1 DV for unarmed attacks; max +3 DV as pointed out above) per level.

Additionally, you gain the option to buy two Maneuvers (All-Out Attack, Kick, Sweep, etc) for each level of the Quality. These Maneuvers have to be bought with BP (or Karma) seperately.

Bye
Thanee

Above statements are of course correct. Just to add: We ruled that the "Martial Arts" Spec is actually an "offensive" Spec as opposed to Parrying which is defensive. So you get bonus dice to attack rolls but not for defending or for Grappling because those are different Specs. This way, it still applies pretty often but not quite "all the time" as it does by RAW.

A martial arts rule I use: each style is a specialty. I allow pseudo-styles such as streetfightin'. The specialty applies if you have a martial art that your opponent does not.

So if you know kung fu but your opponent has streetfightin', both of you get your bonus. If you know kung fu AND streetfightin', then you can counter the moves made by both combatants, and also get your own +2. If both parties know the same arts, they can counter each other and neither gets any bonus.

so, multiple specialisations are encouraged. I'm toying with making martial arts specs cheaper (I've doubled specialisation karma cost to 4, might keep MA specs at 2). I limit the variety available, so as to avoid proliferation. I'm not too interested in REALISM, so arts that are sorta-similar count as the same, even though in real life they might be quite different. And yeah, there's no advantage to having kung fu over a highly-developed dirty fighting streak.

(Note that if you take advantage of a specialty you can be recognised as using that style -- so if you use your streetfightin' spec in a kung fu tournament, you get disqualified.)

As Thanee stated:

The character purchases the Martial Arts positive quality at 5BP per level, and chooses 1 style (Kung Fu, Karate, Aikido, Wild Cat, etc.).

From that style, choose one advantage per level of the MA quality. So if you spent 10 BP for level 2 Martial Arts in Karate, you could choose two advantages from the karate list.

If you want an additional style, you can purchase the Martial Arts positive quality a second time.

So you could spend 10 BP to get Martial Arts (Karate, level 1), and Martial Arts (Kung Fu, level 1), or Martial Arts (Karate, level 2).

Once you have the Martial Arts positive quality for any style, you may also purchase Maneuvers (Kick, Finishing Move, etc.).