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Kumango Silat
4 points
The heartland of Kumango Silat is Bukittinggi
(Fordekok), in the Menangkabau area of Sumatra. The
style’s origins are unknown, but it’s believed to be a native
Sumatran art. It’s still practiced in the 21st century.
Kumango Silat is a soft, flexible Silat form. It emphasizes
evasions and escapes from grapples. Stylists yield to an
attacker’s movements and then slip free. Fighters parry from
outside to inside, usually sidestepping (see Retreat Options,
pp. 123-124) to get to the enemy’s flank. They favor the
elbow parry – an Aggressive Parry – against incoming kicks
and Knee Strikes. The usual counter to a high kick is a Leg
Grapple followed by a throw or a takedown.
Feints are an important part of Kumango Silat, and often
precede a Deceptive Attack. The attack itself might be a kick,
a punch, or both, thrown as a Dual-Weapon Attack. Strikes
focus on the foe’s centerline, the primary targets being the
groin, neck, and vitals. Stylists also grapple – a favorite target
being the foe’s parrying arm – and follow up with
throws, locks, and (especially) strikes.
Kumango Silat stances are very low and incorporate
thigh slaps and deep movements. Practitioners often fake
these motions as part of a feint or Deceptive Attack. The
hands cover the groin and body, or the back of the neck
while turning. Stylists practice stances on sandy beaches in
order to get used to shifting ground.
Kumango Silat is rare outside of Indonesia but a good
model for other “soft” Silat styles. Like all forms of Silat, it
includes weapons training from the start. At some schools,
students learn Combat Art versions of its core skills
instead of combat skills.
Skills: Judo; Karate; Knife.
Techniques: Aggressive Parry (Karate); Arm
Lock; Counterattack (Karate or Knife); Elbow
Strike; Evade; Exotic Hand Strike; Feint (Karate or
Knife); Leg Grapple; Low Fighting (Judo, Karate,
or Knife); Spinning Kick; Spinning Punch; Sweep
(Judo or Karate); Targeted Attack (Karate
Kick/Groin); Targeted Attack (Karate Punch/Neck);
Targeted Attack (Karate Punch/Vitals); Targeted
Attack (Knife Thrust/Vitals); Trip.
Cinematic Skills: Breaking Blow; Hypnotic
Hands; Mental Strength; Power Blow; Pressure
Points; Pressure Secrets.
Cinematic Techniques: Dual-Weapon Attack
(Karate); Springing Attack (Karate).
Perks: Sure-Footed (Sand); Technique
Adaptation (Low Fighting); Unusual Training
(Dual-Weapon Attack, Both attacks must target the
same foe).
Optional Traits
Advantages: Cultural Familiarity (Southeast
Asia); Language (Indonesian).
Disadvantages: Delusion (“My kris has magical
powers”); Vow (Uphold Islam and the traditions of
the style).
Skills: Jitte/Sai; Judo Art; Karate Art; Knife Art;
Kusari; Main-Gauche; Staff; Whip.
190 STYLES
Tapak Sutji Pentjak Silat
6 points
Ifan Badjam officially founded Tapak Sutji Pentjak Silat
in 1963, at the age of 72, in Central Java. A long period of
development and practice preceded this event, however, and
the art’s true origins stretch back to the 1920s and the
founding of an earlier school with identical drills and teachings.
Practitioners fought the Japanese during WWII, the
Dutch in the late 1940s, and the Communists in the 1960s.
Like other Silat styles, Tapak Sutji stances are low to the
ground. They aren’t static – the practitioner keeps moving to
gain an advantage over his foe. Traditionally, students practiced
the style outdoors on uneven ground, on beaches, or in
tangled undergrowth, and were expected to cope with (and
learn to fall on!) the rough and varied natural terrain.
Tapak Sutji practitioners make extensive use of Judo
Throw, Sweep, and Trip to put the opponent on the ground.
Follow-ups are more likely to be strikes than grapples or
locks. Attacks often follow feints, and are usually Deceptive
Attacks. Stylists like to counter an enemy attack with a parry
followed by either an immediate Counterattack or an Arm
Lock and then a strike or throw. As usual for Silat, the aim
is to destroy the foe’s ability to continue the attack, so the
limbs are common targets.
Tapak Sutji includes training in a vast array of traditional
Indonesian weapons. It also adds a short, flexible metal
truncheon called the segu (treat as a baton) and the
Japanese katana. Stylists don’t use the katana with Kenjutsu
stances or tactics, but rather in the mobile, low-to-theground
Silat style.
Silat Traditions
Silat tradition regards the connection between master and
disciple as a blood relationship. The bond is as much that of parent
and child as it is that of student and teacher. This is very different
from the more businesslike arrangements common in the
West.
According to hoplologist Donn Draeger, the teacher traditionally
expected the student to give him certain gifts before he
would offer instruction:
• A chicken, the blood of which would be spread on the
ground as a symbolic substitute for the student’s blood.
• A roll of white cloth, for use as a burial shroud should the
student be killed during training.
• A knife, to represent the sharpness expected of the student.
• Tobacco, for the teacher to smoke.
• Money, to replace the teacher’s clothing torn during
training.
The student also had to swear an oath on the Koran to uphold
the style’s traditions and the laws of Islam.
These practices aren’t common in Silat schools in the modern
West, but such academies often have charters and rules that are
nearly as stringent. The GM could certainly have a teacher from
the “old country” expect Western students to respect these traditions,
or use them as inspiration for a fictional style. In a fantasy
or space-opera setting, the gifts might be strange indeed . . .