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“The Temple is ancient, Kai Lian,” the Grandmaster lectured. “Things remain much as they were during the Wei Dynasty.” Kai nodded. “Yes, sifu.” “The theft of the Five Tigers Jade Buddha dishonors every monk who has lived and trained here over the past 14 centuries.” CHAPTER ONE HISTORY “It does, sifu.” “Go to America and find the thieves.” “As sifu wishes.” “These devils do not respect our history because they have none of their own.” “Your wisdom illuminates their weakness, sifu.” “When you find them, deal them a blow for each dynasty that the Temple has seen fall. Even a fool should respect the Temple’s long and honorable past after such a lesson.” “I shall, as the Americans say, learn ’em, sifu.” HISTORY 5
The martial arts are as old as history. Ancient tomb carvings show men fighting with sticks and shields, and wrestling with holds still used in modern fighting arts. The oldest texts tell of warriors with great skill at arms, demonstrating their strength and technique. There’s no one “origin” of the martial arts – no single founding culture or style from which all systematic combat training sprung. The martial-arts world is nevertheless full of claims of antiquity, each style maintaining that it’s older than the next. Martial Arts makes no attempt to settle such debates. It takes the stance that all cultures have their own martial-arts styles and that although they’ve often influenced each other, no one culture or style can truly claim to be the wellspring of all martial arts. There are only so many ways to use hands, feet, and weapons to defeat a rival, after all. (In a cinematic or mythic game, of course, all martial arts might truly have a common genesis; see Ultimate Styles, p. 144.) Still, the world’s many cultures have trained and continue to train in ways fascinating as much for their similarities as for their differences. To help put everything in perspective, we’ll start with a brief timeline of the martial arts and related history. Items marked with an asterisk (*) are mythical or legendary. Some contain elements of truth while some verifiable entries are colored by legend – read the entry! For more on the individual styles mentioned, see Chapter 5. *2697 B.C. – According to later documents, Yellow Emperor Huang Di ruled China and invented wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, and Taoism. Huang Di probably existed, but claims of his inventions are of early 20th-century origin. *c. 2000 B.C. – According to legend, the now 700-year-old Yellow Emperor of China defeats a fabulous monster in a head-butting contest. Similar head-butting games continue into the modern era. c. 1950 B.C. – Tomb friezes in Beni Hasan, Egypt depict the first wrestling manual, showing over 400 holds and counters. c. 1520 B.C. – Wall frescos in Thera show boys boxing. *c. 1500 B.C. – According to the Bible, the Hebrew Jacob wrestles a spirit at the ford of Jabbok and defeats it. *c. 1250 B.C. – According to the legend of the Argonauts, Polydeukes (a Spartan) defeats the foreign boxer Amykos. Amykos uses brute strength while Polydeukes uses his skill to avoid Amykos’ blows and pound him into submission. *c. 1200 B.C. – Fall of Troy. Later accounts of Greek funeral games mention boxing, wrestling, and pankration. 1160 B.C. – Egyptian tomb friezes depict wrestling and stickfighting matches for the pharaoh’s coronation. *1123 B.C. – Traditional date for the writing of the I Ching. Its three-line trigrams form the basis of Pa Kua Chuan (pp. 187-188), developed much later. 6 HISTORY What Is a Martial Art? Broadly, a “martial art” is any system of physical, mental, and sometimes philosophical and spiritual training intended as preparation for combat or a combative sport, or a related form of self-improvement. The details vary widely. All such systems are “martial” in that their core physical training is at least modeled on man-to-man combat. Some go further, focusing on actual combat skills to the exclusion of sport, religion, and aesthetics. Others emphasize the “art,” perhaps going so far as to be strictly noncompetitive and noncombative. Martial Arts defines a “martial art” as any systematically taught fighting style used for any purpose – combative or otherwise. Geography and ethnicity don’t enter into it. Boxers, knights, samurai, African stickfighters . . . they’re all martial artists. This book covers all kinds of martial arts, but emphasizes combat styles over sportive ones and sports over artistic systems. This isn’t because combat styles are “real” martial arts and others aren’t, but because the heroes in RPGs are more likely to be steely eyed warriors than pacifistic monks! TIMELINE *776 B.C. – Traditional date of the first Panhellenic games at Olympia, Greece. 722-481 B.C. – Spring and Autumn Period in China. According to chronicles attributed to Confucius, this period was the heyday of the xia (p. 8). 628 B.C. – First statue of an Olympic wrestling champion erected. 544 B.C. – First statue of an Olympic boxing champion erected. *544 B.C. – Buddha, himself a champion wrestler and archer, achieves enlightenment. Buddhism goes on to inform many martial-arts styles. 536 B.C. – First statue of an Olympic pankration champion erected. c. 440 B.C. – Spartans practice the pyrrhiche, a war-dance involving shields and swords. The dancers executed blocks and strikes, and learned to fight in rhythm with their companions. 348 B.C. – Plato’s Laws describes boxers and pankrationists wrapping their hands with padded gloves and thongs in order to strike at full force “without injury” (presumably to their hands) during practice – and using shadowboxing and punching bags when no partner was available. 264 B.C. – First recorded Roman gladiatorial matches: three pairs of slaves fight to the death at a funeral. 209 B.C. – Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China is buried in a massive underground tomb filled with terra-cotta statues of warriors, horses, chariots, and more. Some warriors are depicted in unarmed-combat poses that match traditional kung fu postures. 22 B.C. – Emperor Augustus of Rome bans the use of gladiators as private bodyguards.
Page 1 and 2: B Y P ETER D ELL’ORTO AND S EAN P
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . .
Page 5: INTRODUCTION Say “martial arts”
Page 9 and 10: 1835 - New Jersey outlaws prizefigh
Page 11 and 12: Eventually, the links between secre
Page 13 and 14: INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO The Indonesi
Page 15 and 16: Okinawa Okinawa has always had stro
Page 17 and 18: Boxing in ancient Greece and Rome c
Page 19 and 20: RENAISSANCE EUROPE By the time of t
Page 21 and 22: THE NEW WORLD Asian and European ma
Page 23 and 24: Musashi was a precocious martial ar
Page 25 and 26: In China, Fairbairn came into conta
Page 27 and 28: Bad Reenactments A problem hardly u
Page 29 and 30: Jon Gilbey shouted, “No, Adrian.
Page 31 and 32: Beginning Students as PCs The guide
Page 33 and 34: Customization Notes Styles: Ninja s
Page 35 and 36: Lens Cinematic (+100 points): Add 8
Page 37 and 38: Monk 100 points You’ve isolated y
Page 39 and 40: Customization Notes Styles: Unarmed
Page 41 and 42: Background Skills: 6 points chosen
Page 43 and 44: ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, AND SKIL
Page 45 and 46: Most martial artists can only take
Page 47 and 48: Chi Powers for Martial Artists Mart
Page 49 and 50: Inigo: You’re using Bonetti’s d
Page 51 and 52: Chi Resistance*† You can rally yo
Page 53 and 54: Suit Familiarity† You’ve learne
Page 55 and 56: Minor Delusions affect combat again
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Even so, stunt fighters are still f
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Kiai* see p. B203 This skill has a
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Tactics see p. B224 Tactics is a ma
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Modifiers: A penalty equal to encum
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Description: Some techniques raise
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Martial artists practice dozens of
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Your foe’s only legal defenses ar
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Counterattack Hard Default: prerequ
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Blinding your foe is an effective t
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Head Butt Hard Defaults: Brawling-1
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Combine Kicking with Committed Atta
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Push Kick Hard Defaults: Brawling-3
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Optional Rule: Combinations Martial
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Wrench (Limb) Hard Default: ST-4; c
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This technique is dangerous! If you
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To execute a Piledriver, you must f
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Humorous movies often feature silly
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Prerequisites Unless the technique
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A use of a defensive technique is a
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• Own Defenses: A bonus to one’
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The Italian used his dagger to ward
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All-Out Attack (Long) is incompatib
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• Determined: Make a single attac
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Thus, a weapon that’s ready stays
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Arrow: +1 if stuck in the ground at
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Dealing with Charging Foes The sure
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WAIT Wait requires you to name a pa
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These rules address minute differen
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When striking to the front or sides
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CLOSE-COMBAT OPTIONS These expanded
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Lame see p. B141 If you’re standi
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Grapples can set up vicious strikes
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The archer can precede this feat wi
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The grappler has no penalties. Howe
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Sideslip: If you’re standing, you
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Faster Combat You can run extremely
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Example 1: An attacker with two att
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An important part of martial-arts m
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MORE CINEMATIC COMBAT RULES The unr
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TOURNAMENT COMBAT Not all combat is
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INJURY AND RECOVERY Injury is an im
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Severe Bleeding Realistic campaigns
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Del Duque’s cape swirled dramatic
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Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left h
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CHOOSING A STYLE Every would-be stu
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Some styles were born “stripped d
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A PC who starts with several styles
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ARMATURA 6 points Armatura was the
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Perks: Iron Legs; Power Grappling;
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Capoeira fighters claim that slaves
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Escrimadors prefer the Defensive At
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La Verdadera Destreza 4 points La V
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Sport fencing largely eliminates mo
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Practitioners of Hoplomachia often
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Hwa Rang Do stylists prefer to open
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JUDO 4 points Judo is a Japanese co
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Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is a relatively
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Te stresses deflecting an incoming
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Belts and Grading In the popular im
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Iaijutsu 5 points Iaijutsu is the J
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Many cultures have styles that cons
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KOBUJUTSU 8 points “Kobujutsu”
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Kusarigamajutsu 3 points Warriors s
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Skills: Brawling; Judo; Knife; Two-
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The Purpose of Military Hand-to-Han
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In matches, competitors wear modern
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Skills: Judo; Karate; Meditation; P
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Kumango Silat 4 points The heartlan
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Staff Fighting Staff fighting is as
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Skills: Karate; Wrestling. Techniqu
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Sojutsu (pp. 197-198) is but one of
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Sojutsu deals primarily with using
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Tae Kwon Do Ranks Tae Kwon Do (see
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Ninja and Ninjutsu The Japanese cha
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Cinematic Techniques: Dual-Weapon A
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Like other sport wrestling, Indian
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Against multiple opponents, stylist
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FREEFIGHTING 5 points Freefighting
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Weapons don’t evolve in a vacuum.
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Cane - Universal. The walking stick
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The weapons in Martial Arts come in
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Martial-arts tales (especially ninj
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Unorthodox Attacks Often in fiction
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POLLAXE (p. B272) - Europe. The Bas
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A real weapon is preferable to an i
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Yari - Japan. A Spear (pp. B273, B2
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TL Weapon Damage Reach Parry Cost W
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TL Weapon Damage Reach Parry Cost W
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Notes: [1] A crossbow bolt costs $2
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Armor Martial artists, especially p
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CINEMATIC VS. REALISTIC CAMPAIGNS W
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Special-Case NPCs Non-player charac
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Amazing Abilities One option is to
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An especially appropriate theme for
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POST-CLASSICAL EUROPE The uninforme
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MODERN DAY Modern-day games are amo
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The Quest for the Master In a cinem
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There are many variations on this t
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Described below are wo
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With rare exceptions, weapons are n
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Power level guidelines, 29. Prana,
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