GURPS Martial Arts - Home

If a technique defaults only to ST, DX, Dodge, or a similar
score that doesn’t derive from a skill level, it doesn’t require
specialization.
Difficulty Level
The lists below assign “Average” or “Hard” difficulty to
broad classes of techniques on the bases of real-world difficulty
and game balance. These are merely guidelines! The GM
may rule that an otherwise Average technique with many special
effects is Hard – or that one that would normally be Hard
is only Average because it’s such a basic use of the skill to
which it defaults.
Average
• Holds and locks that pit the attacker’s arms or hands
against the target’s torso, arms, or legs.
• Unarmed strikes and shoves involving elbows, hands,
knees, and other “intuitive” striking surfaces. This varies by
race; e.g., teeth are a dog’s first resort but not a man’s.
• Weapon thrusts and swings.
Hard
• Defensive techniques.
• Disarms.
• Feints.
• Holds and locks applied using the attacker’s legs or feet,
or that go after the target’s feet, hands, head, or neck.
• Improved resistance to disarms, feints, grapples, etc.
•Multiple strikes, regardless of how many arms or
weapons the attacker has.
• Techniques that buy off penalties for a target (e.g., hit
location) or situation (e.g., posture, or combat from a moving
platform).
• Unarmed attacks that involve “unintuitive” striking surfaces.
This depends on race; e.g., a kick is unbalancing and
thus unintuitive for a human but not for a horse.
• Weapon-based grabs and grapples.
Maximum Level
A combat technique should always specify a level past
which further improvement is only possible by raising the parent
skill, technique, etc.
A technique that defaults to a skill, technique, or active
defense at a penalty cannot be raised past the score to which it
defaults. GURPS treats attacks and defenses as discrete
actions . . . but in reality, each move “sets up” the next. Any
technique tricky enough to give a penalty is only as good as the
fighter’s grasp of the basics he uses to set it up.
On the other hand, a technique that defaults to a skill (only)
at no penalty represents a “sub-skill”: a body of knowledge that
one could theoretically isolate and study almost as if it were its
own skill. Skill+4 is a reasonable maximum here – but the GM
is free to use skill+3 to control easily abused techniques or
skill+5 for self-limiting ones.
A technique that defaults to a technique or an active defense
at no penalty can never exceed the parent score, however.
Techniques that default to attributes constitute a special
case. Improving a technique like this represents training at a
feat that anybody could try – which describes most skills!
Since there’s no upper limit on skills, the GM could fairly allow
almost any maximum.
Description
The description of a technique should provide about the
same degree of detail as the worked examples in this chapter.
Remember that techniques include all of the effects of
the combat options, maneuvers, and techniques from which
they’re built, except for those deliberately removed using the
design system. To keep page-flipping in play to a minimum,
summarize the basic and added effects in one place.
DESIGNING REALISTIC
TECHNIQUES
Every aspect of a realistic technique should make sense
in real life. In particular, the tradeoffs should be logical.
One could stack up any number of effects and work out the
“fair” default . . . but that would be an abstract number
shuffle and have little to do with reality. In general:
• Damage: For realistic punches, damage bonuses
should come with drawbacks – most often high potential
for self-inflicted injury. If a punch gets extra damage without
such a limitation, base it on Committed Attack
(Strong) or All-Out Attack (Strong).
Kicks can deliver extra damage with fewer drawbacks,
or even with other bonuses. For instance, a high-powered
kick that involves jumping at the foe might be parried at a
penalty, as it’s difficult to parry an entire person!
Weapon strikes that deliver extra damage involve exaggerated
windups, awkward striking angles, or placing the
weapon in contact with the target for a long time (e.g., a
drawing or sawing cut). Any of these things should give the
target a bonus to defend.
Extra-powerful kicks and weapon blows tend to open
up the attacker’s guard, giving him a penalty to his own
defenses! Many are Committed or All-Out Attacks.
• Extra Movement: In realistic games, high-mobility
attacks should be Committed or All-Out Attacks. Allowing
fighters to buy off the -4 for Move and Attack is unrealistic
– being able to run at top speed, attack at full skill, and still
defend effectively is simply too much action for one
second.
• Opponent’s Defenses: Realistic bonuses to the target’s
defenses against an offensive technique shouldn’t exceed
+2. They make the most sense for haymaker punches,
extra-damage weapon attacks, and other slow or clumsy
strikes that are easy to see coming and avoid.
Penalties to an opponent’s Parry – from offensive or
defensive techniques – shouldn’t be worse than -2. These
mainly suit tricky “spinning” attacks, kicks that get their
bonus damage from a jump (which can bash the defender’s
hand aside), and parries that involve moving inside the
foe’s guard . . . which tend to cause extra damage to the
user if he fails! Few realistic techniques can justify a penalty
to the defender’s Block or Dodge. For that, use a feint or
Deceptive Attack.
• Own Attack Roll: The bonus to hit with an attack that
follows a defensive technique shouldn’t exceed +2. Such
techniques tend to be dangerous and should usually result
in the defender taking extra damage if he fails.
TECHNIQUES 93