Thanks for all the input so far!
To clarify, I doubt this book will have entries for karate, judo, and other Earth names, mainly because most games don't take place on Earth. We'll probably either go with practical names ("Defensive Acrobatic Style," "Offensive Scorpion Style," and so on) or create flavorful names (roper style, dragon style, etc.) and in each's introductory paragraph, pointout "This style is good for emulating combat styles such as X, Y, and Z."
In other words: it is important for a fan of judo to be able to find the word "judo" in th book so he can play a character based on his own knowledge, but it is important to avoid the baggage associated with prominently using the name of that style in the book (I'm sure anyone who takes the Karate Initiate feat is going to be the target of endless Karate Kid jokes, for example).
I suggest browsing either Hero systems Ultimate Martial Artist, or the GURPS version for good brain food/idea inspirations. There is also Palladium's Ninjas and Superspies and/or Mystic China. They have a lot of general angles and approaches that i think would be solid for ideas.
Thanks for all the input so far!
To clarify, I doubt this book will have entries for karate, judo, and other Earth names, mainly because most games don't take place on Earth. We'll probably either go with practical names ("Defensive Acrobatic Style," "Offensive Scorpion Style," and so on) or create flavorful names (roper style, dragon style, etc.) and in each's introductory paragraph, pointout "This style is good for emulating combat styles such as X, Y, and Z."
In other words: it is important for a fan of judo to be able to find the word "judo" in th book so he can play a character based on his own knowledge, but it is important to avoid the baggage associated with prominently using the name of that style in the book (I'm sure anyone who takes the Karate Initiate feat is going to be the target of endless Karate Kid jokes, for example).
Rules should certainly say "inspired by" or "based on" whatever, where they really are so inspired and based... But I doubt anyone is going to have a problem finding what they want, that's more of a matter of how you present your information up front and index it from behind.
There's nothing stopping one from writing a Krav-like combat system into a fantasy setting merely because it is generic and lacking in a mystical personality like kung-fu or others. I say make it up. Give it one. The key is making it functional and brutal like Krav is.... Another idea would be bonuses to disarm rolls when in a grapple (if pertinent) and at higher levels bonuses to attack (maybe a +1?) per threatening adjacent creature?
Krav-like. Here's an argument against using real world names, because Krav isn't the only style to offer what Krav offers. I can show you functional and brutal, I can show you disarm, all without ever having stepped into a Krav school.
You know, I'd like to see some kind of brutal martial art attributed to hobgoblins.Or just regular goblins, famed for their "Face to the Fist Style"
With regular goblins, it's more like fist to the goodie bag, unless they're dealing with halflings or gnomes.
Break "kung fu" into different styles please
Shaolin Longfist is way different than Monkey Style.
The only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned is more of an undisciplined brawling or fisticuffs style.
I second that as well.
Uh, exactly why are you going for mundane, real world styles in a magical universe?
go out to some comic store and get some back issues of Jademan Comics.
Golden Armor: All about AC and DR, uses another style for offense. vulnerable at only one point on your body, cannot be cut or pierced.
Iron Outfit; Same, not as powerful as Golden armor, no death point.
Buddha's Palm: Hand strikes only, but the most powerful of them. the style of the Buddha himself.
Star-Picking Kung Fu: Distance claw attacks
Infinite Tao: Soft Palms and damage absorption, tai chi done large.
Ancient Electric Bolt: Massive, brutal fist style, with overruns and bull rush/knockbacks, and excellent defense.
Fu Yee Challenger; Graceful style with special high-level moves, like being in two places at once. You gain power by challenging the gods to answer you.
Hin Yuen Heaven Opener; Straight up style, lightning aligned, uses all attack styles. Very versatile.
Nine Suns Kung fu: Pure versatile inner power and evasiveness. Enhances an attack form, excellent self-healing/recovery.
Hell Dragon Kicks/Palms: Extremely lethal attack style, equal parts power and technique.
Bone Crushing Claw: Rip/rend style based on precision/finesse
Steel Claw: Rip/rend style based on power.
Red Hot Kung Fu: Add Fire/fire resistance.
Fireproof Ice Note: Fire and Ice kung fu, with some ranged attacks.
Floral Blossom style: Nerve strikes, soft palms, throws,redirect attacks back at attacker, evasiveness, a woman's style.
Blazing Sun kung fu: Another fiery style combined with powerful palm strikes.
Infinite Oceans: A water-based palm style, a pre-eminent inner power style. Mighty palms and distance palms.
Shadow Leg: Extremely fast kicking style based on the best lightfoot, rapid kicks, and evading attacks.
Five Extremes: sword and hand form, each finger an element, deadliest of sword forms.
Saint-Slaying Sword: Taoist technique for controlling a weapon from a distance.
Four Seasons swordplay: Four specific sword forms + a lightfoot technique.
Cotton body: Defensive technique for absorbing attacks by means of being so bloody fat.
The Mitzu: The holy martial art of the buddhist monks of Thailand.
Phoenix Claw: Another fiery/burning palm technique.
Dragon Claw and Tiger Walk: Distant palm + walk on walls!
Infinite Zen: Japanese sword style.
Death Armor: Superior to Golden Armor (no death point), but renders you a childlike idiot.
Phantom Point Inner power: Lets you concentrate your chi easily in specific areas. Enhances an attack style.
Wave-Slicing Stroke: Inner power so advanced you can literally cut down a wave with a blade.
Brain Demon: Drain inner power/strength with your attacks. Head butt them to use.
Thousand Poison style: must be immune to poison to learn. Exude poisons on specific hits, or as an area effect attack. Must absorb poisons to use.
Heart-Chilling style: A vampiric style where you make your opponent's heart burst while grappling them.
Hummingbird Dragon Sword: Your sword is so fast it blurs.
The Carving Thumb: Distance death style attacks, you can slice things with your thumb attacks at a distance.
Cosmic Blast: Exploding, graduating blast styles culminating in an attack where you call down might from the heavens and hit your enemy with a really big explosion.
Fiery Heart of the Earth: Carve a meteorite into a floating shield and stand on it to enhance your fire-based attack style.
The Disappearing Act: Move so fast your opponent loses sight of you. Lightfoot technique.
Way of the Gods: Get possessed by patron gods while fighting to change your style (generally, the various animal/kung fu spirits)
Iron Skull: A bone-breaking, stone-smashing head butt of a finishing move. Buddhist origins.
Shall I go on? :)
Other notes:
Substance: Warm jade. Disrupts any attempt to use ki or regain ki powers when close.
Soul Crystal: Ignores inner power defenses (such as monk AC by level, DR, or armor techniques) when carved into a weapon.
Also: Increasing speed of attacks by reducing damage down.
Striking power decided by inner power (ki) or outer power (technique/str/evasion).
UA styles based around primary limbs. Either all hands or all feet. Hands dominate internal power styles. Kicks dominate lightfoot and evasion techniques.
Weapon forms are generally considered superior to open hand forms because they combine both technique and internal power.
The hardest forms, like golden armor, iron outfit, and death armor, can only be learned by men. The softest/mental attack forms are almost always the sole province of women.
Intelligence is generally more important then wisdom in the world of kung fu. Wisdom is the province of monks. Genius lets you figure out more forms and master them quickly (bonus feats for high Int, anyone?)
Lightfoot/speed varies tremendously via style. Kicking forms always have the best lightfoot, and are the hardest to hit. Palm forms hit the hardest and are the hardest to hurt. Claw strikes can bleed. nerve strikes are generally the fastest and do the least pure physical damage, but can end a fight instantly if successful.
If you're going to do martial arts in a magical universe, use profound martial arts!!!!
==Aelryinth
Heck, I could give you a write-up of the basics of my own Seven Dragons Styles, with Wolverine style representing basic no-holds-barred, anything goes basic martial arts.
Let's see.
Storm Dragon has three houses: Wind, Thunder, Lightning. Wind is pure speed and kicking form. Thunder is divine inspiration/fist/big weapon form, used by paladins. Lightning is the combination of the two, and the highest sword/hand form.
Fire Dragon is the TWF/AoO form. Attack form is Phoenix claw, specializes in TWF with short swords, called 'wings'.
Crystal Dragon has the house of Iron and House of Stone: DR and AC boosting respectively. Designed to be used by heavy armor wielders with shields. Attack form is spear hand/fist based, called Crystal splitter, designed to break bones. weapon is axes, hammers, and picks.
Water Dragon is the palm style, the most basic and versatile of the schools. Weapon is longsword or naginata/glaive. Flowing Waters is the weapon style, divided into the Ocean (slashing) and River (thrusting) styles.
Moon Dragon is a Lesser School, with no offensive moves. Redirects attacks, binds people up, throws, evades. Weapons are fan, sash in the Twin Moons style.
Shadow Dragon is the ninja/stealth style. Kills with grappling, sneak attacks. Weapon is daggers, chain weapons.
Sun Dragon is precision-based, the nerve fighting style is called Imperial Sun. Weapons are rapier and spear.
Wolverine is basic UA...attack with whatever you need to, style varies by whatever your build is. A heavyset short man using Wolverine attacks very differently then a tall, skinny man.
====This is the kind of style you need with 'martial art forms'. martial art forms should grow into something profound and magical...flying swordsmen flicks are all about hitting people so hard you break bamboo, send them through walls, jump dozens of feet in the air, and the like.
==Aelryinth
And I also like adding some magic to other types of martial arts systems (like the tiger claws thing) or do we go crazy and do some Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type wire work with some other types styles? What do you think?
+1
that really long post
+1.
We'll probably either go with practical names ("Defensive Acrobatic Style," "Offensive Scorpion Style," and so on) or create flavorful names (roper style, dragon style, etc.) and in each's introductory paragraph, pointout "This style is good for emulating combat styles such as X, Y, and Z."
+(a lot)
Do that, yes :)
Contributor
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Wing Chun - invented by a woman for smaller opponents to deal with larger, or so the legend goes. Great Yip Man movie.
Capoiera - whishing fast stick mess you up. What's not to like?
Animal Styles - too iconic to pass up. Fantasy-enhance them and they'd be great. So much inherent drama.
Drunken Boxing
To clarify, I doubt this book will have entries for karate, judo, and other Earth names, mainly because most games don't take place on Earth. We'll probably either go with practical names ("Defensive Acrobatic Style," "Offensive Scorpion Style," and so on) or create flavorful names (roper style, dragon style, etc.) and in each's introductory paragraph, pointout "This style is good for emulating combat styles such as X, Y, and Z."
"Offensive Scorpion Style" = lame
"Roper Style" = so D&Dish
If there's one thing you can learn from Khav Maga: a great name goes a long way (I say this as a martial arts dude and a copywriter).
So I'd take the linguistic/naming principles of the region and just give the styles cools names and fluff steeped with Far Eastern coolness (but with lame D&Dish translations as a subtitle)
Like so--
"Xi Ghor Tae, the western roper style: A powerful and disabling grappling style created when Master Khor Chun broke off from the mainstream of Imperial Khun Dao, remarkable for its nigh immovable deep stances and extraordinary reaching grabs...."
Then cook up some feats where they can grab at range...
FOOTNOTE:
(I hearby order everyone to see one of my favorite martial arts movies of all time, that I never cease to plug: Dreadnaught, which has the cheesiest yet somehow still cool long range strikes... and in which you will see a bizarre array of gong fu styles. Fight choreography by kung fu film luminary Ping Wu who worked on the Matrix and Crouching Tiger...)
Anyway, that's just what I would do.
going right along from the last post...
Were I to run a brainstorming session on this, sketching out a rough lineage of the disciplines might be a useful way of filling out the fluff in a way the preserves continuity in your world building. Then see how it ties into religions and regional politics, culture, and the environment.
Vovinam! It's designed for fighting people who are taller than you, and the signature move involves running up your opponent, grappling them about the neck with your legs, and wrenching them down to the ground.
The katas have fun names too—I only learned one of the early ones, Little Girl Fends Off Bullies (which included a move that IRL was meant to be ripping out the opponent's heart with a claw hand), but will try to find out a few more.
Going by what i would LIKE to see, and leaving real world names out of it, i'd like to see the following:
Hard Style.
damage, bypassing defenses, traumatic themed conditions
Soft Style.
evasion, countering, maneuverability
External Style.
rapid attacks, movement boosters/alternate types
Internal Style.
more 'mystical' with classicly themed 'chi' styled effects.
the names/fluff are easily mutable, and won't make me unhappy at all, though i would prefer a fantasy one(made up)instead of existing real world names.(too much baggage for RL stuff IMO)
Also, as receptive as i would be to those being monk archtypes, i'd also be happy to see linked feat chains of the above styles/themes.
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Vovinam! It's designed for fighting people who are taller than you, and the signature move involves running up your opponent, grappling them about the neck with your legs, and wrenching them down to the ground.
The katas have fun names too—I only learned one of the early ones, Little Girl Fends Off Bullies (which included a move that IRL was meant to be ripping out the opponent's heart with a claw hand), but will try to find out a few more.
+1000000000!
This is THE halfling and gnome martial art. Perfect.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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I think this is a great list so far.
In many ways, I'm a martial arts purist, and while there are a lot of styles with very vast techniques and rich histories, I just don't know that the d20 system--or any RPG system in that case--is set up to accommodate all of the nuances that distinguish them from each other in real life.
We may want to lump many of them together for their mutual commonalities and then use a new name to identify them as they would most likely not be called "Kung Fu" or Shorin Ryu in Golarion or any other fantasy setting...
For example, Judo, Sambo and Aikido would probably get grouped into the same "throwing" martial art, just like wing Chun Kung Fu, Krav Maga and Jiu-jitsu might be a martial art to emphasize close, locked body manipulating combat.
Any ideas on how we could group the existing suggestions into common sets so that we could examine where to go from there?
-QGJ
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Please include the following
- Awesome names based off of D&D monsters.
- Western sword fighting. They didn't ritualize it in our world, so it doesn't have the fun "style" names that Eastern martial arts do. But one of my sword fighting buddies has put a lot of work into a wiki called Wiktenauer so people will know more about it. They have a lot of manuals that are worth looking at for fun alone, and to leave them out would be a grave disservice to Pathfinder's core demographic. We are, by and large, Westerners. And our characters are, by and large, practicing something that is ostensibly like Western sword fighting. Western sword fighting is mainly named after its sword-masters, and I can heartily recommend Lichtenauer, Tallhoffer, Ringeck, Silver, Meyer, and many others. Making some art patterned after their manuals would be amazing.
In general, humans, orcs, and dwarves lend themselves to the German/English schools, while elves, halflings, and gnomes would be more inclined to the Italian masters.
- Schools of combat that focus on established combat styles: two-weapon fighting, reach weapons, weapon & shield, weapon & open hand (or weapon & improvised weapon), and two-handed weapons.
- Martial arts that don't require additional feat expenditures! Or, if they do, that only require one feat, which scales with BAB. Maybe two at most. I've had very few characters who say things like "Gee, I've run out of useful feats I want to take. I wish there were some more useful options." and none of those were martial characters.
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I don't really know many "real world" martial arts, but thinking of fake outcomes from them:
Anti weapon martial art (good disarm, understanding how to use a lot of weapons, perhaps some free deflect arrows)
Anti magic martial artist (maybe SR, some fighter only anti magic feats (paired back perhaps))
Some kind of Sumo-esque kind of thing would be fun, though I'd prefer to see it as a "big guy bull rush" rather than have to follow the original source and force some other cultural norms that are only fodder for arguments.
An elven brachiation/hit and run technique would be fun, if limiting in some campaigns.
I'd love to see something that allows a character to dive into the middle of combat and let the enemies hit one another and take some good hits... That's more like a barbarian kind of character than a monk, but it's something my players like.
Perhaps something that uses spider climb and dropping down on enemies?
They've already been mentioned, but I'll add my vote to Sambo and Savate.
I'd also like to see airbending, firebending, earthbending and waterbending. :-)
ninjitsu
Muay Thai.
From a mechanical stand ones that focus on
1. Throwing your opponent-->Tripping, BullRushing
2. Striking-->Maybe you get bonuses to attack and damage.
3. Blocking attacks, and/or disarming.
4. Ways to combine them. Maybe take 2 levels of "1", and 3 levels of "3".
You then have someone who can take your weapons, and then throw you
around.
I think that if each martial art has different levels of expertise you can combine them to make your own.
The above is just a very general example.
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Africa: Obnu Bilate
Americas: Capoeira, LINE
Europe: Deutsche Fechtschule, Systema, UAC
Israel: Krav Maga
Pa Kua/Ba Gua Zhang
And someone already mentioned Isshin-Ryu.
About bloody time.
Honestly, styles could best be patterened on some of the breakdowns and weapon selections on Deadliest Warrior
Lucha libre, Silat and, dammit, whats that one called, the one based on the I-Ching . . .pakua?
Yup!
Even the concept of the 9 palaces plays up into the mythical monk archetype.
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Non-Asian ones.Such as...?
Africa
Tahtib (Egyptian Stick Fencing)Kuta (Ancient Egyptian Fist Fighting)
Surma stickfighting
Dambe
Nguni Stick Fighting
Obnu Bilate
Laamb Wrestling
Istunka
Nuba fighting
Evala wrestling
Americas
Tinku
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
Capoeira
Luta Livre
Maculele
Vale Tudo
Defendo
Wen-Do
Okichitaw
La Mano Negra (Manegra)
Lucha Libre
Atlatl
Macuahuitl
Tepoztopilli
Aztec warfare
Rumi Maki
Bakom/Vacón
American Karate
American Kenpo
Shootfighting
American kickboxing
Bojuka
Catch wrestling
Chun Kuk Do
Collegiate Wrestling
Collegiate Fencing
Combatives
Danzan-ryu
Extreme martial arts
Gaidojutsu
Jailhouse Rock
Jeet Kune Do
Kajukenbo
Kapu Kuialua
Limalama
Lua
Marine Corps LINE Combat System
Marine Corps Martial Arts Program
Mixed Martial Arts
Model Mugging
Modern Army Combatives
Pit Fighting
Sanchin-ryu
S.C.A.R.S. (military)
Shinkendo
Sli Beatha
Small Circle Jujutsu
SPEAR System
Toso Kune Do
World War II combatives
El Juego del Garrote
Caribbean
Kalinda (also Kalenda or Calinda)
El Juego de Maní
Bajan stick licking
Europe
Amateur Wrestling
Archery
Fencing
Historical European martial arts
Jousting
Freestyle fighting
Freestyle Wrestling
Mixed martial arts
Baton Francais
Gouren
Greco-Roman wrestling
Kinomichi
La Canne
Savate
Tao chen kung fu
French school of fencing
Khridoli
German Ju-Jutsu
German school of fencing
Kampfringen
Nindokai
Unifight
Pygmachia (Ancient Greek Boxing)
Pale (Ancient Greek wrestling)
Pankration (Ancient Greek Hybrid Combat Sport)
Bataireacht
Collar-And-Elbow Wrestling
Italian school of swordsmanship
Roman Wrestling
Combat 56
Jogo do Pau
Sambo
Russian fist fighting
Systema
Spetsnaz GRU hand-to-hand combat style
Real Aikido
Svebor
Narodno rvanje
Canarian Wrestling
Destreza
Juego del Palo
Keysi Fighting Method
Yawara-Jitsu
Zipota
Schwingen
sea jousting
Combat Hopak
Bare-knuckle boxing - (London Prize Ring rules)
Bartitsu
Boxing - (Marquess of Queensberry rules)
KickBoxing
Catch Wrestling
Chess boxing
Cornish Wrestling
Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling
Defendu
Devon wrestling
Dirk Dance
Lancashire wrestling
Quarterstaff
Scottish Backhold
Singlestick
Scandinavia
Glima
Runa Glima
Stav
Oceania
GKR Karate
Zen Do Kai
Mau Rakau
Near East & Central Asia
Koshti
Pahlavani
Kung Fu To'a
Yehoshua Sofer
Kapap
Krav Maga
Yagli gures
Jereed
Turkish archery
Koras
Kurash
Really long list
+1
Nice list. :)
I for one would like to see the Historical European styles get more love, since, you know... they were the original 'martial arts' anyways. :p (as in the source of the term, not speaking chronologically)
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I for one would like to see the Historical European styles get more love, since, you know... they were the original 'martial arts' anyways. :p (as in the source of the term, not speaking chronologically)
I kinda just wanted to point out that martial arts don't begin and end with Asia. Yeah, some of those are variants of Asian martial arts, but many are not.
If there's one thing you can learn from Krav Maga: a great name goes a long way (I say this as a martial arts dude and a copywriter).So I'd take the linguistic/naming principles of the region and just give the styles cools names and fluff steeped with Far Eastern coolness (but with lame D&Dish translations as a subtitle)
I had no idea Krav Maga sounded cool in English. It is basically "contact combat" as opposed to using a missile weapon (although you CAN and DO use the assault rifle's body in Krav Maga in the IDF).
Kapap means the same, and is actually an acronym for "face-to-face combat". The cultural heritage of Kapap is not very suitable to be a "marital art", wince it is by definition used by people who don't know how to fight, with an emphasis on youths.
In any case I can totally see Jona Clay from the NPC guide use Krav Maga. He just has cool written all over him.
Hi Sean!
Here my adds to your list. I'll add old styles only. The modern ones such as MMA imho are not suitable dor a fantasy world.
-Iaijutsu/Iaido (rapid sword extraction, lightning fast cuts)
-muai thai and derivate styles
-Boxe/cesta. definitely.
-grapple/catch
-ninjutsu
-ki-based styles (pressure points, reiki, hadooken, etc)
-bo-jutsu and jodo (fighting with a long wooden staff)
-trident and net
-whip and sword
-chains
-kobudo (improvised weapons such as kusari-kama, stick and nunchaku)
-doppelhander styles
-naginata/iari/halberd styles
-a g@%%!!n effective estoc/rapier style
Ranged styles
-archery
-crossbow
-gun fu
Anyway, more than an exaustive list of style with their traits/feats/whatever I'd be glad to see a short list of martial templates that can model existing styles with simple variations.
Bye!
Thrown Weapon Style(shuriken-jutsu, tsubute/inji, biao, chakram)
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Maybe have the martial arts 'generic' names 'hard throwing' 'soft vital strike' etc. and a Golarion friendly name. ('hard close combat' = Taldoran Badger style, for example) then have a sidebar/chart with all the names listed broken down by hard/soft arts.
That way, we have the basic styles, Golarion names, and idea for other names. "Hmm, I want my spartan style marital combatants to have a hard locking style. Let me look at the names... Wow, Systema sounds cool!"
I know it's feat intensive, but I liked the martial arts styles in the 3.x Oriental Adventures books. Kind of a 'take this seeming mismatch of feats, get a cool bonus' approach.
Please include the following
- Awesome names based off of D&D monsters.
- Western sword fighting. They didn't ritualize it in our world, so it doesn't have the fun "style" names that Eastern martial arts do. But one of my sword fighting buddies has put a lot of work into a wiki called Wiktenauer so people will know more about it. They have a lot of manuals that are worth looking at for fun alone, and to leave them out would be a grave disservice to Pathfinder's core demographic. We are, by and large, Westerners. And our characters are, by and large, practicing something that is ostensibly like Western sword fighting. Western sword fighting is mainly named after its sword-masters, and I can heartily recommend Lichtenauer, Tallhoffer, Ringeck, Silver, Meyer, and many others. Making some art patterned after their manuals would be amazing.
In general, humans, orcs, and dwarves lend themselves to the German/English schools, while elves, halflings, and gnomes would be more inclined to the Italian masters.
- Schools of combat that focus on established combat styles: two-weapon fighting, reach weapons, weapon & shield, weapon & open hand (or weapon & improvised weapon), and two-handed weapons.
- Martial arts that don't require additional feat expenditures! Or, if they do, that only require one feat, which scales with BAB. Maybe two at most. I've had very few characters who say things like "Gee, I've run out of useful feats I want to take. I wish there were some more useful options." and none of those were martial characters.
+1 to every single thing said here.
To this day the biggest problem i have with martial arts in the fantasy setting is they are all real styles created in a world without magic. please take the world in which they are created into consideration.
for example, the base monk can move faster than the average person, styles created by a base monk would use this.
Savate is a very cool style, lots of jumps and kicks.
Personally, I'm hoping for either a martial arts style that combines hand to hand combat with magic like the Arcane Archer combines bows and magic, or for martial arts to be compatable with the Magus class :D
Yea, I'm a sucker for characters that can punch people with fire. The last time I made a Monk I went straight for the 'Four Winds' archetype.
You know this is producing a great list and one I can't add to except to say that European Fighting styles have prevailed throughout DnD history and only recently has Asian Fighting Styles been given some love. Not saying that one is better then the other mind you but wanting to see more love in areas other then European.
I did see a demonstration of this style http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogo_do_Pau
and I liked what I saw.
What I have real serious issues with is attaching styles to races. Regions and Classes are cool and make sense to me but making them race specific causes me some indigestion.
Now who ever it was that said using non-earth names had the right idea in my opinion which was followed up by Sean's comment on the subject.
Again my support and love for Region/Class specificity and Template system with the basics covered and room for expansion by the players.
Thanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAjpRSWQPwU&feature=related
Demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPfI7h_fDE
Whoever mentioned Keysi had the right idea Check it out.
Sorry just discovered some real cool videos.
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To this day the biggest problem i have with martial arts in the fantasy setting is they are all real styles created in a world without magic. please take the world in which they are created into consideration.
for example, the base monk can move faster than the average person, styles created by a base monk would use this.
This, this and this. Of course naturally magical-endowed races would perform martial arts that feature magic some way. Arcane Strike is a good way to go, but since it has no flavor in itself, this book begs Paizo to come up with styles that tie into different racial preferences. Orcs REALLY like fire, gnomes imitate the natural world with their forms and elves backhand you with their fricking eldritch ancestry.
I know people are wary about mentioning Tome of Battle, partly because the devs were wary open about it being influenced by anime and manga, instead of western mediums(and because they didn' errata the thing, leading to hilariously op characters), but I think it's a good way to feature styles. Maybe less specific ones, since this book is not going to be tied to Golarion, but the slew of fighting schools in the book really uplifted my imagination. And the variety there was great as well.
Finally, I want to add in my vote for escrima-like stick fighting style to be included in the book. I know Nick Logue is going to have one in his Razor Coast setting, which features a maori-influenced local nativity that practices a stick-armed martial art. Barenaked(ftw). That said though, I think Paizo could have it's own escrima, since the Sodden Lands and Shackles just beg for a native fighting style.
Not to mention, I'd love to be able to have style feats that allow characters to use something like the 3.5 Tempest TW Versatility where Weapon Focus and Critical feats in one weapon apply to other arms as well. For instance, having Weapon Focus(yantok) and taking a style feat or style training class ability in escrima would make the Focus also apply to the butterfly knife and unarmed strike. Naturally there'd have to be some prequisities and maybe tying it into a stance-like mechanic to avoid abuse, but Versatility goes a long way to emulate a mixed style. I want my limb destructions and empty hand strikes. That Free-hand fighter archetype(with the empty hand ready to mess the opponent and not damage him) and monk flurries only go so far in that regard, though they are a good example.
I really liked Thunder and Fang and Taldan Duelist style feats in your previous PF books, expanding on those and making them more diverse and featuring similar diversity feats would make this fantasy afficionado very happy.
The talk about incorporating magic (which is a good point) brings up using something like the native american ghost dance as the basis for a style. Just a thought, and it may be due to watching Valhalla Rising recently.
In any case I can totally see Jona Clay from the NPC guide use Krav Maga. He just has cool written all over him.
Agreed