Well, I have now found out EXACTLY how much Ninjutsu need to be altered in GURPS. I am now taking classes in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, which, is in fact is 9 old school Warring States era Ninja and Samurai schools, of which Ninjutsu forms the core.

Let me start of by saying that Esquive (from Swashbucklers 2E) needs to be added to very many martial arts. The concept of stepping out of the way while executing a dodge, a parry, or even an attack is totally fundamental to all Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, Mediaval European sword (and likely all other weapon) fighting styles, and indeed, is probably part of any martial art that is actually martial. It is probably the single most utilized manoeuuvre in Taijutsu, worth a mandatory 4 points in classic GURPS terms.

Oh, and Cat Stance should be part of Ninjutsu. We call it Hicho. And, it wasn't developed in Okinawa, contrary to claims in MA 2e. It is much older, and likely came from China, like much of Japanese martial arts.

Other manoevures to be added: Finger Lock, Head Lock, Jab, Neck Snap (more often done with the feet, and only real taught much to black belts, for probably obvious reasons),
Slip, and Sweeping Kick.

Shuto too, but this one is totally is misnamed. We have both actually. That is, we have the manoeuvre described in MA 2e as a Shuto, and we also have the real Shuto, which is a way of holding your hand for a strike that looks kind of like the classic karate chop, but with the hand in more of a curve, used to make scoooping, cutting types of blows.

Manoevres to delete: Jump kick. Okay, so I have seen the odd picture of some of the Grandamster's Japanese students doing Flying Jump Kicks in photos, but as a rule it is not part of the everyday reportoire of Taijutsu. Remember, pragmatic battlefield art. Not a lot of high kicks.

I am totally at a loss as to why GURPS calls Roll with the Blow "cinematic." Not only is it used quite successfully in many real martial arts, but they even teach it to paratroopers. Actually, Binding is real too, but probably more difficult than suggested in MA 2e. And Fighting While Seated: also real, and also a big aprt of old Japanese fighting arts, since treachery was a big feature of Warring States Japan.

Additional thoughts: There are no plain vanilla parries in Taijutsu. Done properly, every parry is either an Aggressive Parry or a Judo parry. I think that in COSH terms there should be some sort of discount for parry cost, because we just don't study that plain blocking parry. (And Aggressive Parry at 4 points not 2.) Actaully, such purely defensive moves don't fit in too well with the overall ethos of old school Japanese fihghting arts (the -jutsu ones, as opposed to -do). If you aren't counterattacking in some way while defending, you are wasting a good opportunity.

Shuriken: not a "Hard" skill. More like average. Real shuriken are pretty thin. You should be able to hold nine in your palm or pocket with no problem. Throwing them is very similar to throwing knives. And indeed, ninja throw throwing knives (bo-shiriken) in the same manner as shuriken.

And weapons: nearly every Taijutsu move has an equivelent with a weapon. The stances translate over. Sometimes hand position is changed, but for many manoeuvres, when we learn a weapon, we don't really have to learnb a whole new move. And the footwork is the same in any case. Some kind of discount on the price of weapn skilsl and manoevres taught in Nijutsu would staff-naginata-spear: these are not, at least in Ninjutsu, and I suspect in all Japanese Budo, three seperate skills. The moves are the same, and when you train with one, you train with all in mind. They are pretty much one skill, with one set of manoevres. The only difference is whether you just smashed a hard wood pole into them or a sharp metal thing. But that consideration doesn't alter the moves themsleves.

For that matter, there should be more overlap and lower defaults between fighting skills.

If you know the footwork to Taijusu, you are a long way towards learning the footwork in George Silver's True Fight, and vice versa.

Similarly, his True Times apply in Ninjustu and other classical Budo.

And then there are combos. Hmmn. This is the thing: in real fights or practice between trained opponents, using real fighting arts, as opposed to sports/competition/show stuff, you are ALWAYS using combos, quite commonly of three, and sometimes four or five different GURPS manoeuvres.

But that doesn't mean we "learned" the combo. We do learn combos, but we learn probably hundreds by black belt level, and the point is never to memorize the combo, but rather to understand the combo, so we can use pieces of it whenever we need to.

The whole GURPS concept of putting points into a few very specific combos that are easily predicted doesn't fit reality at all.

Some martial arts do teach set combos, often in katas and such. But many arts actaully designed for the battlefield teach you to just do whatever seems appropriate and remain flexible. Part of the whole point is not having set combos, but rather, being able string together whatever manoeurvres you need and improvising a combo on the spot. No two moves ever the same.

I am mot yet sure how to reflect this in GURPS, but it needs to be done because it is the biggest thing standing in the way of making combat happen as it does in life.

Suggestions?