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Re: Eastern focus in MA
Sat, 2007-07-07 00:03 — Rev. Pee Kitty (not verified)Bear in mind that a few styles had to get cut for space (yes, the book went to 256 pages /after/ such cuts!), so the numbers may be a tiny bit off in the printed copy . . . but IIRC, they were going to mainly cut one or two of the Karate and Judo variants, so it should be even more well-balanced! Sean and Peter went out of their way to keep a fair East:West ratio. For every Judo variant, there's a Stickfighting variant. For every Kusarijutsu, there's a Dagger Fighting. And so on.
And for the record, I put JKD under Western. Any modern style is going to be so heavily influenced by so many preexisting styles that the only way to be fair is to go by country of origin. It does make a difference -- the tactics and techniques of a Japanese Judoka are going to be completely dissimilar to those of a Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu practitioner, both in real life and (fortunately) in GURPS Martial Arts. Even when we're just stealing blatantly from the asians, there is just as distinct a feel to an American martial art as there is to a Japanese one, IMO.
PK