Multiple Martial Arts Styles and CSLs

[Anaximander]

How do you handle situations when a character has more than one martial arts style that share maneuvers and CSLs for each martial arts style?

 

Say for an instance, a character starts out with Generic Martial Arts.  At the beginning of play, the player defines the character as primarily a passivist who happens to know how to fight; so, only buys a 2 OCV only CSLs in Block.  After adventuring in Japan or some little Tokyo area, he decides to his character has developed an interest in learning Karate; so, he buys the necessary KS skills to apply his generic maneuvers into Karate and 3 CSLs in all Karate maneuvers.  Later on, the player develops an interest in Muay Thai Kickboxing and decides his character follows suit.  The player fulfills all the in-game requirements to learn Muay Thai and can now use many of the maneuvers he knows through Generic Martial Arts and Karate in Muay Thai mode.  He also buys a couple Muay Thai maneuvers and 2 CSLs in all Muay Thai maneuvers.

 

One day, while walking in the wrong part of town, a thug comes out, threatens him, and takes a swing.  The player wants to start out with Block and then use a martial strike during his next available movement phase.  Does he have to state which martial arts style he using, and how many CSLs would he get to use?  My instincts are that he should be able to use the Block CSLs for either Generic, Karate, or Muay Thai Blocks, but the Karate and Muay Thai CSLs should dependent upon whether or not the character is using Karate, Muay Thai, or Generic fighting styles.  I am curious as to how experienced GMs would handle this.  For the record, so far I have not had a player suggest they wanted to play a martial artist, but since I like martial arts in real life, a lot of my NPCs know martial arts.

[Hugh Neilson]

Without providing a direct answer, I suggest that levels in "all of my martial arts that I know" should be less expensive than levels in all HTH combat, so that sets a ceiling.

 

EDIT: All HTH is an 8 point skill level, so Martial Arts in HTH should cap out at 5 points. One example of a 5 point skill levels is "any martial art style with more than three maneuvers". I don't see any compelling reason to penalize the character for learning multiple styles, especially when many styles have a very wide selection of maneuvers anyway.

[NuSoardGraphite]

In general, a player would have to declare which Martial Art she is using that phase. These can be changed from phase to phase. If the character begins to formulate a mixed style, I would recommend cashing in the old 3pt combat skill levels and converting them over to Hand to Hand skill levels applicable no matter which Martial Art they use which represents their ability to mix moves freely.

[Anaximander]

Thanks!  I keep forgetting that Hero allows players to cash in points to upgrade their abilities.  Maybe, I am still thinking in AD&D where once it is written done it is almost like being written in stone.

[Surrealone]

NuSoardGraphite has the right approach -- the player and GM should work together to upgrade the CSL's when it makes sense to do so from a mixed style perspective.  Until that occurs, each maneuver would be specific to a style and only the appropriate CSL's should apply when that maneuver from that specific style is in use.

 

Hero not only allows upgrades, it allows for a state of flux on most things on the character sheet -- provided it fits dramatic sense/license and the GM approves it.  As an example, Complications often change over time on most Hero character sheets -- just as they do for characters in the comic book.  Defeat the Hunted today (and trounce him/her badly), and tomorrow it may only be a Watched ... with a Rivalry.

 

You get the idea.  Powers, frameworks, and even skills can change like that ... if it makes sense and the GM approves it.