Introduction
Every role-playing game to date has a combat system. The vast majority treat martial arts as either specializations of fighting skills, special combat skills, or a way to gain a mystical edge in conflict resolution. While many roleplaying gamers make characters with significant combat abilities, often the players' only knowledge of violence is from mass media, games, hearsay, demonstrations, or classes in a single martial art.
The following three articles, "The Hits and Myths of Martial Arts," "Fighting With Style," and "Why Aren't Those Peasants Bowing?" were written to explore the differences between fighting, martial arts, self-defense, and combat, and how these quirks can be expressed in RPGs and the real world.
"The Hits and Myths" looks at prevalent, often unconscious myths about fighting. "Fighting With Style" breaks down how and why martial art movements look distinct from one another, and "Why Aren't Those Peasants Bowing?" covers campaign ideas and small details about the history of fighting styles and living the martial way. With these three articles, hopefully we can add realism, history, and depth to how you treat violence in your game.