Style Familiarity

Style Familiarity

†
1 point

Style Familiarity means you've studied and/or practiced a martial-arts style. You must pay a point for familiarity with any style you know. (Exception: The "Self-Defense" lens, lets you ignore this requirement...but you won't enjoy the allowances below.) Its effects are as follows:

• You can acquire the style's Style Perks, learn its cinematic skills (provided you have Trained by a Master or Weapon Master), improve its techniques whenever you have the points, and buy abilities listed among its "Optional Traits" – even ones that are generally off-limits to PCs, if the GM agrees. Style Familiarity acts as an Unusual Background that gives you access to these things. See Components of a Style.
• You're familiar with the style's culture and don't suffer the -3 for lack of Cultural Familiarity when using such skills as Connoisseur (Weapons), Games, Savoir-Faire (Dojo), or Teaching to interact with co-stylists.
• In most settings, you have the equivalent of a 1-point Claim to Hospitality with a school or instructor.
• If your opponent has studied one or more styles and you have Style Familiarity with them all, you may reduce the defense penalty from his feints and Deceptive Attacks by -1. You're aware of his styles' tricks and tactics! If the technique he uses with Deceptive Attack or to follow a feint isn't an orthodox part of any of his styles, ignore this effect.

In some campaigns, the GM may let you learn Style Familiarity for styles so secret that they lack style descriptions. For these, ignore the rules above and use Shout It Out!.

Style Familiarity (Power-Ups 2: Perks)

Style Familiarity means you’ve studied and/or practiced a fighting style; for the full ramifications, see GURPS Martial Arts. Paying a point to be familiar with a style gives the following benefits:

• You can acquire the style's combat perks, learn its cinematic skills (provided that you have Trained by a Master or Weapon Master), improve its techniques whenever you have the points, and in some cases buy "optional traits" that are generally off-limits to PCs. For that one style, Style Familiarity serves as a global Unusual Background perk for all of these things.
• You're familiar with the style's culture and don't suffer the -3 for lack of Cultural Familiarity when using such skills as Connoisseur (Weapons), Games, Savoir-Faire (Dojo), or Teaching to interact with co-stylists.
• In most settings, you have the equivalent of a 1-point Claim to Hospitality with a school or an instructor.
• If your opponent has studied one or more styles and you have Style Familiarity with them all, you may reduce the defense penalty from his feints and Deceptive Attacks by -1. You're aware of his styles' tricks and tactics!