From:	Mark Steedman <M.J.Steedman@***.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject:	Re: the uac dilemma
Date:	Wed, 23 Jul 1997 16:35:33 GMT

Michael Broadwater writes
>
> Well, the two styles you mentioned (judo and american boxing) are both from
> tournament format. While I'll admit that fights can/will last about 30
> seconds or so, they aren't _usually_ going to go beyond that. Boxing and
> judo, in tournament, aren't designed to kill your opponent.
exactly!
A lot of people seem to be thinking fights should last a long time
based on films (Hollywood etc make money by keeping you in the
cinema, difficult to enjoy watching the fight scene if its over
before you realised it started) and styles designed for competion
fighting which ban moves that really knock the poor target down so
folks can practice them without spending all thier time in hospitals
and building themselves back up from injuries.

> I'm not
> harshing them for that, it's just true. But take a non-tournament fighting
> art (Silat, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Gracie style Jujitsu, Kali, etc.) where one
> fighter is either better than the other or gets an advantage, and you will
> have a short, painful fight.
>
The answer all the well informed sources i have heard have produced.
There are quite a few things you can do to someone that will
effectively take them out of it in a second of so, but most are fatal
(or stand a decent chance of being) or break bones (leaving the
target in a cast for 6 weeks +) niether of which are very compatible
with practice (difficult to learn something if the instuctor keeps
breaking your arm in the first 5 seconds) or a tournament where doing
serious harm to someone is going to be most unpopular (you only need
to beat him).

> My problem with the current Sr uac is the fact that specializing in a
> specific martial arts style has no drawback.
Why they get banned so often.
There are ways to make something that both works and is balanced but
they either require both GM and player know a lot (which some of us
don't) or tend to get complicated. e.g. i converted the stuff in the
Ultimate martial artist for 2nd edition (there are 1sted SR rules in
the system conversion charts) but it gets too complex for most
players to bother with.

Mark