Components of a Style

Components of a Style is the name of a subsection under the Styles chapter in GURPS Martial Arts. GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles applies this concept to magic.
==Skills==
Skills are the irreducible core of a style and are required before any of other components can be learned. While combat skills are the most important ones non-combat skills can help define a style’s character. All mundane skills and the Style Familiarity perk must be learned before any cinematic or optional skills can be learned.
Weapon skills for armed styles; Boxing, Brawling, and Karate for unarmed striking styles; Judo, Sumo Wrestling, and Wrestling for unarmed grappling styles; and a mixture of these for well-rounded styles.
==Techniques==
All mundane skills and the Style Familiarity perk must be learned before any Techniques can be learned. Note that these are part of what separates one style from another. For example, African Stickfighting and La Canne de Combat both have the Smallsword skill but vastly different Techniques.
==Perks==
Each style has its own Style Familiarity perk which must be learned before any Techniques or cinematic skills. There are also Style Perks but they are totally optional and are limited to one perk per full 10 points spent on the style.
Many styles have additional perks but they are entirely optional.
==Optional Traits==
These are not components of the style as they are elements frequently associated with it and include optional advantages, disadvantages, and skills
==Combining Styles==
The base cost of a style must be paid for even if there are overlapping skills. Any point savings must go into any component of the styles.
For example, Krav Maga [3] and Sambo [4] have the overlapping skills of Karate and Wrestling but 7 points must be spent to have both styles so the 2 points can go to any component of the styles be they techniques, cinematic skills, or style perks
==General Philosophy of a Style==
While many styles have their own philosophy there are four ideal more general categories: External, Internal, Hard, and Soft
*External: physical achievement and strong attacks are stressed
*Internal: spiritual development is emphasized and sometimes deep philosophical underpinnings
*Hard: Meet force with force in an effort to overwhelm the opponent
*Soft: Yield to aggression and attempt to redirect the enemy’s force
These divisions are more legendary then anything else and can combine in ways one does not expect from their definitions.
*Nito Ryu Kenjutsu is a heavily external style but it creator also wrote the deeply philosophical Book of Five Rings
*Hsing I Chuan is internal and hard
*Judo and Wrestling are both external and soft.
==Ultimate Style==
:Optional Traits: Altered Time Rate; Ambidexterity; Combat Reflexes; Enhanced Time Sense; Extra Attack; Weapon Master.
==Magic Styles==
Magic can be grouped into styles as well and these styles have their own general "categories". Note that all styles will have mundane skills as well as spells as components: 
*Theoretical Styles: The magical equivalent of Internal.
*Experimental Styles: A largely research oriented these style types rediscover lost spells, invent new ones, and/or figuring out novel ways to work existing magic. Research is practical mandatory with such styles.
*Applied Styles: Concerned with actual spell casting with practical ends these can tend toward the more familiar Colleges though they tend not to be as deep. They also tend to have the largest number of mundane skills. Some styles have effectively mandatory mundane skills as part of their make up; these are noted in "()". 
**Elemental or "College" Styles, Folk Styles, Guild Styles (Merchant), Temple Styles (Religious Ritual and Theology), and Other.
As with Martial Arts Styles, Magic Styles have their own special perks but unlike Martial Art styles there there is a bonus perk for every 20 point benchmark. So 20 points in skills get you 3 perks rather then just 2 and 40 points grants 6 perks rather then 4.
To be fully knowledgable in a rerequires At least 1 point in all required mundane skill and spells as well as Magical School Familiarity (Magic's rough equivalent to Style Familiarity)
==Additional Material==
*GURPS Martial Arts: Techniques Cheat-Sheet: Summarizes all the combat techniques from GURPS Martial Arts.
Category:Concepts
Category:Rules