Martial Arts : GURPS

Martial Arts offer some very fine details and flexibility for melee combat - especially unarmed, but also armed.

Ever thought the standard GURPS repetoire of close combat skills wasn't good enough? Brawling, Boxing or Karate...but my character is into muay thai, or savate or jujutsu...

Martial Arts gived you what you need for this. I know the newest edition offers some of this in the basic set, but still.

First, attune your mine to knw the difference between the 'Martial Arts Style' and the 'Skill' used to represent it.
The 'Style' you want your character to know, is broken down into one or more Primary Skills, to represent the moves. More or less, this is a flavour thing, and less mechanics.
The 'Skills' is what you actually put points into, the mechanics of the system.
Brawling is unscientific punching and kicking alongside dirty tricks, Boxing is technically sophisticated punches and footwork, Karate is high kicking and punching.
So, a muay thai fighter would be trined in both devastaing punches, as well as kicks. So he'd have both Boxing and Karate as Primary Skills. The fighter with more focus on the kicking part, would put more points in Karate than Boxing. And vice versa.

The second layer of detail, is the 'Manoeuvres'. These represent all the different moves. The default at various penalties from the Primary Skills. Straight kicks and punches are base, and are at base skill. But every time a move is more damaging or more difficult to defend against, the harde the default is. These Manoeuvres can be bought up from the defaults, alongside the Primary skills. This is also the way to make your martial artist specialized, giving him a high level in his signature move. Or how to differentiate between several dojos or masters, all teaching the same parent style.

In addition to these mechanics, Martial Arts also offers a lot of inspiration to characters, adventures and campaigns with such fighting as either back drop or primary focus.
Additional rules for different kinds of sparring and tournament fighting, like no-contact or semi-contact. Also, a lot of material on the history and origins and culture of the various styles and their parent regions or countries. Weaponswise, a lot of weapon are introduced, to help equip your ninja and whatnot. Many unarmed martial arts styles offer optional weapons training for advanced students. But the swashbucking and fencing styles need this for primary focus. Finally, the book offers ways to use related and noncombat skills, Acrobatics, Jumping, Savoir Faire (Dojo), Tournament Law, Philosophy etc.

All in all, one of my favorite books. Useful for everything from 1930s pulp action, modern day spec ops, swashbuckling pirates, historical ninja and samurai.