Classification?

[Sgt Anjay]

I was thinking about ways to streamline a choice of martial arts from the books and was thinking about classifying them in (extremely) general terms. Basically, whether they were aggressive, defensive, or balanced between the two, and whether they were internal, external, or again balanced. Some, of course, are extremely simple (Aikido is definetely defensive and internal, Phoenix Eye is definitely aggressive and external, and Bak Mei goes for balance all around), but others seem more ambiguous, or maybe just less focused.
Anyone else given something simular any thought? I'm probably gonna go through and attempt to assign all the styles in the books and see what comes out, but I welcome any and all thoughts on the matter.

[Guest]

Yeah, I already did both of those quite some time ago.

There are a few general areas of breakdown concerning the styles:
Exclusive or not
Hard or Soft
Internal or External
Aggressive or Passive
Attack type (Primarily; Striking, Grappling, Weapon-Based, and Non-Combati ve)

The breakdowns I figured out for the canon styles was (Exclusive styles are marked with an asterisk, Hsien Hsia is double marked because although it's not technically listed as an Exclusive style, the description states it can be the only style your character learns if you select it, which qualifies it as Exclusive):
*Aikido: Passive, Internal, Soft, Grappling
An Yin Kung Fu: Internal, Passive, Hard, Grappling/Striking
Ba Gua Kung Fu: Internal, P/A, Soft, Striking
Bak Mei Kung Fu: Mid-line, Grappling/Striking
Bok Pai: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Ch’a Ch’uan: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Ch’in-na: Aggressive, External, Hard, Grappling
Chao Ta Kung Fu: External, Hard, Aggressive, Striking/Grappling/Weapon
*Chi Hsuan Men: Passive, External, Hard, Striking/Weapon
Choy Li Fut: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking/Weapon
Drunken Style: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Fong Ngan: Aggressive, Internal/External, Hard, Striking
Fu-Chiao Pai: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Gui Long Kung Fu: Aggressive, Internal/External, Soft, Striking/Grappling/Weapon
Han Yu Kung Fu: Passive, Internal/External, Soft, Striking
**Hsien Hsia: Internal, Passive, Soft, Striking
Hsing-I Kung Fu: Internal, P/A, Internal/External, Striking
*Hwarang-do: Aggressive/Passive, Internal/External, Hard/Soft, Striking
Isshin-Ryu: Aggressive, External, Soft, Striking/Weapon
Jujutsu: Aggressive, External, Hard, Grappling
Kuo-Ch’uan: Passive, External, Hard, Striking
Kyokushinkai: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Lee Kwan Choo: Passive, Internal, Soft, Striking
Li-Chia: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Liang Hsiung Kung Fu: External, Aggressive, External, Striking/Weapon
Mien-Ch’uan: Passive, Internal, Hard, Striking
Monkey Style: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Moo Gi Gong: Aggressive, External, Hard, Weapon-Based
*Ninjutsu: Passive, Internal/External, Hard, Striking/Grappling/Weapon
Pao Pat Mei: Passive, External, Hard, Striking
Pao Chih: Internal, Passive, Hard/Soft, Non-combative
Sankukai: Passive, External, Hard/Soft, Striking/Grappling
Shan Tung Kung Fu: External, Aggressive, Hard, Striking
Shaolin: Passive, External, Soft, Striking/Grappling
Shih Ba Ban Wu Yi: External, Aggressive, Hard, Weapon
Snake Style: Passive, Internal, Hard, Striking
*Sumo: Aggressive, External, Hard, Grappling
T’ang Su: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Tae Kwon Do: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
Taichi Ch’uan: Passive, Internal, Soft, Striking
Taido: Aggressive, Internal, Soft, Striking
Te: Passive, External, Hard, Striking/Weapon
*Thai Boxing: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking
*Tien Hsueh: Aggressive, Internal, Hard, Striking
Tong Lun Kung Fu: External, Aggressive, Hard, Striking/Grappling
Triad Assassin Training: External, Aggressive, Hard, Weapon
*Wu Shu T’sung: Aggressive, External, Hard, Striking/Grappling/Weapon
*Wui Wing Chun: Aggressive, Internal/External, Hard, Striking/Grappling/Weapon
Xing Chiao: Aggressive, External, Soft, Striking
Yu Sool: Passive, Internal/External, Hard/Soft, Striking
Zanji Shinjinken Ryu: Aggressive, Internal/External, Hard, Striking/Weapon

Naturally, there's about ten times as much information on various things on my site.

[Sgt Anjay]

You are, as always, a fount of goodness Kuseru.
Could you eleborate maybe on the kinds of guidelines you used to determine those values? I would love to see how you approached some of the fuzzier forms when it comes to aggressive/passive, internal/external, hard/soft.

BTW, as a complete aside.....someone know what An Yin or Zanji Shinjinken Ryu (the names) mean in english?

[Guest]

You are, as always, a fount of goodness Kuseru.
Could you eleborate maybe on the kinds of guidelines you used to determine those values? I would love to see how you approached some of the fuzzier forms when it comes to aggressive/passive, internal/external, hard/soft.

Well, internal/external differences were fairly easy to determine, I just looked at the martial art powers: Body Hardening Exercises, Martial Art Techniques and Special Kata indicate an external style; Chi Mastery and Zenjorike powers indicate an internal style; Atemi and Arts of Invisibility are both sorta in the middle, with Atemi leaning toward External and AoI leaning toward Internal.

Aggressive or Passive determination is generally based on the description of the style, as several obviously state this value. One key descriptor to look for is whether or not the style is described as initiating combat or waiting for the opponent to initiate combat.

Hard and Soft are a bit more difficult to determine, if it's got straight attacks and damaging defenses it's generally a hard style, if it's got circular attacks and defenses, it's generally a soft style. Of course, for grappling styles you really have to look at the moves, holds, chokes, and locks tend to favor either, but body block/tackle tends to favor hard styles, while body flip/throw favors soft styles.

BTW, as a complete aside.....someone know what An Yin or Zanji Shinjinken Ryu (the names) mean in english?

An Yin, based on EW's romanization is "Dark Yin." Zanji Shinjinken Ryu *could* mean any of the following:
short while faith swords style
short while new member swords style
short while profound swords style
short while true man swords style
short while God human swords style

Since it's a fictional style, with no official kanji (other than zanji, ken, and ryu, all of which would be pretty self-evident), there's a lot of room for intepretation.

[Aramanthus]

I agree! It is very nice! Good work!