Style Familiarity

Perk, 1 point, requires specialisation.

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, p. 145, 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 (pp. 141-143).
• 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 (p. B41) 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! (p. 132). S