Martial Arts in Roleplay

[Superfluous Crow]

kicks are also quite a bit more difficult without training. Or at least very unbalancing (as in actual balance, not game balance) without it.
One thing i have always missed in gaming is the in-fight punch. You know, when you watch movies, they usually get to a point where it's difficult to swing the weapon around and so they give the opponent a swift kick or punch in between weapon attacks. But this is hard to implement in d20 as the reasoning behind this is one of range, and d20 is not suited for melee range...
One of those times when unarmed training might come in handy even if you are wielding a weapon.
Also, many martial arts (even karate and the other classical ones) include training in specific weapons; sabers, spears, meteor hammers,rope darts, and wind and fire wheels. I'm no expert, but I'm guessing many of these weapon styles take use of the standard unarmed techniques as well.  

[Cheomesh]

Yeah, it is quite difficult.  I'm sure any system that does it properly is going to be headache inducing, though :S

M.