What's a good system for satisfying, fun martial arts? I'm already looking at GURPS Martial Art...

You also get to say that your Blossom Harvest Kung Fu laughs at your enemies Red Silk Kung Fu. Or something to that effect.

How realistic are you looking to go, OP?

Gurps is a solid option if you're wanting to go realistic or relatively grounded with a few crazier elements due to being balanced across multiple genres, but it doesn't do higher powered or more esoteric/abstract things well.

Legends of the Wulin is great if you want to do a Wuxia/Wuxia inspired game. The combat system is interesting in that you generally aren't doing "damage" per se so much as inflicting status conditions , which can range from crippled limb to humilliated to angry that you're fucking their wife. It also has a robust combat system.

Exalted is pretty decent if you want to do a crazy DBZ/Xianxia game, but it's harder to divorce from it's setting. It does have some cool mechanics and some really fun crazy magic martial arts

HERO is another good, solid choice. Similar to gurps but with slightly less support and a much higher power level (It's a generic version of a supers game, so it does capeshit tier powers well).

>Exalted
You know I really do need to check Exalted out, don't suppose you could tell me where to start?

I'd recommend starting with the third edition corebook. Every edition of Exalted has its problems, but the third seems to be the most solid. At the very least, it dropped a lot of the old WoD-based combat system, finally acknowledging that a system designed for desperately fending off a starving vampire with a pipe wrench wasn't really suited for game where you can literally fight a mountain and expect to win.

3e if you want better balance/game design, 2e if you want options.

If you go 2e, you'll probably want to pick up the core book and either the manual for Lunars or the one for Dragonbloods. They're IMHO the simplest of the exalted to understand mechanics wise. Avoid sidereals, because they get kind of wacky and run on pure bullshit

Another recommendation for Legends of the Wulin. Once you get past the godawful editing, it's fucking phenomenal, although there are a few balance issues to deal with.

Alternatively, pdf related for a fun beer and pretzels martial arts game

Cheers, I'll get looking into it.

Third Edition, aka Ex3. There's a general thread every so often, there just isn't one now.

>HERO
That was going to be my suggestion if he was already thinking Gurps

If GURPS has your interest then might I suggest that you try the Hero System? Its martial maneuver system builds off of basic combat maneuvers available to all characters. Furthermore character sheets are formatted in such a way that all essential information is easily presented for ease of reference rather than relying on memorization or book reference. What's more Hero's Power creation system lets you create any martial arts ability or technique that you could want - Qi Gung, Wire Fu, Dim Mak, etc.

Here's a trove of the latest edition. Look for the following books:

> Volume 1: Character Creation
> Volume 2: Combat & Adventuring
> Hero System Martial Arts

mega.nz/#F!06Q2kY7I!
r2JY-moVxFUGl90w6LDa2A

If you want to give pic related a look them check out this trove of the previous edition:

mega.nz/#F!Ym5RHIJL!
Qk1NgisxONlZbCQdbNYBZg

Look for Ninja Hero as well as Ultimate Martial Artist.

I hope Hero piques your interest and that you end up liking it. It is underrated as a universal RPG these days.

Doing god's work man

Street Fighter.
You can find the pdf thru googlin and definitely check out Vampiro penguins house rules, ignore some of them like elementals and vampire BS and you got a more versatile game

Street Fighter got successor games in the form of Thrash and Fight!. They are both mechanically better, from what I can tell.

I'd also throw in a recommendation for Strike!... not martial arts focused, but it can handle the "shout your attacks" type of fights pretty well, and the combat is rather fun in general.