Game system for a martial arts campaign?

I've been interested for some time in making a campaign based on martial arts, wuxia style. I'm looking for something that isn't realistic, something that feels like an over the top action movie, an anime or a fighting game. The best I've found was Mutants & Masterminds (third edition), but I feel like it's pretty limited when it comes to creating martial artists (since it's mostly a game made to create superheroes and people with amazing powers). Does anyone have a suggestion?

Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game by White Wolf. It is awesome! Honestly a better fit for the White Wolf rule system than any other game they have come up with yet. There are rules online for making your own styles and moves. Even if you don't want to use the actual characters and setting of street fighter it could still be used to make an awesome Martial Arts focused game.

While I've never played it myself, Exalted is supposedly the RPG version of anime. I've heard good and bad things about it, but I'm guessing that like any system it has it's good points and it's flaws. It's worth a read though.

GroovyGoblin, My suggestion is GURPS Fourth Edition Basic Set . If you want more due to the enthusiasm, I'd definitely add the GURPS Martial Arts book (<a href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/martialarts/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/martialarts/</a>), as it covers everything extremelly well, even non-realistic and over-the-top approaches like Anime and Wuxia. It's really cool, if you ask me.

I'm a fan of the Hero System. It has very detailed Martial Arts and options to build in "super" MA. It's a balanced point-based character creation process. No classes or levels. Mechanically no more complicated than 2nd Ed AD&D - though building powers does have a bit of a learning curve.

While I've never played it myself, Exalted is supposedly the RPG version of anime. I've heard good and bad things about it, but I'm guessing that like any system it has it's good points and it's flaws. It's worth a read though. As a long time Exalted fan, it could suit your anime-esq games. Use the errata for 2.5 though. If you really want to focus only on martial arts take a look at Shards of Exalted - Burn Legend which strips the whole bloated system away and creates this Tekken like martial arts system that is the sole focus on the game. Also on the upside Exalted 3rd Ed is due sometime next year which promises a complete overhaul of the system to make it more streamlined and less quirky.

Gurps would be the way to go; though character creation in 4th edition can take a little long, once you're used to the system the rolling is extremely efficient. @axel had it right. You can play realism or go really out to lunch "cinematic" level abilities, especially if you allow your players to take advantages like "master"

Thanks for the tips, people. If there are more, keep 'em coming! Street Fighter, really? As a Street Fighter fan, I knew White Wolf had published this game, but I thought it could only be a terrible game : White Wolf's games have never been focused on combat, so I couldn't imagine this game being good. I might give it a try, then. GURPS looks complicated, but I might give it a look. And sorry for those who mentioned Exalted, which looks pretty fun, but I refuse to touch Exalted ever again. This game is everything I despise about White Wolf games : incredibly complex and (in my opinion) extremely poorly explained lore with information scrambled everywhere between the 500 pages of the books. I've learned how to play D&D by myself at age ten by reading the rulebook and I sincerely think it's near-impossible to learn how to GM Exalted without playing in a game as a player beforehand.

Street Fighter was really well made. They used the White Wolf mechanics in a unique way that gave a focus to combat and it is awesome.

Hero system would be my choice. You can alter the power level from a realistic through over the top martial arts right up to super powered stuff. It is very combat focussed if that is what you want.

Anathema M. said, Gurps would be the way to go; though character creation in 4th edition can take a little long (. . .) Also, if the GM is clear about the allowed traits for character creation, it can be quicker. Even more if the group is using character templates, so players will not be considering all possible options in the Basic Set, but only to the ones making sense to their character's concept. There are many guidelines for this, for instance (quoting from GURPS Martial Arts pp. 29 and 43): Superhuman/Godlike (500+ points): This is the realm of comics and video games, where “martial arts” is often code for “super-powers.” Below are lists of advantages particularly valuable to martial artists, split into categories that reflect common fictional archetypes. Anybody can have the mundane traits, but only cinematic or superpowered characters are likely to have the exotic or supernatural ones. GURPS looks complicated, but I might give it a look. I often hear that, but actually isn't that complex, or not more than many other RPGs, and you choose what rules are you going to apply in your game; extra details, even if they can be cool, are optional. There is as well a quick, simplified approach to cinematic martial arts characters and adventures --also heavy in character templates-- in the small sourcebook GURPS Action: Furious Fists (<a href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/action/action3/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/action/action3/</a>); this particular resource assumes a modern day setting, though, but it can be slightly tweaked for fitting other genres if that is what you want. Quoting from the intro of this book: GURPS Martial Arts isn’t required reading, however; Furious Fists includes all the necessary content in simplified, rules-light form. There is also a similar approach perhaps related to your request in this thread --quick, simplified, cinematic and over the top-- in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 12: Ninja (<a href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasy/dungeonfantasy12/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasy/dungeonfantasy12/</a>). Part of the appeal and usefulness of these action and dungeon fantasy sub-lines is for GMs and players wanting to play quickly without considering all the options addressed in core and hardcover books like Martial Arts or Powers . All this just FWIW.

Anima: Beyond Fantasy... Every character you build, no matter how mundane, will end up seeming like they came from some insane Japanime. I know the system nearly by heart, and you can ask me any questions about it you have. I have three characters that fit the description of what you want, and if you pm me I'd be glad to give full descriptions, and more details about the game.

Legend of the Five Rings Because Ninja, Samurai, Monks, Courtiers, and Shugenja all fit into the theme of martial arts. Not purely unarmed combat but its in the vein if you want a purely asian theme.

L5R not exactly "over the top action movie" feel to it. You can do some of that stuff sometimes but it is still more grounded in realism.

In the core book there is a chapter that addresses playstyles and exactly what the OP asks about. It offers suggestions to shift the feel of the game to what a GM and/or player may be looking for. But yes, the rule generally is the game is very lethal and a knife from a peasant can very well kill you. So can a Crab's tetsubo to your face.

L5R is (IMO) best suited for samurai games, not for wuxia-style, martial arts movie-ish campaigns. I know the game and I know it's not what I'm looking for. I haven't looked into Anima, but every single person I know (about five or six) that told me about this game had only negative comments. It is, apparently, extremely complex, filled with random exceptions. I have yet to hear anyone praise this game, but I might give it a look. However, I'm looking for something that feels more like a martial arts movie, not anime specifically (yet if it fits in both genres, it's even better). If things get too anime-crazy, it's probably not what I'm looking for.

The book is a little out of order, and sometimes gives the gm rules that the players never know about (annoying, on occasion.). But it's a good game, the only time it gets at all difficult is at and after second level. The point of it all is that it's mostly gm discretion as to what he/she wants the campaign to be like, so if you want wuxia-style stuff then you can have it; various fighting styles, ki-abilites, mages that can only cast through martial arts, various "psionic" paths. It's all there, you just have to look for what you want, instead of hoping it's all in order for you. It's not an American game, and it's almost surprising even the core book comes in English.

Go old school. Ninjas & Superspies.

Ninja Hero. I ran an "Enter the Dragon" style campaign using this one for quite a few months. Laughs aplenty.

One more, not particularly rules-heavy: A Wanderer's Romance . It's about (as the back cover says) martial arts duels and tea-making contests*, drawing on wuxia influences. The system is basic, but the authors have put in a lot of martial arts styles with appropriately-cool names, and worked out ways for those styles to interact. I've never played it, but it's on my list. You can find it at: <a href="http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/a-wanderers-romance/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/a-wanderers-romance/</a> * Not only tea-making, of course, but anything like that - a contest could be a fight, or a calligraphy duel, or a fishing competition, or whatever.

You might want to check out the Feng Shui RPG by Robin Laws: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Shui_(role-playing_game)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Shui_(role-playing_game)</a> Or, check out the Hong Kong Action Theatre! RPG by Gareth-Michael Skarka: <a href="http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1564" rel="nofollow">http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=1564</a>

One more, not particularly rules-heavy: A Wanderer's Romance . It's about (as the back cover says) martial arts duels and tea-making contests*, drawing on wuxia influences. The system is basic, but the authors have put in a lot of martial arts styles with appropriately-cool names, and worked out ways for those styles to interact. I've never played it, but it's on my list. You can find it at: <a href="http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/a-wanderers-romance/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/a-wanderers-romance/</a> * Not only tea-making, of course, but anything like that - a contest could be a fight, or a calligraphy duel, or a fishing competition, or whatever. Wow, and it's free too? Amazing, thanks! I'll look that up. And thanks for the suggestions to everyone else, these look pretty good (just cheesy enough)!