La Boxe Française

3 points

La Boxe Française is a sport form of Savate that became popular
after World War II. It lacks weapon arts and emphasizes ring-safe
techniques over streetfighting ones. While the style retains some self-
defense applicability, it isn’t a complete armed and unarmed combat
system like its forerunner.
Skills: Games (La Boxe Française); Karate Sport.
Techniques: Back Kick; Feint (Karate Sport); Jump Kick; Kicking.
Optional Traits
Skills: Acrobatics.
Savate frequently includes cane fighting for advanced
students; serious cane fighters should learn La Canne de
Combat (p. 157) as well. Certain schools also teach a full
range of weapons, including knives, swords, straight razors,
whips, and even guns. Some offer an improvised-weapons
sub-style called Panache to silver-gloves students. This
teaches how to use any object or item of clothing to distract
or injure an antagonist.
There are two ways to handle cinematic savateurs. They
might throw spectacular acrobatic kicks following hand-
stands and cartwheels, their exaggerated stances, feints, and
kicks retaining effectiveness even as they impress with their
artistry. Alternatively, such fighters might be like the bare-
knuckled, full-contact savateurs of old, in which case they
should have the same “cinematic” traits as boxers (see
Boxing, pp. 152-153).
Modern Savate is often a sport form that favors clean,
elegant kicks and punches over pragmatic street techniques.
It eliminates grappling and “dirty fighting,” and doesn’t
include cane fighting or Panache. Students of this art
learn La Boxe Française, not the style described here. Savate
is most common in France but has an international
federation. It’s possible to find schools – albeit with some
difficulty – worldwide.
Skills: Karate; Wrestling.
Techniques: Back Kick; Drop Kick; Feint (Karate);
Hammer Fist; Head Butt; Jump Kick; Kicking; Spinning
Kick.
Cinematic Skills: Flying Leap; Power Blow.
Cinematic Techniques: Flying Jump Kick; Lethal Kick;
Roll with Blow; Springing Attack (Karate).
Perks: Improvised Weapons (Karate); Technique Mastery
(Kicking).
Optional Traits
Advantages: Language (French).
Disadvantages: Bloodlust.
Skills: Acrobatics; Broadsword; Guns; Karate Art; Knife;
Savoir-Faire (Dojo); Shortsword; Smallsword; Whip.
Techniques: Acrobatic Stand.
. . . regardless of how wonderful
a technique is, if you are unable to
apply it, you are in no better
position than if you didn’t know it
at all. Each technique must be
practiced with all your heart many
hundreds, many thousands of
times, until you master it to the
point where you can apply it.
– Mas Oyama,
This Is Karate