illustration of an elbow strike from Ring Dream
Elbow Strike (aka Elbowing) is a technique described on page 230 of Basic Set: Characters and page 404 of Basic Set: Campaigns. It does the same damage as punching and indeed, elbow strikes to the front were instructed to be treated like punches.
- "Treat an elbow strike at a foe in front of you as a normal punch."
It was instead a reduced-penalty form of Wild Swing, similar to Back Kick.
Back Punch[]
MA67's Back Strike says a punch to the rear would roll via the Elbow Strike technique too, even though it's delivered by extremity instead of limb.
Hurting Yourself[]
This is probably one area where it would NOT be treated as a normal punch, either counting as an elbow or possibly a forearm or upper arm hit.
GURPS Martial Arts[]
Pg 67 refers to it as a "back punch"
Pg 71 expands its rules to reduced chances of Hurting Yourself and lower range for All-Out Attack (Long)