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Chapter 7: Martial Arts
[ | General Rules | Force | Grace | Reflex | ]
The Idea of Martial Arts
Because Martial Arts are usually so complicated and part of the intrinsic nature of any character
you'll be designing, it is instead considered an Ability and not a Skill. That means that it
ranges from level 1 to 5 with the appropriate experience costs.
Because the idea of Martial Arts is common to all worlds, the abilities have been listed in the
system book. If your character doesn't have any specific world martial art, but
rather has general training, simply pick one of the three styles listed and follow the
instructions. If you have a martial art in mind, assign it one of the following three styles. You may want to even try and custom-tailor your own
martial arts (with the GM's instruction of course).
Force - Force styles rely on using heavy melee weapons and brute strength in order to overcome
an opponent's defenses. They also endure training on the body to withstand the harshest of pains.
Reflex - Reflex styles rely on speed and light weapons to dance around an opponent, picking at
them until they finally fall. They train the body to keep up amazing speed and agility.
Grace - Grace styles rely on the focusing of the mind. They are meditative in nature; they
are more interested in the discipline of the mind, but do not leave their body behind. Very few Grace
styles use any weapons whatsoever, relying on using the force of the opponent instead.
All characters can have only one rating for each category (Reflex, Grace, Force). If you learn a new Martial Art that falls
underneath a previously learned category, you may only spend experience to learn new combat and ki focus techniques.
Every martial art is capable of using Ki in order to do some extraordinary actions in combat. These are called Ki Focus techniques.
Each martial art will likely have a different and exotic name for each technique. If you wish to change the name to something that suits the martial
art style you're interested in, feel free to do so, but let the GM know beforehand.
In order to choose a Master technique from a category, your character must have 2 or more student techniques from the same category.
If you take a secondary Martial Art, you do not get the increased Ki/Action bonus or other Ki bonuses unless your secondary would give you higher bonuses on it's own. In other words, any bonuses that affect Ki are not cumulative between Martial Arts.
World Books
Your world book may have it's own custom design for martial arts. They're likely built upon an existing martial art style with new combat and ki focus
techniques.
Also, your world book may have supernatural techniques. Of course, martial arts is the only ability detailed in the basic source book. However, world books
will have their own supernatural abilities if the world allows for such things. They likely function as abilities or have their own experience costs detailed.
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