Martial Arts
Ability
The many refinements of hand-to-hand combat have produced thousands of martial art styles, from brutal Greek pankration to sublime t’ai chi. You pursue one or more of these disciplines, so your fighting techniques are more effective than simple punches and kicks.
In game terms, the Martial Arts Skill reflects hard-won expertise in some combat form. Because of the intense training, specific techniques, applied philosophies, and discipline involved, this Skill must be learned through practice and taught by a teacher who’s skilled in the same martial arts form you pursue. A savate teacher, after all, can’t teach you drunken-monkey kung fu.
In return, this Skill grants access to a variety of special combat maneuvers described in the Combat section of Chapter Nine. An accomplished martial artist can also use her practice to focus magickal Effects: powerful strikes, healing techniques, Mind-based powers, and so on. (See the Martial Arts entries in Chapter Nine, pp. 423-426 and Chapter Ten, pp. 580-581.) And because martial arts involve scientific applications, and are very much a part of accepted reality, Technocrats often use them too. If it’s good enough for Agent Smith, after all, then any good Technocrat can employ such arts!
In real life, most martial artists pursue many different styles. Rather than buy this Skill separately for every different form your character knows, you may choose the Well-Skilled Craftsman option to reflect a different style of combat. Someone with lots of dots and specialties also has lots of options when it comes to kicking ass.
As suggested above under the Optional Rule: Minimum Abilities, a mage who uses martial arts as the practice and/ or instrument of her magickal focus should have at least one dot in Martial Arts for every dot she has in the highest Sphere she uses for martial arts-based Effects. Otherwise, the Effect-Ranks she can focus through her martial arts are limited to the dots she has in this Ability; a mage with Martial Arts 1, therefore, could not focus Rank 2-5 Effects through her martial arts. As noted earlier, Chapter Ten contains details about focus, Sphere Ranks, and Effects.
• Novice: Raw beginner.
•• Practiced: Experienced student.
••• Skillful: Devotee.
•••• Expert: Accomplished combatant.
••••• Master: Formidable master.
Possessed By
Cops, Soldiers, Gang Members, Old Masters, Black Suits, Self-Defense Advocates, Athletes, Stunt Artists, The Most Unlikely People
Suggested Specialties
Soft Style (snake, monkey, drunken style, etc.), Hard Style (tiger, mantis, etc.), Aikido, Judo, Karate, Muay Thai, Kuei Lung Chuan, etc.