Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

johndallman · 08-31-2014, 07:03 AM

Body Control: An cinematic martial arts skill, with prerequisites of Trained by a Master, Breath Control and Meditation. This gives you control over your body at a deep level, allowing you to feign death convincingly, to flush poisons from your metabolism, and to use the skill in place of HT to resist afflictions, magic and psionics (note that getting +1 from this requires spending 12 points on Body Control, which is more than a point of HT, although it gets better as you buy more Body Control). It's not exactly a compelling buy at this price. Having it in a talent or wildcard skill could help with that.

Looking up the skill is slightly complicated by the existence of the magical College of Body Control, and the Body Control chi power in Martial Arts and Powers.

Martial Arts clarifies the skill's use in resistance and offers simplifying options, some of which I've assumed above. It also offers the option of using Body Control in place of First Aid and Physician for treating one's own injuries. The skill also appears in several styles, talents, and so on. Technical Grappling suggests that trying to use Body Control instantly for resistance is at -10 in a realistic campaign, but I'm rather doubtful about the skill being available at all in a realistic campaign; Martial Arts p57 has some realistic feats that can look like Body Control, when done right.

Chinese Elemental Powers has some abilities that work well with Body Control and Thaumatology offers it as a way of resisting misapplied elixirs and a replacement core skill for body-centred ritual magic; Ritual Path Magic does the same for "inner alchemy". Bio-Tech doesn't mention the skill, although it touches on the magical college. Powers points out that another resistance use for the skill is avoiding crippling of chi powers, and Mysteries suggests it for use in judicial ordeals. The Attribute Substitution perk (Power-Ups 2: Perks) to base Body Control on Will can sometimes be very appropriate.

I wonder if Body Control could be useful in misleading users of Body Language skill, by avoiding or faking "tells" and, by extension, in making Feints that are harder to resist, given that reading body language there is a normal part of combat skills.

What have you done with Body Control in a campaign? Have you ever used it as a base for magic, or frustrated a poisoner? What else can it do?

08-31-2014, 07:03 AM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Basic] Skill of the week: Body Control Body Control: An cinematic martial arts skill, with prerequisites of Trained by a Master, Breath Control and Meditation. This gives you control over your body at a deep level, allowing you to feign death convincingly, to flush poisons from your metabolism, and to use the skill in place of HT to resist afflictions, magic and psionics (note that getting +1 from this requires spending 12 points on Body Control, which is more than a point of HT, although it gets better as you buy more Body Control). It's not exactly a compelling buy at this price. Having it in a talent or wildcard skill could help with that. Looking up the skill is slightly complicated by the existence of the magical College of Body Control, and the Body Control chi power in *Martial Arts* and *Powers. Martial Arts* clarifies the skill's use in resistance and offers simplifying options, some of which I've assumed above. It also offers the option of using Body Control in place of First Aid and Physician for treating one's own injuries. The skill also appears in several styles, talents, and so on. *Technical Grappling* suggests that trying to use Body Control instantly for resistance is at -10 in a realistic campaign, but I'm rather doubtful about the skill being available at all in a realistic campaign; *Martial Arts* p57 has some realistic feats that can look like Body Control, when done right. *Chinese Elemental Powers* has some abilities that work well with Body Control and *Thaumatology* offers it as a way of resisting misapplied elixirs and a replacement core skill for body-centred ritual magic; *Ritual Path Magic* does the same for "inner alchemy". *Bio-Tech* doesn't mention the skill, although it touches on the magical college. *Powers* points out that another resistance use for the skill is avoiding crippling of chi powers, and *Mysteries* suggests it for use in judicial ordeals. The Attribute Substitution perk (*Power-Ups 2: Perks*) to base Body Control on Will can sometimes be very appropriate. I wonder if Body Control could be useful in misleading users of Body Language skill, by avoiding or faking "tells" and, by extension, in making Feints that are harder to resist, given that reading body language there is a normal part of combat skills. What have you done with Body Control in a campaign? Have you ever used it as a base for magic, or frustrated a poisoner? What else can it do?