Martial Arts Powers as Specialized Psionic Abilities (or It's Too Bad Kevin Siembieada doesn't bother to read the books he and the rest of his company has written.)

Here's a look at the material Kevin Siembieada included in the "Revised" Conversion Book for Rifts.

Erick Wujcik came up with a bunch of great Martial Arts Powers that one can easily argue are psionic in nature. (Only if one doesn't know anything about psionics, martial art powers, and most especially, chi.) Certainly they are mind-over-matter and represent a mastery and union of mind and body. (Certainly, anyone actually understanding these abilities can realize that they are NOT mind-over-matter and typically do not represent 'a mastery and union of mind and body.') Each is presented as a separate and unique discipline related to a specific type of martial arts training and mind set. (Not here they aren't, here they're presented as pathetic imitations of martial art powers and psychic abilities.) In keeping with that spirit, I have modified these Martial Arts Powers into equivalent psionic ones, dividing them into subsets of existing Psionic Power Categories, and requiring I.S.P. to execute. (In keeping with the spirit of blind ignorance maybe, not the spirit of the martial art powers. As for the supposed division of these into the 'existing Psionic Power Categories,' Kevin fails miserably on many accounts. The first of which is the Healing oriented characters and Chi Mastery, first off, anyone who knows the Chi Mastery Abilities knows that there is exactly only one power of healing, the rest are devoted to sensitive or physical aspects, not too mention combat, that doesn't count the additional availability of 'traditional Healing category' powers in addition to Chi Mastery abilities. Second is the missing Special Katas category from any of the three listed categories below. Lastly we have the inclusion of Zenjoriki abilities with the Sensitive orientation of psychic, as anyone who knows what the Zenjoriki powers entail would realize, this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the extent of powers these abilities are designed to represent, of course since the Super category of psionics is missing, it's not difficult to understand why they were mistakenly lumped here.) HOWEVER, rather than simply add them to the list of available Psionic Powers, these abilities are only available to unique characters who study Hand to Hand: Martial Arts and the ancient Martial disciplines and mysticism of the ancient Orient. In fact, Game Masters should probably limit the availability of these powers exclusively to characters from Riffs Japan, China and Asia. (These last two sections are scary simply because they show the author didn't bother yet once again to open the books and determine that, oh yeah, those types of characters already have access to these types of powers, though they're hardly psionic in nature with the exception of the Oni Ninja abilities from the Phase World Sourcebook.)

I.S.P. & Notes for Oriental Martial Arts Powers

Arts of Invisibility
Wee! So the advanced skills that existed before just became weaker without I.S.P. expenditure, and overpoweringly strong with it. It should be noted that with one exception, to be covered a bit later, none of these powers could remotely be argued as psionic in nature, since they're nothing more than advanced versions of rogue-like skills. Of course, as we can see, no thought was given to the fact that Mystic Invisibility (ooh look, it's called 'Mystic,' not 'Psychic' which should have given Kevin a hint, but as always, didn't) doesn't work like any of the other Arts of Invisibility. In fact, since it has the same I.S.P. cost as the Art of Vanishing, it seems little thought was given towards how it works at all. Notice there's no explanation of how this ability would function as a psionic power. Perhaps some thought should have been given toward the specialized invisibility conditions of this ability, as well as it's advanced capabilities and chi expenditure...I won't hold my breath on that account.

Atemi Abilities (Vital Points)
Again, to those who know the certain conditions of many of the Atemi abilities, as well as their general nature, we'll see problems with this section as well. All Atemi abilities, rather than being some form of psychic power, are nothing more than advanced knowledge of the functions of the human body and how to disrupt, heal, or otherwise affect them with a physical touch. But let us also not forget that some of the abilities here are already performed, in their own fashion, by existing psychic abilities! That's right boys and girls, there's no reason to convert Neural (That's right, not "Neutral Atemi," another problem that could be avoided by the bane of Palladium's existance, editors) Atemi (an ability already performed by the psionic power of Bio-Manipulation: Paralysis) or Open Hand Atemi (another ability which is covered under other Bio-Manipulation effects). Of course, then there's the bit of fun from something Kevin also forgot to take into account, that's right, Blood Flow Atemi requires the use of a one-finger or Fore-knuckle fist attack to be delivered, neither of which is present in Rifts! Of course the infamous Dim Mak also requires a one finger attack so that also limits it. Of course, since these abilities are all changed to psychic powers, none of them really work the same way either, again, leaving Dim Mak useless, since, as a psychic power in a world where chi has no effect, reducing a target's chi to zero to deplete their hit points and SDC to zero doesn't quite work from lack of in game mechanics allowing it to do so. More thoughtless conversion on the part of Kevin as we can see.

Body Hardening Exercises
Like Arts of Invisibility or Atemi Abilities, Body Hardening Exercises are hardly what one could consider psionic powers. They're simply advanced versions of physical skills which toughen the character. Naturally, there's one exception to that, the ability of Chi Gung, which actually receives a change from the conversions previously listed and becomes M.D.C.

Chi Mastery
Ooh, now we start getting into the fun part of this little review, the Chi Mastery Abilities. Of course since no notes are included in this entire area on how the game concept of Chi translates over in the face of turning these abilities into psychic powers, we're left trying to fit them without explanation into I.S.P. terms, which doesn't work at all since none of the conventions are the same. Sure Body Chi, Hard Chi, and Soft Chi can all easily substitute I.S.P. as a 'fuel' source to power their abilities...not that this was taken into account in any case (not with a flat I.S.P. cost it wasn't), but Chi Awareness no longer has any purpose, without changing the entire makeup of the ability, an unnecessary change since See Aura performs an equivalent function. Chi Relaxation translates over with little problem, however Chi Combat, an ability with NO Chi Mastery equivalent (that's right, if you know the Chi Mastery Abilities, you'll know there's no Chi Combat power, there's two powers which allow Chi Combat to take place, but that's not the same thing) of course that doesn't take into account that having no I.S.P. (a possibility) or negative I.S.P. (impossible under the I.S.P. system) has absolutely no fucking effect on anything, rendering the entire power completely fucking useless without some sort of explanation! Chi Healing would certainly translate, but like Body, Hard, and Soft Chi, doesn't have a fuel cost listed. In addition this ability is already performed by several existing Psionic powers. Dragon Chi wouldn't work at all, since unlike Chi, I.S.P. has no source in nature and couldn't be 'harvested' by anyone attempting to use this power...again no thought on the part of Kevin. Find Weakness also has some inherent problems being converted to a psychic power, though they may not be obvious, first off is obviously the lack of 'fuel' expenditure that allows this power to work (truly a minor detail), secondly is the fact that this ability requires an entire melee round of concentration to work normally, something that isn't true if it's converted thoughtlessly to a psionic power, allowing it to be used in one melee action. For those of you who are awake to how Chi Mastery Abilities work, you'll notice the absence of two Negative Chi powers (as knowing what these two do can be difficult if you aren't paying attention, it's not surprising they were not included). Obviously Negative Chi Control has no counter part in the I.S.P.-based psionic system of Palladium, and, as we pointed out earlier, neither does Negative Chi Attacks (contrary to what Kevin and many players of N&S may think, this is the attacking portion of the "Chi Combat" included in the description of Defend Against Chi Attacks power). A small note, since the details are identical to Dragon Chi, Dark Chi is the opposite ability, and has no counterpart in the I.S.P. system, of course that's fairly moot since it, like Dragon Chi has no use in a I.S.P.-based psionic system. Another 'fuel' using power that's listed with a static I.S.P. cost is One Finger Chi, however, unlike it's other Chi Mastery brethren, there's no need for this ability, since it functions similarly to telekinesis and telekinetic attacks (excepting that the amount of 'fuel' put into the ability gives it a variable strength). Fist Gesture, with a static cost, is relatively unchanged.

Martial Art Techniques
Again, lack of thinking on Kevin's part generates problems. First is the problem of Falling Technique and Sword Drawing Technique being skills rather than any sort of power that could be considered psionic. Next we have Kaijutsu (actually Kiaijutsu, but due to Palladium's infamous editing abilities, always misspelled) an ability with several sub-abilities and a note that it penetrates armor, yet not which ability would do so, in addition we also have a power outgrowth of these powers by changing their usage in combat from one melee round to one melee action. One Life/Shot/Hit/Kill also has this one melee round timing, and with a flat I.S.P. cost given, no reason why someone couldn't keep pumping I.S.P. into the ability each melee round attack, until they've run out of I.S.P. or have the desired bonus they want (of course, given that the bonus is a measly +1 to Strike/melee round of concentration in revised N&S, spending 15 I.S.P. per +1 to Strike seems quite wasteful, useless even). Tamashiwara is relatively unchanged by being turned into a psionic power, though it would tend to become a form of telekinesis, rather than anything else. Awareness is a fine ability, of course, due to one fundamental change with this conversion, it doesn't work at all. That's because, you see, Zanshin is an ability that let's its user detect a person's Chi coming toward them, so of course in an entirely psionic based system, there's no chi, and if this is somehow changed to detecting I.S.P. coming toward the user, wouldn't work on the majority of people in Rifts, again making it fairly useless. But let's also not forget that it provides a limited ability to evaluate the chi of someone within the user's Zanshin circle...another ability lost and not really translatable without some serious thought to how it would work in a psychic environment. Of course the unsurprising and ability to combat invisible foes effects of this power are still desirable, however, without it's primary function within the Chi system, it becomes nothing more than a poor man's sixth sense ability...at ten times the cost a maximum of roughly one third the range (actually 36 feet compared to the 90 foot range of Sixth Sense).

Special Katas
Like many other martial art powers, there's nothing inherently psychic about specialized dances which allow you to do specialized things. One big thing of note is the absolute uselessness of Weapon Katas, since in Rifts weapon proficiency bonuses already stack with hand to hand combat bonuses. About the only good thing would be to use a Weapon Kata for a ranged weapon (like a gun) to add your hand to hand bonuses to your weapon using bonuses....and I hardly think most GMs would allow that in Rifts.

Zenjoriki
Zenjoriki powers, with their "supernormal 'Spirit Powers'" origin do make for magic or psionic possibilities, Calm Minds is a very specifically psychic-like ability. Mind Walk however, does present an interesting problem in the world of psychics...are Mind Walkers Astrally Traveling in a psionic system, or doing something else entirely? A little thought from Kevin on the subject would have been appreciated, but I doubt that problem occurred to him.

Overall I'd just like to say that this Martial Art Powers as Specialized Psionic Abilities is a very poorly thought out idea that is better off being ignored for the possibilities presented by Martial Art Powers as forms of Magic (from Rifts: Japan) or the Psionic abilities of the Oni Ninja (from the Phase World Sourcebook). Of course since the regular Martial Art Power conversions from N&S were cut and pasted directly from the old Conversion Book, it's pretty obvious that little to no thought was given to this option, much less any realistic conversions.