38. Methods of Steel

Methods of steel is the premier open-source, synth oriented martial art. It is truly transhuman in its practices, making heavy use of skillware, simulspace training scenarios, and AI trainers. There are, in fact, only two physical schools: one in Extropia, and one in Locus. The art is banned or heavily regulated on many Lunar habitats due to its associations with synth liberation movements.

Much of the most basic training is focused on giving the practitioner a true sense of the tolerances and strengths of their synth body, so that they will take full advantage of synths' durability and strength. As a student progresses, they can branch into specialized schools of technique. Styles are generally divided into "soft" (vs. biomorphs) and "hard" (vs. synthmorphs.) The open-source nature of the art's development has led to huge, branching specializations, with specific techniques not just for different weapons but for certain numbers and types of limbs, industrial tools, and a system of flexbot techniques that is rapidly spinning off into its own martial art.

Mechanics

Methods of Steel is treated as an Unarmed Combat specialization, active whenever the user is in a synthmorph.