"Broken" Skills

[Ankhanu]

Yeah, that's my take on it too.
However, specializations can help define a character, a mechanical representation of narrow focus that might have otherwise only been in character background..

[garhkal]

[jmanski]

Okay, I can see you're coming from. I'm just hesitant to use specializations in dodge. I guess I want to know that whatever's coming- my character is gonna have the best chance to get out of the way.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[slaughterj]

[Ankhanu]

Well, specializing in "unarmed" is a little ridiculous, as, by definition, that's what Brawling Parry is; it's HOW you parry while unarmed that you specialize in.

And as for why you'd choose a specialization (ie Melee Parry Viroaxe) when there as chance that you might have to use the more generalized skill, well that's a personal choice and often made in relation to character design more than die advantages. Specialization is a trade off between proficiency and a lack of ability in a general sense; yeah, you can be really good at a specific thing, but without of it, you're out of your element.

[garhkal]

IIRC on brawl and melee parry, unlike dodge (and ship dodges) where your specialty is avoiding that type of attack, Melee and BP have it where the specialty is what weapon u use to parry wth. So especially for melee parry, if you find yourself without, you could get in hot water.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[slaughterj]

[Ankhanu]

You can. A modifier to the attacker with the weapon or against the anarmed blocker might be in order though, to represent the advantage of the armed combatant.


EDIT: I just took a peek at the rules, you definitely can use Brawling Parry when unarmed to avoid/block an attack by someone with a hand-to-hand weapon (inc. lightsabers).

I did, however, misrepresent the official rule on Brawling Parry specializations; it is versus an attack type; ie. if you're good at blocking people who are using boxing techniques to attack you, you specialize in Brawling Parry (Boxing)... not if you're skilled in using boxing block techniques.

EDIT 2: p. 61 of the 2nd Edition book, p.90 in R&E gives the rules for mixed attack/parry types. For Brawling Parry vs. someone with a weapon or sharp claws (or the like), the attacker gains a +10 modifier.

[Esoomian]

I always thought it was unfair that all other weapon types needed both an offensive and defensive skill seperately but lightsabers just used the one skill for both.

[garhkal]

[slaughterj]

[Ankhanu]

I dunno, the Lightsaber's difficulty and perils of failing kind of make up for it; there aren't other weapons with Difficult difficulty that when you miss by 10+ you lose a limb To be able to wield a lightsaber with any confidence requires ~6D.
Melee and Brawling Combat and Parry skills don't need to be nearly so high to be able to do anything, so it's more affordable to split the offense and defense into different skills.
Having the skills split for offense and defense is a nice flavour mechanic too. If it wouldn't unbalance lightsabers (weakening the players, in this case) to split offense and defense, it could be pretty interesting for building defensive vs. offensive and well rounded character builds.

I do think that combining the Melee and Brawling offense/defense skills would overpower them a little though. Lightsaber is the only skill that comines Offense and Defense... and it's balanced by the perils of handling the weapon.

[krysallokard]

I did always find it odd that Lightsaber didn't have a defensive skill. Although in my current campaign I've gotten rid of both Melee Parry and Brawling Parry and have the character's just use their offensive skills. This is also because I use the Dueling Blades melee combat system which bases results on the difference between the two offensive rolls.

I think the reason the two skills were separate was due to the multiple action penalty. So if a character was both trying to attack and defend in a battle it became more difficult to do either successfully, hence the penalty.

Either way it's a bit wonky, so I just got rid of the parry skills and haven't had any real problems thus far.

[garhkal]

I have never had a problem with melee and brawl parry, other than with BP one specialises in the attack of your opponent and with MP you spec in what weapon you are using to defend with..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CmdrDarmic]

Well, speaking as one whose martial arts studies did cover some weapons (although I never made it to the sword ), I can say that my Shihan did not break the arts down into two parts, one for attack and one for parry. In fact, one of his rules was: Every parry is an attack, and every attack is a parry. So, I have always had a problem with splitting the skills apart.

Now, if you want to have a more defensive type of combatant, I can see no problem in using the specialization rules to create the skill: Brawling (S) Parry. Even though my Shihan would probably disaprove.