blades and melee weapons detail (Blades And Melee Weapons)

Blades and Melee Weapons

A weapon you carry and swing by hand -- a knife, a sword, an axe, a
baseball bat, a length of pipe -- checks against one of two Skills
depending on what kind of weapon it fundamentally is, not what it's
called or how it's decorated:

    - Anything that cuts, stabs, or slices in a bladed way -- swords,
      knives, axes -- checks against Blades.
    - Anything relying on blunt force, leverage, or heavy controlled
      mechanical operation instead -- clubs, hammers, a length of
      chain, a crowbar, a chainsaw -- checks against Melee. This
      is about how the weapon is physically handled, not what kind of
      wound it leaves: a chainsaw still cuts and can sever exactly
      like a blade, but you operate it like a heavy two-handed tool
      rather than wielding an edge.

Both Skills combine with the same shape of Attribute support --
Blades draws on Dexterity, Agility, and Perception; Melee draws on
Strength, Agility, and Perception -- and both use your full Skill
rating, exactly like Handguns or Rifles. Whoever you're fighting
defends with Athletics either way; there is no separate parry or
block mechanic on top of that.

This is a property of the weapon, not the fight

Which Skill a weapon uses is fixed to that weapon -- it doesn't shift
based on your target, your stance, or anything you type at the
moment of attack. A firearm with nothing left to fire can still be
swung as an improvised club rather than refuse to attack at all --
but that is a one-attack override on THAT firearm, not a
reclassification of it. The gun never becomes a real Melee weapon;
it's still the same firearm on your next shot the moment it's loaded
again. A real knife or bat, by contrast, is already a proper Blades
or Melee weapon on every single attack, with no override involved at
all.

Not the same as unarmed combat

Fighting with your own body -- fists, teeth, augmented claws, a
trained martial art -- is a completely separate system with its own
Skill and its own styles. See help natural weapons.

Luck stays separate

Luck is never one of the Attributes a Blades or Melee check weighs.
It contributes its own Fortune swing on top of the check, the same
way it does for every other combat Skill -- a high Blades or Melee
rating and good supporting Attributes are what make you accurate;
Luck only ever adjusts the roll around that baseline.

Swinging something not built for combat

A weapon whose combat family isn't yet configured (or a thrown
attack, which isn't available yet) doesn't check against Blades or
Melee at all -- it falls back to the game's older, more general
resolution instead. This will narrow further as more weapon
categories are finished.

See also:

    help natural weapons
    help weapon handling

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