Unarmed Combat School

Close combat, man-to-man, hand-to-hand, the stirring stuff of legend. Unfortunately in 2053, most people have guns and thus don't wish to tangle with the unarmed stuff, which is a shame as a lot of arenas pay good money to watch these events.

Unarmed combat is handled a lot like regular shooting combat. The main difference is that the attacker must be adjacent to the target. A normal to-hit roll is then made, and if successful, the target takes damage. Of course, there are a wide range of modifiers to be taken into account for hitting and damage.

To-Hit Modifiers: All normal to-hit modifiers are in effect, excluding any range modifiers. This means that while the basic to-hit with a fist is 12, when you include the pedestrian size modifier, it becomes a 9.

Blocking: If a character wishes, they may forgo any unarmed combat attack, and instead attempt to block an incoming attack. As the blocker loses their attack, they may only make 1 block per turn. If the attacker is using a weapon of some kind, the blocking attempt will become more difficult, but not impossible, especially to a martial artist - in this case, the block isn't actually a block, but more of dodge or sidestep away from the attack.
The thing about blocks is that they must be declared and the block roll made before any hand-to-hand damage roll is made. Once the damage has been declared, then a block cannot be made.

To make a block, the blocking character must make a normal to-hit roll with whatever they are using, applying the modifiers below.

Attacker using fists	+0
Attacker using a club or improvised weapons	-1
Attacker using a knife or power tool	-2
Attacker using a machete or short sword	-4
Attacker using a sword or large power tool	-5
Attacker using a claymore	-5
Attackers skill	- Brawling or Martial Arts or Blade skill
Blocking with fists	+0
Blocking with a club or improvised weapons	+1
Blocking with a knife or power tool	+2
Blocking with a machete or short sword	+4
Blocking with a sword or large power tool	+5
Blocking with a claymore	+5
Blockers skill	+ Brawling or Martial Arts or Blade skill

Skills:
There are certain skills that are useful when fighting hand-to-hand.

Brawling:
The basic skill, brawling allows a character to fight unarmed or using clubs, improvised weapons, knives or power tools (large or small). For each level of this skill, a character gains a +1 to their to-hit roll. If the character is using any other hand-to-hand weapon, then they must either use Blade skill or +0 as their skill, whichever is higher.

Blade:
Blade skill is the ability to wield blades and sharp objects effectively at a target. It confers a +1 per level to a to-hit roll if the character is using knives, swords, claymores or power tools (if the referee is being kind). If gives no ability to fight unarmed.

Martial Arts:
Martial arts are an exotic unarmed combat skill. Taught by monks who know the knowledge of the ancient ways, or by the local unarmed combat skill, they are many types of martial arts, and all confer advantages over the basic brawling skill. In addition to giving the basic +1 per level to a unarmed combat to-hit roll, martial arts also gives the following abilities:

Level 1: At level 1, a martial artist will always get in the first strike in unarmed combat if fighting against a non-martial artist, regardless of level, there is no simultaneous attack. If two martial artists are fighting, then the one with the highest level, or skill points within that level will strike first. Only if skill points are matched then the strike becomes simultaneous.
In addition, they gain an additional hand-to-hand combat attack. This may be made at any point in the same turn (if may not be saved and stored up for additional turns) and may be made against the same or a different target.
Level 2: The character gains a +1 to damage in hand-to-hand combat at this level.
Level 3: At level 3, a martial artist doesn't have to lose their attack if they block, and make may as many blocking moves as they have attacks.
Level 4: At level 4, the martial artist gains an additional hand-to-hand attack, and an additional point of damage, thus giving three attacks each with a +2 damage bonus.

All martial arts bonus - damage, additional attacks, blocks etc, are for use if the character is fighting unarmed, or with clubs, knives and improvised weapons. They do not give any advantages if the character is using swords.
However, if the character also has the Blade skill, then they may gain the martial arts bonuses up to a level equalling their blade or martial arts skill, whichever is lower.

Improving Skills:
Skills are improved in the usual way - any combat in which the character uses their skill gains them one skill point. Killing a pedestrian doesn't count towards bonus skill points.

Martial arts are slightly different though. It takes ten times the next level in skill points to gain that level. Thus, to get from level 0 to 1, it costs 10 skill points, to get from level 1 to 2, it costs 20, and so on.

Unarmed Combat Equipment:
The following may be found useful in unarmed combat.

Weapon	Hands	Damage	To-Hit	Cost	Weight
Fists	1	1d-5 *	12	-	-
Club/Improvised Weapons	1	1d-4 *	11	-	(3 lbs.)
Knife	1	1d-3 **	12	$25	0.5 lbs.
Power Tool	1	1d-2 ***	11	$100	2 lbs.
Machete/Short Sword	1	1d-2 **	10	$75	3 lbs.
Sword	1	1d-1 **	10	$200	5 lbs.
Large Power Tool	2	1d+1 ***	9	$150	15 lbs.
Claymore	2	1d+1 **	9	$300	8 lbs.

* Affects no part of a vehicle
** Affects no part of a vehicle except tyres.
*** Damage is halved against any of a vehicle except tyres.

Club/Improvised Weapons:
This basically means anything picked up, from a broken bottle, to chain, lead pipe or whatever. It also includes gun butts and pistols used as clubs. The weight is only applicable if the weapon is picked up.

Power Tools:
These include drills, small rotary saws and the like. Large power tools include chains saws.

Claymores:
Big two-handed swords.

Fruit:
And the final lesson for the day: If someone comes at you with fruit - shoot them.