Two-Weapon Combat

A character may opt to carry a pistol or a one-handed Melee weapon in each hand, increasing their volume of attacks at the expense of accuracy. The rules are broken down in detail below, but for most dual weapon attacks, simply increase the difficulty by one.

  When attacking with two weapons, the character must be using weapons that can each be reasonably held and wielded in one hand. Generally, these weapons are Ranged (Light) weapons—such as pistols and grenades—and one-handed Melee weapons or Brawl weapons. If it’s unclear whether or not a weapon can be wielded one-handed, the GM makes the final determination.

  To make the attack, the player performs a combined check. First, the player designates one weapon as the primary weapon. When making the combined check, the character attacks with this weapon. The player then determines which skills and characteristics the character uses when making attacks with the primary weapon and which are used with the secondary weapon (the other weapon wielded). Finally, they determine the target.

  To assemble the dice pool for this check, the player compares the skills that would be used to make an attack with each weapon by itself, and then compares the characteristics that would be used to make an attack with each weapon by itself. They then take the skill that they have fewer ranks in, and the characteristic that they have fewer ranks in, and use this skill and characteristic to assemble their dice pool. It’s very possible that the ranks in either the skills or characteristics are equal, in which case they can use either. If both checks would use the same skill or characteristic, they simply use that skill or characteristic.

  They then compare the difficulty of the two combat checks they would make with each of their two weapons to hit their target, and select the check with the higher difficulty. Then, they increase the difficulty of the combat check by one. Finally, they make the check.

  If they succeed, they hit with their primary weapon in the normal manner. They may spend a a or t to hit with their secondary weapon as well. If both weapons hit, they may spend additional a or t to activate item qualities from either weapon. Each hit deals its weapon’s base damage plus one point of damage per uncanceled success.