Unarmed Combat

Although most characters probably feel more comfortable going into a fight with a good gun in their hand, there are times they must rely on their fists, feet, or other appendages.

  Characters fighting unarmed generally use the Brawl skill. Unlike other combat skills, the Brawl skill is designed to be used independently of any weapon (although some weapons can be used in conjunction with the Brawl skill).

  When a character makes an unarmed combat check using Brawl, the attack has a base damage of their Brawn rating, a range of engaged, a Critical rating of 5, and the Knockdown item quality. Finally, when making a Brawl attack, the attacker can choose to deal damage to the target’s strain threshold instead of its wound threshold, still reducing the damage by the target’s soak.

  Unlike other weapons, Brawl weapons augment this basic attack. Brawl weapons can add damage to the attack (as indicated in the Brawl profile, on page 67) and may have an improved Critical rating and additional item qualities. When using a Brawl weapon, the user can choose to use its Critical rating instead of the standard Brawl Critical rating. They also add any additional item qualities to the qualities already provided by the Brawl attack. If the weapon provides an improved version of an existing quality, the character uses the improved version.