Melee vs. Ranged, Balancing the Two [House Rule Concept] Options

[Muspellsheimr]

Firearms:

• Defended against with [Attribute]
• Ranged
• Simple Action
• Penalty vs. adjacent combatants

Close Combat:

• Defended against with [Attribute] + [Skill]
• Melee
• Complex Action
• Interception

Melee is inferior to Ranged combat in SR4, which few contest. While Melee does have some distinct advantages, it is generally agreed they do not compensate for the three distinct advantages using a firearm gives - Simple Action to attack, no skill on Defense, & the distance advantage.

This is an issue that has bothered me for quite some time, as I somewhat strongly feel the two should be roughly balanced against each other. When I began my current game, I brought this issue up with my players and asked for their opinions, proposing adjusting Ranged Defense to Reaction + Dodge (+ Dodge if on Full Defense) in an attempt to balance the two against each other. My players voted against that option, instead suggesting making melee attacks a Simple Action if I wanted to make them more powerful. In the end, I decided to try the Simple Action approach, but have found it quite unsatisfying (I do not think anyone has even used this ruling - players or me - and one of the players is an unarmed specialist).

As such, I am revisiting my original idea; instead of making close combat more effective directly, doing so by reducing the overall effectiveness of ranged combat. I will not be implementing this change in my current campaign (unless all players vote for it), but am interested in opinions on this house rule for potential future campaigns.

There are three primary effects I foresee from this change.
1) Melee combat becomes viable (in comparison to Ranged) - this is the desired result, & so I do not see any problems arising because of it.
2) Combat in general becomes less dangerous - this is not necessarily a bad thing, & if it becomes a problem, can be easily compensated for by increasing opposition.
3) Dodge becomes a "must-have" skill - this is the potential problem I am concerned about. If the change brings the importance of having Dodge up to that of other notable skills, such as Perception, there will be no real issue. However, if it makes Dodge the single most important skill, it becomes an issue, and one I am unsure how to fix.



Observations / Suggestions?