Two Weapon Fighting Options

[Space Ghost]

Since there aren't any rules for two-weapon melee attacks, i was thinking it would be cool to mimic the two-pistols rules. You're already allowed to split your pool to fight multiple opponents, but with two weapons you could attack the same guy twice by splitting your dice. Sound good?


Also, the two-pistol rules specifically state that you split your pool before mods (thus, darkness and such applies twice). The multiple melee attack rules state no such thing. Think this is a typo?

[Ophis]

Its something I've been pondering too.

I was actually thinking of adapting the burst fire rules somewhat.
Having done some paired weapon fighting in larp this feels closer to the truth of it for me. Not sure how it would be for defence. Ambidex would reduce the penalties you get for it. mostly I like the idea of being able to fight for damage or to make it harder to dodge your blows.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

The problem with splitting pools in Melee is, that it actually becomes much easier to defend against such attacks.

So splitting dice pools when using two melee weapons is not an idea that would work.

[Space Ghost]

That depends on the damage. The higher your damage code is, the more likely that you only need a single net success to do some decent damage. Just like dual-pistols, it's a trade off and there is some risk involved.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

As melee is always defended against with more dice than ranged combat, this it is a much worse trade off.

In most cases, two 'weapon' melee combat serves the tactical advantage of easier parry and binding - not causing more damage, but causing damage more likely, or being damaged less likely.

So, basically, the old ruling of SR3 to add a 50% bonus is somehow appropriate... in SR4, if you lack ambidexterity, that bonus would be quickly diminished by the -2, tough.

But... in the case of really trying to do 'double damage', splitting the dice pool is an alternative, indeed.

[mintcar]

I don´t like the two weapon rules as they stand so I made house rule:

For ranged you make a single attack roll and get -3 to the attack (-1 with ambidextrity) and you then get to add half the bonus (rounded up) from the second gun to the attack. If you fire a single round with the second gun, it translates into either -1 to the defense roll or 1 extra damage.

If you attack using two SMG´s and fire a wide short burst from each, the target would get (-2 from first gun+ (-2÷2=-1) from the second gun) -3 to the dodge roll. Recoil is resolved as normal for both guns, and any uncompensated modifiers from both guns apply to the test.

For melee combat I´m less sure. I think I will go with this: You make a single attack roll and get -3 to the attack (-1 with ambidextrity). You can choose if you want to fight defensively or offensively at the beginning of your action phase. If you fight offensively your opponent gets a -2 (or -1 not sure) penalty to the dodge roll, or an equal bonus to damage. If you fight defensively you get an extra 2 dice to your dodge rolls until your next phase.

For both ranged and melee you split your pool only if you attack multiple targets.