Stupid question, I know.

In melee, the two combatting characters must make Combat Skill tests. Which combat skill the attacking character is using is pretty obvious, but what determines which combat skills the defending character can use? If I had a good example of a couple of situations, I'd be more clear on this.

Is there an F.A.Q. with this and other questions, that I missed?

It's not cut and dried. If the defender is holding a katana, he uses Edged Weapons. If he's holding a combat axe, he uses Polarms. If he's got a pistol...well, I make him roll unarmed or cyber-impant combat if he's equipped for it, but it's a grey area.

Here's a FAQ, but the answers are not always enlightening.

If he has a pistol he'd use clubs although I'd personally allow a defending or attacking character to ignore a held pistol. If he had a cyberweapon he'd use cyber implant combat.

I would say defenders choice, any melee weapon he is equipped to attack with, if he has a pistle and uses clubs then the rules for clubbing somebody with a pistol should be enforced (cant remember what they are) you must have one hand free to us unarmed.

Edward

a +2 for an inpromptu weapon. better than running through the skill tree because you can still use karma pool.

Thanks very much for the advice.

Another question: where the fuck are the stats/price for the Vehicle Control Rig in the SR3 book?!

P302, right in the middle of the Cyberware section.

As for the original question, I interpret canon as not restricting (that is to say, player's choice of any readied weapons, including pistols as Improvised Weapons). I may change this soon, either to requiring a player to choose on their initiative pass (and that choice sticking until their next pass) or requiring that weapons that have been used in a non-melee attack during the last phase take a penalty. Of course, a player with (for example) a pistol and a knife in the off-hand can use the knife to defend with the off-hand penalties, another reason to take ambidexterity. Conversely, one can hold the knife in the main hand and attack with a pistol in the off-hand… etc.

I do believe that every Shadowrunner has the innate, god-given right to be Spike.

~J

In your opinions, what are the best SR3 sourcebooks for additional rules material? Any material that streamlines/simplifies any of it?

For the first part of your question, Matrix and Rigger 3. For the second part of your question, not Matrix or Rigger 3.

~J

I like the SR Companion for the additional generation rules (like variant races and edges/flaws). I also highly recommend Man and Machine. Everyone can use those books for most characters. Magic in the Shadows and Rigger 3 are good as well, especially since Rigger 3 simplifies Vehicle Combat so it doesn't take an hour of abstract thinking to end a car chase.

I was looking for it as well but could not... I think that it was in the SR2 version of the CC. I cannot find it in the SR3 copy I have. I will check my friend's version the next time I can get there.

It's worth noting that normally a katana cannot be quick-drawn. So if you have a sword adept with a katana who is attacked without the sword drawn he or she is forced to use Unarmed Combat or something other than Edged Weapons if that sword is not in hand. It's a great way to make the player cry after taking Edged Weapons 6 (12) but no Unarmed Combat.

That's also why my characters often take at least a few levels of Unarmed Combat.

Or, with the sword-adept, taken "Quickdraw"

It is also worth noting that Quickdraw will not help you if you are attacked without your weapon drawn. Contrary to popular belief, Quickdraw does not turn a Ready Weapon action into a Free Action—instead, it allows you to perform a Ready Weapon and an Attack action as the same action (Simple for ranged, Complex for melee).

~J

You really should be able to default between weapons skills and unarmed skills.

Not that it'd make much real difference, given the way TN penalties screw you in melee.

Black coated combat knife, carried blade against your arm, when on a run
problem solved

I've got some vehicle combat questions from the SR3 core book.

When a character on the ground attacks a vehicle (ranged or melee), how and where is the targeted vehicle's speed factored into the attack?

For example, say my character is firing a burst-fire SMG at a gang member speeding by on a motorcycle (and then tell me the difference between this and if my character were targeting his bike instead.)

I see this reflected in the gunnery rules whenever a character in the vehicle is firing at a vehicle, passengers, etc. But not for a character outside of a vehicle attempting to target a vehicle.

The book says a rigger who is jacked into a vehicle can fire any manual gunnery weapons mounted on the vehicle. This doesn't make sense to me? How would the rigger be able to manually fire a mounted machine gun while simultaneously being jacked in to the vehicle's sensors, etc?

Is there anywhere to find a condensed list of all of these different refference tables, categorized appropriately? Flipping through this book during a game would be nearly hopeless. And the GM screen only has a small fraction of the tables neccesary.

1) Target Running. Not the best equivalent, and there may be a better one somewhere that I'm forgetting, but unless it's done somewhere else this would apply.

2) He is firing it through the connection with the vehicle using Manual Gunnery. Manual Gunnery means he's eyeballing it through the vehicle's external visual sensors rather than using sensors to estimate lead, drop, etc.

3) At the back of the "special" books (MitS, CC, M&M, Matrix, R3/R3R).

~J