2 weapon melee fighting is different from 2 weapon gun fighting. I don't have personal experience in martial arts, but it seems to me that 2 weapon fighting (escrima/fencing/whatever) with melee weapons is a mix to improve attack and defense at the same time.
Since SR4 brought back skill groups, would off-hand fighting (ala cannon companion) be rolled into the group or should it be separate?
I'm thinking its not such a big deal to roll it into the existing group, but it gets messy at higher levels. Skill ratings seem to have a harder cap in SR4 than sr3, due to having to have aptitude before raising a skill past 6, but as shown by some of our dumpshockers, dice pools can get insane with the right builds
Anyway, I'm thinking the skill group maybe would give you half its rating for off hand use. That would be further reduced by the -2 off hand penalty, so effectively if you use 2 weapons in melee, you'll get a net +1 dice at skill rank 6. Should it be part of the skil group? Or bought separately? If bought separately, how do you reconcile (if at all) the fact that you won't get anything for the first 2 levels of the skill you have to buy if you're not ambidextrous?