By the rules, the action of Full Parry is REA + (melee combat skill x 2). Does that mean that Unarmed combat can be used for for Full parry turning the DP into;

REA + Unarmed + Unarmed

?

Also by the rules though, it says a regular parry is only REA + melee weapon skill.

This is what makes it unclear to me. Does a character have to have a weapon in hand to use either their blades, clubs, or exotic melee weapon skills in order to use Full Parry, or is that just for regular parry?

Some other contradictions that help add to the confusion is that some martial arts styles add bonuses to parry. Does that mean that a player can actually roll their unarmed skill for a parry defense normally, or only when they are using a melee weapon that would be used by that style? Some examples are Aikido, Karate, and Kung Fu, all of which can and sometimes teach the use of weapons. Aikido uses swords and bokkens, Karate has a variety of wooden weapons and the kama, and Kung Fu has all kinds of weapons that this could apply to.

Also, there are is a maneuver that relies on full parry to even initiate. Disarm relies on the character using full parry to make use of the maneuver. Does this mean that an unarmed opponent can't disarm an attacker unless they have a weapon in hand to use their blades or clubs skill for the full parry test? I'd think that someone with two free hands would stand a better chance disarming an attacker than one with a weapon in hand.

Also, if unarmed can't be used to have a Full Parry defense, does that mean that there should be a defense along the lines of Full Block Defense? Why can't I use my unarmed skill x 2 ?

I'd like to hear a developer give a ruling one way or the other so the mystery is gone.

You are assuming that the restrictions of Regular Parry Maneuver and the Full Parry need to be the same?

SR4A p.160 SR4 p. 151 "Full Parry: Characters who go on full parry roll (melee combat
skill x 2) + Reaction against any and all melee attacks made against
them. Full parry may not be used against ranged attacks."

Parrying is a specialization example under Unarmed Combat Skill

SR4A p. 156 "If they have Unarmed Combat
skill, they can choose to block by rolling Unarmed Combat + Reaction."

SR4 p. 147 "If they
have Unarmed Combat skill, they can choose to block by rolling
Reaction + Unarmed Combat."

Also check the Melee Combat Summary table SR4A p 157 SR4 p. 147

For Full Parry, it seems fairly clear Unarmed is an allowed skill

and for a normal Parry, a melee defense roll, that Unarmed is also allowed.

You are correct though that the same pattern should have been used in having Parry and Full Parry to go along with Block and Full Block. Since mechanically there's no difference between Block, Parry or Dodge in SR, it shouldn't be a big deal to allow Unarmed for Full Parry anyway.

I don't have access to a copy of SR4a yet, so I'll have to wait and take a look at that table.

But, you're absolutely right, there shouldn't be any difference between block and parry because mechanically they are identical. It would have been nice to actually see an action that reflected the equivalent of Full Block though.

Also, yes my attention had fallen on the fact that there was a specialization of Parry under Unarmed Combat.

More or less, this was an attempt to get a developer to tell me "yes" or "no" on whether unarmed skill could be used for full parry.