I have a player (playing an adept) who's willing to develop Gun-Fu Schticks. However, I'm more running the game in a lethal/tactical fashion than a Feng Shui style.

Does RAW have something to offer to this or do you have ideas about what could be nice and equilibrated?

Not sure if you want to go this route, but one Gun-Fu nut...err.. buddy of mine had his Predators modified to include a basket hilt over the trigger area to protect the hand and an underbarrel blade (think mini-bayonet with blade extending the from the basket hilt running under the barrel and about four inches past the barrel)

This allowed him to shoot and punch (with the basket hilt)/slash &stab (with the underbarrel blade) and even block/parry/counterstrike with the weapons and was evil in an alley fight when you had to deal both with range and melee attacks.

I m looking for an adept power (or several, maybe), working on guns and finding ideas is up to my player I'm not gonna make it easy for him.

Sacrifice some Essence to get a Smartlink, and then pump up Improved Ability. Rolling 11 dice with a -2 TN is pretty sweet. Consider vision enhancements either through cybereyes or via physad powers to keep TNs low. Use a geas if you have to.

Pistols are sort of compromised by short range. TN penalties accrue fast. In SR3 you can run with a "sport rifle" and be a holy terror with the combination of long range and high damage code. Why screw around with silly ideas like pistols with finger guards and minibayonets when you can just take Clubs and say you're hitting someone with the rifle butt?

Yeah, there are lots of ways to have a powerful gun fu physad. The one thing that tends to be kind of inefficient is if the guy insists on dual wielding, because the TN penalties can offset the advantages you get for being a physad (chiefly in being able to roll a lot of dice), although I'm sure if someone really sat down and thought about it there is probably a way around that as well.

...see also low cost for Improved Ability: Athletics and then the optional Cannon Companion rule for having Athletics help you with dodge tests.

Not my method of choice, as I'd rather double down on offensive power, but it's something to consider.

And what are your opinions on that optionnal rule in Cannon Companion?

Never had any issues with it myself... *shrug*

I think it's OK, in that it never seemed to break any games I was involved in. You'll want to reread it carefully as my gaming days are years behind me, but I seem to remember that while the rule seemed a little silly, it does gel with the idea of some kind of gun kata adept. And it's not so powerful as to make your firefights comedy shows or anything like that.

I was reflecting some more on gunslinger type adepts as I used to play physads all the time in SR3. Just a few pointers for making such a character powerful:

1.) Shadowrun is a group game. There normally should be alternative targets for the bad guys to shoot, especially anyone who looks like a mage. Therefore, your gun kata physad doesn't need to max out Improved Reflexes, because it is very expensive. By taking the first or second tier, a LOT of power points are freed up to gain other bonuses and make a generally more powerful character. Many times, I've just gone with first tier.

For a gun kata skirmisher type I guess he needs at least first tier, but if you ever wanted to make a Zen sniper type character who would be more about deliberate accuracy than fast action? If you even go without Improved Reflexes, all of a sudden you have abundant powerpoints to pump up your skill and take all kinds of ancillary physad powers. It's kind of counter intuitive but it can work so long as the "slow" character isn't the only target for the bad guys to engage and you role play the guy like a sniper, and not like a door kicker.

2.) A lot of the advanced physad powers are kind of goofy in terms of the statistical advantage or limited scope advantage that they give you. I always had the most success by focusing on the stuff from the core rulebook.

3.) At 0.25 points per level, Improved Ability for non combat skills is a steal. It can be considered for Athletics, Stealth, Biotech, or even a driving skill to help you make a clean getaway in a stolen vehicle. To put it another way, can you imagine trying to run away from the scene of your crime in a stolen vehicle when your driving skill is like 2 because you didn't think to invest in it? And considering that Athletics covers all athletic endeavors, it's one of those things that can be really useful for a player who thinks about how to use this skill and really useless for someone who forgets about it and never tries to use it in-game.

4.) Burning 1 point of essence to get 'ware that compliments your chosen physad powers is advisable in terms of maxing statistical advantage.

Centering is an initiation ability he wants ASAP with the Centering action being the Gun Kata and his initiation ordeal as developing the Gun Kata.

Of course this means he has to take a Dance (Kata) skill or something to be the "artistic skill", since you aren't supposed to be able to center with combat actions.

Technically, the book says "creative skills should not be particularly useful in non-magical areas". The example of bad decision they give is "zen archery".

So it's not reaaaaally forbidden, but I think they quite say that gun kata is a very bad idea.

BTW, for skill advancement, do you consider skills such as dancing, singing etc. as active or knowledge?

Active...

Whatever uncertainties the core rules and Magic in the Shadows might create as far as the classification of Dancing and Singing are concerned, State of the Art 2064 is very explicit in categorizing pretty much any artistic skill as Knowledge Skill:

page 64, SotA'64 (section on Virtuoso metamagical technique):
[..]
In game terms, to produce a virtuoso creation an adept must make a Skill (9) Test using an appropriate artistic Knowledge skill (Composition, Dancing, Drawing, Painting, Poetry, Sculpting, etc.) with a base time of one month.
[..]

And as much as I can understand the initial urge of treating such artistic skills that can involve physical actions as "active" skills, I actually see no reason for doing that on a balance level either.

Many thanks Cochise!

Indeed, the wording of MITS was unclear to me. But with dancing, singing and the like being active, there was no point choosing anything but arcane language. Increasing an active skill is quite karma costly, which is not in any way necessary for magicians…

However, If I remember correctly, All Adept Centering Skills were Classified (and were required to be such, in fact) as Active, regardless of the skill itself.
Sadly, I do not have my Books anymore, and yes, if you wanted to be a virtuoso Artist, those were generally applied as knowledge skills.

Centering Skills and Artistic Skills are not the same thing.

Are not the Initiation Rules for 3rd Edition in the Magic Book? My Sole PDF of that era is the core book, and I do not see them in there.

Nope, centering was an active skill, but for sure some of the creative skill (there's no "centering skills", only one, and it's associated to a "creative skill", which can be a lot of stuff) were knowledge.

MITS p72 : "The creative skill can be Active or Knowledge, though it is usually an artistic or intellectual ability."

My point being that to gain the benefit of the CENTERING itself, it was tied to the Active Skill, which you just confirmed for me. That was what I was remembering. Thanks.

What did you mean by centering skillS then?

You have a Centering SKILL that is Active for purposes of Centering itself (and therefore advances as an ACTIVE skill), then you can be creative as well, which may be active or knowledge.

Oh okay ; There was a misunderstanding then ; My question was only about the [b]creative[\b] skills, specifically the [b]artistic[\b] skills, the last ones turning out to be knowledge. That's important because you have to have both centering and creative at the same skill level, and the two being active would have been a fragging karma sink!

Ahhh... Got it... Been many years removed from SR3, and no real references anymore. Good to know I was not totally off base.

So what did the player do in the end?

Aren't there two or three versions of this in Run Faster? Gun Kata and then Ares tactical (Or something) and one more?

IIRC, Centering is an Active skill, but it's tied to an artistic skill-- it can't be any higher than that skill. The artistic skill could be almost anything, but most players picked a Knowledge skill as a base.

In my Sr3 games, I allowed a lot of "hobby" skills, skills that were technically active but were unlikely to ever be meaningful, to use the Knowledge skill advancement costs. So, Dancing was classified as a hobby skill, as was shooting pool, musical skills, skateboarding, video games, etc. The end result was that characters had more hobby/character background skills, and finding a good skill to link to Centering was easy.

While there was no explicit prohibition on using a combat skill to link to Centering, It's so strongly discouraged that no one ever tried it in my games. The closest was a guy who asked about using Tai Chi forms for centering. That character never actually made it into play, but the general decision was that we'd treat his knowledge of forms as distinct from his actual Unarmed Combat skill, and he couldn't use that skill to attack or defend-- it was just for demonstrations. Essentially, it was just a fancy way of describing dancing.

I play on a twice a month format. I ll see him tomorrow only. So yet, I don't know how he feels about the Canon Companion rules

There are but the OP applied the SR3 tag to this thread to denote the rule-set his table plays, so those aren't options available to the OP.

Cool! I'm curious to see how he decides to play.

I feel like as long as he isn't rigid about dual wielding pistols, but even keeps it to one pistol, he can have a reasonable or powerful gunslinger adept type character. If he wants to have lots of pistols, he could even do a Revolver Ocelot type character with Ruger Warhawks where he carries a lot and simply changes guns to avoid reloading, but doesn't normally fire two pistols at once.

Possibly too late, but when someone in an old group wanted to do it, the GM suggested a Gun Kata martial art that had the advantage of using pistols as knuckle-duster style melee weapons with the option (possibly a custom manuever) to 'pull the trigger' and use the damage code of the pistol rather than the standard damage (from the improvised melee weapon damage table). Then he just had to take the pistols skill for regular shooting and the athletics dodging thing, with adept powers mostly being of the 'be better at the stuff I'm doing' variety, and as much cyber as could be crammed into one essence with a geasa of the 'automatically fulfilled when doing the stuff that I need those powers switched on for anyway' variety and he was good to go.

He wasn't present last friday but I was thinking about expanding the Canon Companion thing with maybe allowing to shoot while using the canon companion athletics dodge-rule:

You can shoot (like a Simple Action-so no full auto shot) while using your complex action to dodge thanks to athletics. However, the target Number is increased by +1 for a Athletics-TN of 5.

Each succes grants +1 die for your next dodge test.
Each failure though, adds +1 TN to your shooting test.

Adept power: Matrixean shooting 0,5 per rank: Each rank cancels a +1 TN to a shooting-test for moving (Whatever the source: should it be Athletics dodging or moving or running).


Opinion?



I m finally rather unsure whether he wants to do gun-fu (close contact fighting with gun) or more an matrix-style art of shooting.

Well, to me that's quite nice, but:
- The effect is quite similar to gyro stuff for cyberware or accessories. Might be limited for balance reasons… Sure there exist some adept powers corresponding to cyberware/bodyware already…
- Not really expensive in my opinion… I would look at some diminishing returns… For 3 points of adept power, you basically can ignore running on difficult ground while shooting. Or having to make a quickness or reaction test to "validate" the offsetting.

Anyway, I'd put it in my game at a higher cost.

Really? I've found that a bit expensive at first glance.

I ve thought that I would (as a player) rather get Initiative at level 3 instead of 2 for 2 initiations rathe than offsetting a +4 penalty.

Well that's just my opinion, mind you… And I was more considering character generation.

But running on normal ground gives your opponent a +2 for shooting while you wouldn't have a moving penalty. Considering a sam must get rid of one of his hands to obtain this "power", paying quite a lot of money and essence, or use a very not subtle and cumbersome gyro, I still find that cheap.

But honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised to find this power at 0.5 power point per level in MitS. My comments are just minor.

Like others have commented it seems a little economical as a physad power. There's also a bit of a logic bug that someone with lots of athletics dice can get a huge penalty compared to someone with few if they roll poorly.

How about doing it like this:

Adept power: Bullets Flow Like Smooth Bourbon
Cost: 0.75 per dice

The physad may roll Bullets Flow Like Smooth Bourbon to dodge as per using Athletics under the Cannon Companion optional rule, and may also roll these dice a second time to attack using a firearm as part of the same action.

However, the number of dice rolled to attack using this power can be no higher than the firearm skill level of the character. Furthermore, these dice do not "stack" with Improved Ability. Finally, since this power represents Gun Kata style close combat, the power can only be used to attack targets at Short range.

So a character with pistols 6 and 5 dice of Bullets Flow Like Smooth Bourbon would be able to roll 5 dice under the optional Cannon Companion rule for dodging (from the power), and also attack by rolling 5 dice (not 6) using the Bullets Flow Like Smooth Bourbon. The amount of combat pool usable is based on Bullets Flow Like Smooth Bourbon dice when used in conjunction with this power, so 5 dice, and not 6, could be added to the attack from the combat pool if available.

This power can only be used with dedicated CQB weapons, i.e. pistols, SMGs, and shotguns. (Otherwise short range shots will be your whole battlemat.)

So, basically, this power gives the attacker two actions instead of one if he chooses to simultaneously dodge and shoot, but only when engaging targets at close range. To be able to roll 6 dice in this way would represent committing 4.5 power points, so it would be a very substantive commitment that comes at the exclusion of Improved Reflexes.

Why not just use Adept Centering to negate penalties?

Maybe if you wanted to be using only basic rules to keep things simple or something like that.

But that is EXACTLY what Adept Centering is for.

While you are correct that Adept Centering is suitable for getting additional successes on skill tests (in addition to bonus dice from Improved Ability) there are two major issues with the idea of using Centering in conjunction with the Athletics tests for a Gun-Fu scenario as presented in terms of SR3 mechanics:

1. You need at least one grade of initiation just for getting those additional dice on Athletics. Minor problem overall when not talking about a starting character but a bigger problem for starting character Adepts because even with optional rules from SR3 Companion in place there's no "legit" way of initiating an Adept that isn't an Adept of the Magician's Way without giving the character some extra amount of Karma during chargen.
2. Centering explicitly requires a free action prior to the skill test you try to conduct. You can replace the standard Dodge Test with an Athletics Skill Test under the Cannon Companion rules you're still doing that as part of the standard combat resolution during an attacker's Combat Phase. Problem is twofold there:
   
   1. Technically - despite using a Skill for the Test - it's still a Dodge Test rather than a Skill Test. But even if we ignore that we're facing ...
   2. ... the problem that a character can use free actions only after the actions of the character who "owns" the Combat Phase have been resolved. The Dodge Test being part of that resolution.
   
   So no Centering on Athletics Dodge that is conducted during Combat Phases of other characters.

Technically the rule is:

You spend a Complx Action for an Athletic Test. Each success will grant you +1 die to a dodge test.

The basic rule is pretty limited in strength, actually.

I was under the impression that you and others have moved at least a little beyond the exact rule there because if you stick with that one your Gun Fu man isn't going to be doing any shooting because he's constantly using his own actions during any Initiative Pass for those Athletics Tests (for which he certainly could use Centering for successes to get more dice for Dodging) and then Dodge during the Actions of the others ...

And for the record: If it's all about getting more dice for Dodge Tests in both melee and against ranged attacks: Have a look at "Side Step" in SotA'64 ... 1 extra die for Dodge Tests (ranged) / Full Defense Tests (melee) per level at 0.5 power points per level.

Those are really good points, and not something that I initially thought of.
Thanks

Ah yes sorry. I got confused since in the post order, someone said to better stick to RAW then the discussion continued with Centering so I thought that the general idea at this point of the thread was to stick to RAW and use Centering.




This is interesting too. I note it. Honestly it's better than what I've done but if I don't build a crunch rule that fits to his will for gun-fighting, I expect him to continue to ask for something. I need a biscuit to feed him

So during lunch break I had time to ponder on how I'd create some dedicated "Gun-Fu" or "Gun Kata" that's Equilibrium like but tries to blend in RAW with a minimum amount of changes to RAW.

The first question that came to my mind was: Should being an Adept (with potentially home brewed powers) actually be a requirement or should Gun Fu be something that can be learned by anyone and being an Adept - with their tendency of significantly excelling at something they heavily focus on - just being a bonus?

Eventually I came to the conclusion that the latter would be something I preferred in the majority of cases ... so I took a look at Melee and Ranged Combat again and went through the various combat options and adept powers to get a hopefully "new" perspective. I noticed this:

1. Ranged combat as such doesn't pose too many problems in the first place, because the rules in general work pretty well there and - with the advanced rules from Cannon Companion - even handle stuff like ambidextrous attacks against single and multiple targets. There's a whole series of things that supplement such attacks when being an Adept, starting with the most obvious and direct stuff like Improved Ability ([Weapon skill of choice]) (Core Rules), Quick Strike (MitS - for which I however use the German power point cost of 2 instead of 3 from the original), Improved Reflexes [1 to 3] (Core Rules), Improved Sense ([visual stuff like IR])(Core Rules) and going from there with more "defensive" stuff like Side Step (SotA'64), Rooting (MitS), Deep Rooting (SotA'64), Multitasking (SotA'64) and Nimble Fingers (SotA'64). Possible Metamagics involve Centering (two grades: Athletics and Ranged Combat) (MitS) and Attunement Item (weapon of choice) (SotA'64). And ofc course there's always the option of adding some Cyber- and/or Bioware like Smartlink, Enhanced Articulation and Reflex Recorders (M&M).
2. Melee on the other hand - in terms of RAW - is a bit of a problem. Often you face questions like "How does being in melee affect my ranged attacks?" (we recently had such a discussion right here on this board) and - strictly by RAW - when being attacked while holding a ranged weapon you're pretty much forced to go with the Improvised Weapons list (hoping that you have the appropriate skill your hand held weapon is linked to) and that doesn't necessarily fit the "Gun Kata" theme. Discussions like this one just making things more complicated once you try to come up with suitable powers for an Adept and try not to unbalance Combat in general and/or stray too much from RAW (provided that proximity to RAW is of importance to you).

So I ended up with three steps:

1. Trying to fix the "Ranged Combat in Melee" problem before anything else
2. Provide a solution for "Gun Kata" that doesn't automatically demand a character being an Adept
3. Look how No. 2 plays out when adding (RAW) adept powers

From this point on you must consider everything as "work in progress" that will need more refinement, because I have certainly missed or (deliberately) ignored stuff, particularly some of the "edge cases":

I. Attempt at a possible solution to the "Ranged Combat in Melee" dilemma:

There are some basic situations that have to be accounted for:

1. Ranged combatant tries to shoot at another ranged combatant while neither combatant is engaged in any form of melee. Not much of a problem. Standard Ranged Combat rules can be applied.
2. Ranged combatant tries to shoot at another ranged combatant who is currently engaged in melee combat. Not much of a problem either. Standard Ranged Combat rules can be applied. A GM should impose Partial Cover modifiers (possibly the advanced ones from CC that vary between +2 and +6). Optionally create a +1 Modifier to account for target movement (but lower than +2 for a running target). Also optionally create a mechanic that deals with hitting the other melee combatant instead of your intended target.
3. A (not so) ranged combatant tries to shoot at a melee combatant who has engaged in melee with the former. Instead of Ranged Combat resolution use Melee mechanics with the ranged combatant using his weapon skill instead of a melee skill and a damage code in accordance to the base damage and the currently selected firing mode and number of bullets (normal staging effects there). Take note that due to Melee Combat the shooting character cannot make two attacks even when wielding a weapon in SA or BF mode. Introduce TN modifiers on the shooting characters side for negative reach (pistols, smgs, automatic pistols =0, the various rifle types = +1, light to heavy machine guns and assault cannons +2) but ignore recoil completely. If the attacked person wins Melee test, the attacker just wasted bullets and has to deal with the Damage that the opponent does in melee in accordance to standard melee resolution. If the shooter wins, calculate base Damage (almost) normally by using the standard ranged base calculation instead of STR-based Damage codes and use Ballistic or Impact armor in accordance to used ammo. Stage Damage Levels (and power) in accordance to melee rules with regards to net successes in melee. Draw goes to the shooter just like it would in a normal melee situation
4. (not so) Ranged combatant tries to shoot at another ranged combatant while being engaged in melee with a third combatant. Use resolution as per previous point but add +2 for being in melee and any appropriate TN modifier relative to the target from the ranged combat table (cover, target movement, uncompensated recoil, etc.). Again only one attack possible regardless of firing mode. If the third combatant wins the melee test, the shooter has wasted ammo and must deal with the third combatant's melee damage. If he wins (which is rather doubtful) he'll cause standard Ranged Combat damage based on the number of net successes scored on the test, treat draw (=0 net successes) as if 1 success had been scored for a normal Ranged attack.
5. (not so) Ranged Combatant is being attacked by a melee combatant. Standard rules would now force the ranged combatant to use his weapon as improvised melee weapon (and if the appropriate skill lacks, default to another skill or even attribute). Ranged Combatant can instead opt to follow described procedures for situation 3, but draws obviously go to the attacker. [Comment] Nice side effect of this rule chancge: even melee experts will have to deal with the (low) probability of catching a bullet

Ia) Interaction of situations 3 to 5 with other (advanced) combat options:

• For situations 3 and 5 the character may still opt for using the weapon as an improvised melee weapon instead. Normal rules on improvised weapons apply
• Ambidexterity rules apply in accordance to the Damage mechanics used on an attack. So for successfully shooting in "melee situations" 3 to 5 you either need a dedicated "off-hand[weapon]" skill or the Ambidexterity Edge with at least level 3 (=6 points). You use full main hand skill plus halved (rounded down) off-hand skill
• Dual wielding characters that actually try to use two weapons simultaneously determine their eventual damage code based on dual wield rules as well => No additional weapon damage from the off-hand weapon. Staging power by +1 per bullet beyond the first one (of the main weapon) and + Damage Level per 3 bullets fired. So no two separate attack rolls as you'd normally get for ranged akimbo shooting.
• Attacking multiple targets who happen to be in melee range (situation 3) is possible with standard TN modifiers for doing so. However, attacker must at least be able to fire a number of bullets in accordance to number of targets. Damage calculations are done on a bullets per target basis, net successes of the melee test must be split between targets. Dual wielding characters can opt to conserve ammo by shooting their weapons at different targets (with the same firing mode) and thus suffering the +2 per additional target on just one weapon. In such cases Damage calculations are done one a bullet per target and weapon basis.
• Attacking multiple targets who happen to be out of melee range (situation 4) is possible. Follow the instructions of situation 4 and add +2 per additional target and whatever modifiers an individual target might impose. Attacker must at least be able to fire a number of bullets in accordance to number of targets. Damage calculations are done on a bullets per target basis, net successes of the melee test must be split between targets. Dual wielding characters can opt to conserve ammo by shooting their weapons at different targets (with the same firing mode) and thus suffering the +2 per additional target on just one weapon. In such cases Damage calculations are done one a bullet per target and weapon basis.
• No attacking of multiple targets where some are in melee range while others are not. This stuff is already getting very complicated, if not too complicated.
• Combat Options for melee combat normally are: Called Shot, Charging Attack, Disarming, Full Defense and Knockdown Attack. When trying to fire weapons in the above described situations only the following option is available: Called Shot.
• Smartlinks bonuses do apply

II. Attempt at making Gun Fu / Gun Kata "a thing" regardless of magic attribute:

The Gun-Fu / Gun Kata theme usually is depicted as some form of Martial Art. So why not make it a Martial Art under the advanced options from Cannon Companion?

Quick break down:

Gun-Fu (Gun Kata)
Gun-Fu is modern martial art originally perceived as a myth created by Honk Kong and Hollywood movie makers. However early 21th century attempts successfully integrated the use of small arms (pistols, automatic pistols and certain smgs [Gamemasters decision]) into a system that uses elements of Wing Chun and Krav Maga. Pivotal elements of this art involve fluid blocking techniques that are followed by either hard punches with bare hand and/or the hand held fire arm(s) or even attempts of shooting the opponent. Due to its heritage this discipline suffers from the stigma of not being effective and thus the numbers of practitioners are relatively low world wide.

Advantages: Practitioners of this Martial Art are not required to have a dedicated Martial Art skill. Instead they can use any of the following the Ranged Combat skills as a replacement while wielding a corresponding weapon: Pistols, Automatic Pistols, Sub Machine Guns. GMs can exclude particular weapon models from usage as Gun-Fu weapon.
Unless noted otherwise all Gun-Fu experts can apply any of their Combat Maneuvers to any of the used ranged weapon skills during tests that use the melee combat mechanics (both when firing or using the weapon as a club) against a melee target but not when targeting a non-melee opponent.

Disdvantages: When fighting empty handed Gun-Fu practitioners can still default from any of the associated Ranged Combat skills but then suffer -1 die and a +1 TN modifier
Additionally a Gun-Fu artist's fixation on using small fire arms in pretty much any combat situation impacts on their performance with other fire arms. A character using this skill suffers -1 die to the following ranged weapon skills: Rifles, Assault Rifles, Shotguns and Sub Machine Guns. The Sub Machine Gun skill is only affected when the GM deems a particular SMG as inappropriate for Gun-Fu usage.

Special notes: Rules on Ambidexterity apply (almost) normally, i.e. Gun-Fu practitioners must learn the special Gun-Fu off-hand skill for usage in Melee based tests unless the character has a high enough Ambidexterity Edge. Dual wielding attacks with Ranged Combat mechanics suffer from the standard dual wield penalties and can only be countered with Ambidexterity as well.

Maneuvers: Blind Fighting, Close Combat, Ground Fighting, Evasion (not when firing the weapon), Herding, Kip Up, Vicious Blow (not when firing the weapon), Whirling, Zoning (not when firing the weapon).


III. Being a Gun-Fu Adept:

After some time of typing I currently fail to see any (RAW) Adept setup / Adept powers that would definitely unbalance the proposed mechanics or the Martial Art beyond the points that any Adept can unbalance stuff by being a super narrow specialist. The only potential culprit I see is Improved Ability: It could be used for firing attempts in melee and ranged combat on the mechanical end as well as serving for Ranged attacks and armed and unarmed Martial Arts tests. So a solution might be to increase power point cost for Improved Ability for the weapon skills that do not induce TN modifiers within the proposed melee mechanics, ie. pistols, automatic pistols and smgs (which also happen to be the focus point of the Gun-Fu MA)?

I've been having a think about this one after reading through it, and I have a suggestion:

RAW
Melee vs melee - you both roll your melee+combat pool, against base TN4 (plus/minus mods). Compare successes. Net successes stage up damage for the winner. Easy peasy.
Ranged combat - attacker rolls ranged combat skill+combat pool, against a TN depending on range/cover/modifiers. Net successes stage up damage for the attacker. Also easy peasy.

As I understand what you want to do:
Player Character A is in combat with Non Player Character B. NPC B is fighting with a standard martial arts attack - for sake of argument - Karate.
Player A has Pistols (6), Gun-fu (4). He has manoeuvres for Heavy and Light Pistols. He is fighting with Ares Predator III in hand. NPC B has Karate (3)
Your PC A wants to use his "gun fu" martial art to make his attack whilst still having his pistol / weapon in hand.

From my point of view there are two ways to resolve this:
To make a melee vs melee attack, with one party holding a weapon and using it as a striking or blocking surface
To make what is effectively a ranged-touch attack, one person fighting "normally" and one using the ranged rules

My thoughts are:
Define "gun-fu" as a martial art with the advantages of "may use a ranged weapon in combat without taking the +2 penalty to hit, providing you have the correct manoeuvre. Define the manoeuvres as "projectile weapon, light, medium, heavy pistols, smg, rifle, heavy weapons, exotic weapons (and any other classes from canon companion or your game world as required). So, someone with a gun-fu skill of 4, might have learnt how to use heavy pistols and smgs in combat effectively, but not rifles or other types. If trying to use a rifle in melee, they take the standard +2 penalty to hit. So, as a martial artist increases in skill, they can be caught holding more and more types of weapons in hand without being disadvantaged. Nice and simple to implement, uses the manoeuvre system straight out of the canon companion, and is more about negating a penalty, rather than increasing power/damage - so should not be open to that much abuse. As for disadvantage, you could rule that dependant on your campaign - you could go completely the other way and say that the practitioner suffers a +2 penalty when they DONT have a weapon in hand - they're used to relying on the gun to strike / block with, and feel bad without it... or maybe just a +1 to hit, or that they cannot use the full defence choice etc.

For when they want to actually shoot in melee - rather than strike/block with the weapon:
Make the skill check as normal for a melee attack - PC A's Gun-Fu dice+combat pool, vs NPC B's Karate+Combat Pool.
If NPC B wins, do damage / soak as normal, exactly as written in the rules.
IF PC A wins, then rather than do damage as normal with a melee attack, take the net successes as being indicative of being able to grapple, move, position and open the range as needed to allow a ranged attack. The number of net successes is the amount of their ranged skill that can be applied to make a separate attack roll. As normal, you can only use as many combat pool as you have main dice for the test (preserving standard rules)

E.G. Player A rolls Gun-Fu(4)+ 4 CP, 8 dice total, gets 4 successes. NPC B rolls Karate(3) and 3 CP, 6 dice total, gets 3 successes (assuming that both were on base TN of 4, average dice rolls, no other mods).
PC A has won combat by 1. They may now make a ranged attack, but only using their pistol at a basic skill level of 1, so they can only add 1 combat pool. Combat pool has not refreshed, but the ones used for the melee attack are "used", so any added to the ranged attack come from remaining combat pool. On the other hand, with a standard heavy pistol, they are doing 9M physical rather than StrM stun, so they are (unless an ork/troll or massively enhanced) likely to do more damage.

If instead, PC A had got a lucky roll, and gotten 6 successes, vs NPC B with their 3, they could have attacked with a pistol skill of up to 3, and up to 3 (if they had that many left) combat pool, increasing the potential staging of the weapon. In cinematic terms, this would equate to fighting in the combat, managing to wedge the pistol into the stomach of the opponent and letting rip perhaps, rather than the glancing shot to the flank. But, if they are using 4 CP on the melee portion of the attack, and 3 more on the ranged part, chances are they have exhausted their combat pool in one phase and have nothing for later in the phase or to soak attacks with...

As the PC gains a higher and higher skill with Gun-Fu, and they get more dice to throw at it, they can a) fight with more types of weapons in hand, which seems fair and reasonable, and b) find it easier to position an opponent to make a stronger close range attack against them, which also seems reasonable. They are likely however, not to have increased the size of their combat pool at the same rate, so the number of extra dice they can throw in for the 2nd attack, is unlikely to grow too quickly, so there are natural limits on it's effectiveness.

From my point of view though, it uses as much of the rules as written as possible, with the least possible change. You can still apply penalties to the ranged combat part of the gun-fu attack as dependent on the circumstances - so with only a few net successes say, and with the combatants rolling down a pitched roof in the rain at night - even if PC A wins and gets some net successes, there's no guarantee that the ranged attack will actually hit...
Your Gun-Fu character will still need to keep raising both their martial arts and ranged weapon skills, requiring a good investment of karma, equivalent to other players, which stops them accelerating away or unbalancing the team.
Last of all, for those times when your players find themselves disarmed for some reason, it puts the character at a disadvantage to those having "normal" martial arts skills.