Originally posted by iceage
Im just trying to find out if you have to specialize in weapon skills.

Such as Melee (blades) or melee (blunt weapons)

In my campaign I would say no because then martial artists would really get an advantage over other combat skills.

With that being the case why is their a place for melee combat specializations.

Well as far as I understand the Shard mentality is that the choice between different weapon types (except firearms & bows which have a range component) are mostly a roleplaying thing.

It can have some interesting results, for instance I had my character battle a wild suthra with a burning stick snatched from my campfire just recently.

And thus I'm inclined to discourage the use of such specializations. *shrugs*

Originally posted by iceageJust an idea:
why not let characters buy a level of specialization with a certain weapon such as a knife, sword, staff etc... and get 2d6 instead of one.

Hmm, double dice is quite a crass bonus!
What I would personally suggest, is to give them a few extra dice or less penalties in situations in which a specialization in a certain weapon type would be an advantage! (only allow one specialization in this case though)

Sword Advantage:
Cramped areas (+1), Against Brawlers (+1), Against Heavier Weapons (+1), Unarmored Targets (+1)

Spear Advantage:
Against soft/lightly armored targets using short range melee weapons (+1), Riders (+3)

Blunt Advantage:
Against Amber (+1), Against Crystal (+1), Against Undead (+2), Against Stone (+2, Heavy Hammer +3)

Axe Advantage:
Against Medium Armor (+1), Against Wood (+3), Against Chitin (+1), Against other Natural Armor (+1)

Or for instance, a player specialized on spears. Your player wants to execute a maneuver effect from the maneuver location table.

Spears are really good at stabbing and keeping people at distance (I know hellebards can slash but they are not good at stabbing! So just take that into account)... not so much at slashing generally. And you can't really so sucessfully whack people with a spear either!

So when your player wants to sever limbs, stun, or knockout, I wouldn't give him any bonus points.

However if he did stuff this weapon type was good at, like causing Internal Damage or breaking ribs by stabbing the torso, lost feature by stabbing the face, lame limbs by stabbing those, and so on, you could give the player a little less penalty (melee weapons are kinda gimped when it comes to the maneuver table anyhow, they get -2 on any of those effects D:).

I would maybe suggest:

Melee Specializations:
Sword: Low/Moderate Penalty Reductions on both stabbing and slashing related actions.
Axes: High Penalty Reductions on slashing, Low Reductions on bludgeoning.
Clubs/Hammers: High Penalty Reduction when bludgeoning (subdue)

I can imagine that from a mechanic like this there could stem some cool teamplay where one guy with a club concentrates on subduing or subdue/fatal enemies, while a sword guy swoops in when there's fatal damage to be dealt. Make sure to disarm your characters once in a while though so they have to fight without snazzy bonuses!

Melee Combat does not require specializations. If you take the Melee Combat Skill, you can use any weapon that would be considered a melee weapon (whether bladed, blunt, hinged, etc.).

I suppose you could add Specializations to Melee Combat if you wanted to make melee weapons more difficult to learn and master. That's up to the GM.

Originally posted by Aaron de Orive
Melee Combat does not require specializations. If you take the Melee Combat Skill, you can use any weapon that would be considered a melee weapon (whether bladed, blunt, hinged, etc.).

I suppose you could add Specializations to Melee Combat if you wanted to make melee weapons more difficult to learn and master. That's up to the GM.

Yeah that was what I was thinking, but if he really wants to reward his players for devoting themselves to weapon type he could give adding specializations like that a try (only giving a one time bonus though), or just some kind of expensive talent (5 - 10 points?) called "Weapon Proficiency: <Weapon Type>" that unlocks these advantages.

Might overcomplicate his first game though!

Originally posted by iceage
I was just wondering why the character sheet had a spot listed if none were listed in the main book.

Well,...like Aaron said, Melee doesn't require specializations of any kind, but we put that slot there just in case players simply wanted to designate the weapon type their character was proficient in, if nothing else than for the sake of the storyline...

Additionally, since we are delighted by folks taking the basic rules and adding their own flair, if the idea of adding house rules (like the ones mentioned by the folks above) for weapon specialization, or in fact for any kind of specialization, strikes your fancy, then having those slots (and other "open-ended" aspects) gives our character sheets the flexibility to adapt to the desires of the GM and their players'...

Heh,..that,...and we didn't see any reason not to....

Scottie