Fists

Fists
The Fists skill is your ability to hold your own in a fistfight, with no weapons available but your bare hands (with a few exceptions). With specialized training (represented by taking stunts), this may include the practice of a more disciplined kind of fisticuffs, such as martial arts. Characters with a high Fists skill are a blur of fists and feet in a fight—delivering sudden uppercuts and body-blows—and are pretty adept at not getting hit themselves. They include bouncers, thugs, and martial artists. Many of the restrictions on the uses of Fists (such as using certain close-combat weapons, or the sorts of things Fists can be used to defend against) can be set aside with the right kind of martial arts training. Invariably, this level of training is reflected with a few martial-arts oriented stunts.

Without those stunts, you might still have some basic self-defense style training, but you haven’t yet attained the level of “art.”

  

Brawling 

''As a combat  skill, Fists is rolled to make attacks and maneuvers when you are using nothing other than your body to get the job done. Brass knuckles and the like allow you to use Fists, but in general, attacks that use a tool—be it a staff, knife, sword, or broken bottle—use the Weapons  skill instead. ''

''Bare hands have the advantage that they’re always with you, but the disadvantage that they almost never offer a damage boost on a successful hit. ''

  

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Close-Combat Defense 

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;margin-left:24px;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">''Fists may be rolled as a defense against other Fists attacks and against short-reach, close quarters weapons such as knives and short clubs, representing the ability to block or dodge an opponent’s attacks. It can’t be used as a defense  when the weapon arguably has a significant reach advantage (swords, staves, and guns), unless you can justify it as an unusual circumstance—e.g., “My skin is bulletproof, so I should be able to block a sword if I do it right” or “I’m right next to the guy, so I’m going to try to push his arm aside as he makes the shot with the gun.” As a rule, Fists can usually be justified as a defense against attacks that come from the same zone as you and rarely against attacks from outside that zone.''