Do people allow Athletics as a melee/close-combat defense?

[admiralducksauce]

Like the subject says, do you allow Athletics as a close-combat defense skill, or do you require a Weapons or Fists roll*?

*Assuming there's no stunt involved that explicitly says "use Athletics to dodge swords".

[Vairelome]

Yes?  Why wouldn't you?  Athletics is explicitly valid for both melee-range and extended-range defense against physical attacks by the RAW; a stunt like the one you suggest would be thoroughly redundant.

[UmbraLux]

Athletics is the default for dodging.  See the Dodging trapping on YS121.

[admiralducksauce]

Huh.  How about that.  For some reason my brain had locked onto Athletics only working on ranged defense and Weapons/Fists being used for melee defense.

Thanks guys.

[Dravokian]

I allow parries to be made with weapons or fists but they have to take a stunt to do it. Effectively allowing them to trade the dodge trapping over to a different skill.

[DFJunkie]

I allow parries to be made with weapons or fists but they have to take a stunt to do it. Effectively allowing them to trade the dodge trapping over to a different skill.

Wait, I thought that you could explicitly use fists to defend against fists, and weapons to defend against fists or weapons.  Did I mistakenly import something from SoTC without meaning to?

[Dravokian]

i wrote in parries but i meant to type dodges... with the stunt you can dodge spells, bullets, and blades with your hands or weps... kinda like deflecting bullets and the like. I believe parries can be made as you stated without the stunt but the stunt allows all default dodging to be made with a different skill.

[Tedronai]

there is a 'canon' stunt to do that for fists, the only 'houserule' is to allow weapons an equivalent stunt

[DFJunkie]

Ah, okay. 

I always thought that was kind of a no-brainer stunt.  If we assume that sprinting allows you to avoid bullets and blasts of flame it's a pretty small leap to allow it for people who know fencing, kung fu, or the like.

Personally I wouldn't even explain it as a parry, just that your training in [whatever] included enough foot work and positioning that you can use [whatever] as a universal dodge.

[sinker]

That's pretty much what the stunt says. Hell, it's called footwork.

[DFJunkie]

That's pretty much what the stunt says. Hell, it's called footwork.

Heh, good point.  I knew I should shut up while I don't have the books.

[computerking]

Heh, good point.  I knew I should shut up while I don't have the books.

That one's not from the books, it's a custom stunt here on the boards.

[Tedronai]

Footwork is on YS152.

[polkaneverdies]

The fists version is in YS. The weapons version is on the custom list and I accidentally gave it the same name as the fists version. So you are both correct.

[Sanctaphrax]

I thought that the identical name was intentional. I like it the way it is.