Make firearms use melee when empty
:D

Pistol whipping also sounds cool at least for RP, not so much for combat. Can you kill people with a pizza slice, yes? So I guess guns shouldn't be much different.

You still have to watch your ammo and engage the safety when you're out of bullets, requiring active monitoring (and raising the question of why you don't just reload if you have another clip).

That would make it more likely that you only use your gun for melee either as a last resort or when you just want to be baller and smash someone's face in with a pistol whip.

This would also give guns a non-lethal option and in fact let them transform from lethal to non-lethal, although requiring a different skill. Should be considered.

That is a very smart approach to that. Thank you.

The code limitation piece should be fairly obvious to you if you relate it to the WJF Enforcer II and it's two ammo types. The safety feature Crooknose mentions seems like a comparable toggle method though that could totally work.

That said, I've always enjoyed needing a backup weapon or HtH skill for the scenario when the gun jams or runs out of ammo. It adds some solid nuance to the firearm user and creates opportunities to do things like hand someone an unloaded weapon knowing they can't do much with it.

I will admit though - in my early days of SD I assumed melee was responsible for a firearms ability to parry.

A suitable CP gun modification would be my ideal compromise in this scenario but overall I'm just not feeling it.

"WHAT MAKES THE GRASS GROW!?!"

"BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!!!"

For nothing.

You can absolutely hit people with a rifle, bayonet mounted or otherwise. It's not ideal and I doubt it would do much damage, but it can be done if someone gets too close orrrrr really dire straights, you run out of bullets.

I was thinking that if it uses the weapon then it should depend on the weapon skill it usually would. Otherwise a separate skill investment would just make this a different flavour of mixing a shooter char with martial arts / brawling, just now using your gun as a club with the melee skill.

Low damage melee and the near total inability to parry anything at all might be fair.

Might I suggest a rail mounted tazer that has bollocks hit, but fucks your stamina from the shock? Like a rifle mounted cattle prod, or perhaps a baton-head like object that ejects from the stock, switching you to melee while you wield a weapon that was hidden inside your weapon, rather than beating a guy with your 3D printed no reload piece of trash.

I like the safety idea as a quick kinda deal for this, but there's far more themely ways we could take this.

Many people go into a gun fight forgetting to switch their safety off. I don’t see how that would be different from holding your stiletto without extending the blade, or the same with your baton.

The design encourages you to pick the right tool (or person) for the job. TERRA doesn't walk around with knives because their job is not to kill people, etc.

Guess I'm thinking more weak alternative mode to firearm skills for less-lethal action as opposed to melee skill for added flavour.

And it would make it hard to juggle effectively as it would be yet another possible synergy for two DIFFERENT classes. So I doubt it would end up unbalanced.

+1

If it were done for guns then it'd have to be for knives too, which is another thing to consider. (If going with gun skill over melee skill) Also keep in mind that guns can jam, which happens far often than one might think in certain situations.

Weapons that have more or better nonlethal options have weaknesses elsewhere. This way you have assassination missions where it makes more sense to hire the gun guys and gang brawls where if you bring an uzi everyone is going to rightfully call you a serial killer. It stresses keeping people to their archetypes rather than just doing everything themselves.