Modifiying gloves and boots to increase unarmed/martial art damage

[CosmicKobal]

I’m thinking that it would be cool to be able to modify your gloves or boots to increase unarmed damage. if you could add studded knuckles, spiked knuckles, etc to existing gloves, then you could use pockets to keep your hands warm while still having decent melee output.

or add spikes or metal banding to boots to increase kick damage.

[Coolthulhu]

Pockets work for weapons with volume 0 and 1 already. And bare hands have decent damage.

[WIndburns]

I really like this idea.

Also super glue and some nails could work too.

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Or have that thing that’s just knives in between your fingers. (Like more than one punch dagger)

[Random_dragon]

Or slip keys between your fingers if you want to hurt yourself more than the person you’re punching.

[WIndburns]

Steel chains wrapped on gloves etc. Come On!

[troll_from_behind]

The thing that bothers me with these is that are they actually that good?
Most of the martial arts have they fixed weapons, that are integrated into style and by adding things, that don’t belong to the art begin with therefor possibly making the ma less useful, very least taking away the bonuses coming with the art?
With brawling ANYTHING goes, but it’s OP to begin with.

[kevin.granade]

It’s not that using things to make you hit harder with a punch doesn’t have much effect, it’s that once you switch to a weapon, getting reach and momentum out of holding a weapon instead of punching is much more effective.

Lots of people have used brass knuckles or similar throughout the years, but the main benefit of them compared to other weapons is their small size rather than their total effectiveness.

[Random_dragon]

Personally I’d rather ponder the original idea of armor factoring into unarmed attacks.

[Rhodri]

Personally I’d rather ponder the original idea of armor factoring into unarmed attacks.

Me too. That power armor made of steel I wear has to make punches hurt a bit more, right?

[Random_dragon]

Exactly. Plus, boxing gloves. They’re armor, right? And yet they don’t make you able to cut loose and punch harder due to the added cushioning.

[Aluminumfoil]

Maybe certain weapons should carry a “Close” flag, and if what you’re wielding doesn’t have it, trying to attack or fire after you’ve been grabbed prompts “your weapon is too big to use while grabbed; try a smaller weapon or unarmed attack”. Or use volume for this - volume of 3 or less can be used while grabbed, higher volumes can’t.

(Since you don’t have room to swing or aim your big weapon, you’d need to pull out your knife or pistol, or start punching to try to get free.)

This would provide some use to unarmed combat, as well as knives and other close-range weapons, as something other than a novelty or a low-volume alternative to a “real” weapon.

[kevin.granade]

That’s a really good point, though I think an easy way to implement it is to give some kind of penalty to attacking while grabbed that scales with weapon size instead of outright preventing you from using your larger weapons.

[Random_dragon]

That sounds better, yeah. Volume affecting close-quarters use. Doesn’t volume do the same thing for close-quarters shooting?

[Aluminumfoil]

I think an easy way to implement it is to give some kind of penalty to attacking while grabbed that scales with weapon size

That sounds good to me, too.