Sword shticks questions.

The Golden Comeback sourcebook (p#60) has a list of what are basically gun shticks used for swords, but doesn't say anything about whether they are then gun shticks, fu shticks, or neither (in which case, there is no list of which types can start with them, or the cost of buying them). Any information?

[color=darkblue]I can't pinpoint where I read this, but I believe they're considered Fu schticks, since they technically don't involve guns. Anyway, that's how I treat them. The only thing that indicates otherwise is that the description of Carnage as a sword schtick mentions using it "with fu schticks", so the wording implies that maybe they're still considered gun schticks. But I just think that's odd, so I ignore it and say they're fu.

As for who gets 'em, I allow any martial artsy type to trade gun or fu schticks for them, if they want, during char gen. And I allow anyone who can reasonably justify a melee schtick to use them also. (If a spy wants to use Carnival of Carnage for his favorite stilleto knife, that's cool with me.)

For cost, I let PCs buy them per Gun schtick rules, since that's where they originate.

They're considered "Gun" schticks and are bought/used just like Gun schticks. This allows you to create a "Killer" in 69 AD who specializes in melee weapons.

The confusing part is whether you allow the same character to buy both sword and gun schticks, in which case what do they cost, and are they interchangeable? That's more of a GM judgement call, but I'd recommend keeping them separate, and just specify when a schtick is bought whether it's for melee or ranged.

I call them 'Sword schticks', with the same cost breakdown as gun schticks, but a separate category. I drew up a conversion of the Killer to use them and put it on my site.

As they are more expensive, I probably wouldn't allow Fu power only characters to get them at character creation, but characters with Martial Arts and Guns and a mixture of schticks I would allow to use a gun schtick to purchase one of them.

Slice it however you feel is right, really. You know what we do to rules lawyers round these parts, and it ain't pretty...

Decorative. But not pretty.

I'm more of a rules engineer than a rules lawyer (ie, I like lots of crunchy in my systems, but I'm also fond of letting players suggest alterations and so forth to help things out).

That said:

Weapon Schticks are priced just like Gun Schticks in my campaign, and tracked separately. Just as you need a Guns 12 to buy Gun Schticks, you need Martial Arts 12 to buy Weapon Schticks.

Here's one for all those characters who want to duel like a Klingon:

BIZZARE WEAPON: You have mastered some truly exotic weapon that most people can't even figure out how to pick up without hurting themselves. The unique design makes it difficult for those unfamiliar with it to counter; thus, every rank you have in this Schtick lowers the benefit of an Active Dodge by 1. The Active Dodge bonus cannot go below zero, but someone with five Schticks in Bizzare Weapon can even eliminate, say, the Scrappy Kid's Active Dodge bonus.
The weapon should be described by the player at the time they take the Schtick, and the Schtick only applies to that variety of exotic weapon. The weapon can have any damage value from +1 to +4, set at the time the Schtick is chosen. It has a Concealment rating equal to double the weapon's damage bonus.
In addition to taking the Schtick multiple times with the same weapon, characters can also choose to take the Schtick with a different exotic weapon type.
In the case of two characters with this Schtick fighting one another, the Schticks cancel out; if one character has more iterations of the Schtick than his opponent, however, he gets the benefit from the difference.
This Schtick is only available at character creation to characters who have the Netherworld as their point of origin. PCs from 'active' junctures can learn it as a Weapon Schtick.

Example: Tolna Fromme, a Netherworld Killer, has 3 Schticks in Bizzare Weapon with the Ful-shu G'nar, a highly improbable looking 4-foot metal pole with chain balls at either end, and 6-inch cross-bar spikes at the center (damage Strength +4, Concealment 8). She has just finished teaching Peter Gunne, a PI from the Modern Juncture, how to use the weapon (Peter just bought one Schtick with this weapon). When Peter attacks someone else with the Ful-shu, he lowers their Active Dodge bonus by 1; when Tolna attacks someone else, she lowers their Active Dodge by 3; and when they spar together, Peter gets no benefit, but Tolna only reduces Peter's Active Dodge bonus by 2.

The idea here is that the character is using a weapon that pre-dates some long-lost critical shift, from a culture where this weapon was actually the norm. Although expensive (like all Gun/Weapon Schticks), it can ultimately equal a Chi-free, always-on Hands without Shadow, which is pretty impressive.