[The_Anvil]

Was the intent that Strength adds to AR with melee weapons? I only ask due to page 6 of the errata for monofilament whip:

Gear
p. 250, Other Melee Weapons
table, Bullwhip and
Monofilament Whip
Add an asterisk after those two weapon names,
then add this note at the end of the table
* Whips add the attackers Reaction instead of
Strength to the Attack Rating.

The above implies Strength adds to melee weapon ARs.

Should there be errata that makes the strength attribute add to Attack Rating for non-whip melee weapons? Is it somewhere I'm missing?

[Michael Chandra]

It's an error in the errata, so you're not missing anything. Yes, melee weapons add Strength to AR, but on the other hand Strength no longer factors in damage of an unarmed attack. (It already didn't for weapons.)

[The_Anvil]

That's a pretty reasonable way to make Str more relevant. Glad to know it!

[Michael Chandra]

Agreed, shame it accidentally wasn't made as clear. (Mind you, I'd still like a bit more use for Strength but this is still nice without damaging the balance.)

[Finstersang]

Agreed, shame it accidentally wasn't made as clear. (Mind you, I'd still like a bit more use for Strength but this is still nice without damaging the balance.)

Yeah, me to. I experimented with a lot of houserules to adress this, but with the latest change, I think I found my preferred solution.

• You continue to add Strength to the AR of Melee Weapons
• When performing a Melee Attack, you can choose to lower your Attack Rating by 3 for +1 Base damage. You can do this multiple times for a single Melee Attack, with a max. of Strength/3 (round) up per Combat Turn.

Think of it as the equivalent of safe, but somewhat weak punch and a brutal, but highly telegraphad haymaker. Mechanically, it´s pretty much the melee equivalent of firing additional bullets, but it´s -3 instead of -2 AR per additional point of Damage, since you don´t waste Ammo when you hit someone with a fist or sword.

The additional per-round-Limitation further emphasizes the role of Strength while also keeping things balanced and tactically interesting for characters with high Strenght and/or multiple passes. F.i., a Strength 10 Cybertroll with 2 Melee Attacks could choose to load up both Attacks with +2 Damage for -6 AR each, but he could also chose to perform the first Attack with the full AR for max Edge gain and then use that Edge to make sure that the follow-up Attack with +4 Damage connects. Making the best choice here requires you to estimate and analyse your oppositions DR and the flow of combat.

[MercilessMing]

I like that house rule Fintersang, have you been able to play it much?

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

I like that house rule Fintersang, have you been able to play it much?

There was more to the proposed errata than just having STR add to AR... but since none of those supporting changes were implemented it looks like it was rejected rather than omitted.  I like to believe that there's a/some optional rule(s) coming in Firing Line to address this already in the works.  Could very well be something like what Fintersang is imagining.  I think his is a solid idea, at any rate.

[Sugarpink]

It's an error in the errata, so you're not missing anything. Yes, melee weapons add Strength to AR, but on the other hand Strength no longer factors in damage of an unarmed attack. (It already didn't for weapons.)

Where does it state that melee weapons add Strength to AR? I can not find anything of the like. Am I just missing it in the core book?

[Finstersang]

I like that house rule Fintersang, have you been able to play it much?

Thanks   

So far, I only had a short session with that rule in place; but there was a little brawl going down where the players (and the NPC!) could test it out. The runners actually varied their Attack strength quite often: For some Attacks they played it safe and for others they went in with full force with no regards Edge gain (or denial). I take it as a good sign that there´s no immediately obvious dominant strategy here. In longer battles, you get rewarded for analysing your opponents defenses and testing out Attacks with varying AR to find the "Pivot points" where you can deny or gain Edge while maximizing Damage. 

On the NPC side, it also created an interesting situation where the gameplay mechanics and the narrative went together very smoothly: One of the NPC was particulary pissed at a runner who provoced him before and during the fight. As a GM, I figured that this NPC would use full force when attacking that runner. In this case, that meant +2 damage at the expense of 6 points of AR - which just so happened to be enough to let the runner earn Edge on each Attack. And as the Brute never managed ot hit properly (yes, booze was part of the situation), the runner was able to save the Edge up for a stylish Counterattack. Discombombulate?

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

It's an error in the errata, so you're not missing anything. Yes, melee weapons add Strength to AR, but on the other hand Strength no longer factors in damage of an unarmed attack. (It already didn't for weapons.)

Where does it state that melee weapons add Strength to AR? I can not find anything of the like. Am I just missing it in the core book?

Alas. This particular erratum was, for whatever reason, implemented imperfectly.  The actual rule itself was not added, but some of the supporting citations that reference the rule (pgs 109 melee combat example sidebar, and the aforementioned rules that state that whips add Reaction instead of Strength to AR) are there.

[MercilessMing]

Been thinking about this more with a new game coming up, and I think I can put into words the reason this change doesn't "do it" for me. 
One, a bunch of AR points were just added across the board, without considering the change to edge in melee.  DR hasn't changed but melee AR is now 2-6 points higher across the board. 
Second is the idea that "this is all strength does".  Strength doesn't have a solid home anywhere in the rules; no clear domain that it governs, just a patchwork of alternate skill tests and derived statistics.  And while it might still be useful to make a character with good strength, the opportunity cost of raising STR with karma after the game has begun is huuuuge.  It is just not worth a 5x Rating cost. 
Really, this is why I still favor house rules that allow rolling STR as a linked att in close combat.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Well the good news is that you already can roll STR+Close Combat even without delving into house rules   The concept of linking skills to attributes is by design more fuzzy this time around.  If the GM wants you to roll STR instead of AGI while you're wielding a Combat Axe... that's already baked in.

[Finstersang]

Granted, the GM just ruling things differently or filling out certain gaps is always an option, in every system
But in this case, i don´t feel that the RAW is intended to be that "malleable". If there was a single line that would support to use Strength instead of Agility, that would have already been brought up in discussions about the matter. It´s a good idea, but only for those who like to stray from the sacred texts (or for the combat supp?)...

Although I already do have a preferred houserule in place: What about allowing Melee Attackers to completely switch out the role of Agility and Strength? Like, you roll with Strength + Unarmed Combat and add Agility to the Base Weapon AR (or Reaction) instead? That makes Strength more valuable and adds a bit of tactical variety. That could be employed as an additional Combat rule or via a cheap "Martial Arts"-Perk.

Apart from Melee: It´s generally weird how few checks actually use strength, even without looking at Melee Combat. Running and pretty much all Athletik tests is linked to Agility now. RAW, not even Lift and Carry uses Strength in the actual dice roll. It´s only related to strength because the hits add to the effective Strength for the Lift/Carry calculation.

A calculation that is totally messed up right now, because once again, someone didn´t understand how exponential growth works  So, there´s your 100% RAW-supported answer on why to put points in Strength: So you can bench-press a car. 

[Tecumseh]

@Finstersang (or anyone, but specifically interested because of his house rule)

Do you have any house rules around throwing knives or shuriken?

Do you think it's viable to treat them the same way as melee weapons, namely adding Strength to the Attack Rating and then applying your house rule to reduce AR to improve DV?

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

A house rule that I support is expanding the rule for high strength boosting Hardened Cyberlimbs' DV to all melee weapons (other than whips, and anything else that adds REA in place of STR to AR).