<< IMHW it's actually a mistake to interpret "close combat" as a meta-ability.
Methinks this interpretation came about because Robin was lazy enough to use "close combat" as a generic tag for any combat ability (instead of characterizing it as "fierce fighter", "tough warrior", "swordsmanship" and what have you), and later misinterpreted as analogous to an affinity by Greg et al.
Having meta-abilities in the game smacks too much of skill categories, which is definitely not a feature i would like see added to HW. >>
I definitely agree with this. Which heroic character from fiction/myth is ever decribed as "very good at close combat"? The various descriptions are much more in line with HW ideas (IMO) . Swordsmanship is therefore OK for duels, fighting with swords etc but not so useful is you're thrown into a pit of wolves without any weapons, whereas 'fierce fighter' is not going to score you points at the 'finesse school of fancy fencing' but it might clobber a few enemies.
Keith N
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