There are several weapons that fit this category, but i was wondering if the rules account for it, as I didn't see any. Spears (some vibro-axes, even lightsabers) function both as melee and ranged light, depending on usage. As a general rule, personally, I use the theory, "if it stays in the hand, it is melee; if is thrown, it becomes ranged light."

To address some people who say: "Spears were meant to be thrown."
In favor- For hunting, spears were ideal for ranged hitting, but were good for up close blocking and stabbing.
Against- Combat spears were designed for two handed thrusting first and throwing second, as throwing your spear essentially gives it to the enemy.

Perfect examples of spear usage can be seen in the series Spartacus. There spear does get thrown, but usually at the end of any combat. Prior to that, it is used similar to a bo staff with a point. In bigger battles, you can see the troops line up behind their shields with the spear users behind them poking at charging enemies. This is also seen in 300, as it was the prime reason the Spartans won- their use of terrain made ranged attacks useless.

Regardless, I do not see any rules that address the dual nature of the weapon and my local GM and I have had discussions, but want to hear your thoughts

I have no problem with Spears being thrown: Short Range, pool built with Brawn and Ranged Light (rather than Agility).

Although Throwing a Spear requires some Agility it is very much about Skill with Strength for range and Damage. So combining Brawn (Strength) and Light Ranged (Skill) covers throwing quite well.

It's probably along the lines of how grappling is just blanket covered by the Brawl skill.

I think your interpretation is spot on!

If it's a longspear I'd rule it as a two-handed weapon, too heavy and cumbersome to be effectively thrown. A smaller, one-handed spear I'd use with Melee+Brawn when fighting with it and Ranged (light) or (heavy)+Agility when throwing it.

Well like Krieg points out, it's a matter of the kind of spear...

A javelin is a thrown spear, intended for throwing.

A longspear is a melee weapon that isn't intended for throwing at all.

A Short spear is a melee weapon, that can be thrown, but isn't really good at either.

So my call...

Using a javelin in Melee, or throwing a longspear will be essentially (or exactly) like using improvised weapons. It gets the inferior quality and breaks easily.

The short spear I'd just make inferior all around, but usable in both.

I've taken to using Brawn + Athletics for thrown weapons. For short range, it would be an Average () Athletics check, with characters having 4+ Brawn able to make a Hard () Athletics check for medium range.

That's the way we do it...

Melee in hand, Ranged if thrown.

(Although, depending on the size of spear, Brawn + Ranged might just be perfect - I'm a big fan of mixing stats & skills when appropriate).

Edit: BUH'LETED

(What I said was already mentioned earlier.)

I've taken to using Brawn + Athletics for thrown weapons. For short range, it would be an Average () Athletics check, with characters having 4+ Brawn able to make a Hard () Athletics check for medium range.

I have it down as Melee for hand-hand and Athletics when thrown. I didn't want an Ewok spear master to also be a blaster pistol master even though he's never even seen one.

I've taken to using Brawn + Athletics for thrown weapons. For short range, it would be an Average () Athletics check, with characters having 4+ Brawn able to make a Hard () Athletics check for medium range.

I have it down as Melee for hand-hand and Athletics when thrown. I didn't want an Ewok spear master to also be a blaster pistol master even though he's never even seen one.

Athletics makes sense.

Athletics makes sense if you're competing in a Javelin Toss, field games-style. It doesn't make so much sense in combat, for two reasons.

1. Grenades are nothing like blasters, which in turn would (I imagine) handle differently than slugthrowers and stun arrows fired from compound bows. All of these are very different from bolas, which are thrown in a different way than nets are thrown. And yet, they all share the same skill, which is Ranged (Light). So it really depends on what you're trying to do with the thrown spear, but if the goal is to kill the other dude rather than throw it farther than the other dude, the Ranged (Light) combat skill is where you wanna be.

2. The Age of Rebellion Beginner game has both spears and javelins, here in the Operation: Shadowpoint Adventure: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/4/28/operation-shadowpoint/

Melee and Ranged (Light), respectively (they are on page 19 if you are having trouble finding them). I'd say if you wanted to throw such a "spear," you'd treat it as an improvised Ranged (Light) weapon. And if you wanted to jab and stab in melee with the "javelin," it's an improvised Melee weapon.

Clean and simple, doesn't need to be more complicated than that (not that it can't be more complicated, of course. It's your call ).

I agree that it should be based on the current usage. In my campaign my soldier was at close quarters with an opponent and firing his weapon would have set off an alarm, so he used his rifle as a melee weapon, and rifle butted the officer in the face, we used the improvised weapon rules from the book, but didn't suffer any setbacks since most soldiers would be trained on how to rifle butt someone, and use their weapon as a melee weapon. It took several hits, since my character was brawn 2, and 0 melee, but I remembered true aim worked as for melee as well, so eventually I overpowered him.

I don't think letting people use Melee for a thrown attack with a spear would be that much of an issue, really. Spears are cumbersome so you have very low ammo counts, they have short range at best, and aren't (significantly) more damaging than a blaster (e.g. a Brawn 5 character throwing a Force Pike is doing 8P2, which is ~= blaster rifle damage). As melee is generally less powerful than ranged, letting characters throw spears with their Melee skill would up its value a little.