Is there any official word on, when brawling, whether or not two fists can use the two weapons fighting rule?

There was and they can. Need not be fists, the rule can be used and two attacks attempted. Specifics are left to the narrative imo.

Is it in the developer answered questions somewhere? Or somewhere in the books I missed?

Question asked by Jegergryte (Paraphrased) :

... <Note from the editor, not sure what Jegergryte asked specifically>...

Answered by Sam Stewart:

1) You can use Brawl weapon s with two- weapon fighting.

2) Brawl is intentionally open to interpretation, but yes you can use it with the two- weapon fighting rules as a kind of "flurry of blows". Sam does point out the increased chance of failure doing this however.

3) Therefore you can also use two- weapon fighting for a knife and fist/foot attack.

A single brawl attack for the most part involves your two hands. A "double" brawl attack follows the same rules as wielding two weapons, including increasing the difficulty before you attack. The devs describe this as a "flurry of fists."

Edit:

awayputurwpn beat me by a minute and included quotes from the devs.

Melee with added fist or foot can easily be credited to advantages and causing strain - against minions and rivals it amounts to the same as dual wielding, it's arguably better as there is no soaking of strain from advantages.

Example: Attack with a knife +1 damage, with Brawn 3, dice pool result is: two successes and four advantages against a soak of 5, that's 1 damage, but potentially four strain - against a minion or rival that's pretty neat.

Sadly, I've never actually seen this in play. Since Melee and Brawl are different skills, that's a hefty +2 difficulty to the attack roll. Star Wars has plenty of instances of Melee attacks with Brawl mixed in (kicks in pretty much every other lightsaber duel). Maybe we'll get a talent down the line where Melee and Brawl can be used together with just the +1 difficulty.

Given that a turn is a minute long, I think it's usually easier to handle this narratively. If your opponent ends up with Threat, maybe they took Strain because *you kicked them* as they attacked. If you're fighting minions, criticals can be narrated as multiple "hits", so you kick one guy away (using the knife damage), and stab your knife through another's eye.

Generally I like the added difficulty. It's already almost too easy to land a hit, and by the time you're rolling YYGG you can easily default to two-weapon fighting, so Talents that mitigate a more difficult kind of attack would seem overpowered to me.

Oh, I'm fine with the added difficulty for two-weapon fighting in general. I also agree that the narrative option is a good work around. I just wish that Melee and Brawl could be used together with a Hard, rather than Daunting check. Generally speaking, two-weapon fighting with Melee + Melee is less balanced than Melee + Brawl, yet the latter is more difficult.

Advantages can't be used to inflict strain against enemies unless you have a talent or gear that specifically allows for that. You're mixing up the strain that can be incurred by the active character when Threats are rolled.

Do'h! You're of course correct.

Still, you can give yourself a boost die or them a setback die, being narrated as a fist to the gut or a boot to the groin. Same same...

Duel wielding is an interesting concept I've been encouraging my PCs to play with. Nothing better than scoring two hits instead of one.

After reading this I think I can suggest to the brawler in my group to go for the "fury of strikes" so to speak.

His character is a Togarian, which "Claws" add +1 to brawl damage. Do you think that should stack if the character used the Brass knuckles which also add to damage and is brawl?

His character is a Togarian, which "Claws" add +1 to brawl damage. Do you think that should stack if the character used the Brass knuckles which also add to damage and is brawl?

I’d let him add Claw damage to brass knuckles, sure. But not to vibro-knuckles — too similar in terms of effect, and there’s only so much slicing you can do in the same attack.

His character is a Togarian, which "Claws" add +1 to brawl damage. Do you think that should stack if the character used the Brass knuckles which also add to damage and is brawl?

I wouldn't let him. Claws has the advantage of having a better critical cost, as well as always being "drawn", while the Brass Knuckles give Disorient 3. You pick the effect you want most and use either claws or knuckles. Not to mention how there's a pretty big difference between raking someone with the claws on your fingertips and punching them with your fist.

Fair points about the Disorient and increased Crit ratio. Thanks for the help guys.

His character is a Togarian, which "Claws" add +1 to brawl damage. Do you think that should stack if the character used the Brass knuckles which also add to damage and is brawl?

I wouldn't let him. Claws has the advantage of having a better critical cost, as well as always being "drawn", while the Brass Knuckles give Disorient 3. You pick the effect you want most and use either claws or knuckles. Not to mention how there's a pretty big difference between raking someone with the claws on your fingertips and punching them with your fist.

Additionally to this, brass knuckles are used by making a fist around a solid object (generally one that also covers the backs of the knuckles) and then punching. It adds more weight to the punch plus your fist doesn't compress as much which further improves the impact. Claws are generally at the ends of your fingers and used by having your hand open. The brass knuckles aren't weighted for this kind of attack and will have a quite limited, if any, effect on the damage incurred by it.

In short, the two attacks are significantly different and wouldn't really stack well. Like trying to use brass knuckles to improve elbowing a guy.. it's not really going to help.

Sadly, I've never actually seen this in play. Since Melee and Brawl are different skills, that's a hefty +2 difficulty to the attack roll. Star Wars has plenty of instances of Melee attacks with Brawl mixed in (kicks in pretty much every other lightsaber duel). Maybe we'll get a talent down the line where Melee and Brawl can be used together with just the +1 difficulty.

The example you give could be a combined use of Lightsaber and Brawl, but it could also be a straight Lightsaber attack with the kick as a narrative description.

Dafydd, Jegergryte, and whafrog make some good points as to why one need not use the two-weapon rules when trying to use fists/feet alongside other weapons. The narrative dice can give you the results you're looking for, assuming it's generally just being a badass in combat.

Consider also that the goal when mechanically fighting with two weapons is usually to deal more damage, and Brawl isn't always the most effective way of dealing damage. When Brawling, you're usually looking for Advantage to activate one of the cool qualities inherent in a Brawl attack.

There are some things you can do to make Brawl a very effective mode of damaging a foe, of course. For those builds, this sort of mechanic could be useful, when you are out of options and you just need to put the hurt on.

Finally, if someone is just amazingly skilled in both Brawl and Melee/Lightsaber, it could be worth it to increase the difficulty twice if one is looking for a Brawl-specific effect (Disorient, Knockdown) in addition to dealing lots of damage with their other weapon. It's situational, but interesting in concept