GoblynByte - but what happens if you don't have any weapon at all in your hand? I think the Didge maneuver makes sense because it allows someone to spend their round avoiding attack, but without having to rely on having their preferred weapon in hand.
Hmm...I suppose that's true. But wouldn't that fall into the catagory of Martial Arts? I mean, I honestly can see your point, but one could abstractly refer to the general use of unarmed combat as acting with training (however informal) in unarmed combat. Um...did that make sense what I just said there?
Anyway, if you assume first that dodging and parrying is an abstract of "weapon training" (which RM does to my understanding) than that could also carry over to "non-weapon training" as well. Thus you could use the Martial Arts skill or even the Brawling skill.
Think of it like this: a warrior is trained in the use of a weapon. He is trained to attack and defend while using that weapon with tactics (both active and passive) that will take advantage of the weapon's unique properties. He might also be trained to act accordingly when that weapon is lost. So if he drops his sword his "unarmed" combat training kicks in. Still a form of combat, just without the weapon. So he would use his "unarmed combat" OB, whatever skill that comes from. If he devotes
all of his energy to defending (uses 100% of the OB of that skill), he's still using training associated with that form (the same goes for armed combat).
The
real question is whether or not a character would practice and train in the art of "dodging" without some appropriate form of combat training. In my mind it would all tie into at least
some form of training to fight. Thus it would inevitabely be tied to one OB or another.
Now, that's just
my take on it. I just think it eliminates the need for extra defensive skills. Because if a Dodge skill be called for, why not a Parry skill, or a Shield Block skill? All these actions I see as abstract notions of one tactic: defense. And all these actions I see as being tied to general combat training of a single type (i.e. weapon type) and I don't really see too many people training in such skills unless they also get combat training. By the simple act of learning how to get out of the way of an attack you afford some knowledge of how to deliver an attack, so I see them as tied together. But I certainly see arguments for having these skills be independant.