Unarmed vs. Knife

[TheOneRonin]

Originally Posted by Lorka

Try to kick him in a joint (knee) MA p. 137 or if not using MA go for the foot, he will likely have some armour in the form of boots so knee is better. If you can deal a crippling blow or otherwise get him prone you have a better chance.

Boots should give some protection from knife parries.

I like this as a general thing, mostly because kicking to the inside of the knee is a very common attack for us in Modern Arnis.

The problem with this in GURPS is you are looking at very steep penalties.

Targeting the Knee (Joint) with a Kick is a -7 (-5 for the joint, -2 for the kick). It's doable at skill 18 with no improved techniques, but you won't be stacking on any deceptive attack, which makes a parry more likely. And getting parried by a guy with a knife is basically giving him a free attack on your turn.

Now, if you have maxed out Kicking and bought up TA Kick/Joint(Knee) to max, you can do it at only a -2, but that's a pretty heavy investment (7 total build points)

In real life, I wouldn't attempt that move until after I got control of the weapon arm.

Realistically unarmed against a knife is almost impossible to manage without injuries.

Truth.

My instructor always says "In a knife fight, one of you is going to the ER, and the other is going to the morgue."