So if I script an Overbear vs. Weapons Fire (Independent Actions) and my opponent does not have the Close Combat skill (say he’s using Assault Weapons at a disadvantage), is my Obstacle 0 or is it his Will or Agility but I double my successes?
An extrapolation of the standard Beginners Luck rules apply here: roll for your Overbear vs. the average of their Will and Agility / 2 rounded down (so Will + Agility / 4).
You could also double your successes but I personally prefer the other way because it makes tracking advancement easier.
That would be the same number as if your opponent had the skill open with no additional ranks. Not seeing how that relates to Beginner’s Luck. But I do see your point about tracking to advancement.
Ob 0 makes the most sense to me right now because I’m thinking this will be a pretty rare instance and if you don’t have any Close Combat training and someone Overbears you while you’re shooting you wouldn’t have a clue what to do.
Unskilled tests and open-but-not-advanced skills have (roughly) the same success distribution once you factor in the division for unskilled successes. The main difference is that rolling unskilled is considered a stat test which has some limitations in terms of FoRKs and the like. If you’re going to go with a static Ob, go with Ob 1. Partially because that way there’s still a breakdown of failure / knockdown / penalties (whereas Ob 0 only allows for failure or penalties) but mostly because I don’t believe there are any Ob 0 tests in Burning Empires as written. All that aside, Close Combat is fairly rare and usually a last-ditch effort considering many of the alternatives are flat out better (Flank is the path to victory).