Okay I have a question about weapons proficency in BE. I’m playing a smuggler and he has close combat but not assault weapons which is fine by me, (I don’t expect him to get into any pitched battles). However, when he does get into closed comabt I’d like him to use a Jacked Gun. My question then is do you have to have the assault weapons skill to make a close combat check with a jacked gun?
Yes. A jack gun is an Assault Weapon that is adapted to be better in close combat than other assault weapons, not in fact a close combat weapon. It’s a shotgun, not a pistol.
Page 496 at the top has the penalties for using various weapons class in Close Combat. The Jacked trait reduces your +2 Ob Assault Penalty to +1 Ob.
-L
So does that mean that Jacked Guns suffer a +1 obstacle to close combat rolls or a +1 obstacle to assault weapons rolls while in a close combat situation?
I believe you still roll (or are able to roll, not sure) your close combat skill in that specific situation as per the last sentence of the first Weapons Fire paragraph on page 495. If you are outside of CC you most definitely test Assault Weapons when using a jack laser, but once you close into CC it’s a CC test with a +1 Ob.
It looks like if you don’t have the close combat skill and you perform a close combat individual action, you’re testing unskilled regardless of the action.
Colin the Leopard Seal has barked the correct answer.