Reach

When your enemy has a reach advantage against you, your attacks against him are more difficult.
Situations when this applies:

• Unarmed goes at +2 diff. v/s any light melee, heavy melee or polearm weapon. With the exceptions of short knives.
• Light Melee or Heavy Melee go at +2 diff. v/s Polearms.

If you are unarmed against an opponent armed with a sharp weapon, and you fail your attack roll against your opponent's parry, your opponent gets to roll damage against you. Weapons are not a joke.

On the other hand, if you are wielding a weapon and you are attacking an unarmed foe that doesn't have a shield either, your attacks go at -2 difficulty.