Winds of Chaos

The Stevedore Career has access to the Dirty Fighting Talent (+1 SL and Dmg on Melee Brawling), but no access to the Melee Brawling Skill.

Am I reading this correctly?

Yes this is an issue with a lot of careers. If you look at the unofficial errata https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v37 ... J4u3A/edit there are a lot of errors in them which didn't get corrected

I dropped climbing and put in melee (brawling) instead

I don't think I have a single player, where we didn't have to change something in their career specs. Either because the thing didn't make sense (like no brawling for Stevadore) or just fore extra fun.
My players love to have some additional customization options, when they create characters. Gives room for their ideas.

Yes, you can use Melee (Brawling) untrained, so Dirty Fighting would help with that. You’d have a character who knows a few sneaky moves, but isn’t really a trained brawler.

That said, each of the tier 1 careers is supposed to be getting 2 more skills, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Stevedore got Melee (Brawling).

Woah, that Unofficial errata document is LONG.

How does this look as a House Rule:

"If you buy a Career Talents that is tied to a Skill Test, than that Skill is a Career Skill for you, and you can spend XP in that Skill to buy Advances in it. Advances in that Skill also count against the requirements to complete a Career."

I think the problem with that house rule is that IIRC there are talents that basically give you that bonus as the primary feature of the talent. So what you’re proposing is essentially doubling the value of the talent for certain careers.

I’d also question why it’s necessary - why not leave it as it is?

It just looks weird to me that you get a Talent that gives you a bonus on a Skill, but you don't get to advance that Skill. I'll try the House Rule for awhile, see how it goes.
.

Is it odd that Stevedore's don't get access to Melee(Brawling) as a career skill? Yes.

But given the Non-Career Advances box at the top of page 48, I don't see what the big hang up is.

don't forget guys, talents give a +1SL on any tests involving them (in this case melee brawling) for each level of the talent, so the bonus is pretty reasonable even without having it as a class skill (and really, do you think stevedores are spending their pay on formal boxing lessons to top off their underhanded nut-punches?) when you figure it's +1D on top of the +1SL (which will also affect damage),

Also, something to keep in mind is that Stevedores have WS as a career attribute. If you give them Melee (Brawl) on top of WS and Dirty Fighting, you’re basically making Stevedores martial arts masters.

I think Stevedores not having the skill is very deliberate. They’re not supposed to be king fu masters. WS, brawl and DF are a rare combination in a career (I think Pit Fighters may be the only one that gets it). Stevedores are supposed to be decent in a fight, but not great. A player can turn a Stevedore into a great brawler with some effort (ie by having them seek out someone to teach them, or switching careers), but it’s not something inherent to the career.