View Single Post
Old 09-17-2013, 11:16 AM   #37
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: So I dropped my sword... how do I pick it up (in combat)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post

I think the proposal is to do a somersault and pick up the weapon in the middle.
I believe that diving forward from standing to crawling, and then springing acrobatically back to standing, would look precisely like a foward roll or somersault if executed in rapid succession.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post

That realistically takes more than a second, but so does moving 5 yards from a standing start.
I'm not so sure on either count. Based on what I've seen among circus artists and dancers in the past few years of keeping their company, I'm fairly sure it's all possible in a second or even less. Models that assume basic running locomotion consistently undervalue controlled instability, leans, weight shifts, etc., especially when the arms and core come into play with springs and bridges. I've timed one guy's video wherein he runs three metres, throws a flying kick, falls, rolls, stands, and grapples in about 1.1 seconds.

Do remember that we're talking about Acrobatics rolls at -6 at the core of this stuff, possibly with +4 for sacrificing all defenses. We're talking about people with Acrobatics at 18-20 daring these moves in combat, and people with Acrobatics at 14-16 trying it even for show. These aren't ordinary folks.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is online now   Reply With Quote