So I dropped my sword... how do I pick it up (in combat)

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Axe also isn't an explicitly listed FD specialty. I generally allow it in my games, but I know other people that don't.

Well here some support for you.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Could one feasibly fast draw a hatchet?

Originally Posted by Kromm

Yes. I've seen demos where men pulled four light throwing axes from an ordinary belt and chucked them in about four seconds. You'd need eight seconds if you had to Ready and then Attack, so I'd say that's Fast-Draw. I wouldn't allow it for anything but hatchets and smallish hurlbats – certainly not for full-sized throwing axes, maces, etc. – but I'd be fine with it for hatchets.

[Grouchy Chris]

Originally Posted by PK

Note that you can also use the Toe Flip technique (Average; DX-5 or appropriate Fast-Draw-5) to flip a weapon up into your hand in a single Ready maneuver. Failure wastes your turn, critical failure kicks the weapon away.

Would this be cinematic, or have actual combatants been known to use this trick?

[Kalzazz]

Its very much done in LARP by overly plush LARPers who dont like to bend over if they can help it

It may not be done in a single second or with sharp objects by them, but I could buy it being doable in a single second with sharp objects by people skilled enough to make the Technique roll

[PK]

Originally Posted by Grouchy Chris

Would this be cinematic, or have actual combatants been known to use this trick?

The rule first appears in Quick-Readying Nearby Weapons (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 104), where it is considered realistic, not called out as cinematic. I can't speak to what combatants have been known to do it, but I'm sure Kromm and Peter can.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by PK

The rule first appears in Quick-Readying Nearby Weapons (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 104), where it is considered realistic, not called out as cinematic. I can't speak to what combatants have been known to do it, but I'm sure Kromm and Peter can.

How realistic or unrealistic it will "feel" probably depends on how high the book says you can train it up to. It defaults to Fast Draw-5. If you can train it up to Fast Draw-3, then it'll feel somewhat realistic, but if you can train it up to Fast Draw+2, maybe not so much...

[PK]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

How realistic or unrealistic it will "feel" probably depends on how high the book says you can train it up to. It defaults to Fast Draw-5. If you can train it up to Fast Draw-3, then it'll feel somewhat realistic, but if you can train it up to Fast Draw+2, maybe not so much...

GURPS Action 3: Furious Fists officially made it into an Average technique which could be learned as high as DX or Fast-Draw. Considering that doing so represents 1,000 hours of training at a very specific trick ("flip my sword up into my hand"), it doesn't twinge my disbelief. If you were watching America's Got Talent this season, you saw a woman who was able to kick five bowls up to the top of her head with reasonable consistency, so the thought of a trained person getting a sword into his hand with the same degree of effort seems reasonable enough.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The by-the-book rules make it a two-second process:

Second 1: Assume a kneeling posture next to the item. This calls for a Change Posture maneuver. See p. B383. While kneeling, you may try any defense at -2, but since you don't have the weapon yet, you can't use it to parry.

Second 2: Ready the item while standing up. This calls for a Ready maneuver. Per p. B366, no roll is required to pick up a weapon that's just sitting there . . . just say "I pick it up." Per p. B364, you may stand up as the "step" part of your Ready. At this stage you're standing and have full defenses, and can parry with the weapon you just readied.

Is there a reason why you can't, assuming the weapon is within a hex or two:

Turn 1: (Optionally) Step, Crouch, Ready weapon, or barring that, Crouch, then step.
Turn 2: Stand, perform maneuver x.

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by RogerBacon

Thanks. So it is, pretty much, as easy as I feared it would be. A successful disarm amounts to one round with limited defense options and two rounds of lost attacks. I know the players in my group will take that any day of the week. So it looks like disarming will not reduce the lethality of the combat in my case.
In most movies the guy who loses his weapon either runs away or gives up. Sometimes heroes dive and tumble to grab their weapon and it always looks like a lot of effort. OK, we'll see how it plays out.

As other have said that quite a lot of disadvantage to get past.

If you want to have a less lethal scenario you can always have the chap who disarmed* the other take a wait "I will run him through when he bends over to retrieve his weapon". And as other have said a disarmed weapon doesn't necessarily just drop at your feet, if it's more than yard away and you don't have extreme move scores your going to have to get to it first.

*timings are better with a defensive disarm.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

...

If his main weapon is a halberd? Well, uhm, he is out of luck. Dont get your halberd disarmed

Although a big two handed weapon is harder to disarm (easier to target, but harder to remove)

[DAT]

I've allowed a single second recovery using an acrobatic rollout (roll down, pickup, and stand), having only dodge as a defense.
-Dan

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by PK

The rule first appears in Quick-Readying Nearby Weapons (GURPS Martial Arts, p. 104), where it is considered realistic, not called out as cinematic. I can't speak to what combatants have been known to do it, but I'm sure Kromm and Peter can.

The crouch-and-grab (at -3) isn't unrealistic, just somewhat difficult and risky (where a two-turn kneel-and-grab isn't). The toe flip is -5; routinely pulling that off in a fight is cinematic, but it's not impossible to do. Just hard.