Picking up things from the ground

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Martial Arts, p. 104: "However, you can try a showy Ready maneuver that lets you grab and ready a weapon in one second. This requires a DX or Fast-Draw roll, at -3 if you crouch first or -5 if you use a foot to flip the weapon into your hand while standing."

A 2-point gap between those things doesn't seem wide enough, quickly bending down and grabbing a sword is way easier than kicking a sword into your hand, could we at least add some kind of penalty for doing this with edged weapons?

[Daigoro]

It depends a lot on the shape of the weapon. A staff lying flat on the ground is difficult to toe-toss, while a sword with a basket hilt and high clearance or with a bit of a springy blade (stamp down, flick your toe under on the rebound) is much easier. Having an edge would affect the outcome of a crit fail more than the ease of doing it.

[Gnomasz]

Originally Posted by Plane

A 2-point gap between those things doesn't seem wide enough, quickly bending down and grabbing a sword is way easier than kicking a sword into your hand, could we at least add some kind of penalty for doing this with edged weapons?

Well, it is way easier. A trained professional (skill 12) has almost 38% chance to succeed at bending down to pick up the thing, and not even 17% chance at toe-flip. -3 and going from -3 to -5 doesn't seem like a lot at high skill levels, but well, those are high skill levels. They are supposed to be impressive. At "everyman" levels, those penalties are quite a lot.

[roguebfl]

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

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.

Only bother with rolls to grab an object when it's a moving or resisting foe, or when you're in close combat and need to roll vs. DX to get your hand in the right place (p. B391). But 95% of the time, you'll just go "I Change Posture next to the sword. I stand up and Ready the sword."

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.

Originally Posted by Kromm

That's a lot of action for one second! Breaking it down in terms of Martial Arts, p. 98: You can dive forward from standing to crawling as your entire step. You could later use Acrobatic Stand to spring from crawling to standing as another step. You could associate either step with a Ready maneuver, of course . . . but if you did both in a turn, you would be taking two steps, not one. That's normally the purview of Committed Attack, so I'd allow all this as a kind of "Committed Ready," but I'd impose the same limitations on defenses: no parry with the readying hand, -2 on all other defenses (dodge, block or parry with the other hand, etc.), and no retreat possible.

The former is a somewhat acrobatic low dip-and-scoop, which is doable but, yeah, risky. The latter is something I've seen in demos . . . I have no idea how realistic it would be in a fight.