Steve Jackson Games Forums - Fast-Draw penalty for hands armor question

I agree, because I think that Fast-Draw is definitely not "fine work." Here's the detailed reasoning, based upon the wording of the description of armor for the Hands (DFA 108).

High Manual Dexterity is mutually incompatible with Ham-Fisted. I think it is helpful to take a look at those skills set forth in Adventurers that have bonuses or penalties for either one: Forgery (DFA 77); Knot-Tying (DFA79-80); Lockpicking (DFA80); Pickpocket (DFA85); Sleight of Hand (DFA89); DX-based Traps (DFA92). Notably, Fast-Draw does not get a bonus for High Manual Dexterity, but does get a penalty for Ham-Fisted. That leads to the conclusion that unlike all the other skills that would are considered "fine work," Fast-Draw does not get the bonus for High Manual Dexterity.

The description for Ham-Fisted in DFRPG (DFA 61) indicates that each level "gives -3 to the Fast-Draw, Knot- Tying, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand skills, and to DX-based Traps rolls. This doesn’t affect IQ-based tasks, large-scale DX-based ones, or any combat-related rolls other than Fast-Draw." Interestingly, that's different from the description in GURPS Basic Set: Characters, but looking at that is actually helpful in determining intent here, because that book says: "You suffer a penalty to any DX-based roll to do fine work using the skills listed under High Manual Dexterity (p. 59), and to Fast-Draw skill." (B138).

The key here is that it describes "fine work" and Fast-Draw. If Fast-Draw were considered "fine work," that would be redundant. Ergo, we can conclude that since the authors felt the need to call out Fast-Draw specifically in addition to "fine work," it is not "fine work."

Oddly, in GURPS Basic Set; Characters, there is no penalty for fine work for wearing gauntlets, presumably under the scenario of "that's obvious, why would we need to spell that out." I chalk that up to an interesting oversight.

FYI, Ham-Fisted and Manual Dexterity also apply to GURPS Basic Set Skills like DX-based Artist, Leatherworking and Sewing. I'd consider someone trying to do any kind of work like that in DFRPG to be "fine work" and give the bouns or penalize those accordingly for High Manual Dexterity, Ham-Fisted, or those wearing gauntlets (e.g., repairing leather armor, trying to draw something on a wall, trying to copy down on paper an exact duplicate of a symbol on a wall).

I will say that for a some time I operated under the assumption that gauntlets gave the Ham-Fisted disadvantage. I think the issue probably stems from a sentence from GURPS Low-Tech, which says, under the description for "Mittens" (LT 98), that "(Armor designed for the hands – gauntlets – gives Ham-Fisted but not Bad Grip.)" But it appears that the DFRPG designers didn't want that to be the case, and instead wrote that hand armor just gives an equivalent penalty to fine work only.