Fast-Draw (Buckler)

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

For gear that takes multiple seconds to ready, you could allow Fast Draw variants that reduce overall ready time by some amount (5% x margin of success seems fair). That would represent practice with "fast readying" equipment. That would allow realistic variants of Fast Draw for things like shields or machine guns.

Aye, a good notion generally. I think I'll float it to my players: a Fast Draw: (Gear) skill will materially reduce the time to ready X.

Heck, I've seen people don a mail coat in four seconds flat. I've also seen people struggle for half a minute or more. There you go, Fast Draw: Armor.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

Aye, a good notion generally. I think I'll float it to my players: a Fast Draw: (Gear) skill will materially reduce the time to ready X.

Heck, I've seen people don a mail coat in four seconds flat. I've also seen people struggle for half a minute or more. There you go, Fast Draw: Armor.

I think, generally speaking, Fast Draw on things that normally take multiple seconds to Ready reduces the time by 20% on a success, with a minimum saving of 1 second. That's at least how Fast-Draw (Ammo) roughly works, but I think that may be the only Fast-Draw skill that tends to get applied to things that take 5+ seconds. A Perk, Rapid Reload, boosts this by applying a -25% to the remaining time, for a net effect of roughly -40% (75% of 80% is 60%). Theoretically, at least, the Time Spent rules could be applied to have each -1 to Fast-Draw reduce time by 10% of the remaining time, or -6% of the initial time with both of the above in play. Alternatively, Quick-Shooting Bows allows you to shave off another second (presumably another 20% from the initial total) by rolling your weapon skill at -6 (-3 with appropriate Weapon Master or Heroic Archer, -1 with both) - it also calls for making your attack at -6, but the GM might allow you to forgo the attack and do something else (but be at -6/-3/-1 if that Something Else calls for a roll) and attack the next round instead.

So, what might be a decent option is to allow for an appropriate Fast-Draw (maybe call it Quick-Ready instead?) to do things like don armor, climb into hazmat suits, secure a complicated backpack, etc, and have it reduce time by 20%. You can have a Perk akin to Rapid Reload that reduces it by another 20% of the initial time. You can also reduce it by another 20% of the initial time by taking a penalty to Fast-Draw, regardless of if you have the Perk, to a minimum of 0% (instant). I'd be tempted to say -3 to reduce by 20%, -6 lets you roll twice (and reduce by 20% per success), -12 lets you roll three times, and -18 lets you roll four times. If you get time down to 0 seconds, you automatically take a further -6 and take the full penalty (including the additional -6) to any other action you take that round (such as making an attack); this means it's typically best to just use this to reduce time to 1 second. This largely mimics Rapid Strike mechanics. I'd allow buying off the penalty as a Technique (although I'd probably just have it use normal Technique rules rather than treating it as a Combination... although if you drop things down to 0 seconds you'll have to define what the other action to be taken that round is when first purchasing the Technique), and appropriate cinematic Advantages related to the gear in question could halve the penalty.

... of course, personally I'm a fan of largely getting rid of Fast-Draw and just having a Fast-Draw Technique that defaults to the appropriate Use skill at -4; Fast-Draw specialists would invest in that, and also grab Technique Mastery to be able to boost it to a net +4. For things that don't necessarily have a Use skill - like Armor, LBE, potions, ammunition, etc - those would be covered by appropriate Profession skills like Soldier, adjacent skills like Hiking or Climbing (or weapon skill for ammunition)... or if nothing else fits (or you want a character who can, say, do a lightning-quick fast draw but can't shoot the broadside of a barn) by a dedicated Fast-Draw skill, which would be Easy and probably start at DX+2 for [1]; it wouldn't be eligible for the Fast-Draw Technique, but seeing as getting it to net +4 - the highest the Technique can get with Technique Mastery - only costs [4] instead of [10], that should be fine. The above rules would apply here as well, with "Only to reduce penalties for Haste" allowing you to buy the Fast-Draw Technique above +0 (or +4 with Technique Mastery); the Fast-Draw skill would just have a dedicated Technique to offset those penalties.