Fast Draw critical success

[restlessgriffin]

I can see all types of outcomes for Critical Failure for Fast Draw, but I'm at a loss for what to do for critical success. I feel there really should be some bonus benefit! The only thing I can think of, and for the most part it only really benefits archers, is allowing automatic success for future attempts in same combat.

Example: Scout Emily rolls a crit success on Fast Draw (arrow). It succeeds and for the remainder of the combat all FD automatically succeed and no further rolls are needed.

Any other ideas? Especially looking for benefits for Fast Draw of melee weapon. What's good for Fast Draw (sword)? You're unlikely to need to FD the sword again in the same combat session.

[tbone]

Hm. There doesn't need to be a crit success bonus for all actions, especially an action with the binary simplicity of "you either did or did not draw a weapon fast enough to ignore a Ready".

But, in the name of fun, let's see if we can think of one...

How about borrowing from the rules for surprising a foe with a weapon hidden via Holdout? (See Exploits p58; the same probably exists somewhere in GURPS too.)

Here Holdout isn't relevant; I'm just thinking similar effects: Critical success on Fast Draw means that, if you immediately attack a foe that turn, your blinding speed from scabbard to attack means the foe takes a penalty to Active Defense.

What do you think?

[ericthered]

succeeding on ALL rolls for the rest of the combat feels too powerful, but instantly completing the bow fast-draw sequence feels like a good match, or completing the next roll or next two rolls for free.

Originally Posted by tbone

Here Holdout isn't relevant; I'm just thinking similar effects: Critical success on Fast Draw means that, if you immediately attack a foe that turn, your blinding speed from scabbard to attack means the foe takes a penalty to Active Defense.

What do you think?

My mind went to a +1 to attack first, but a -1 to their defenses seems to fit surprise better. conversely, a +1 for you to parry if you are drawing the weapon in defense.

The other bonus I could see would be allowing an extra free 1 yard of movement.

[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by ericthered

succeeding on ALL rolls for the rest of the combat feels too powerful, but instantly completing the bow fast-draw sequence feels like a good match, or completing the next roll or next two rolls for free.

One of the benefits on getting rid of the remaining Fast Draw (Arrow) on a crit success is it removes a die roll which speeds up combat. Those with FD (Arrow) tend to use it every turn or every other turn. Also I want it to be simple, not adding more book keeping to the game.

My mind went to a +1 to attack first, but a -1 to their defenses seems to fit surprise better. conversely, a +1 for you to parry if you are drawing the weapon in defense.

I'm going to go with players choice, either -1 to the opponents defense, or +1 to the PC attack. If doing an All-OUT-Defense +1 on the first Parry provided it's your first active defense.

The other bonus I could see would be allowing an extra free 1 yard of movement.

That one doesn't feel right to me, but I might allow it for a Swashbuckler.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by ericthered

My mind went to a +1 to attack first

Nothing wrong with that as a reward for the crit success, though putting on my simulationist hat, I'm not sure that such an "attack from Fast-Draw" should be more accurate than a normal attack with an already readied weapon.

(Still, it sounds harmless...)

but a -1 to their defenses seems to fit surprise better.

I agree. The weapon is sheathed... yet suddenly it's whistling toward the foe's head. A defense penalty sounds right to me (and nicely mirrors the similar situation involving Holdout, IMO).

conversely, a +1 for you to parry if you are drawing the weapon in defense.

Mm, my reaction here is the same as for the +1 to attack, above: Nit-picking at the mechanics, I don't see why this parry from a sheathed position should be better than a parry from a readied stance.

Ignoring that, though, it sounds fine as an abstract outcome!

The other bonus I could see would be allowing an extra free 1 yard of movement.

Mm, I don't see a connection between Fast-Draw and movement; I'd pass on that one myself.

Arrows:

but instantly completing the bow fast-draw sequence feels like a good match, or completing the next roll or next two rolls for free.

Interesting idea. There's no mechanical reason why a Fast-Draw crit success would make the next attempt succeed automatically, but as a narrative sort of reward, it sounds good.

Or even something like this: Crit success on Fast-Draw (any projectile) means +2 to all subsequent rolls against the same Fast-Draw for the remainder of the combat, or until a crit fail. In-game rationale: "You're on a roll!"

(Actually sounds like a mechanic that could be applied to all kinds of success rolls...)

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by tbone

Interesting idea. There's no mechanical reason why a Fast-Draw crit success would make the next attempt succeed automatically, but as a narrative sort of reward, it sounds good.

It could mean that instead of drawing just one arrow, you managed to draw a fistful of arrows, Lars Anderson-style (I suppose Lars Anderson would probably call it ancient Persian style or something).

Shooting multiple arrows per second is surprisingly realistic if you already have them all in hand.

[Expy]

For melee weapons, I like allowing critical fast draws to roll free feints vs any enemy they attack that turn, using fast draw skill.

Always felt weird to use that rule for bows, though. I've tried a lot of things like halving a hit location penalty for the coming attack, allowing non-heroic archers to quick ready the bow with a -6 penalty or heroic archers to quick ready with no penalty at all. Maybe just let a heroic archer do a double draw and dual weapon attack, that turn only? That could be fun.

[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

It could mean that instead of drawing just one arrow, you managed to draw a fistful of arrows, Lars Anderson-style (I suppose Lars Anderson would probably call it ancient Persian style or something).

Shooting multiple arrows per second is surprisingly realistic if you already have them all in hand.

Not everyone's going to want to fire multiple arrows. Also what are the rules for doing that? All-Out-Attack (Double)? Adapt Rapid-Strike for Ranged Attack? Can anyone other than Weapon Master (Bow) even do this?

So lets say I allow this. It would require Heroic Archer or Weapon Master (Bow). If you crit on Fast-Draw (Arrow) I'd allow picking the number of arrows - 1,2, or 3 (any more than that just seems really silly to me). So now what? If aiming at the same target, do I have one roll or the number of arrows? Is there a penalty (I'd think there should be)? What if aiming at multiple targets? What's the penalty on that?

If I were to allow this, I think I'd want to allow this on non-crit success at some sort of penalty (they do mention in Heroic Archer penalty's on FD (arrow)). Maybe -2 per extra Arrow to be drawn. So no penalty for 1 arrow, -2 for 2 arrows, -4 for 3 arrows.

I guess Legolas did the two arrow shot in Lord of the Rings movie and Robin Hood did in Prince of Thieves.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by restlessgriffin

Not everyone's going to want to fire multiple arrows. Also what are the rules for doing that? All-Out-Attack (Double)? Adapt Rapid-Strike for Ranged Attack? Can anyone other than Weapon Master (Bow) even do this?

Personally I wouldn't offer any benefit for a critical success on fast draw, so I'm mostly staying out of this conversation, but in response to T-bone saying he couldn't think of a rationale that would justify it I was offering a rationale for the rule you gave in the OP: "automatic success for future attempts in same combat... Example: Scout Emily rolls a crit success on Fast Draw (arrow). It succeeds and for the remainder of the combat all FD automatically succeed and no further rolls are needed."

Originally Posted by restlessgriffin

I guess Legolas did the two arrow shot in Lord of the Rings movie and Robin Hood did in Prince of Thieves.

No, this isn't shooting multiple arrows at once. It's just a way of shooting arrows very rapidly, just like Heroic Archer allows. See https://youtu.be/BEG-ly9tQGk?t=35 for a clip of him shooting 10 arrows in 4.9 seconds, the same speed as a Heroic Archer with Extra Attack.

[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

... I was offering a rationale for the rule you gave in the OP: "automatic success for future attempts in same combat... Example: Scout Emily rolls a crit success on Fast Draw (arrow). It succeeds and for the remainder of the combat all FD automatically succeed and no further rolls are needed."
...
No, this isn't shooting multiple arrows at once. It's just a way of shooting arrows very rapidly, just like Heroic Archer allows. See https://youtu.be/BEG-ly9tQGk?t=35 for a clip of him shooting 10 arrows in 4.9 seconds, the same speed as a Heroic Archer with Extra Attack.

That was entertaining.