Dear all.

I recently thought about a certain situation and how to handle it.

The situation: If character A threatens character B with his Stub Automatic (or almost any other ranged weapon) and character B (who has a holstered weapon beneath his cloak) decides to draw his weapon anyway and tries to shot at character A before being shot, how would you handle it by the rules? And would have player A any chance after all by the RAW? Actually, he should have a better chance realistically spoken.

According to the RAW player A would use the Delay action (Full Action) as well as most probably a Free Action threatening character B verbally. Thus, player A could use a Half Action (eg. a Standard Attack) at any time before his next turn (ie. when character B tries anything fishy), or so I thought. When it is characters B turn, character B draws his Stub Automatic from his holster (either Half Action or Free Action with Quick Draw talent) and shoots at character A with either a Standard Attack (second Half Action) or Semi-Auto Burst (Full Action) respectively. First I thought character A would have a chance to use his 'delayed' Half Action (beforehand or inbetween or whenever), but according to the RAW he would only have a chance (through an Ag-test) if player B was also using a Delay action (which he didn't, as it was simply his turn).

Did I oversaw anything? Or has character A no chance in such a stand-off according to the RAW? Which would be horribly unrealistic if you ask me.

Any advices or ideas?

Luthor Harkon said:

I think you oversaw something.

Here's the delay action from the book:

You watch and wait for an opportunity. When you use the delay Action, your Turn ends immediately, but you reserve a Half Action for later use. Any time before your next Turn, you can take your reserved Half Action. If you try to do something at the same time as another character that used a delay action, you must make an Opposed Agility Test to see who acts first. If the prepared Action is not taken before your next turn, it is lost.

I highlighted the relevant bit of text in bold as you can see. The opposed agility test only occurs if two characters that used the delay action have to compete in doing their reserved actions if they attempt them at the same time. In your scenario, the one person aiming his gun in the face of the other is the only one who have delayed an action, and if the other character attempts to draw his weapon the first character would be able to use his or her delayed action to "interrupt" the "Ready weapon" action used by the other character by shooting him/her in the face with the delayed half action (probably with a +30 bonus to hit as im assuming they are standing pretty close to eachother).

Of course, the person having a gun in the face might try to delay a half action too, but since that person doesn't have his/her weapon out he/she would have to spend any delayed half actions to draw the weapon, and in that case it won't really matter if he or she get to draw the gun before the other one can fire it, because the one with the weapon out is still going to get the first shot off.

If however the both of them had their weapons out and were aiming them at eachother, and both used the delay action, they would have to compete with eachother if they attempt to shoot the other first by rolling an Ag test. But in your scenario that wasn't the case.

So no worries here, the character with the gun out certainly has the on the other and will be able to shoot the unarmed character before that character can attempt to do anything.

Varnias Tybalt said:

Would you say that if A had the quick draw talent they would be able to ready their weapon and fire using their delayed half action (assuming they win the agility test to act before B)?

Khouri said:

I would agree with that, yes. If you have the Quick Draw talent you are supposed to be able to draw weapons lightning fast anyway.

Varnias Tybalt said:

D'oh! I always read it is only possible to 'interrupt' between the turns of different characters and not inbetween a single characters turn. That clears it up. Thanks a lot for the clarification Varnias. Khouri already asked my next question. So, character A would be able to interrupt B in the middle of his turn (and inbetween different actions - e.g. between Half Action - Ready (the weapon) and Half Action - Standard Attack (with the weapon) and he would also even be able to interrupt inbetween Free Action - Quick Draw and Half/Full Action - Standard/Semi-Auto Burst Attack? But, when character B also takes the Delay action and tries something fishy directly afterwards, both have to take an Ag-Test to see who goes first?

Whether a Free Action is possible within the delayed Half-Action is a good question. Anyway, you are not allowed to make a Free Action between the turns, aren't you? Like C and D are in a fire-fight and C realizes (through a Per-test) an enemy is coming through the back door (at Initiative 7), but C already had his turn this round (at Initiative 9). Is C allowed to yell a warning as a Free Action towards D inbetween his turns, so that D can act in his turn (at Initiative 5)?

Luthor Harkon said:

I'll quote the rulebook again (just so everyone can read the relevant bits and not require people to flick through their own to clarify )

Free Action

A Free Action takes but a split second and can sp be taken in addition to any other Actions you make in a Round. There is no formal limit to the number of Free Actions a character can make in a Round, but a GM should use common sense to set reasonable limits on what can be done in a few seconds.

Now, this part of the rules is a bit more fishy, but if I am to interprate the rules as written, I'd say that you can take free actions between your turns, because the rules only mention rounds not turns (turn = one specific segment in a combat where it is one character's turn to act, Round = all turns baked together).

A turn is over once a character has performed his or her full action. A round is over when all combatants have performed their full actions (and free actions and reactions etc.)

The rules for free actions only mention that you don't have a formal limit to when and how many free actions you do in a round, so I'd say that you can in fact use free actions outside of your own turn and in between turns as well as your own turn. (Although free actions are usually not something that has significant impact on the battle, like shouting comments and such, only when certain talents come into play does free actions usually have a high impact on the battle at hand).

So yeah, C would be able to shout a warning to D that some guy is coming through the back door in your example.