Fast-Draw

This skill lets you quickly draw a
weapon from its holster, sheath, or
hiding place. A successful roll means
you ready the weapon instantly. This
does not count as a combat maneuver;
you can use the weapon to attack on
the same turn. On a failure, you ready
your weapon normally but may do
nothing else on your turn. A critical
failure means you drop the weapon!
You must specialize in one of these
weapon types: Force Sword, Knife,
Long Arm (rifle, shotgun, submachine
gun, etc.), Pistol, Sword (any one-
handed blade larger than a knife), or
Two-Handed Sword. The GM may add
Fast-Draw skills for other weapons (or
even tools) that one could reasonably
draw quickly.
In addition to the above specialties,
there are two Fast-Draw skills that
allow you to reload missile weapons
quickly:
Fast-Draw (Arrow): Lets you ready
a single arrow, bolt, or dart instantly.
This reduces the time required to
reload a bow, crossbow, or blowgun by
one second.
Fast-Draw/TL (Ammo): Reduces
the time required to reload any kind of
gun or beam weapon. The exact bene-
fits depend on your weapon, but a suc-
cessful roll always shaves at least one
second off the reload time. This skill
varies greatly with TL! At TL4, it cov-
ers powder-and-shot drills; at TL6+, it
includes speed-loading techniques for
detachable magazines; and at higher
tech levels, it involves quickly replac-
ing energy cells and attaching power
cables.
For the Arrow and Ammo special-
ties, failure means you drop the arrow
or bolt, or accidentally discard one
round of ammunition. On a critical
failure, you drop the entire quiver,
powder horn, ammo box, magazine,
etc., scattering loose ammunition
everywhere!
Modifiers: Combat Reflexes (p. 43)
gives +1 to all Fast-Draw specialties;
Ham-Fisted (p. 138) gives -3 per level.