[RPG] How does d20 Modern handle having someone at gunpoint

combatd20-modern

How does d20 Modern handle the common situation of having someone at gunpoint, or entering a room with your firearm in hand, cocked and ready to fire?

I'm asking because I notice that to draw a weapon is a Move Action that does not provoke an Opportunity Attack. Thus, this means that an attacker could enter a room with his weapon drawn, lose initiative to his opponent, and the opponent could draw a weapon and shoot the attacker dead quite easily.

This is not a situation that happens frequently in real life, movies, etc. Normally, if you have someone at gunpoint and you pull a weapon, they shoot you.

If the attacker won initiative, they could use an Attack Action to ready an attack on their opponent if they drew a weapon, ran, etc. But if they lose initiative, they're out of luck.

Similarly, the opponent with initiative could use two Move Actions and run out of sight before the attacker could fire on him.

Best Answer

In d20 Modern, there's no thing as "gunpoint" per se. There is:

  1. Surprising someone and getting them flat-footed, in which case they lose their Dodge bonus. The problem is, it requires GM fiat to say "you're still flat-footed until someone twitches" instead of the first combat round going by, everyone rolling init, and rushing the guy. But, RAW...

  2. You can ready an action to shoot someone. Of course, in d20 Modern one shot isn't likely to kill anyone, so it's not as intimidating as one might hope. And if you got them flat-footed or got initiative on them, then you can have a readied action before they get to act.

  3. The fact that ranged attacks provoke attacks of opportunity is an additional wrinkle, but in the real world cops etc. know not to keep melee opponents at gunpoint at very close range because experience has shown a guy with a knife or whatnot can be on you before you can fire in many circumstances.

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