Anyone know if there has been any rules anywhere for fanning the hammer of an old single action pistol anywhere? Obviously not too hard to make them up, but I'm curious if they've been printed.

Not that I know of...

Protagonist:

I'm not a GM, but I would think that fanning a single-action revolver would fall under the same rules as firing a burst-fire-capable semiautomatic pistol (i.e., a Savalette Guardian) in burst-fire mode.

That is, it'd be faster than normal, but less accurate.

At very close range, i.e. pointblank to short, it would be devastating, but only against a single target.

That stuff in the movies about a guy taking down three or more adversaries in that fashion just wouldn't happen.

IRL, fanning only wastes ammunition, unless you're firing at something incapable of shooting back.

For example, check out this Website:

Bob Munden: The Fastest Gun Alive

The gentleman in question can fire 5 rounds from a Colt single-action in under one-quarter of a second.

--Foreigner

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

And DAMN. That guy's speed is insane!

Yeah, the standard simple action shot assumes a certain amount of aiming. I've always felt there should be a mechanic for aimless trigger pulling. Whenever I've had to resolve this I've picked a number of rounds that seemed reasonable, allowed them to squeeze it off, and treated it similar to surpressive fire.

A suggestion for a rule would be to apply a -2 to start (for firing from the hip, not the most stable of positions), and then allow the character to fire, as a complex action, a wide burst with a number of rounds in it equal to his skill.

Hey, I like that.

Protagonist:

I remember reading an article about Munden once.

Seems he continually confounds reflexologists because he apparently is GAINING speed as he ages (he was born in 1942, and has held one record or another since he started competing at 11 or 12 years of age), rather than LOSING it, which is the norm.

Also, in reference to exactly how fast he is, the same article said that it takes approximately fifteen-one-hundredths of one second (0.15 second) for the average person to BLINK.

--Foreigner