Could be little fuzzy it's been awhile but seem to remember rule or optional rule in past edition that if holding someone at gunpoint and they made a move you'd get first action.

I've been useing straight reaction opposed test, instead of init with action like this anyone else?

i'd probably use the surprise rules, personally. the guy with the gun drawn and aimed i would consider to be impossible to surprise under normal circumstances, unless you have a method of attacking he won't expect (like the mouth or eye guns in augmentation)

I think you are looking for the "Delayed Action" rules on page 134, they handle just the situation you are talking about.

I agree with Jaid, more or less. Use surprise rules and give the guy with the gun the +6 dice bonus for being the ambusher. The guy with the gun pointed at him is the ambushee. If he's clever and through RPing or mechanics comes up with or capitalizes on some kind of distraction then give him the +3 for being aware of the ambush. His odds still aren't good, and they shouldn't be, but the wired reflexes 3 hero should have a chance of getting the drop on Mr. Fly-by-night-security-guard with a gun pointed at him.

Indeed. Remember that an action you don't perceive is one you can't respond to. So indeed you can still pull "tricky shit" to get by a guy with a gun aimed at your head. But if you just pull a gun yourself he has the option to pull the trigger.

-Frank

The dead-man's-trigger is a rule to always remember when someone's got a gun to your head. How long have they been aiming?

It's also worth pointing out that, realistically, there IS a decent chance of getting the drop on someone who's got a weapon leveled at you. It happens in real life often enough to have at least a die-roll's chance at it. Action beats reaction...the question is just if it beats reaction by ENOUGH.

Just a few months ago, there was a 70+ year old man in a Subway that got robbed. He tossed his wallet to the bad guys the same as the guy working the register did, but when the pair of thugs told everyone to get into the restroom, he figured they were just going to get shot in the head, so he fought back. This guy had two ~20 year old guys holding guns on him, drew his 1911, and blasted both of them (one dead, the other injured and swiftly caught) without taking a single bullet himself in return.

It's always possible to act faster than someone else can react. It might not be probable, but make sure to leave 'em that sliver of hope.

Nah, you just have another 40yrs before you're willing to do something stupid because you aren't that afraid of death.

Exactly, someone who isn't afraid to die gets to shoot all he wants when the other guys just turn and run.

Besides, the news doesn't report all the stories that would have headlined with "Old guy found shot to death in convenience store with gun half-pulled out of his trousers".

Average reaction time for a human is about a quarter of a second, assuming the person is expecting a given triggering stimuli.

A classic demonstration is to hold a dollar bill vertically by the short edge, so it hangs down the long way. Have someone hold their thumb and finger on either side of it in the middle, like they are going to go pinch the bill. Tell the person you're going to drop the bill sometime in the next 30 seconds, and then do it.

The vast majority of the time, the person trying to catch the falling bill will fail to do so, despite only having to move their fingers a fraction of an inch, and while staring intently waiting for the bill to drop.

If a person wasn't really expecting it, like the young guys probably not expecting the old gunman to whip a gun out and start blasting, well, reaction time can be considerably slower.


-karma

Or faster, because you react on instinct, without the thinking part getting in the way.

It's a crap shoot, hence the die roll.