Do RPGs worry too much or not enough about drawing weapons & what is in your hands?

[Desdichado]

Other than in a scenario (or perhaps genre) that resembles an Old West style quickdraw, I think RPGs worry too much about it. It doesn't actually matter most of the time, and worrying about it is tedious.

Drawing a weapon does not take a second or less, though. Have you ever actually pulled a sword out of a sheath?

 

[JustinAlexander]

Now if I am attacking them when they think they are relatively safe, like at a Tavern for a meal/drink, then I may worry about such things. Most of the time I do not.

This, for me, is the key thing. I generally find rules for drawing weapons to be effective when they mostly stay out of the way, but can still organically complicate ambush situations and force interesting tactical decisions.

For example, I like the D&D3 rules because you generally don't have to think about them: If you're ambushing somebody else, it's assumed you drew your weapon in preparation. If you run across a battlefield into melee, you can draw your weapon freely during the move. So the only time the rule comes up is if you're (a) caught in a melee unexpectedly or (b) changing weapons in mid-combat.

And that both feels "about right", but also provides just enough texture to give interesting results without giving a lot of hassle. (For example, just a couple sessions ago we had an outcome where the fighter dropped his bow in order to quickly draw his sword. When the party was forced into retreat, the fighter was forced to abandon his bow. That's interesting.)

 

[S'mon]

This, for me, is the key thing. I generally find rules for drawing weapons to be effective when they mostly stay out of the way, but can still organically complicate ambush situations and force interesting tactical decisions.

For example, I like the D&D3 rules because you generally don't have to think about them: If you're ambushing somebody else, it's assumed you drew your weapon in preparation. If you run across a battlefield into melee, you can draw your weapon freely during the move. So the only time the rule comes up is if you're (a) caught in a melee unexpectedly or (b) changing weapons in mid-combat.

And that both feels "about right", but also provides just enough texture to give interesting results without giving a lot of hassle. (For example, just a couple sessions ago we had an outcome where the fighter dropped his bow in order to quickly draw his sword. When the party was forced into retreat, the fighter was forced to abandon his bow. That's interesting.)

I agree, this is the level of granularity I like. The system doesn't try to screw me over - I can normally draw for free, effectively, in round 1 - but I may screw myself over by trying to swap weapons in the middle of a fight. In fact I did do that last session, ended up with my shield on the floor.