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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tylermalan" data-source="post: 5736733" data-attributes="member: 30929">I think you're misunderstanding what I meant - we aren't both trying to catch the coin.  My friend is about to flip a coin.  When he does, the coin will be in the air, flipping, without interference from my friend.  I am sitting there, staring at the coin, waiting for it to flip, and readying an action to catch it once it goes airborne.  The moment my friend flips it, I have a "chance" to catch it.  In-game, this might be resolved with a dexterity check or something, representing the fact that I might try to catch it and miss.  This is similar to readying the crossbow to fire when the door opens.  Just because you fire doesn't mean you hit something, and this is represented by an attack roll.What Stream is saying (unless I also misunderstand) is that since we haven't rolled initiative yet, I don't even have a CHANCE to catch the coin if my friend beats me on the initiative roll and/or surprises me.What I'm saying is that this is ALMOST impossible to the degree that following the RAW in this case is absurd.  I'm ready to catch the coin.  I have the reflexes of an average person.  The coin goes airborne.  Nothing interfered, and even if I didn't know exactly WHEN the coin would be flipped (in essence, my friend "surprised" me by flipping the coin at a time that I did not expect) I would still, in almost every circumstance that I can think of, have a moment and a chance to at least attempt to reach out and catch the coin before it landed back in my friend's waiting, open palm.What Stream is saying is that my friend could surprise me by flipping the coin at a time that I did not expect, and since I'm "surprised" in the context of initiative and my friend is not, then his entire action of flipping the coin, the coin sailing into the air and then landing back in his hand... this all happens before I can even move, because even though I was ready, my surprise was so great that I couldn't react in time to just reach out and at least attempt to snag the coin.  I couldn't just pull the crossbow trigger.  Really?  Absurd, I say!</blockquote>

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