Grappling with Grappling Rules: Difference between revisions

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And those are just the obvious things you need rules for. There are other problems that show up when you add in more detail.

Contrast to regular combat, where the only relevant things are "Did I hit?" and "How much damage did I do?"<ref>Maybe, if you're really fancy, "Where did I hit?" or "[[Damage Typing|What kind of damage did I do]]?"</ref>, and you'll begin to understand why grappling is considered such a frightening topic. While all of the factors mentioned above are relevant to standard weapons combat too, grappling systems have had a historical tendency towards greater "realism" for reasons rarely justified.

Contrast to regular combat, where the only relevant things are "Did I hit?" and "How much damage did I do?",<ref>Maybe, if you're really fancy, "Where did I hit?" or "[[Damage Typing|What kind of damage did I do]]?"</ref> and you'll begin to understand why grappling is considered such a frightening topic. While all of the factors mentioned above are relevant to standard weapons combat too, grappling systems have had a historical tendency towards greater "realism" for reasons rarely justified.

If you're wondering why so few [[Video Games]] have anything to do with grappling (besides pure [[Fighting Game~~|Fighting Games~~]]), well, now you know.

If you're wondering why so few [[Video Games]] have anything to do with grappling (besides pure [[Fighting Game]]s), well, now you know.

An especially infamous instance of [[That One Rule]]. Nothing to do with [[Grappling Hook Pistol|Grappling Hooks]].

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** Fourth Edition isn't so bad; grappling is taken as an attempt to impede your foe's movement, so it gives a penalty to his dexterity with the relevant body part, disables some of his maneuvers, and grants you options for takedowns, pinning, and dragging. Other things you can do in a grapple, like trying to disarm an opponent, are handled using the same rules as outside of a grapple. If your foe wants to counter-grapple, he'll have to break free first.

* Both ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' and [[New World of Darkness|the new]]

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has relatively simple grappling ~~rules -- they~~'re about one paragraph and use the same rolls as everything else in ~~combat -- but~~ their ''balance'' is problematic, since they basically leave you defenseless and trivially vulnerable to being one-hit killed by anyone not in the grapple, functionally making even a simple grab into an instant touch of death.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has relatively simple grappling rules—they're about one paragraph and use the same rolls as everything else in combat—but their ''balance'' is problematic, since they basically leave you defenseless and trivially vulnerable to being one-hit killed by anyone not in the grapple, functionally making even a simple grab into an instant touch of death.

** ''[[Feng Shui]]'' has a similar problem with a few kung-fu powers that cause joint-locks.

* ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' kinda falls prey to this trope, although not as much or in the same way as you'd think. The 'grappling rules' in the combat rules were more complicated than the rest of combat (except for maybe the suppressive fire and autofire rules). The most annoying part, however, was that they weren't given in the more 'standard' part of the rules, alongside disarming and throwing, like they should've. Instead, they were crammed into the HTH cherries examples list, thus making them look like they were completely optional and used exclusively in special cases, when they really shouldn't have.