So, someone on RPG.Net asked for spoilers about grappling in the God-Machine Chronicle, and it occurred to me that I had meant to post an extra spoiler or two, but never got back around to it. So what the heck? I’m not opposed to grappling.
Grapple
To grab your opponent, roll Strength + Brawl – Defense. On a success, both of you are grappling. If you’ve got a length of rope, a chain, or a whip, you can add its weapon bonus to your Strength when grappling. If you score an exceptional success on this first roll, pick a move from the list below.
When grappling, each party makes a contested Strength + Brawl versus Strength + Brawl action on the higher of the two characters’ Initiative. The winner picks a move from the list below, or two moves on an exceptional success.
• Break Free from the grapple. You throw off your opponent; you’re both no longer grappling. Succeeding at this move is a reflexive action, you can take another action immediately afterwards.
• Control Weapon, either by drawing a weapon that you have holstered or turning your opponent’s weapon against him. You keep control until your opponent makes a Control Weapon move.
• Damage your opponent by dealing bashing damage equal to your rolled successes. If you previously succeeded at a Control Weapon action, add the weapon bonus to your successes.
• Disarm your opponent, removing a weapon from the grapple entirely. You must first have succeeded at a Control Weapon move.
• Drop Prone, throwing both of you to the ground (see “Going Prone”). You must Break Free before rising.
• Hold your opponent in place. Neither of you can apply Defense against incoming attacks.
• Restrain your opponent with duct tape, zip ties, or a painful joint lock. Your opponent suffers the Immobilized Tilt. You can only use this move if you’ve already succeeded in a Hold move. If you use equipment to Restrain your opponent, you can leave the grapple.
• Take Cover using your opponent’s body. Any ranged attacks made until the end of the turn automatically hit him (see “Human Shields,” below).
If more than one person tries to grapple the same victim, count the attempt as a teamwork action (World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 134). On the team side, both primary and secondary actors roll Strength + Brawl – Defense to engage, but the victim’s Defense is unaffected by how many people are involved — even if five people try to grab him, he treats it as one attack. In the grapple, both primary and secondary actors roll Strength + Brawl in a contested action with the victim. If the defender wins, any chosen moves only affect the primary actor.
I’m really intrigued by everything I’m seeing from the GMC rules you’ve teased so far. You guys are very much going in the same direction of my own house rules and that’s pretty exciting.
I’ll be mentioning anything new GMC rules I find on my podcast, Shark Bone. We play a LOT of WoD and we’re pretty pumped about the possible revisions. We’d love to have you for an interview!
-Jarvis
Thanks for the teasers Matt, they are really interessting and the new rules have ensured that I will definately kickstart the book as soon as possible.
Two comments I would make about these rules though(if it’s not too late) are:
1)The damage action seems to indicate that even if you are using a weapon the damage is still bashing (adding the weapon bonus damage to your sucesses, which are bashing).
2) Unless there is another part of the relevant rules that change this, the optimal weapon in a grapple seems to be a two-handed sword or axe as these have the highest weapon bonus traditionally. Might it make sense to add a caveat that the bonus to damage equals [weapon bonus-weapon size over 2] as realistically it is almost impossible to bring a large weapon to bear in a grapple. Another alternative may be to provide a damage bonus to small weapons in grapples, giving them a legitimate tactic when facing weapons larger weapons.
Quote:If you’ve got a length of rope, a chain, or a whip, you can add its weapon bonus to your Strength when grappling.
Nothimng there about big weapons 😉 (If you meant the “Control Weapon/Damage” move: “Sorry, nothing to see here – haven’t said a word!”)
I was actually attempting to refer to the ‘Control Weapon’ manoeuvre, but I didn’t stipulate that so it’s a useful thing to point out. Thanks for that. I think that the chain thing is very cool and a move in the right direction. However, unless the weapon rules have changed in some way that we’ve yet to see, once you are in a grapple and using the control weapon manoeuvre, the best weapon is simply the one with the highest equipment bonus, which is usually the biggest weapon. I’d love an equipment system that, in contrast with other gaming systems, recognised that weapons in the real world were used for a range of functions and often the biggest wasn’t necessarily the best.
I guess the last point in the previous paragraph is what I’m really interested in. Anyway it’s mostly a minor point I can house rule for my game, and the fight style merits already allow a decent amount of differentiation. Also Quackerjack, thanks for coming out to play. I was wondering if anyone would ever respond to my post.
If you use a weapon like a chain to grapple somebody (add its weapon bonus to the grapple roll), do you have to perform a Control Weapon move before you can Damage your opponent with that same chain?
If you have a weapon drawn when you grapple an opponent (ie, a knife), do you need to Control Weapon first before you can Damage an opponent you have Grappled?
I wonder what is the point of teamwork action of grappling if the victim’s Defense is unaffected by how many people are involved? Seems weird. o.o