Grappling

Grappling is an attempt to grab a foe's body. A character must have at least one empty hand, and of course, be close enough to grab them.

A character must use an attack maneuver (including Move and Attack, or All-Out Attack) to grapple, rolling against DX or a grappling skill (e.g. Judo, Sumo Wrestling, or Wrestling). The opponent may defend normally -- they can parry, dodge, or block.

Basic

• The foe has -4 to DX as long as you’re holding on.
• An arm committed to grappling cannot make unarmed parries until you let go. Letting go is a free action on your turn.
• The rules above assume that you are grappling the torso.
• To grab another body part, apply half the penalty given under Hit Location to your roll;
• If you hit, your foe has -4 to DX only when using that body part.
• You cannot use any limb that has been grappled – or bite, if your neck or head was grappled.

Actions After Being Grappled limited maneuvers that could be used:

• cannot take a Move maneuver unless you have at least twice your foe’s ST
• Aim, Feint, Concentrate, and Wait maneuvers – and ranged attacks – are completely impossible.

Attack/AOA and Ready/Break Free were all that are allowed.

Weapons for Close Combat limits to C-range, however this was before MA introduced rules to use weapons below their range at a -4 penalty per yard.

Actions After a Grapple

• to be added
• Takedowns
• Pins
• Choke or Strangle

Martial arts

More Actions After a Grapple enabled one of the new maneuvers (Committed) but not the other (defensive):

• Your actions after grappling or being grappled – including your own attempts to break free – require you to choose an Attack, All-Out Attack, or Committed Attack maneuver. They aren’t compatible with Defensive Attack and aren’t free actions.
• Attacks are at -4 while grappled and can’t involve any body part or weapon that your foe is restraining.

Technical Grappling

Even More Actions After a Grapple under Disallowed Maneuvers legalizes all the disallowed maneuvers however requires a Will roll with special penalties to do them.

Blindness

TG22 mention under Hands-Free Parries:

• while you must be aware of your foe (as with any active defense), you need not see him – if either of you has any CP against the other, you may defend!
• Finally, since you are acutely aware of your opponent, your defense is immune to the -2 that would normally apply if he’s beside or behind you

It is possible to have 0 CP grapples, it's not clear if "any CP" is meant to apply to that, or just to CP of 1+.

SM and multiple grapplers

Kromm posted http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2327532&postcount=14 with ideas on how to deal with crowds grappling:

The unanswered question is "How many?" The rule on p. B392 – which says two in a takedown, three in a pin – contains the unwritten assumption that the grapplers have the same SM. If you feel linear dimension is what matters, then multiply the number of SM -3 cats vs. an SM 0 human by (dimension of humans/dimension of cats), or by a factor of three (six in a takedown, nine in a pin); if you feel area is what matters, go ahead and square that, for a factor of nine (18 in a takedown, 27 in a pin).

I lean toward linear here, because it's a question of leverage more than body coverage. So that's six cats (effective ST 8, DX 28) or nine cats (effective ST 10, DX 36) vs. a human. But they still count as a single grappler, giving one instance of the DX penalty, and attempting one takedown or pin.

See Also

• Delivered by Grappling an Extremity
• Half Damage Without Grapple
• Requires Grapple
• Required Grapple Points
• Counter-Grappling

Additional Information

• Grappling Systems in GURPS