A stab at a grappling move for a pit fighter class:
When you go in for a grab or try to overpower another creature of like stature, roll +STR. On a hit, you lock limbs with your target and choose 2. On a 7-9, your target also chooses one. Both parties must choose simultaneously and blindly.
-Free yourself from their grasp
-Make them drop something they’re holding
-Take them to the ground
-Drag them somewhere near
-Kick, crush or bite them (1d6 damage, ignores armor)
If neither party chooses to free themselves, each selects one more option above, simultaneously and blindly. Repeat this as many times as necessary.
Very interesting. I like the you choose/they choose dynamic on the 7-9 result. But the resolution/2nd choice is a little weird. Like on 10+ why wouldn’t they choose free themselves right after you dragged them and dealt armor ignoring damage? And if you try it again, they’re always gonna choose free themselves. Or if they don’t (weird) then you get to play the whole battle with a single roll, while the rest of the party is hack n slashing like normal. So first reading I dig it because it’s kinda paradigm-altering but for that same reason it seems like it would break down in actual play.
I feel the same way about it, Marshall Brengle . Here’s gaming it out a little:
The fighter tries to overpower an orc, rolls a 10. Chooses to deal damage and makes the orc drop their sword.
The fighter didn’t break the grapple so both choose simultaneously from the top. Fighter chooses to do more damage. Orc spitefully chooses to take the fighter to the ground instead of escaping.
Still grappling, fighter now has to choose whether to continue playing chicken or break it off. Both choose to deal damage, Orc dies. Fighter’s on the ground, bruised, tangled with a dead orc.
The “if no one breaks free” clause is sort of trying to mirror the “deal +1d6 damage” option from Hack and Slash. Like, if you don’t spend one of your choices to escape, whatever you’re grappling is going to get a crack at you. Or you can get in, get out, low risk.
My main concern is the amount of fictional time that the resolution takes. Like, what’s the rogue doing while the fighter’s locked in this grapple? Is there a way to add space between each round of choices?
Yeah, that looks cool, and I really like the you-pick-they-pick thing, but the fictional timing has me worried. You’re going to go into this mini-game that can last until something is dead and you’re mechanically locked from spotlight switching.
What about something that give you hold that you can spend throughout the grapple to pick from the list?
Like
When you go in for a grab, roll +STR. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1, but your opponent chooses once from the list. While you maintain the grapple, you may spend hold, one-for-one, to pick from this list. Whenever you spend hold, you may choose to pick
twice from the list, but your opponent gets to pick once.
Then just remove “escape from their grasp” from the list, which would also fix the thing where the opponent’s smart play is always to escape, which is both mechanically boring and fictionally frustrating for your grappler-based character.
I think that makes a 10+ hit about as hard as a good HnS, and will make you pretty tempted to accept 2-for-1 trades on a 7-9.
Edit: Thinking about it from the GM’s perspective, you probably just want to mirror HnS and say “expose yourself to their attack” instead of letting the opponent pick from the list. That lets you use appropriate monster moves in addition to stuff on the list, and is just more in line with how monsters work in DW.
Russell Williams I like that. Breaking the hold is a GM move then. Which I think puts it closer in line with the rest of the rules.