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Old 12-03-2020, 07:57 AM   #16
DouglasCole
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
Default Re: Arm Lock with and without Technical Grappling rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by EskrimadorNC View Post
This is interesting to me. I went back and re-read the "Inflicting more pain with locks" section in TG to make sure I was understanding it correctly. I was not aware that you could STACK pain penalties. My assumption was that if your MoS in the QC = Severe Pain on turn 1, then you rolled another QC on turn 2 and got Moderate pain, then your foe on turn 2 is only under the moderate pain penalties. I always thought you had to hit MoV 10+ in a single quick contest to inflict Agony, and that it only lasted until your next turn.
Yah, sorry. I took a shortcut here. I meant the DX/ST penalties from your CP from the grapple stack with pain penalties from the lock. That can get bad, fast. Especially in a cinematic-switched fight.

Quote:
Granted, if you have to SPEND CP each turn to do this, you are going to eventually run out and lose the lock/grapple. That's not how it works IRL in my experience, but it makes sense from a game mechanics perspective.
We struggled with this during (and after) writing and playtest. Spending CP for continuous-pressure techniques like locks and chokes has never really felt right, and Peter and I used to spend some casual time brainstorming over how to make it better. I obviously decided, even then, "one rule to ring them all" so that the "spend CP for effect" was a universal concept...but no question this is a case where it squeaks around the edges.

One concept we came up with was instead of spending CP, you "risk" them. You ante up (just as you'd spend them) to set the maximum effect of the technique, then make an attack roll. If you succeed, woo hoo, nothing lost (but you also don't get more CP), and the technique works as you intended.

If you fail the roll, you lose the CP.

Fantastic Dungeon Grappling does some of this; it was written with 15 years of experience of at-the-table play.
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