[MA Style] Cat-Fu

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Clearly, the Felinoid race in BASIC SET was so utterly inspirational that I forget them in my excitement.

And joking aside, no, we didn't interview non-humans. But animals that have been grabbed aren't free from physical laws. My scratchiest cats did more damage to me when they hung on to me with teeth and rended with claws, and less when I held them and tried to stop them - for one example. A valid reaction for a human - or another animal - grappled by an animal or a human is to grab it back (with hands or teeth) and interfere with it. It just didn't seem in line with our reality checking and research that you can get so good with it that it's as easy to fight grappled as not being grappled.

The comparison with Ground Fighting is a bit weak, actually, because Ground Fighting reduces your penalty to attack (potentially eliminating it) and reduces your defensive penalty, but doesn't wholly eliminate the downsides of being on the ground (laying face up, laying face down). A "Fighting While Grappled" technique could easily buy off the entire penalty, so whether you've got a bear biting your arm or a lucha libre wrestler bear hugging you or a knife fighter twisting up your shirt in his live hand while he stabs you, you'd be just as fine as if none of them layed a hand on you. That's...hard to justify, at least. If you make it yourself, I'd apply a cap...default to Skill-4, max Skill-2, Hard, is probably a good way to go - just off the top of my head.