GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling is out

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

1. Roll a Fright Check
2. Don't sleep. Ever.
3. Just alter Bite Strength.

You'd never survive in my current game. I love making stuff up to creep out my players. Forget thee not the clowns. :-D

Also, thank you.

[Vynticator]

Yay! Great news that it's out. Snagged a copy, will bring due mental attention to bear and leverage an opinion later. Currently don't know if its going to sweep me away or if I'll have to slam it :)

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

Yay! Great news that it's out. Snagged a copy, will bring due mental attention to bear and leverage an opinion later. Currently don't know if its going to sweep me away or if I'll have to slam it :)

Sweeps are covered. Slams and shoves, not so much. :-P

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I'll have to check the playtest files (which I still have), but biting also does injury, where a hand grapple does not. That pain and shock impacts skill use (though not defenses).

The bit is more injurious and more painful than merely being grabbed. But the hand offers control and manipulation possibilities that chomping does not. I'd be hard pressed to slap on an inverted C-Lock with my teeth.

A bite may lack the finesse of a hand and arm, but those of natural biters can apply a lot of force, strength, and leverage for various techniques. Things that come to mind ...
(1) Biting animals tend to have very strong jaw closing muscles. Prying a clamped jaw off is much harder than breaking a hand's grip. Crocodillians are notorious in this regard (and with good reason, because they are the prime candidate for massive biting strength boosts), but I have vivid memories of a Nile monitor that hand clamped down on a pinch of skin on the back of one of my knuckles. No amount of muscular effort on my part or the person that was trying to help me could open those jaws until we finally managed to pry them off using a metal bar as a lever. I have had similar experinces with savanna monitors and boa constrictors (although the problem with snake's jaws is a bit different - they don't have the massive jaw strength, but do have very flexible skulls that are hard to detach all at once).
(2) The jaws of biting animals are connected to powerful neck, shoulder and torso muscles that can be used to twist, lever, and pin their prey. I have often seen this with my pet monitors, using their weight and neck and torso to execute pins on often fairly sizeable prey. Auffenberg has documented Komodo monitors executing bite-based pins and takedowns on goats of similar size (W. Auffenberg, "The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor", 1981, University Presses of Florida). Crocodiles use the same muscles to perform wrench limb attacks by twisting their prey's limbs off. Owners of domestic dogs will be quite familiar with how they can grab, shake, and hold bite-toys, and when playing tug-o-war with a dog it is not trivial for a much larger human to pull the chew toy away from the dog even with both hands (at least, for normal sized dogs - I don't have experience with the smaller breeds).

Luke

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Tooting my own horn a bit: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/M...icalgrappling/

I'm happy to answer any questions, though bear in mind that it's been a long time for ME too on this manuscript!

I've written a book before. I know how long the process is, even after it left my hands totally. But they had to print mine, and the cover was unspeakable (and no, there were no Ancient Ones in Linux Robotics, though I was insane enough by the end of the process).

And despite my earlier words, I will probably buy this as soon TG this week or bext and review it on my blog also.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

A bite may lack the finesse of a hand and arm, but those of natural biters can apply a lot of force, strength, and leverage for various techniques. Things that come to mind ...

Considering how humano-centric GURPS is, I think such factors would best be represented by advantages, rather than changing the way biting works for everyone and then giving humans a disadvantage. For example, perhaps crocodiles have Bite ST (Clamping only) which improves ST for holding on, but doesn't increase damage from the bite itself. Or you could go further, and treat their bite as a Constriction attack, effectively doubling the CP inflicted.

[Tomsdad]

OK I'm the UK, saw it at breakfast, ordered over coffee, emailed it to work, printed it out, it's sitting in my draw, roll on getting the kids in bed and sitting down with it (but fighting it into acetate covers and a slide spine first)!

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

What about creatures with mouths in their hands?

That sounds familiar . . .

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Keiko

How about a Felicia in a Sailor fuku instead?

What?

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Am I reading it right that a grapple with the mouth is no more effective (as a grapple, that is, and ignoring the ability of teeth to overcome slipperiness) than using a single hand?

Okay, if true, that certainly reduces the effectiveness of the Venus Flytrap biomod.

[Mathulhu]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

That sounds familiar . . .

are you sure they are mouths