Xooc sparked up a little today about grapple and so I thought I would take this opportunity to explain some concerns and try to suggest how those concerns might be addressed in a helpful and constructive manner. Please do not take it to be a moan, it isn't intended as such. I -really- enjoy sindome and everything it has to offer both myself and the other players in the community we are all part of.
*Hailfire sucks in a deep breath, steadies themselves, and begins*
I am in full agreement with salvatore and the general principle that skills should have some bearing on whether people can be grappled or not. I would also like to see some more diversification of what people can do whilst -in- grapples to either get out or at least provide some kind of tangible nuisance to their attacker that might help free them.
Skills really should get some bearing on whether you can be grappled or not alongside stats as happens with almost every other action in game (as far as I know, please correct me if I am wrong). Doing it with stats alone may be simpler but as Salvatore, GlassSuitJacketMan (on xooc) and TheCraftyDragon have pointed out before me skills like martial arts, brawling and dodge would have bearing too. After all, you can be as strong as you like but if the person just dodges your lumbering bear hug or uses your weight against you to throw you back from whence you came the grapple is unlikely to land.
At present I feel some additional means to escape or hinder grapplers from inside a hold would not go amiss as player options are extremely restricted once put in a hold and that this leads to some really really boring character deaths (from the player perspective). As things stand once held in a grapple your options are; wait for rescue, try to pose your way out, or resist successfully. The last of those listed options is even done automatically when under attack and thus completely removes the grappled player from the actual combat itself . Unless you manage to pose your way out the player themselves actually has no bearing on whether you live, die, etc from a grapple. My suggested solution for this would be the inclusion of grapple postures somewhat like those available in 'open' combat (i.e. bullets, blades and fists still flying around) to provide some variation for both the attacking and defending character in the grapple and thereby make things more interesting all round but all other suggestions are welcome (I have listed some example postures in the footnote at the bottom).
I think Thecraftydragon also raises an excellent point when they say grapples out of combat can be turned lethal before the defending player ever has a chance to protect themselves and again, more to do to escape or resist once in the grapple might relieve this niggle somewhat.
If you have read this far then THANK YOU for listening and I hope it has not been too great a chore to read through those great blocks of text. To quickly recover my views on grapple I think there should be more variation of combat inside grapples to help make things more interesting and involved for the player and I think skills should definitely be added to the roster of factors when a grapple is first being applied. Do you agree, disagree, have alternate suggestions? Why? Open discussion is the way forwards peeps! SINDOME FTW!
Footnote
Grapple postures
Defensive (i.e. peformed by the grappled character):
Resist: What we have in place already. The character tries with all the strength they possess to force out of the grapple.
Squirm: Rather than try to force their way out by feats of incredible strength the character tries to wriggle and writhe their way out of the hold.
Fight: The character doesn't even try to get out of the grapple, instead focussing their attentions on harming their attacker with whatever means they have available to them; donkey kicks, eye gouges, use of their weapons if they can get the arm free, etc.
Offensive postures (i.e performed by the grappling character)
I had ideas honest... then i forgot them.