How is grappling resolved? What are the actions or effects which you can apply to a grappled opponent?
I don’t know if there are extra rules in supplemental books, so the only information about this action I extrapolate from the core book’s Grappling weapon quality and the general rules:
- If the target is grappled, he can take only Athletics or Acrobatics actions. If he managed to escape, the momentum generated can be used for extra action is enough.
- If the attacker succeeds on the grappling, she can follow up with whatever actions make sense (even in the same round via Swift Action) such as disarm, punch, strangle, bite and etc. the target based on the momentum generated from the initial melee attack and exploits.
- In order to reverse the grapple, one must first escape one and then attempt the maneuver.
I am also allowing the controller to use the grappled target weapons (if makes sense) to hurt him as opposed grapple checks (struggle). Depending on the situation and weapon, I would reduce the damage dies and increase the difficulty for the controller, if the weapon is not dagger or something that can be effectively used in close quarters.
I use the House rule that an opponent that i grappled can forego the escape attempt and try to attack the grappler with Difficulty equal to the Effects scored on the grappling test. That way it represents characters being able to bite, elbow etc while being grappled. As for 1 Effect grapples that don’t change the base Diff of 1, I just chalk this up to being a minimalist hold on someone, not enough to hinder their attacks such as a hold on hair or clothing or a wrist etc.
How a reaction from the controller happens under this house rule?
It really depends on the narration of the scene but if you are talking about the grappling character being the controller I would handle Reactions as normal between Grappler and Grapplee.
For someone outside the grapple making an attack on either of them I would use the rules for attacking a Prone character on pg 113 Core rule book with Reactions being handled as normal. (Note, they don’t necessarily have to be Prone but the general lack of mobility between grapplers seems to be in the spirit of it)
I allow attacks with reach 1 or less weapons against a Grappler only if the grappler rolls a Complication - and of course that IS the Complication.
It served a Black Hand Assassin in one of the my games well when they were grappled by a tentacle not long ago…