So is grapple just as lame in WFRP 3e as any other RPG out there? Looking at the card with the 2 mis fortune dice penaly + the fact that on a success you just preven the target from moving...what is the point of this card? It seems like melee strike would be better still. Or is grapple always the 'situational' type tactic? It appears to be situational and hence i don't see anyone wasting an action card slot on this. Am i missing something?

As I see it, since a character held in a succesful grapple cannot move, he can't use any active defenses and I'd lower the base difficulty to hit him to 0 challenge dice. So, if you manage to grapple a difficult opponent, your friends can give him all the beating you want. Kinda unsportsmanlike, but hey...

What do you want grapple to do?

Mordenthral said:

At the very least, it oughta make it **** hard for the grappled person to use any other weapon than a dagger - and make it interesting to try and hit the person (Chaos Star, you hit your friend *EG*)

The reckless side adds to all their checks.

I think combat should be Average instead of Easy, but what can you do? House rule the Grapple card is all I can suggest.

good point on the active defense penalty...not sure that applied...i guess i missed that in the rules...So, you would take grapple to prevent a foe from uusing Dodge, Parry, Block etc...interesting. Havent played yet so not sure if that is worth a action card slot but oh well.

I would figure it would at least make the opponent lose fatigue or something each turn and yes, as stated above, i would figure they could only use hand weapons as a penalty or dagger etc.

Preventing an active defence isn't in the rules, so you didn't miss it (unless I missed it,) but it's a fine suggestion.

One thing the card implies is that a character is unable to grapple unless he buys the Grapple card. The card seems to simply represent grabbing someone, even with one hand; not some kind of wrestling moves. Why is Grapple, the way it is, not a basic action?

Maybe just take it as a rule. If your characters want to try and grab somebody, use the card as the basic "grappling rules."

Grappling rules are always hell as they often end up either useless or insanely overpowered.

Problem is that having grappled someone can be interpreted very differently: some games let you totally control your opponent with a simple grapple, others allow a contested control roll and others just let you do a little damage.

Grappling someone may prevent them from using weapons or active defenses - but the same is very much true for the grappler - and it should be tricky to hit someone in the middle of a grapple as they most likely thrash about wildly.

So I kinda like FFG's simple approach and would probably not allow characters to "control" opponents through grappling unless they are two against one (and significantly stronger) or something - however I think that it may be a good idead that a grappled character (and the grappler) shouldn't be allowed active defenses unless they have special circumstances (extra arms, built in chaos shield).