Nope! Aside from just attacking as normal.

However, the grapple does enable strategies, like forcing the person to go prone. Because they can't move (you need to use half your movement to get up), they stay prone. Being prone means an attacker gains Advantage against them. So you can force them down, keep them down, and pile on.

This takes 2 turns, grappling and then forcing prone, before you can attack though, unless you have certain feats that let you do the grapple and prone in one turn. Both attempts are contested by the other participant.

Quote from: Aglondir;995605Let's take a look:
Looks great, with one exception: Is there any way to do damage with a grapple?

Well No, as it doesn't say you can, so why should you be able to unless as a player to specify you WANT to do damage?

After saying that, and for sure this is a taste thing. 5E is suitably vague about some rulings, but you can make a GM ruling without breaking the game, which for me is great. so if a player said..   "OK, my character tries to Grapple this person down" then the rules are clear and he's not trying to damage the person he's grappling.

If a player said, "I want my character to Grapple this person down and start start strangling him. "  I'd still use grapple rules, but each round he'd do his unarmed damage if using bare hands and would continue to do so unless the opponent broke grapple or circumstances changed somehow.
I don't know if this is covered in the rules and TBH if that had come up, I probably would have just ruled that to keep the gameflow going. It makes sense and to me, fits in with the spirit of the way the rules flow.

There ARE exceptions to all of these interpretations course, as some monsters have some sort of effect on a successful grapple, or get grapple as a result of an attack, such as a Vampire Spawn, if their  BITE succeeds, they grapple. It's laid out very clearly in the stats of the Vampire Spawn.

This is the thing I REALLY like about 5e.  It's left somewhat up to GM interpretation, so you don't feel constrained by complicated rules. You can't create specific rules for every possible permutation of combat and what players might want their characters to do.  
Like I said, 5e is for the most part simply laid out and very flexible, so you don't get bogged down with rules.
I see that as a good thing.  
Is 5e perfect? no.  
Is it most people's favourite RPG?  Probably not.
Is it most people's 2nd favourite RPG that just works well...   probably (a opinion, not a statement of fact).

I have used 5th grapple rules a bit.  I had a grappling druid.  (Hint at level 1 don't grapple ogers).  The rules can work, but the every DM needs to look up rules when I first bring him out.  There's enough flexiblity there for the DMs to make rulings.  Or read from the otherside of the coin, they are vauge spread through 3 different parts of the book and are missing some parts.  With carful reading you can figure it out, but it isn't spelled out.

Is the an Unearthed Arcana on grappling?

Quote from: danskmacabre;995588DnD 5e Grappling rules are very simple and work just fine.
Actually I was running an adventure yesterday where there was gratuitous use of Grapple (Grappling a character that was turned into a Vampire Spawn) and it worked fine.
After the first reference to the very short rules about it I didn't need to go back and the whole thing flowed very smoothly.

Agree they did a good, simple job in 5e. Then someone put out a convoluted mess on DMsGuild that sold very well sadly enough.

Quote from: Omega;995551AD&D's grapple rules are actually fairly well done.
...
5e's grapple rules are probably the worst I've seen in a while.

Are you posting from some alternate universe?

1e's grappling rules are so bad they are laugh-out-loud examples of how to not write rules.

Wish I could post the two pages of batshit crazy rules here for everyone's amusement but that requires too much formatting, I invite anyone to check out pages 72-73 of the 1e DMG and then wonder what Omega is smoking.

I remember GURPS Martial Arts having pretty good grappling rules but you'd have to be playing GURPS. Grappling can become very important if one of the combatants is using a knife.

The person running this website is a racist who publicly advocates genocidal practices.

I am deleting my content.

I recommend you do the same.

Quote from: Headless;995650I have used 5th grapple rules a bit.  I had a grappling druid.  (Hint at level 1 don't grapple ogers).  The rules can work, but the every DM needs to look up rules when I first bring him out.  There's enough flexiblity there for the DMs to make rulings.  Or read from the otherside of the coin, they are vauge spread through 3 different parts of the book and are missing some parts.  With carful reading you can figure it out, but it isn't spelled out.

Yesterday I just went to the combat section in the DMG (can't remember the page etc, I'm at work).  There was a short paragraph that took a couple of minutes to read and understand.
It was very clear and worked fine.
Are you talking about 5e DnD?   Maybe there's some confusion here.

Quote from: Voros;995847Agree they did a good, simple job in 5e. Then someone put out a convoluted mess on DMsGuild that sold very well sadly enough.

I wouldn't know about 3rd party rules. I just use the PHB, MM and DMG.
3rd party stuff or UA stuff I don't use as most likely it's not tested and 5e is just "Good enough" as it is to run a fast flowing, fun FRPG session.

Quote from: danskmacabre;995882Yesterday I just went to the combat section in the DMG (can't remember the page etc, I'm at work).  There was a short paragraph that took a couple of minutes to read and understand.
It was very clear and worked fine.
Are you talking about 5e DnD?   Maybe there's some confusion here.

I don't have a DMG.  Its in three different spots in the players hand book.  I borrowed a DMG and read most of it.  I found it boring.  And there wasn't anything in it I needed so I didn't buy it.  When I run 5th again I will take another look thanks.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;9955201) Find a hot redhead.
2) Grapple her.
3) Let her win and have her savage, wanton way with you.

Oh, wait, that might involve sucking after all.  Never mind...

This is how I do it.

If we're talking just "generic" systems - I suppose it depends on what you want from Grappling.

It depends on what you want to cover. Some systems want verisimilitude (which as a wrestler I'm rarely satisfied with) others try to emulate cinematic grappling (which I prefer). Basically you want to cover: grabbing a person/object, restraining, taking them to the ground, doing damage via holds, and escaping someone trying to grapple you. All of this has to be done within the context of what your combat system pretends to emphasize. PLUS it has to account for the effects upon you for actually grappling (prone, unable to defend yourself, etc).

Especially once you get into the nitty-gritty of round-by-round combat. Systems I felt worked well for me:

1e Oriental Adventures (martial arts) - Very black-belt theater and cinematic. Locks, Throws, Prone fighting, Sticking Touch, all the fun crazy stuff.

FASERIP - This is a straight up Strength check. You can grab, hold, full-hold. Each condition has it's own set of conditions. I modify it to be a Fighting check (because it made super-strong characters unstoppable and was "unrealistic" vs. skilled opponents). But you can do *all* the things Grappling is designed to do and it's fun and quick and requires no crazy calculation.

Savage Worlds - Works pretty similar to FASERIP. Fighting check to land the grapple. Contested check to escape. Grappled has its own set of conditions of do's and don't. Easy peasy.

Cyberpunk 2020 - Contested roll. The premise being that you're using a martial art that emphasizes grappling/throws etc. Otherwise you're going to get KTFO'd. Maneuvers are on a big table. Choose wisely. Very action-cinematic especially if you're using the Pacfic Rim book.

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;995860I remember GURPS Martial Arts having pretty good grappling rules but you'd have to be playing GURPS. Grappling can become very important if one of the combatants is using a knife.

The GURPS grappling rules have been pretty complete and elaborate since they were first written in Man to Man. They're one of the things that makes me prefer GURPS to TFT. Of course, I'm a fan of GURPS and the type of rules it gives for low-tech combat and grappling. There are rules for doing most things, and they give different logical effects and difficulty levels based on what you're trying to do and who you're trying to do it to and in what circumstances. The fighters' strength, dexterity, skills, weight, condition, etc are taken into account. Grappling can be general-body or a specific location or object (e.g. opponent's weapon), and it matters how many hands you use. Takedowns, pins, choking, blows, throws, slams, tackles, parries and what happens when things go wrong. Particularly with a hex map, a fight between several people with no weapons is an interesting strategy game in itself.

GURPS Martial Arts adds various other maneuvers and skills and tons of other stuff people might want to use, ranging from realistic details to cinematic exaggerations and wackiness (e.g. Bulletproof Nudity).

GURPS Technical Grappling adds even more around grappling and wrestling.

Although there are rules for all sorts of stuff, if you just have characters doing the basics (grapple, takedown, pin, punch/kick, slam/tackle) the rules aren't particularly complicated, it seems to me, but then again, my standards of what seems complicated seem to be far higher than many players.

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;995860I remember GURPS Martial Arts having pretty good grappling rules but you'd have to be playing GURPS. Grappling can become very important if one of the combatants is using a knife.

The author of Technical Grappling for GURPS released Dungeon Grappling that works with D&D style d20 RPGs.

The general idea is that it is a normal to hit roll but instead of doing damage you gain control points. With control you have various unarmed combat options related to grappling.

Quote from: tenbones;995985If we're talking just "generic" systems - I suppose it depends on what you want from Grappling.

It depends on what you want to cover. Some systems want verisimilitude (which as a wrestler I'm rarely satisfied with) others try to emulate cinematic grappling (which I prefer). Basically you want to cover: grabbing a person/object, restraining, taking them to the ground, doing damage via holds, and escaping someone trying to grapple you. All of this has to be done within the context of what your combat system pretends to emphasize. PLUS it has to account for the effects upon you for actually grappling (prone, unable to defend yourself, etc).

What do you think of GURPS: Technical grappling;)?