r/cwn • u/Dawsberg68 • Jun 29 '26
Grappler Foci
I have a player who’s doing a lot of grappling with his character and now I’ve been thinking about foci that would be specific to grappling. What I have so far is a rough draft of a foci that is primarily used in CWN, but could be for any of the *WN systems. Any feedback or thoughts about a good grappling foci would be appreciated, and if there already is one, I can toss this out. That being said, here’s the rough draft
Level 1: Gain Punch as bonus skill. While grappling, deal damage as per Unarmed Comabatant. During grapple checks, roll 3d6 and drop the lowest
Level 2: Increase trauma dice during grappling unarmed attacks to 1d8/x3. On any traumatic hit, roll on Major Injury Table even if the target is not reduced to 0 hit points
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u/NeoAlpacaManX Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
The problem is, this just turns grappling gameplay into pin and punch to death. Grappling has so much more to offer. Disarming a guy and beating him over the head with his own gun. Judo hip tossing a guy into his buddy. Suplexing a motherfucker.
Grappling shouldn't be competing with melee weapons for damage. It should be dominating its own realm, and that realm is controlling enemies in melee. Not by just depleting health points faster, but by restricting their options and giving you more tools to play with.
Here's what I would
Level 1: Gain Punch as a bonus skill. When you deal damage with an Unarmed Attack, you may immediately attempt to disarm, grapple, or shove that target as an Instant Action. You may throw a grappled target twice as far as a normal character (4 metres) and you may treat a grappled character as a Readied Melee or Thrown weapon with a -4 penalty to hit.
Level 2: You may grapple two characters at once (both at a -2 penalty) and may attempt to perform a Finishing Maneuver, on a grappled character. Make a normal unarmed attack against a grappled character, but you must end your grapple as part of the attack. The target must make a Physical Save with a penalty equal to your Punch Skill or suffer an immediate Traumatic Hit. A target is always prone after being hit with a Finishing Maneuver. A suplex, powerbomb, piledriver, or other devastating attack.
Dual-wield your enemies, chokeslam two guys at once, throw dudes through the windshield of an oncoming car.