Call yourself a brawler? I'll take you with my hands tied!

[Leon The Lion]

A quick question:

What penalty would you feel appropriate to assign to their attack and defense, if a character tried brawling with their hands tied / handcuffed in front of them? What about behind their back?

I'm thinking around -2D minimum. What do you think?
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[Barrataria]

Sounds right, and depending on how you handle defense I'd consider some penalty to that too. I'd think "brawling parry" is harder (-1D?) too.
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"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing"- George Lucas

[DougRed4]

Yeah, I think -2D is about right.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Naaman]

Generally, -2D seems appropriate, but individual scenarios ma require a grater or lesser penalty. For example, I would not give a penalty if using brawling parry to defend against a melee attack (especially a lightsaber) since the idea is to not physically stop the attack, but rather avoid it altogether, and the attacker already gets a bonus for such circumstances.

And obviously, certain attacks become impossible with hands tied.

[Leon The Lion]

So, everybody seems to feel -2D is in the right ballpark...

But for which situation? Hands tied in front? Or in the back?

And another question, kind of related:

What penaltiy would you feel appropriate to brawling attack and defense for someone in otherwise perfect health, but with the use of only one arm (either because the other is immobilized for some reason or just lost)?
_________________
Plagiarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes! So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize... Only be sure to call it, please, "research".
- Tom Lehrer

[Quetzacotl]

-2D for Front. You still can use your hands and Arms in some kind of way.
If it was behind the back, then you can't use your hands for anything in front of you, which should penalize you much more.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

[Naaman]

[DougRed4]

Yeah, being cuffed in the front is not that big of a deal. That's why we always handcuff people in the back.

Rather than trying to come up with a whole bunch of modifiers, my preference would be to simply figure out what the task is based on the circumstances.

Want to brawl when handcuffed in front? Make a Moderate Dexterity roll to be able to do so. Handcuffed behind? Make that roll at Difficult.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[jmanski]

Why not just give a flat bonus to the other guy to defend?
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

[Esoomian]

Looks like I'm in the minority here but I'd probably only give a -1D penalty for hands tied/cuffed in front and I'd completely remove it for things like a head-butt. If the person is restrained with big heavy manacles I'd probably give them a +1 to damage (although they'd keep the -1D to the brawling roll) if they decided to try a double-handed punch (AKA Kirkhammer).

It might be that having the hands restrained in front impedes balance but I just don’t see it as being worth a -2D in a largely cinematic game/environment like Star Wars.

Cuffed behind I’d go with a -2D but if you really wanted to restrain someone I’d go with leg restraints as well.
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[garhkal]

What of say a straight jacket? Had one game where we had to break out a guy from an imp insane asylum (boy was it fun!)
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[jmanski]

Interesting.... probably -2d.

What was the difficulty to escape the straight jacket?
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

Dex (or contortionism, a spec of accrobatics) diff 19.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!