Re: Weapons for pulling you down / off balance.

[Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>]

I've only ever done method 1 (ignore) in TFT. In GURPS, I've used the 
existing rules or improvised some, which were all method 4.

I'd do 4, and not 2 or 3, for weapons where it makes sense. I'd 
probably assign a different DX penalty for each weapon depending on 
how good a hook it provides, and then create one or more special 
attack types, which would all include some sort of resistance by the 
target using their ST and/or DX and/or talents, so it's not just an 
automatic "messes anyone up" attack, which I think is the weakness of 
the existing peculiar weapon rules such as those for Lassos, Whips, 
Bolas, Nets, etc.

I don't like method 2 or 3 because they are random bonus effects, and 
it seems to me that hooking people to pull them about is usually a 
deliberate and different thing from trying to kill them with the same 
tool, and the attacker should get/need to choose which, not randomly 
pull people around because they rolled a 7. Also, a fixed roll number 
meaning a pull attack would be a flat chance ignoring even the 
attacker's ability and circumstances, and would for low-adj-DX 
attackers mean a proportionately high chance that you were trying to 
kill someone but hooked them instead, which is just a weird artifact 
of a lazy mechanic.

I think it would only be unbalanced if it's really very effective, 
which is another reason to take the defender's abilities into 
account. I think it should be balanced with the other techniques that 
can knock someone down into account, such as the peculiars I 
mentioned above, shield rush, and HTH combat. It shouldn't be as 
effective as a peculiar weapon attack (which I'd also add some target 
defense chances to).

PvK