can you parry a grapple?

[Ian Charvill]

I'm a real Riddle of Steel neophyte - about to start playing in the next couple of weeks, only read the quickstart - so I may be missing really obvious stuff.  A few questions:

Is there any reason why you wouldn't always drop red vs an unarmed opponent?  Conversely - would you ever do anything but drop white going unarmed vs armed?

In other words - are there many situations where someone might be able to attack with a grapple where the weapons guy hasn't already made a mess of something?

From what limited personal experience I have unarmed grappler vs armed guy pretty much equals grappler loses unless the grappler is a long way superior to the weapons guy or the weapons guy makes an egregious error (which two are often connected).

[Thanaeon]

Ian Charvill, there might be some rare circumstances where the guidelines you suggested wouldn't work, maybe when time is a concern (for one way or the other) or some such. But most, yes, that's usually how one would usually act. Though of course the grappler might try his luck on advantage. However, if you're armed and your opponent isn't, I would think that the ideal course of action would be pretty clear - hit him with the weapon and be done with it.

As for your point on the relative difficulty; all other things being equal, the armed guys will pretty much always win over the unarmed grappler. If he didn't, I'd think the system would be pretty wonky. I mean, would you like to go unarmed and try to wrestle a guy with a sword? I sure wouldn't!