Break Free

Break Free was originally a quick contest in the basic set. This was changed to an attack in GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling.
TG35 also explains that reverse control is a possible ramification now, which was not previously a possibility.
Pg 38 specifies that an undefended success stops Arm Lock, even if it doesn't reduce Control Points!
Using Your Head is one option for this, though for some reason it is listed under Hands-Free Parries despite not actually being a parry
Pass Limb explains a basic bonus related to the posture of a grappled person for using Break Free to attack Control Points established via Pass Limb.
==magic staffs==
B240 mentioned:
:If someone grabs your staff, and you are both holding onto it on your turn, your attempt to wrench it free counts as an attack
The "wrench it" here likely refers to the "wrest it" from B370:
:If you hit, you’ve grabbed hold of your foe’s weapon.
:On subsequent turns, you may try to wrest it from him.
:Each attempt is a full-turn maneuver.
:Roll a Regular Contest of ST.
:If you win, you take his weapon away.
:If you lose, you lose your grip on his weapon.
Not specified is that RCs can tie, in which case neither outcome would happen and both retain grip on weapon.
The problem with this writeup is "you may try" is worded like an option (not a mandate) meaning that if you didn't want to use a "full-turn maneuver" on the "attempt" to "wrest it" then there wasn't any chance of you actually losing your grip on the weapon at all.
This creates a problem for the mage who wants someone's hand off their staff, except if you allow THEM to take the maneuver instead. IE "both holding onto it" is a mutual condition allowing either to aggress and try to disarm the other staff-grabber.
==GWM==
TG9 specifies under Mass-Based Moves that the Grappling Weight Multiplier modifier (penalty or bonus) applies "attacks to break free if you are trapped under a heavier opponent"
This is sort of like a "passive resistance" to breaking free even when not able to defend against someone you previously grappled.
Unlike Control Resistance (subtracting CP rolled from their thrust against your applied CP) this instead affects the roll to determine whether or not it can be applied in the first place.
This interestingly would STACK with the DX penalties they suffer from Control Points as a % of their max ST
*(TG 9 specifies "raw ST", so you wouldn't adjust it down as ST is lowered from CP or use the higher trained ST .. so even if you had ST 1 boosted to ST 10 via an incredible 'Trained ST' bonus from being skill 50 or something, being -1 to ST from 2 CP would reduce DX to 0, not 90%)
The adjective "under" however makes it clear that this requires that position to be established per TG9's "Weight Advantage" where Change Position can be used to establish it.
This rule might not apply to TG26's Bucking Bronco situation though. A ST 25 horse per B17 has BL45, so to suffer -1 or worse from a GWM requires the horse to be encumbered by a Grappling Encumbrance Multiple higher than 6 (GEM 7 instates a -1 GWM)
*GEM is encumbrance divided by BL: or in other words, multiply 6 by BL (6x45=180 pounds) to determine the cutoff point where you begin to suffer penalties by being "underneath" someone
**(6.001 rounds up to 7 per "If it falls between two numbers, use the higher value (e.g., treat 4.3 as 4.5).")
The cowboy in the example has ST 12 so per B18 he could weigh less than 180 pounds. 180 is actually average for the 140-220 "average" build at that ST.
Even if he did weigh more (example: a "very fat" ST 12 cowboy could weigh a maximum of 440 pounds per B18... 440/45=9.7, rounds up to GEM 10 which is GWM -7 ... VERY difficult to make that DX roll!) it doesn't seem like the GWM penalty works with the mechanics of Bucking Bronco since it completely forgoes DX rolls: they're an automatic success.
==countermeasures==
Slippery initially gave a bonus in the contest. In TG this is changed to a bonus in the attack roll. Since it also gives Control Resistance this also makes it harder to establish grapples in the first place.
This weirdly also makes it harder to break free of someone slippery since this represents attacking the slippery limb and being unable to push it off.
Even if slipperiness is contagious (for oily/naked foes) the penalty only impedes establishing it, not maintaining/defending it
==Maneuver==
MA clarifies Attack is used, not obvious in Basic.
TK mentions it can be used to break free via a Concentrate, but the way that functions is concentrate allows the TK to use normal maneuvers like attack.
==requirement of hands==
In GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling the assumption is usually that Break Free is done using the hands. What part is used is needed to know for calculating Trained ST for rolling the Control Points to subtract, except when using the Bucking Bronco option.
Aside from UYH or using legs to break free, the option of a limbless/toothless Break Free is also needed.
MA116 under No Manipulators includes this note:
:You can only break free by wriggling, at -4.
It's unclear what control points to roll there.
==quotes==
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1649556&postcount=6 Douglas Cole suggested that if raw damage from a shove was more than CP it would dislodge the grapple.
:Since slams and shoves didn't use the CP mechanic, we didn't discuss them much.
:I'd probably say that you roll damage, and if the raw damage you roll exceeds the CP of the grapple, you shove him off.
===2009===
Kromm in 2009 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=871713&postcount=4
:dd a perk to the racial template: Attribute Substitution (Break Free based on DX). Now you have a being for whom all rolls to break free are DX-based. This isn't a huge advantage, really; it circumvents some of the weaknesses of having low ST, sure, but most delvers have rather high DX scores. 
===2019===
Kromm in 2013 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1536358&postcount=13
: I think I'd allow a fighter to help someone else break free after grappling that person's attacker.
:For instance, if Skinny Sven with ST 10 were grappled by Beefy Boris with ST 13 and +5 for using both hands, it would be 10 vs. 18 and Sven would be kind of hosed.
:However, if Sven's good pal Monstrous Muvunyi came along with ST 14, and grappled Boris, then on later turns I'd have no issues with Muvunyi rolling 14 vs. Boris' 13 to free Sven.
:Boris would not get +5 because he isn't grappling Muvunyi with two hands, and Muvunyi would not get +5 because Boris isn't trying to break free from him.
==Beats and Disarms==
see Grand Unified Beat Theory
==See also==
*Counter-Grappling
*Escaping Parry
*Retain Weapon
==Links==
https://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.ca/2015/10/technical-grappling-how-does-disarm-work.html
Category:Techniques