Smaller than "Small" species?

[Goodlun]

I don't know being a person who enjoys grappling in the very real sense(BJJ & Judo) and having a toddler I will say size does help a lot.  Weight really more so then just size.  I really do think a giant vs a perch the perch is done for in a grappling situation unless he is the most technically sound grappler ever.  Plus the movement to start a grapple is significantly different then that to strike and in many ways is just easier as you just have to catch someone any where on their body.  So the movement into a square opposed by an athletics check to me is fairly realistic. Lets face it a nice double leg take down or a tackle is not the same as trying to make contact with a particular striking surface. 

[MugMug]

Nope. It's just moving into the target's square and making opposed Athletics checks. Size in grappling is getting the hairy eyeball. Alex and I will work something out before the first errata update hits (and no, it's not coming imminently, though "soon-ish" is probably within reason).

Requiring a full-round unarmed attack check, whose effect is initiating a Grapple (i.e. the attack wouldn't do damage), seems an easy way to give smaller characters a shot at avoiding this particular fate. Grapple is already an attack action, so this isn't much of a conceptual leap and doesn't generate a bunch of messy rule interactions (they're already present). And, the attack + Athletics combo is no more complicated than the typical two attack rolls the player might otherwise be making in a standard round of combat. Plus, it preserves the concept that the smaller opponent needs to avoid the grasp of the larger.

Walter