In my next OSR campaign I want to add in some mechanics for more detailed damage, I thought I'd share my thoughts as...
Originally shared by Brian Ashford
In my next OSR campaign I want to add in some mechanics for more detailed damage, I thought I'd share my thoughts as "fixing" Hit Points seems to to be a fairly common discussion and as always I'd like any input or thoughts you have.
In most of the OSR damage reduces HP until your character is unconscious or dead. This is simple, and fine for most campaigns but it doesn't represent the debilitating effects of getting hit, and all damage heals at the same speed no matter if it was a taunt from a bard or a swim in a lava lake. You also end up with some players having trouble abstracting all damage down to a single pool of points which bounce up and down all the time like a yoyo.
In the Tribe 8 RPG (which used the Silhouette system) each hit was recorded as a flesh wound, a light wound or a serious wound. Flesh wounds were nothing, the rules ignored them, just describe something painful and move on. Light wounds gave a -1 to all actions and one point of System Shock. Serious wounds were equivalent to 2 light wounds in every way, and really the whole thing would have been simpler if they had just said, all injuries are either 0, 1 or 2 wounds. Actually, Instant Death was a possibility too.
Now, when using Whitehack for Tribe 8, I want to keep HD and HP because it's kind of integral to the system, and it does help keep combat fast, but I also want a bit of the fun of debilitating wounds. So here's what I'm thinking:
- When you are hit, damage is rolled as usual.
- If the damage is less than your current HP: Reduce your HP as usual, representing a non-serious hit or a lucky near miss.
- If the damage is equal to HP: Lower your HP to 0 and test Con or ST to avoid falling unconscious. (So far, so OSR.)
- If the damage is more than your current HPs: Do not reduce your HP, those remain to possibly protect you from subsequent hits. Test Con or ST to avoid Death. If you survive, mark down one Wound.
- Wounds give -1 to all rolls (Attacks, tests, saves, initiative, death checks).
I came at this the long way round but I realise now that it isn't actually very different from what I am already using. In fact all that's changed is that a potentially lethal blow leaves a few HP behind so that the next hit won't necessarily be another lethal hit, and as you survive hits your chances of surviving more slowly drop and you are generally impaired.
It only requires a little more bookkeeping; how many wounds do you have? And it allows players to recover HPs quickly and get back in the action while still having lingering wounds from serious hits which should lead to some interesting tactical decisions.
NB: I tend to have PCs recover half of their lost HP overnight. I'm thinking a Con test every three days to recover a wound.
What do you think? Any obvious issues?
In my next OSR campaign I want to add in some mechanics for more detailed damage, I thought I'd share my thoughts as "fixing" Hit Points seems to to be a fairly common discussion and as always I'd like any input or thoughts you have.
In most of the OSR damage reduces HP until your character is unconscious or dead. This is simple, and fine for most campaigns but it doesn't represent the debilitating effects of getting hit, and all damage heals at the same speed no matter if it was a taunt from a bard or a swim in a lava lake. You also end up with some players having trouble abstracting all damage down to a single pool of points which bounce up and down all the time like a yoyo.
In the Tribe 8 RPG (which used the Silhouette system) each hit was recorded as a flesh wound, a light wound or a serious wound. Flesh wounds were nothing, the rules ignored them, just describe something painful and move on. Light wounds gave a -1 to all actions and one point of System Shock. Serious wounds were equivalent to 2 light wounds in every way, and really the whole thing would have been simpler if they had just said, all injuries are either 0, 1 or 2 wounds. Actually, Instant Death was a possibility too.
Now, when using Whitehack for Tribe 8, I want to keep HD and HP because it's kind of integral to the system, and it does help keep combat fast, but I also want a bit of the fun of debilitating wounds. So here's what I'm thinking:
- When you are hit, damage is rolled as usual.
- If the damage is less than your current HP: Reduce your HP as usual, representing a non-serious hit or a lucky near miss.
- If the damage is equal to HP: Lower your HP to 0 and test Con or ST to avoid falling unconscious. (So far, so OSR.)
- If the damage is more than your current HPs: Do not reduce your HP, those remain to possibly protect you from subsequent hits. Test Con or ST to avoid Death. If you survive, mark down one Wound.
- Wounds give -1 to all rolls (Attacks, tests, saves, initiative, death checks).
I came at this the long way round but I realise now that it isn't actually very different from what I am already using. In fact all that's changed is that a potentially lethal blow leaves a few HP behind so that the next hit won't necessarily be another lethal hit, and as you survive hits your chances of surviving more slowly drop and you are generally impaired.
It only requires a little more bookkeeping; how many wounds do you have? And it allows players to recover HPs quickly and get back in the action while still having lingering wounds from serious hits which should lead to some interesting tactical decisions.
NB: I tend to have PCs recover half of their lost HP overnight. I'm thinking a Con test every three days to recover a wound.
What do you think? Any obvious issues?
Comments
Post a Comment