olskool

A quick and easy hybrid system of location HP and one HP total is to use Locations (rolled by D20 as per BRP/Runequest 2) with a "Damage Multiplier" and a total HP model. So typical Damage Multipliers would be... Head = X 2 Chest = X 1 Abdomen = X 1.5 Arms = X 0.5 Legs = X 0.5 These multipliers would then be applied to any damage and the total subtracted from the HP total.

I just added weapon length, known as REACH, to my old Runequest campaign (using V2 and V3 rules) based on weapon type. Short Reach = 1m Medium Reach = 2m Long Reach = 3m Extreme Reach = 4M This Reach assumes the distance from your own 1-meter hex that you can reach an opponent WITHOUT using a MOVE action/distance (where any movement is assumed to be part of the attack). Once combat gets into 1/2 the listed REACH of a weapon. That user suffers a penalty (I use DIFFICULTY SHIFTS) to attack. IF REACH is double the opponent's REACH, then your opponent suffers a penalty.

Another way to do this is to use the Location Hit Point totals from Runequest as Wound Thresholds. That 4-point Arm takes a wound when hit. The ACTUAL WOUND would be... Lightly Wounded = HP or less Moderately Wounded = HP + 1 up to 2 X HP. Seriously Wounded = 2 X HP +1 up to 3 X HP. Critically Wounded = 3 X HP + 1 up to 4 X HP. Deadly Wound = 4 X HP or more. DAMAGE EFFECTS could be... Lightly Wounded: Only a loss of 1 Strike Rank from the pain of injury. Essentially a free wound level involving scratches and bruises. Moderately Wounded: The real start of penalties. Take 1 penalty to Strike Rank (just like Light Wounds) but you also suffer a Skill reduction. My crew uses halving and doubling so we reduce Skills to 3/4 Skill here. Seriously Wounded: This hit penalizes SR by 2 and HALVES Skill ability. IF you are hit for Serious Damage in a single blow, you must roll under your CON or that location is Disabled until you get treatment. Critically Wounded: IF a person gets hit for a Critical Wound, the location is disabled until healing occurs. SR is reduced by 3 & Skills to 1/4. A Critical Wound inflicted in a single blow may amputate the limb in question. Roll Con to avoid this. The PC may suffer permanent debilitating effects from a single blow delivering a Critical Wound. Have the PC ROLL OVER their current STR, DEX, and CON, to avoid the loss of 1 point of each. Deadly Wound: The person in out cold. Make a CON roll to SURVIVE! Any single blow reaching this level WILL cause you to roll for loss of characteristics as above. There's how I do killing damage in my game.

I'd go real world here. A typical human being is SIZ 10 on average. The average human is 18" from shouldertip to shouldertip. Some humans are smaller or larger but the biggest humans (think Shaq) don't exceed 28" from shouldertip to shouldertip. There are 39" in a meter and 36" in a yard. I consider these to be FUNCTIONALLY IDENTICAL in wargaming (ie you can use EITHER measurement without modifications). knowing that a typical human is only 1/2 a meter wide is only part of the story though. We NEED space to move our limbs and even breath freely. Thus most humans will need a full yard or meter to feel comfortable standing. Since even the largest human won't occupy a complete meter, I'd say 1 meter per 20 SIZ (or any fraction of it) should be adequate. This will include the space needed to "feel comfortable" (and not constrained) in that area.

You can pull a FASA Star Trek RPG shields system. You will have a Maximum Shield Strength. This is a number from 1 to 25 and represents the maximum damage the Shield can absorb. This number is set by the wearer, based on available power and anticipated threat levels. Then you have your Shield Efficiency Rating. This number ranges from 1 to 5 and represents the number of Shield Points each point of power creates. So an Efficiency 5 Shield would generate a STR 20 Shield for just 4 points of power. When ACTIVELY absorbing damage, this cost would be per round where the user was hit. When on but "at rest" (not absorbing damage) the Shield's cost would be in power points per HOUR. Finally you can have your Shield Energy Absorption Rate set from 1 to 10. When a Shield absorbs damage, it converts that attack into other energy to prevent it from causing damage. The most common byproduct of this conversion is HEAT (and light), which will cause the Shield to glow as it discharges that heat (and light). However, A Shield can only absorb a certain percentage of energy before it lets some of it through. The Absorption Rate is the number of damage points the shield will absorb before letting 1 point through to the item it protects. So a 5 Absortion Rate would block 10 points of a 12-point hit and let 2 points through to the PC. That's how I would do Shields in a Sci Fi BRP.

This is a good approximation of RuneQuest. Remember to listen to the song as the credits roll, the song is practically a sequel! https://youtu.be/V7v_TdLviUE

I should also have elaborated on HOW my Parry and Dodge systems actually work. When you ACTIVELY PARRY (not ward) with a weapon or a shield, you take that shield's or weapon's DAMAGE ROLL (D4 for bucklers, D6 for small, D8 for medium, and D10 for large shields) and add it to 1/10th of your Parrying skill (rounding up) to see how much Damage you actually block. So actively parrying (rolling against your Parry skill) a blow with a 50% skill and a medium-sized shield like a Kite Shield would block 1D8 + 5 points of damage. Blocking a blow with a Shortsword and a Skill of 70% would block 1D6 +7 points of damage. DODGE is a specialty skill where the Skill user has been trained in advanced movements to avoid being hit. It will reduce damage by Skill/10 (rounding up) + 1. So a Dodge skill of 50% could evade 6 points of damage on a successful roll. Warding (passively guarding a location with a weapon or shield) only stops an amount of Damage equal to the weapon or shield's AP. No die is rolled and no skill is added.

In my homebrewed Runequest/BRP rules, Shields are classified as weapons with an Armor Value and Hit points. Exceed the AP rating of the shield and it loses 1 HP. Any damage NOT stopped by the AP goes on through to the PC (the shield damage is assumed to come from the damage that is stopped). I allow my shield users to Attack (bashing with the face of or the edge of the shield) as well as Parry with their shield. I set my base Parry and Attack chances at: Buckler (or a reinforced gauntlet used to block) 05%, 50% chance to cover a blow to the arm IF the user wards with their shield. Small Shield 10%, Wards Arm and 50% chance to cover one other body part that the user wards. Medium Shield 20%, Wards Arm and one Location of choice Large Shield 40%, Wards Arm and TWO locations that are adjacent to each other (ie chest and head or chest and abdomen). The amount of AP and HP a shield has are dependent on the materials that shield is made from (ie wicker, hide, wood, bronze, or a combination of materials will have different AP and HP).

You can find used copies of FANTASY AGE online for about 10 bucks. It's a newer game and still in print (I got mine at my local game store for $25 in hardcover). You also get all the rules in a single book!

Of course I like "old school" systems, we're in a BRP forum. The original Runequest was written in the '70s! If you're set on using the 3D6 format, take a look at Green Ronan Publishing's FANTASY AGE rpg. This system rolls 3D6 but it does so with a twist. Two of the D6s are white and the third D6 is another color (red, blue, black... it doesn't matter). The system uses an ascending Difficulty Level and D&D 5e's Difficulties can be easily used (Fantasy Age's difficulties are oddly numbered, so I wouldn't use them). So an EASY Task would be 5, an AVERAGE Task 10, a DIFFICULT Task 15, and so on. You roll the 3D6, and add any Skill or Attribute bonuses to that roll. If you equal or exceed the Task's target number, you succeed. The difference in the system is that odd-colored D6. It is called the STUNT DIE. Whenever you roll, IF you roll two "6s" on any two of the three dice, you win a number of STUNT POINTS equal to the odd-colored STUNT DIE'S result. The Stunt Points can be used to buy Combat Maneuvers & Special Effects from a list. Less powerful abilities like Trip, or Redirect/Move Foe cost would about 1 Stunt Point. More damaging results would cost more Stunt Points. IF you still want the "exploding dice" effect, I would just make a rule saying that IF 3 results of "6" occur, then roll another WHITE D6 (there should only be ONE Stunt Die) and add it's result. A roll of all "1s" is a Catastrophic Failure. The D&D 5e ADVANTAGE & DISADVANTAGE system can be used as well. Once again, just add a WHITE DIE and discard the LOWEST result for ADVANTAGE and the HIGHEST result for DISADVANTAGE.

Have you ever heard of the UNISYSTEM? It is a 1D10 system where the GM sets a target number and you roll a 1D10, then add any Skills and Attribute bonuses to that number. If the total equals or exceeds the Target Number, you succeed. I have an RPG called CONSPIRACY X that uses it. It is a fast and simple system. I also like Twilight2000 Version 2.2's D20 system. You add a Skill (rated from 1 to 10) to one or more Attributes like STR or INT (also rated from 1 to 10) for a combined number known as an ASSET, that you must roll roll equal to or under on a D20 for an average task. This is essentially a percentile system converted to D20. For your inspection, the SKILL DIFFICULTY LEVELS for a perfectly average skill (5) and Attribute (5) [an Asset total of 10] are... EASY Tasks: 2 X Asset (20 or less on a D20). ROUTINE Tasks: 1.5 X Asset (15 or less on a D20). AVERAGE Tasks: 1 X Asset (10 or less on a D20). FAIRLY DIFFICULT Tasks: 0.75 X Asset (7 or less on a D20). DIFFICULT Tasks: 0.5 X Asset (5 or less on a D20). FORMIDABLE Tasks: 0.25 X Asset (2 or less on a D20). IMPOSSIBLE Tasks: 0.1 X Asset (1 on a D20). The system has you create a TASK PROFILE that combines the Skill needed, any alternate Skill or Skills that can be substituted (sometimes at an INCREASED Task Difficulty Level), the Attribute OR Attributes to be combined (when combining Attributes, they are AVERAGED rounding down), and time needed to complete the task. The Attributes combined allows you to change out Attributes for differing tasks. For Example, CLIMB might require (it actually does in my Twilight2000 game) the AVERAGING of STR, CON and AGL and adding that to the Skill Level. Rigging up "improvised climbing gear," however would require INT (for your ability to think outside the box) and EDU [Education] (for you understanding of just how a given piece of climbing gear actually functions). Thus, Task Profiles allow you to "design tasks" that suit any situation that campaign needs to meet. The system also allows the use of D&D 5e's ADVANTAGE & DISADVANTAGE system. You simply roll TWO 1D20s and take the LOWER of the results for ADVANTAGE and the HIGHER of the results for DISADVANTAGE (because this in a roll under system). This is also how you do UNSKILLED tasks. You add the appropriate Attribute (or Attributes average) to 0 (for no Skill) and roll 2D20, taking the HIGHER number as the result. We also added MYTHRAS's Combat Special Effects. On a roll UNDER THE SKILL NUMBER ALONE [on an AVERAGE task], you can achieve an Outstanding Success. This chance is modified by the Task's Difficulty Level so a Difficult Task Level would cut the 5 Skill above to a 2 or less chance of an Outstanding Success. This allows you to pick a Combat Maneuver or gain some "Special Effect" determined by the GM. This system is taken from Modiphius's 2D20 system and gives higher-skilled PCs & NPCs a better chance of getting an Outstanding Success. This system is my MOST PLAYED system followed by my HEAVILY MODDED RQ2/RQ3/MYTHRAS game.

I took all of the SPECIAL EFFECTS in MYTHRAS (Disarm, Impale, Trip, Stun, Blind, etc...) that could occur in combat and added them to my mongrel Runequest campaign. All I did was divide the Special Effects into 3 "Difficulty Levels." The least powerful SEs (like Trip) could be won when you roll under 1/2 Skill. The more powerful SEs (like Crush, Impale, or Slash) could be won if you rolled under 1/10th Skill (rounding up). The most powerful SEs (Sunder Armor, Compel Retreat) occur only on DOUBLES under Skill (treating 00 as zero zero and NOT 100). When you win an SE (and you can only win one in my system, unlike MYTHRAS), YOU PICK IT from the list. You may pick from a "lower list" (ie the 1/2 list IF you rolled 1/10th) IF that move suits your tactical needs. Adding the SEs from MYTHRAS gives Classic RuneQuest a dimension of "action" that enhances combat greatly!

Give me Hit Locations every time. I like my crunch!

This is why I established a time standard for STRIKE RANKS in my RuneQuest 2/3 game. Each SR represents 1/2 a second of time and a 12-SR round is 6 seconds in total length. My SR counts can "roll over" into the following rounds and I keep a "Time & Initiative Sheet" which is divided into 12 lines specifically to record the SR activity of the current round and an additional sheet to record any SR rollovers. I change the melee weapons to a SR range of from 1 to 4 with the heaviest and longest weapons having the longest SR to engage. It costs 1 SR to Dodge or Parry (both can be done if desired) and this is added to any attacks that come after the parry. Movement is per SR and it costs 1/2 the attack SR to draw or ready a weapon (rounding up). I balance the weapon's speed by giving each weapon a REACH from 1 meter to up to 5 meters. Weapons like Long Spears have a 4 meter reach while a Dagger would have a Reach of only 1 meter. Thus you can attack at a longer range than in the RAW game. Nobody may react before their base DEX SR occurs. During the DECLARATION PHASE, I have everyone explain what they want to do and I break those actions down into Strike Ranks and log them on the Time Sheet. I then resolve the actions in SR order down to 0 from 12 (I find it easier to count down, not up). I simply subtract SRs from 12 to determine WHEN an action occurs. Launching multiple attacks in a round is possible IF you have the SR to do it. Two attacks halve an Attacker's Skill. Three Attacks quarter the Attacker's Skill. Four Attacks reduce the Attacker's skill to 1/10th. Parrying is different because you are reacting to an incoming attack. The first Parry is at normal Skill. The second Parry is at 3/4 Skill if the attack is from the front or the same attacker of the first attempt. It is at HALF Skill if from the Oblique on either side. The Third Parry is HALF Skill from the front or 1/4 Skill from the Oblique of the Defender. A Parry to the REAR reduces your chance to HALF on the very first Attack. I've used the system since the '90s and it worked quite well. Now I've begun using the ACTIONS system from MYTHRAS because it is so fast to use.

Congrats! That first session is always the WORST! Drive on and soon it will be second nature for you!