Major Wound / Hit Locations

[Lloyd Dupont]

I am playing with Mythras at the moment and, obviously, location HP.
I am thinking to convert the game to BRP and General HP.

However I am thinking that Major Wound could be improved by rolling location and gravity. Something like Arm have 60% of being severed, Leg 40%, Head 30% and then the usual characteristic loss (Arm) => DEX, (LEG) => MOV, (Chest, Abdomen) => CON, MOV, (Head) => CON,APP and loss of counsciousness

Anyone did something like that already?

[Mugen]

13 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

I am playing with Mythras at the moment and, obviously, location HP.
I am thinking to convert the game to BRP and General HP.

However I am thinking that Major Wound could be improved by rolling location and gravity. Something like Arm have 60% of being severed, Leg 40%, Head 30% and then the usual characteristic loss (Arm) => DEX, (LEG) => MOV, (Chest, Abdomen) => CON, MOV, (Head) => CON,APP and loss of counsciousness

Anyone did something like that already?

60% seems like a very high chance to me. I'd be more in line with: 50% no long-term consequance, 30% chance limbs disabled, 15% permanent characteristic loss (+limb disabled), 5% limb severed.

[Lloyd Dupont]

I said 60%.. because.. in localised HP Arm have 0.25 of total HP. Hence Major wound = 0.5 of your total life = double the Arm's HP in damage = limb severed in the rule....

[Carew]

Why make things so complicated? The whole point about the major wound table is that it is fast and fun. This just adds more rolls and more book keeping. Your game obviously, but this just seems to me to be adding stuff to the rules for the sake of it. If you want more 'realistic' simulation then stick to Mythras or Runequest.

[Lloyd Dupont]

well.. it's just for being able to decapitate or dismembered people...

at any rate Major Wound has a complicated table, I though this might, in fact, reduce the complexity...
instead of running the Major Wound table, run the localisation table. Then apply the Location effect.. same difficulty really!

[Carew]

29 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

well.. it's just for being able to decapitate or dismembered people...

at any rate Major Wound has a complicated table, I though this might, in fact, reduce the complexity...
instead of running the Major Wound table, run the localisation table. Then apply the Location effect.. same difficulty really!

Not its not complicated. I roll d00 and look up the result. Your adding extra steps and things to track. Nothing wrong with that but it seems to me that if you want localization then use the hit location rules or play Mythras or RQ. Your trying to fix things that are not broken. You've got a whole lot of posts changing stuff in the magic systems too but without having tried any of it in play. Surely its better to try things and change them if they don't work, rather than thinking they won't work or need to be improved before trying them?

[SDLeary]

6 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

I am playing with Mythras at the moment and, obviously, location HP.
I am thinking to convert the game to BRP and General HP.

However I am thinking that Major Wound could be improved by rolling location and gravity. Something like Arm have 60% of being severed, Leg 40%, Head 30% and then the usual characteristic loss (Arm) => DEX, (LEG) => MOV, (Chest, Abdomen) => CON, MOV, (Head) => CON,APP and loss of counsciousness

Anyone did something like that already?

If you search the forum, you'll see several discussions along these lines. 

My usual suggestion is to use the Hit Locations option in BRP, just use the listed values as severity thresholds; using multiples of the value to determine the actual wound severity. That way, you are still only tracking the one pool of points (general HP).

For example, under the location value, its minor, just tick the points off the pool. Over, but under 2x, its severe, and under 3x its critical. Tick off points and use the effects listed for exceeding location values (don't have my book with me, so can't quote pages... but IIRC its all in the same callout box).That way, you are still only tracking the one pool of points (general HP).

If you want some options for this, you could also say that rather than dying, characters fall unconscious at 0 hp; they are in a deteriorating state and have CON rounds, minutes, hours, days to survive without medical assistance. Vary time depending on type and severity of the wounds that took them to 0. 

Another option is to use the fragility of the head. ALL shots to a head require a roll on the resistance table (or opposed roll) of the damage that made it through armor, vs. the value of the head. They fail, they fall unconscious.

And there is also Heroic HP, which makes these options a little less debilitating.

SDLeary

 

[Lloyd Dupont]

I like that!

[Mankcam]

12 hours ago, SDLeary said:

My usual suggestion is to use the Hit Locations option in BRP, just use the listed values as severity thresholds; using multiples of the value to determine the actual wound severity. That way, you are still only tracking the one pool of points (general HP).

For example, under the location value, its minor, just tick the points off the pool. Over, but under 2x, its severe, and under 3x its critical. Tick off points and use the effects listed for exceeding location values (don't have my book with me, so can't quote pages... but IIRC its all in the same callout box).That way, you are still only tracking the one pool of points (general HP).

Yeah this is the way we played BRP/RQ - the Hit Location values are 'thresholds', not actual Hit Points. The damage still comes off the character's Total Hit Points, but the Limb HP are just thresholds for damage, working pretty much as you described.

The main thing for me as a GM is that I found it easier to track one set of Hit Points for the NPCs/Opponents (their Total Hit Points), and this was one less thing for me to keep up with. It was also great for the NPC stat block - I didn't actually need to list their individual hit locations, I just referred to my GM screen which had the intial limb HP values according to the chart. This takes up so much less space with the stat blocks

The game plays a little less grissily than the RQ RAW, as mainly limb locations will get disabled rather than hacked off.  So it is a bit less gruesome, although opponents still die the same when their Total Hit Points are reduced. Whenever something really gory happens in the combat, it really is a highlight, and it is often the result of a critical hit.

I am in two frames of mind whether I'll play RQG with declining Limb HP, or whether I'll just return to my comfortable old Limb Threshold rule. 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Mankcam

[olskool]

On 8/10/2019 at 2:29 AM, Mankcam said:

Yeah this is the way we played BRP/RQ - the Hit Location values are 'thresholds', not actual Hit Points. The damage still comes off the character's Total Hit Points, but the Limb HP are just thresholds for damage, working pretty much as you described.

The main thing for me as a GM is that I found it easier to track one set of Hit Points for the NPCs/Opponents (their Total Hit Points), and this was one less thing for me to keep up with. It was also great for the NPC stat block - I didn't actually need to list their individual hit locations, I just referred to my GM screen which had the intial limb HP values according to the chart. This takes up so much less space with the stat blocks

The game plays a little less grissily than the RQ RAW, as mainly limb locations will get disabled rather than hacked off.  So it is a bit less gruesome, although opponents still die the same when their Total Hit Points are reduced. Whenever something really gory happens in the combat, it really is a highlight, and it is often the result of a critical hit.

I am in two frames of mind whether I'll play RQG with declining Limb HP, or whether I'll just return to my comfortable old Limb Threshold rule. 

Great minds think alike.  Reach the HP threshold and the limb is TEMPORARILY disabled.  2 X HP and the limb is possibly permanently disabled (if a CON roll is failed). 3 X HP and the limb IS maimed or amputated.  In RQ2, we also used a sort of "threshold system" for the total HP but we liked our Runequest "gritty." 

1/4 HP in damage = Lightly Wounded with no effect.

1/4 HP to 1/2 HP = Moderately Wounded. +1 to SR.  Move reduced to 75%.  -1 to Characteristics when using the resistance chart or doing rolls.

1/2 HP to 3/4 HP = Seriously Wounded. +2 to SR.  Move reduced to 50%. -2 to Characteristics when using them.  *Skills reduced one Level to 3/4 (X0.75). 

3/4 HP to 0 HP = Critically Wounded.  +4 to SR.  Move reduced to 25%. -4 to Characteristics when using them.  *Skills reduced two Levels to 1/2 (x0.5).

Negative HP = Unconscious and dying. CON roll to regain consciousness.  Move 10% (crawling). -5 to characteristic tests. *Skills reduced tree Levels to 1/4 (X0.25).  

Negative HP over CON = DEATH.

* We recorded our Skills on the sheet with the following "Difficulty Levels" and just "shifted difficulty" up or down as modifications to a skill during play as it was much faster than doing math.  Those Levels were: 

Easy (2 X Skill)

Routine (1.5 X Skill)

Average (Skill) 

Fairly Difficult (0.75 X Skill)

Difficult (0.5 X Skill)

Formidable (0.25 X Skill)

Impossible (0.1 X Skill)  

[Prinz Slasar]

M-SPACE p. 75-77 [Simplified Combat] is all you need. - MYTHRAS with general hit points and major wound levels.

[Al.]

I just assume no Hit Locations for Minor Wounds/normal hits (cuts, grazes, bruises, abrasion, even minor fractures -who cares where they are?)

But roll location for Major Wounds (over half total HP) and that location is incapacitated.

If they're an important enough NPC or a PC and they survive the battle then roll on the old SBIII Major Wound Table and bluff on the fly if the lasting effect from said table doesn't match with the location rolled.

[SDLeary]

44 minutes ago, Al. said:

I just assume no Hit Locations for Minor Wounds/normal hits (cuts, grazes, bruises, abrasion, even minor fractures -who cares where they are?)

But roll location for Major Wounds (over half total HP) and that location is incapacitated.

If they're an important enough NPC or a PC and they survive the battle then roll on the old SBIII Major Wound Table and bluff on the fly if the lasting effect from said table doesn't match with the location rolled.

That works too unless you want to use locational armor.

SDLeary