A farewell to the last of D&D - Percentile attribute and no hps.

[Adam France]

Since my return to BRP and it's total conquest of all other game systems at our table, roughly 2 years ago, we have been pollishing and honing our house rules to get to the point where we are at now where we are using BRP (with our house tweaks) for settings as disparate as Middle Earth, Battletech/MechWarrior, 40K, and a gritty realistic Twilight2020/Terminator setting.

We now feel confident for the next step, which has been mooted for at least a year, smoothing out the seeming inconsistency of having 3D6 attributes in a D% system, and removing the rather artificial concept of hps. Both of which seem to be holdovers from D&D, that actually don't do much for the system.

So, as a test run, I am presently preparing a new campaign set in my old D&D homebrew world, for a thief character, where we are using percentile attributes (starting as 40+5D10), and without the concept of hps. I shall post some rules under here so you can see how combat will work. We use the Harnmaster hit location tables, which give specific locations hit down to each finger, and a more generic Light Wound, Medium Wound, Severe Wound, Kill, damage mechanic.

By rationalising the old 3D6 attributes to percentile it brings them much easier into line with skills, where Difficulty Code tests can be made against both skills and attributes (a DC10 test from a module would be a no adjustment test, DC11 would be harder - a minus 5% test, DC12 minus 10% and so on).

Big or particularly nasty/tough monsters, rather than dozens of hps will have Damage Reduction.

I've a feeling this will work smoothly, especially once we're used to it. Has anyone else tried something similar?

[Adam France]

Weapon damage -

Prev. Max. Dam. from RQ3

3 - -25

4 - -20

5 - -20

6 - -15

7 - -15

8 - -10

9 - -10

10 - -5

11 - n/a

12 - n/a

13 - +5

14 - +10

15 - +10

16 - +15

17 - +15

18 - +20

19 - +20

20 - +25

ARMOUR

Each point of armour equals 5% off the opponents damage roll - any damage roll under 0% results in no measurable wound.

STR + SIZ

02-30 -5

31-120 0

121-160 +5

161-200 +10

201-280 +15

281- Additional +5 for each 80 plus

DEX (& INT) SR

DEX or INT

01-45 - 4

46-75 - 3

76-95 - 2

96+ - 1

SIZ SR

SIZ

01-45 - 3

46-75 - 2

76-95 - 1

96+ - 0

POW SR

POW

01-55 - 6

56-70 - 5

71-75 - 4

76-85 - 3

86-95 - 2

96-100 - 1

101+ - 0

INT SR + POW SR = Magic Casting SR

Edited June 27, 2010 by Adam France

[Adam France]

Wound roll -

Head

01-25=LW

26-59=MW

60-84=SW

85-00=K

Chest

01-44=LW

45-74=MW

75-89=SW

90-00=K

Abdomen

01-44=LW

45-74=MW

75-89=SW

90-00=K

Arm

01-44=LW

45-80=MW

81-97=SW

98-00=K

Leg

01-49=LW

50-84=MW

85-95=SW

96-00=K

Effects of Wounds -

Light Wound

All Lws suffered cause -5 to Fatigue until treated or healed

Head

Skull - DC0 CON/STR check or suffer -5 to actions per LW

Eye - -10 to actions due to bruising or blood in eye

Face - As skull

Neck - As skull

Chest & Abdomen

DC0 CON/STR check or suffer -5 to actions per LW

Arm

DC0 CON/STR check or suffer -5 to actions with arm in question

Leg

DC0 CON/STR check or suffer -5 to any action requiring movement with leg

Medium Wound

All MWs suffered cause -10 to Fatigue until treated or healed, each round untreated DC0 (+1 for each additional MW) CON roll or suffer blood loss (1-3 CON&STR Pts) - each time bloodloss occurs victim must test DC(12+1 per point of bloodloss) to stay conscious. MW means the location is disabled.

Head

DC-25 CON/STR test to stay conscious, - can continue to act but at -15, making bloodloss and counsciousness tests each at the end of each round.

Chest

Fall to ground, to hurt to fight or act beyond crawling, standard MW bloodloss roll (if weapon appropriate).

Abdomen

Both legs are useless and the vitctim falls to the ground. He may fight from the ground, but must roll for bloodloss if weapon appropriate, and consciousness if bloodloss occurs.

Arm

Arm in question is wounded beyond ability to hold or use anything. Blood loss tests (unless wounded by crushing or burn etc).

Leg

Leg useless, victim falls. May fight from ground, bloodloss chances and possible consciousness test as above.

Severe Wound

All SWs suffered cause -20 to Fatigue until treated or healed, each round untreated DC-10 (+1 for each additional MW, +2 for each additional SW) CON roll or suffer blood loss (1-6 CON&STR Pts) - each time bloodloss occurs victim must test DC(-10 +1 per point of bloodloss) to stay conscious. SW means the location is either severed or irrevocably maimed, in the case of limbs, or very severely wounded in the case of head, chest and abdomen.

Head

Immediately uncounscious and losing blood (no roll).

Chest

Immediately uncounscious and losing blood (no roll).

Abdomen

Immediately uncounscious and losing blood (no roll).

Arm

DC-50 CON/STR test to continue to act at -35 with other arm - bloodloss is immediate, as are consequent consciousness tests

Leg

DC-50 CON/STR test to continue to act at -35 from prone - bloodloss is immediate, as are consequent consciousness tests

KILL - A character suffering an immediate killing wound, may be healed by magical means (or by a special or critical First Aid success) made within 1-4 rounds of the mortal wound being inflicted.

Called strike - Direct to specific location = -60

To general location = -30

Edited June 27, 2010 by Adam France

[Adam France]

So the thinking/intent is that rather than tracking wounds to pcs by hps, they record what wounds they've taken, get a minus to fatigue and possibly to skill and attribute rolls, but no need for hps.

This makes damage more subjective and less specific (though not narratively, narratively we will know exactly where and roughly how bad someone has been wounded), thus removing for one the problem of firearm damage, which rarely scales right in BRP (one of the system's few flaws imo).

Having weapons and armour also based around percentile adjustments enables more fine detail in quality than previously. Previously platemail was 8 Armour Points, or -40% damage as base, however now it can be slightly different depending on how well made it is, so shoddy rusty plate might be -37, good quality well made plate +43, and so on.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Adam France

[RosenMcStern]

A concept is not inerently "evil" because it comes from D&D. Removal of Hit Points has been done in Mongoose RuneQuest, and I am really unsure about the fact that it is a good idea, as it forces you to use hit locations instead of letting you choose. Hit Points and Armour Points are a great abstraction, but every person who has played _any_ game, even Starcraft, can understand how they work.

[Adam France]

Never said hps or D&D were evil, just that the 3D6 attributes and hps seem rather bolted on to BRP and in a way always have. Of the two I think the 3D6 attributes are the more incongruous in a percentile game certainly, hps are a more personal thing perhaps - they tend towards either 'too many' or 'too few' imo.

[rust]

You are aware that to change the combat system this way also requires a new system for first aid,

medicine, healing spells, healing potions and all that ?

[Agentorange]

Seems interesting, the only bit I'm not keen on is the idea that armour reduces your chance of being hit...that seems very D&D to my mind, armour reduces your chance of taking damage when you are hit is how it works to me

[Adam France]

Maybe I didn't explain armour - it doesn't reduce your chance of being hit, it reduces (by percentile) the severity of the wound. For example, Plate Armour is base 40% - so a character, without a damage adjustment, that has hit someone with plate armour protecting his arm, with a normal sword (-10% to damage), would suffer -50% to his chance of wounding on the arm location wound table, if he rolls under 50% no significant wound occurs.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Adam France

[Adam France]

You are aware that to change the combat system this way also requires a new system for first aid,

medicine, healing spells, healing potions and all that ?

Hadn't thought about that yet tbh, but I can't see it being a problem, I would guess a simple timescale of recovery time after being healed per severity of wound, and perhaps the ability to reduce severity of wound depending on the strength of spell.

[fmitchell]

Your armor/damage system sounds a lot like a variant in Unearthed Arcana, later refined in Mutants & Masterminds and True20: one roll to hit, another "saving throw vs. damage" with armor adding to the second roll. (If it helps, the "soak roll" is older than 3.x.)

[sdavies2720]

You are aware that to change the combat system this way also requires a new system for first aid,

medicine, healing spells, healing potions and all that ?

Hadn't thought about that yet tbh, but I can't see it being a problem, I would guess a simple timescale of recovery time after being healed per severity of wound, and perhaps the ability to reduce severity of wound depending on the strength of spell.

When you get to things like healing spells & potions, you're going to have a fundamental choice whether there is a heal per type of wound (e.g. "Light Heal" cures one "Light Wound", "Medium Heal" cures one "Medium Wound" or one "Light Wound") or some conversion between wounds (e.g. "Medium Heal" cures on "Medium Wound" or two "Light Wounds").

If you go the latter route, you've just renamed hit points...

It looks like a workable system, and interesting. I'm happy your group wants to go that route. My gaming group is just too comfortable with the old 3D6 characteristic and hit point approach, even though the characteristics (for one) cause periodic problems.

Steve