Healing Hit Locations

[tmilktoast]

Good day everyone. My group and I have recently started a campaign using Hit Locations and the question has come up as to how healing potions, spells, and etc heal those hit locations. Maybe it is somewhere in the BGB, but we couldn't find it. In lieu of finding a solution in the book, we have declared that a potion heals the overall hitpoints of the character, and also divides the regained health as evenly as possible between the damaged locations. A healing spell does the same, except that the caster can target specific locations that may need more attention.

So, are rules for healing hit locations in there somewhere, or the solution is so blatantly obvious that it went over or heads?

Thanks for any input.

[MrJealousy]

I think the problem comes from the fact that hit locations are an optional rule. Not all of the rules in the book take into consideration all of the rules in the book!

That said, I think you have come up with a very good spot rule.

[soltakss]

We played that a salve affects the location where it is applied and other potions affect the most badly injured location then cascaded down to the next and so on.

So, rubbing a Heal 8 salve onto a location that has taken 4 points of damage would only heal 4 points, but drinking a Heal 8 potion would heal a location that has taken 4 points of damage, another that has taken 3 points of damage and 1 point of a location that has taken 2 points of damage.

[Skunkape]

I have been trying to think about how to deal with magic on a whole when using the optional hit location system, both from a damage and healing standpoint. With a spell that's directed specifically at the head, say Blast for instance, you could kill the target outright provided you hit. Granted, the same could be done via a weapon hit, but the chances are somewhat better with the spell as you could pump more energy into it to do more damage.

Yes the spell caster would then have less energy for other spells, but I just don't like the feel of handling magic that way. I was considering the magic damages/heals whole hit points, but then you get into the logistical nightmare of recalculating hit points distributed to those areas one the damage/healing was completed.

I think I'm going to do something similar with magic damaging/healing total hits then recalculate hit points accordingly. But am only going to do that for major characters, PCs and major NPCs.

[tmilktoast]

soltakss: That makes sense. No one's used a healing salve yet, but when they do I think I'll adopt your idea. Do you have those salves and potions heal the overall HPs as well?

Skunkape: I don't think we've run across that issue yet for a couple of reasons, one being that my magic users are pretty inept at the moment, and second that I'm using Classic Fantasy and I believe the entry for Magic Missile specifically states that damage only comes off the total hitpoints. Glancing through the Classic Fantasy spell section, it looks like each damage-dealing spell details how it damages overall HPs and hit point locations.

Oh, it looks like I misread or forgot the damage for magic missile: "Each missile will strike a random hit location

and specific hit locations may not be targeted."

That doesn't address your problem at all. For now I'll leave it as is, but I'm not completely sold on hit locations. It's neat to be able to do called shots and so forth, but I wonder if it is worth the addition trouble.

[Mankcam]

We played that a salve affects the location where it is applied and other potions affect the most badly injured location then cascaded down to the next and so on.

So, rubbing a Heal 8 salve onto a location that has taken 4 points of damage would only heal 4 points, but drinking a Heal 8 potion would heal a location that has taken 4 points of damage, another that has taken 3 points of damage and 1 point of a location that has taken 2 points of damage.

I'm not sure if it's a leftover from RQ3 or not, but I've pretty much played it like the above for the past 20 yrs or so, and it seems to work well. I also couldn't play a fantasy/medieval/ancient setting without hit locations, they make combat so much more 'tactile', setting the system apart from more abstract rpg systems. Hit Locations prob not as important in modern or futuristic settings, and some may find their inclusion hindering, but I'ld definately keep them for fantasy.

Simon's suggestion is pretty spot on I think.

[Skunkape]

@tmilktoast - Classic Fantasy is a great resource for fantasy campaigns, except that I don't like the class portion of it. I understand the point behind it, but prefer a classless game, which is easy to do with BRP. But I think the direction I'm going to take the damage/healing will work or at least in theory!

@Mankcam - Hit Locations would work great for a Romeroisk modern Zombie game!

[KingSkin]

I much prefer Hit Locations in general but for my current game I've dropped them because I didn't like the globabl HP + location HP system, just too much fuss for me. Someone on here did mention using global Hit Points but then using location HP as a guage of whether a major wound had been scored which I like quite a lot. I may have to add that into my game once we're a bit deeper in.

The way I'm running it at the moment is that we're not using hit locations but the players are tracking individual wounds and any healing must be applied to a wound rather than just the HP total. It helps that I'm running a reasonably hard SF game, if I was running some sort of fantasy game with healing potions and spells then I'd have to try something else. I quite like the way it's working at the moment though, each first aid type item has a number of HP it can heal, plus an indicator on whether or not it can be used on major wounds. For instance, SpraySkin stops a wound from bleeding and heals up to 3HP to a single wound but can't heal major wounds. It's reasonable to use it to patch someone up if they've had their arm gashed open but if the same arm's been torn off at the elbow it's not going to help.

Basically it's an attempt to get away from the idea of an abstract HP pool while still using one for the sake of convenience. I do miss not using proper hit locations though.

[frogspawner]

Someone on here did mention using global Hit Points but then using location HP as a guage of whether a major wound had been scored which I like quite a lot.

Sounds familiar. Glad you approve! (Hmm... seconds thoughts, maybe not mine after all. I get away without Locational HP).

Edited November 29, 2011 by frogspawner

[Mankcam]

Sounds familiar. Glad you approve! (Hmm... seconds thoughts, maybe not mine after all. I get away without Locational HP).

Well I have written in previous posts about using Hit Location hp as 'thresholds', it works reasonably well, combat tends to be a little less gruesome, but opponents get disabled pretty quickly all the same. Someone chipped in somewhere that 'thresholds' were the same as 'major wounds', and the discussion went from there. Not sure who made that link though.

In any case Hit Locations don't slow the game down with fiddly number keeping if you use this method, and they sure do enhance melee combat

[SDLeary]

Well I have written in previous posts about using Hit Location hp as 'thresholds', it works reasonably well, combat tends to be a little less gruesome, but opponents get disabled pretty quickly all the same. Someone chipped in somewhere that 'thresholds' were the same as 'major wounds', and the discussion went from there. Not sure who made that link though.

That sounds like a comment I made.... Brainstorming really. Someone then chimed back that they thought thresholds were too high.

It should work really well (YES! That means its not tested!). A single pool of points to maintain, locational value, etc. Have to figure out how to track the major wounds... Tick boxes perhaps. I've also been thinking about making these Major Wounds more Pendragon-y, that is they require treatment above and beyond "simple" heal magics or first aid.

In any case Hit Locations don't slow the game down with fiddly number keeping if you use this method, and they sure do enhance melee combat

This. And you get the "benefit" of locational armor, for that mix-n-match Road Warrior look!

SDLeary

EDIT: here is the thread from Sept -- Introducing... wound threshold:a change in major wound.

Edited November 30, 2011 by SDLeary
Found the thread and comment

[Mankcam]

Yep, that sounds like the thread, and we were on a similar page at the time, so at least we're sounding consistent

...And you get the "benefit" of locational armor, for that mix-n-match Road Warrior look

I totally get that, and its what makes RQ stand out for me. My old characters spent most of the time running around in the dusty plains of Prax wearing a mish-mash of armour styles, scrounged from numerous sources aka Mad Max fantasy style.

BTW you gotta love 'The Road Warrior', its a cult fav down here in Australia. Now, if Peter Jackson can bring 'Lord Of The Rings' to cinema, perhaps Peter Weir can bring us 'RuneQuest: The Hero Wars'...

Edited November 30, 2011 by Mankcam

[frogspawner]

OK, not mine then. So I'd better mention it now! So here's what I use...

1) Overall Hit Points only (about half the usual amount, i.e SIZ/2, but you don't actually die until below -CON).

2) Don't roll hit location unless the blow is "significant" in some way. (e.g. reduced to 0hp or less; and/or piecemeal armour).

3) If taken down to 0hp or less, the hit location is incapacitated.

4) If taken down to -5hp or less, the hit location suffers a "Serious" injury* (typically broken bones).

5) If taken down to -10hp or less, the hit location suffers a "Grievous/Critical" injury* (typically severing/maiming).

*And here's my related table of location-specific injuries... (Honoured with a place in the BRP Wiki!)

http://basicroleplaying.com/wiki/doku.php?id=combat:major_wound_table

Edited November 30, 2011 by frogspawner

[soltakss]

soltakss: That makes sense. No one's used a healing salve yet, but when they do I think I'll adopt your idea. Do you have those salves and potions heal the overall HPs as well?

If the General Hit Point damage was caused by the damage to the location, yes. So, healing 4 points of damage to the arm also restores the 4 HPs lost to general hits.

It shouldn't restore points lost to poison, though.

[tmilktoast]

Thanks for the good information everyone. Most of my group is either complete novices or haven't role-played much at all since AD&D 2nd Edition was current (other than occasional Call of Cthulhu that description fits me also), so Classic Fantasy is a good fit for us since we wanted something relatively simple that reminded us of our bygone youth.