By Helge Lund Kolstad (helge @
nvg.org)
Most RPG damage systems have a linear way of regarding wounds, i.e.
hit points, a wound track, or a similar mechanism. The idea is that
if you sustain enough small wounds, you will eventually die. This
is fine for most games, but is nevertheless somewhat unrealistic. I
present here an optional damage system, inspired by Fantasy Flight
Games' Synergy game system.
The system is based on the assumption that you don't die if you
sustain several non-mortal wounds. You might be hindered, feel bad
and look unwell, but you won't die from it unless your condition
somehow worsens. Likewise, it's fully possible to die from a single
wound, no matter how tough you are.
The Health Conditions
The conditions a person can be in is connected to how much damage
he has sustained, but there is no direct correlation. You might
stumble around and fight back, even if you're spilling entrails and
slipping in your own blood. Or you might be concussed and out like
a light, but otherwise fine.
- Healthy
- Pretty self-explanatory. The subject is not hindered by any
wounds he might have sustained.
- Hindered
- The subject has sustained some wounds, and is feeling it. An
arm might be numb, a blow might have caused dizziness; in any case,
this is reflected by a penalty to all rolls one makes.
- Stunned
- The subject is reeling from pain and shock and takes a round of
ouch time. This is a temporary condition. While stunned, one might
stumble away from immediate danger and dodge a few blows, but is
otherwise incapable of coherent action. Defence is at -2.
- Incapacitated
- The subject is out cold, but his or her condition is not
life-threatening. No action can be taken.
- Dying
- The subject is down and has sustained serious body trauma. He
can take no action and will die unless the injury is treated. How
long that takes depends on the injury and how nasty the GM is
feeling; however, it is not too late...
- Dead
- But now it is. In a fantasy or science-fiction campaign,
it might be possible to raise the dead, in which
case the body's condition may be a factor.
The Wound Levels
This is of course what it all comes down to. When playing,
players might keep track of wounds by keeping differently-coloured
counters. For example, the GM might give them a glass bead for each
wound, or the player might fasten laquered paper clips to the
character sheet.
The wound levels describe:
- The amount of damage sustained from the attack that caused the
wound.
- The Resistance roll. When a wound is sustained, one rolls
against a relevant trait; Damage Capacity, Health, and Resolve are
all good choices. The GM decides what he likes best. This roll is
not affected by any wound penalties.
- The penalty. This how much each wound hinders the subject. All
penalties are cumulative, except as noted above.
| Type |
Damage |
Nature |
Roll |
Penalty |
| Flesh Wound |
1-3 |
This might be a graze, a flesh wound, a sprained
ankle, or something similar. The injury is painful and might hinder
action, but is not very serious. |
No roll is needed for flesh wounds. The subject
grunts/screams in pain/does not flinch (whatever is appropriate)
and is otherwise unaffected. |
The subject receives a -1 penalty for every two of
these babies. Only one flesh wound will not hinder one. Much. |
| Severe Wound |
4-8 |
This is something more noticable - actual
fractures, a punctured lung, a concussion, or something similar.
The subject is severely hurt and needs medical attention, but the
injury is not in itself life-threatening. |
If the subject fails the roll, he
is Stunned for one round. Success means
he grits his teeth and fights on. The difficulty is Good. |
The subject receives a -1 penalty
for everysevere wound sustained. |
| Critical Wound |
9-14 |
These are life-threatening injuries, usually
because the subject's vital organs have been damaged. His stomach
might be cut open and his guts spilling out (always a bad
sign). |
Failing the roll means the subject
is Dying. Success means he is still able to
act; however, he might be permanently crippled at the GM's
discretion. The difficulty is Great. |
For sustaining this kind of injury, the subject
earns himself a -2 penalty. |
| Traumatic Wound |
15+ |
This is the kind of damage that can kill you in an
instant - standing within the blast range of an exploding bomb, for
example. The subject will likely be crippled for the rest of his
life, and should count himself lucky to survive. If he can count at
all. |
Failure means the subject is instantly,
messily Dead. Even if he succeeds, he will
be Dying and barely alive. The roll has
a Superb difficulty. For every 3 damage above 15, another level is
added to difficulty (Legendary at 18, Legendary+1 at 21, and so
on). |
A traumatic wound incurs a -3 penalty to all
rolls. |
Infection
Even after the wound is sustained, the danger is not over. For
every day spent wounded, there is a risk that the wound might be
infected. At the end of each day, the subject rolls against Fair
(use Health, Damage Capacity or similar trait. Resolve might not be
as relevant here). Failure means the wound has become
infected.
The roll is influenced by any first aid administered to the
subject. The environment might have adverse effects as well. In a
jungle, for example, wounds are likely to fester.
If a wound is infected, its severity goes up by one level, i.e. a
flesh wound becomes a severe wound. The subject then has to succeed
at a Resistance roll or suffer the consequences of the new wound.
It is possible for a wound to be affected by infection more than
once as the infection gets worse.
Treating Wounds
Healing
If a wound is allowed to heal normally, its severity will decrease
by one level every two weeks. Hospitalisation will reduce this time
by half. The Gift Rapid Healing will further reduce it by half.
Even an infected wound will get better. Yes, it is unrealistic for
a bomb victim to be completely healed after four weeks in hospital,
but this is where some realism has to be sacrificed for
playability.
First Aid
A subject who is
Dying will, well, die
without immediate medical care. A successful First Aid roll will
change the subject's condition
to
Incapacitated and put him out of
immediate danger. If he gets sufficient rest, he might wake up and
be merely
Hindered; however, the wound level
is not reduced by first aid.
Other Nastiness
Being wounded might have other consequenced than that mentioned
above. The subject might be cut by a poisoned blade, creating a
seemingly innocuous wound that will not heal and gradually gets
worse as per infection. A particularly grievous wound might cause
the loss of a limb, an eye, or other body part. This is all up to
the GM, but playability should be kept in mind. It might be
appropriate for someone who survived a direct hit from a 19th
century cannon to lose a leg or an arm, or both, but players might
be a bit miffed from losing an hand to a severe wound in a
cinematic campaign.
Examples
| Ugly Joe is in an old-style Wild West duel with El
Hombre. Fingers twitch as the clock atop the church tower
approaches 12. The two shots ring as one. Finally, Joe makes a
gurgling sound and sinks to his knees. |
In this example, Joe gets a Fair Revolver skill result, while El
Hombre gets a Superb one. El Hombre's revolver has a damage rating
of 7, while Joe's heavy duster gives him 1 armour. Total damage is
9, which is a critical wound. Ugly Joe now has to make a Resolve
roll against Great difficulty, but rolls only Good. He falls over
and is now dying.
| Bad Luck Betty has been in a firefight, and taken
three hits. One merely grazed her arm. One passed through her side,
but failed to hit any vital organs. The third bullet, however,
entered very close to her throat and has shattered her collarbone.
Although in pain, she bit the bullet and managed to escape with her
life. Bandaging her wounds, she decides to cross the desert and
search for help in the first town she can find. |
The first two hits are flesh wounds, but the second one is
obviously a severe wound. Betty made the Resistance roll, however.
Two flesh wounds mean a -1 penalty to all rolls, and the severe
wound another -1, for a total of -2. She has made her First Aid
roll, but it will have no effect other than lessening the chance of
infection.
| Jean-Pierre Brisset and his partner Pascal
Dufresne are searching the Amazon jungle for the Lost Idol of
Quetzalcoatl when they are surprised by hostile natives and forced
to flee. Jean-Pierre has taken two massive spear wounds while
Pascal has only a relatively innocuous wound from a blowpipe dart.
Of course, as seasoned explorers they both know about the danger of
poisoned darts, so Jean-Pierre desperately tries to suck the poison
out. However brave, the attempt to alleviate Pascal's pain fails,
and Jean-Pierre has to watch his partner die only a few hours
later. The next day, one of Jean-Pierre's own wounds hurts
considerably more and is looking rather worse. He gets a fever and
considers his own prospects pretty bleak. However, Lady Luck smiles
upon him as he is rescued by a friendly tribe just as he is about
to pass out. |
In this example, Jean-Pierre has sustained two severe wounds and
Pascal only a flesh wound. However, Pascal's wound is poisoned and
the GM decides Pascal's player has to make a Health check every
hour against Good difficulty. Pascal fails the first roll, which is
bad since his next roll will be modified for a severe wound, not a
flesh wound. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre tries to suck out the poison,
which the GM rules will be a Medicine roll against Superb
difficulty to shake the poison effects of the wound. Jean-Pierre
doesn't even have the Medicine skill, so he fails. Although Pascal
lasts for a few more hours, he ultimately fails the poisoning roll
and the critical wound roll, and Jean-Pierre can only watch his
dying partner writhe in agony.
Meanwhile, the day passes and it's time for Jean-Pierre to make his
infection roll. He is in a damp jungle environment with lots of
insects and bacteria to make his day worse, so the GM decides the
roll will have a Superb difficulty. However the wounds have been
treated with Pascal's First Aid skill, so the difficulty is lowered
to Great. Jean-Pierre is in Good Health; however, his two severe
wounds lowers his effective rating to Mediocre. His first two rolls
are Great and Fair, which means one wound stays uninfected while an
incredibly nasty South American insect lays its eggs in the other.
Jean-Pierre now has one severe and one critical wound.
The French explorer shambles along all day and night, and it's time
for infection rolls again. This time, his effective skill is Poor
(Good -1 for the severe wound, -2 again for the critical one), and
the difficulty is still Great. The rolls are Terrible and Fair -
not even close. Jean-Pierre now has one critical and one traumatic
wound. Although he fails the Resistance roll for the critical
wound, he succeeds with the traumatic one, so he doesn't die
outright, but passes out as his life slowly seeps away.
Fortunately, he is found just in time for treatment.
| Ted the ninja trainee has already become legendary
for his ineptitude and bad luck. One day during katana practice, he
trips and skewers himself on his own sword. His sensei carries him
to the hospital, shaking his head. Florence the ninja nurse takes
very good care of him, so what seemed at first a rather horrid
wound quickly heals. After only two weeks, a rather embarrassed Ted
is ready to resume practice. He has, however, fallen in love with
Florence, which will cause him no end of trouble. |
In this example, Ted first sustains a severe wound from his own
sword. He is quickly carried to hospital, so one wound level will
be healed every week. He still has to make infection rolls, but in
this clean environment the difficulty will be Terrible. Even with
Ted's Mediocre Health, he passes with flying colours. After one
week, his injury has receded to a flesh wound, and after two, it is
completely healed. He
has acquired heartache,
though, which is not covered by this system.
| By the cover of night, "Dead Meat" Hamish and the
other soldiers wade ashore from the landing boats. They have been
making silent progress across the landscape when the soldier next
to Hamish suddenly steps on a mine. Hamish is flung 10 metres in
the air and lands brutally, alive but not looking it. Groaning
painfully, he rolls onto his back - and triggers another mine.
Again, he is flung several meters across a ridge and lands in front
of an enemy truck. He is then run over. As Hamish is lying there,
smeared across the road, He thinks "not again!" as he loses
consciousness. |
This is an example of multiple wounds. As his mate is killed by a
mine, Hamish sustains 16 damage, which is a traumatic wound.
Hamish's player rolls Health against Superb difficulty and makes it
- the unlucky soldier shielded most of the blast. Then, Hamish is
blasted by another mine - a direct hit. This time it's 20 damage
and Legendary+1 difficulty. Since Hamish has Great Health, The
player wins it again with another lucky roll. The GM rules Hamish
hit the trigger with his knee, and his left leg is blasted off. He
is then run over by a military truck, crushed for 17 damage by
several tonnes of vehicle. His chest and most of his internal
organs are crushed, but his heart still lurches on, since the
Resistance difficulty is "only" Superb. The player can be glad no
wound penalties are applied to the Resistance roll or he would be
in trouble. Hamish is still very much dying and in enemy territory,
though.
