I woke up at 2am thinking about this so I dashed off the revision below. Nothing major really, just a good (IMHO) refinement.
This chart uses a d66 roll. This is best done with two different colored 6 sided dice . One d6 is read as increments of tens (1=10,2=20,3=30, etc) and the other is read as ones (1,2,3 etc.) As an example, I have a red d6 read as tens and a blue d6 read as ones. I roll both and the red die is a 2, the blue die is a 4, so my result is 24.
In addition to further simplify hit location, I combined abdomen and chest into one simple Torso location. Where I am "stuck" now is in hit location results. I envision two different charts.
The first is a simple list of modifiers like
If you are hit in the leg, suffer X movement loss during your next turn.
If you are hit in the arm add +2 DRM to any DX action in your next action
Then a secondary list of critical results by location that each have a random roll.
The "stuck" part is how to determine when to switch between the two. In my mind this can be either or maybe both:
1) the result of rolling a critical result (a natural 3 or 4) roll for a critical
2) or can be based on weapon damage delivered: (if 6 or more points of damage are taken,after AR deduction, by a human sized or smaller sized opponent in one attack, roll for a critical.
Thoughts or opinions?
This chart uses a d66 roll. This is best done with two different colored 6 sided dice . One d6 is read as increments of tens (1=10,2=20,3=30, etc) and the other is read as ones (1,2,3 etc.) As an example, I have a red d6 read as tens and a blue d6 read as ones. I roll both and the red die is a 2, the blue die is a 4, so my result is 24.
In addition to further simplify hit location, I combined abdomen and chest into one simple Torso location. Where I am "stuck" now is in hit location results. I envision two different charts.
The first is a simple list of modifiers like
If you are hit in the leg, suffer X movement loss during your next turn.
If you are hit in the arm add +2 DRM to any DX action in your next action
Then a secondary list of critical results by location that each have a random roll.
The "stuck" part is how to determine when to switch between the two. In my mind this can be either or maybe both:
1) the result of rolling a critical result (a natural 3 or 4) roll for a critical
2) or can be based on weapon damage delivered: (if 6 or more points of damage are taken,after AR deduction, by a human sized or smaller sized opponent in one attack, roll for a critical.
Thoughts or opinions?
I would also take into account if the target is using a shield. Do they get a chance to block?
ReplyDeleteSame with a weapon.
Bear in mind most attacks would be aimed at the torso and arms and legs would be mostly hit by chance due to a wild swing/chop (I imagine?)
I suppose you could work to a standard format of allotted values, then have a certain modifier for attackers and defenders based on weapons used, class, armour, etc, but then you're going into the realms of slowing down your game combat and turning it into a number crunching exercise, which in my experience, can ruin an exciting combat and kill the mood.
It really does depend on how detailed you want this to be, but I think shields, bucklers and the like need to be seriously considered.
Asides from that, it's looking good my friend - I wish you luck :)
Thanks Mark for the feedback!
DeleteIn HOW weapons and shields do have combat reaction possibilities already (parry/block) this would not effect those.
In addition, a shield provides additional AR protection and depending on its size (in the hit loc system) its passive AR benefit (subtracting from damage) will apply only to certain locations.
My initial sketch of this is:
Buckler (SM) shield arm and torso
Round Shield (Md) Shield arm, torso and shield side leg
Tower Shield (lg) arms, legs, torso
This AR by location is all known before combat begins so it should not slow down combat nor damage calculations.
As to aimed shots I am initially thinking +1 die for limbs, +2 dice for head shot-but it will take testing.
As to weapon type damage (pierce/crush/slash) I am not sure that would effect the hit location, only the amount of damage being done, which would impact critical hit effects if it is based on damage.
Thanks again!
I like the idea of using hit locations. First saw these on Original Runequest and all its spawns.
ReplyDeleteI love using hit locations, and enjoy the surprise of getting more realistic results from it.
Is your system going to feature hit locations for other creatures as well, horses, wolves, etc . . ?
The only negative I have found is in tracking up to 6 hit location per character. So four warriors fighting 4 goblins could run 48 hit locations. Really depends on how much detail you want in your combats?
I suspect most DM's will use the system as it stands now. But as an 'optional' rule it would be a fun to use.
My vote for your 'stuck' is to allow the damage that gets through armor to determine what effect occurs.
Possibly, any hit under half of total hp of that location would be a minor hit, no effect.
Any hit 50-100% on that location would require a roll on some type of table, and any hit 100% and over that location a really major effect.
I also assumed that the total HP of a character is his/her ST+EN. Then you would have a formula to break that number up into smaller values for hit locations. Runequest uses .25% arms, .33% legs/torso, .40% chest..
Well good luck, hope to see some new stuff out soon, but realize how much time this stuff takes, to design, playtest, clean-up, etc..
Thanks for the feedback! Yes there will be a 4 legged creature chart as well and a winged creature chart. My goal isn't to go Arms Law with details and charts, but to provide a simple added level of detail that can be used if you want.
DeleteI know RQ used the HP by location but I am not sure if I will. I think relying on location of the hit and a specific set amount of damage to trigger a critical effect will cancel out a need for location HP and tracking them that way.
Time and testing will tell, and I really appreciate your thoughts and feedback!
For effects of hits, I would suggest that any hit that penetrates armour imposes a deleterious effect on the target for the next round, the effect determined by the location [Move x1/2 for a leg, no attack, or lose shield parry for an arm, etc]. If the damage done is > or = to 1/4 the characters total Hits [ST + EN] then the effect lasts until the wound is healed [either magically, Physick, or through the passage of time]. This way, you don't have to track number of hits per location and amounts of damage done to each location, only the presence of an effect, or not.
ReplyDeleteFor Called Shots, I suggest adding dice or a modifier to the attack roll and calling high or low - each additional die allows the player the choice of 'bumping' the tens die on the location chart by 1 in the stated direction. So, if using extra dice, a 5 die attack roll attacking high, would allow a roll of 32 to be bumped to 52. I would also reverse the numbers of the hit locations - placing the head at the high end of the spread, rather than the low end. It seems more intuitive to me.
Clint those are both great suggestions, I will have to game them out and see how it flows! I really appreciate the great ideas and feedback!
DeleteTried out my version of the hit location tables in our first game of HOW. It worked pretty nicely. Only thing - for NPCs - without RND - the threshold for an ongoing wound penalty should probably be higher than 1/4 of total HP.Something like 1/2 of total hits.
ReplyDeleteI was playing with just the statblocks from the Terrors chapter, but it was still pretty easy to note wounds on individual models. The fight involved our three plucky heroes being ambushed by a serpent man and his three scabber slaves. As each one took a wound I made a note for the affected location [LL for Left Leg, for example]; if the wound was permanent I circled it.
I want to test it some more.
Yes indeed, it is necessary to link it to ST as tit is he only universal way to insure an equality of application.
DeleteI am working on 1/2 ST as the threshold. So if you take 1/2 ST or more damage to a location (after armor deduction) some sort of special effect is applied.
That is what I settled on too. If you like, I can send you my hit location doc.
ReplyDeleteSounds good Clint, much appreciated.
Delete