This is my first posting to the list so please be kind.
I have been toying with a varient of dammage in the Traveller games. Most
of this comes from my experiances with 2300 AD which for all of its faults
had some really novel features. The key one IMO is the Task System.
These dammage rules rely upon viewing combat as a part of the task system.
Hitting the target already is covered by the task system and now in my
opitional system taking dammage is a task.
Old Sequence:
Player A attackes Target B
If Target is hit Player A rolls dice for location, dammage
blah blah blah blah
Player B attacks Target A
This is pretty standard for most RPGs. The problems arise when one of the
players is a firearms/martial arts guru and points out ad nausium how this
does not reflect 'reality'
These people have a point. If your group likes to fight fight fight they
want the combat rules to be good. So I ponderd over this for a long time
and finally it occurred to me that the whole hit point/random dammage
concept could be replaced by a NO HIT POINT/constant dammage system.
At this point I made 5 types of wounds: scratches, light wounds,
substantive wounds, greivious wounds and mortal wounds.
Now when a person takes dammage in a fight 2 things happen: 1 the person
ignores the wound and keeps on fighting or the person must respond to the
wound. This really sound like a task:
TASK: Ignoring a scratch [easy] --modified by determination
TASK: Ignoring a light wound [determination] routine
TASK: Ignoring a substantive wound [Det] difficult
TASK: Ignoring a greivious wound [Det] formidable
TASK: Ignoring a mortal wound [Det] impossible
Weapons are rated in terms of the typical type of wound they inflict. For
example most pistols inflict substantive wounds. IMO a substantive wound
is one that will cause the individual to drop his weapon, cease attacking
or stop running in 4 or 5 steps.
This is a good first step because now as the referee I have a lot more
control over how a combat turns out and we no longer have people routinely
taking 4 or 5 .45 bullets in the chest before dying. Now when this
happens it is the exception and not the rule.
This system doesn't have hit locations per say. I dived the Human body
into 3 areas: vital, non-vital, and 'normal'
A hit in a non-vital area does one level lower wound. A hit in a vital
area does a one level higher wound. Thus if I shot a person with a pistol
that did substantive wounds, it would do greivious wounds in vital areas
and light wounds in non-vital areas.
You can aim for 1 of the 3 areas at 1 level of increased difficulty to the
to hit Task.
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Why do this?
1) I think it is faster than the traditional method.
2) I think it is more exciting when 'urgh! you take a greivious wound
roll to ignore' than 'a body pistol does x dice of dammage, roll
for location, and dammage'
3) It makes combat unpredictable -- risky -- something to avoid
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Anyway, there it is in a nutshell. This isn't for everyone or every game.
Feel Free to rip it apart err comment.
Steven Gott