How does everyone else handle helmets?

[Bregales]

d20 generalizes hit locations, so the early responses to the question in this thread sounds fine with me. I think the most recent posts bring out good points though. When someone hits in my game, I will say what the PC's or NPC's attack did ("Your scimitar slashes down his shoulderblade across his chest and exits at his torso, creating a mighty slash spilling crimson").

One thing I've offered that I took from both CCR (by the way, the 007 RPG used this system first I think, and is IMO the greatest RPG ever made) and Cyberpunk 2020 system of offering hit locations if a player wants a -4 to hit (say head) or -8 if he wants to hit an eye, for example. Then damage could be more specific, say severing a hand if attacker does enough damage, or doubling damage to a head hit or blinding the offended eye. My players never choose this option though, so I just generally describe a hit myself.

 

[Mark Dunder]

quite a few RPGs use a universal result chart, but few use the Talent system organized under Talents Pools as does CCR. This I think is what makes CCR unique, not the Resolution Table. I have at least 10 RPGs that use resolution tables (the one I like best is the one in Wild West put out by Fantasy Games Unlimited, one of the best RPG publishers I've known).
I think any of those systems that allow an attempt to hit an opponent in the eye, are good ones (dang, CCR only has 7 hit locations... gotta figure something out quick).

 

[Bregales]

Yeah I know, the talents are what I liked best about the TSR Conan game too. My current gaming group said the table is too hard (they're pretty heavy metagamers) and said the success chance is so low compared to OGL that they'd do an OGL game over this one any day, which is why they liked the Mongoose OGL game so well, even though the instances where it deviates from D&D cause confusion (AoO's are a big example, lowered Massive Damage, and different spells & spellcasting. Also, just as a last plug for Victory Game's long out of print James Bond 007 game, it was much more likely to get at least a QR1 in that game than TSR's). All in all they're pretty happy with OGL Conan though, and it's so well supported (Road of Kings is a great book, for example, many are at least good, which is tons better than I can say about 90% of the crap put out by Wizards of the Coast). You've written you've added so many skills you've probably already made up the ones I'd added (like Perception which I mentioned earlier), but I wonder if I still have all my notes (like the Yuetshi knife, chain shirts instead of the bishop's mantle, etc.).

Heck, speaking of spellcasters, I'd made up a guy who was starting towards that path, and I thought the detail involved in trying to learn how to cast ANY spell was such a great point, I use it as an example in Mongoose's Conan too (though this game is well developed and takes much into consideration, it's easier to learn a spell in this game IMO than TSR's).

 

[Damien]

Just as a sidenote: If you choose to use the Bastion Press book "Torn Asunder: Critical Hits" in your Conan games (or any other games) then helmets provide the valued service of helping to keep your head clear of any severe injuries, since in that system head injures are pretty much the worst.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Doubtless we all can use the many different methods and ideas put forth by the myriad of RPGs created in the past 30 some years. I doubt if there is one perfect system out there, or even if one can be devised. I've searched and collected over 100 RPGs, and have even managed to play about half of them, and studied the rest. In my own attempt to create the perfect game, I have found only reality staring at me from the depths of a character sheet, and have finally realized, that that way would take several lifetimes to complete. And hey! I just wanna have fun.

Bash that helmet and cleave it in twain, let the dice lay their in vain.

 

[Tim]

Im not sure the point of this discussion, if a player wants his character to run around in a loincloth and a helmet, let him, keep it simple, he gets the 1 or 2 dr. if he wants more protection there are feets for that.

In the group i run, everyone ads a small helm to the mix, the one dr can be a life saver for AP calculations, especially since leather jerkins and mail shirts are the most common armour choices.

Also, its the comics that really pushed the helm and loincloth image, in the books, conan would put-on/wear armour whenever he could. Things didn't always work out that way, and most times in battles without armour he was a bloody wreck.

On a side note, if a player wants to fight sans armour, suggest the toughness feat path, it will keep him alive longer.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Well... He started a lot of battles in armor, but usually ended up in a loincloth. Drove the women mad (with lust), I suppose. I probably made cleaning off the blood and gore a lot easier too. Besides, it was his physique that put the fear in a lot of the soft bellied civilized men. And armor didn't seem to stop Conan from slicing and diceing up the soldiers anyway. Barbarians, and Conan in particular, had Animal Reflexes. This meant that they have more advantages, at the start of combat, than the common soldier. You might want to beef up that DR (if I understand that this is their Defense Rating?) to reflect the lightning reflexes of the Barbarian.
It's all so very complicated. I'll stick to my Conan game system, I think.