Severe and Critical Damage

[Supplement Four]

I'm just thinking out loud here, but follow me for a minute.

We've basically got two types of damage in the game. There's your usual hit point damage, but what are hit points?

This is copied from something I wrote in another thread.



Hit Point Damage

I think 2E Conan has one of the best descriptions of what hit points actually mean that I've ever read.

By extension, they do represent physical damage, and they do represent non-physical damage. They're an abstract way of expression small cuts, nicks, bruises, strained muscles, pulled tendons and other physical damage that is not critical. That's one reason why they take so long to heal--these types of things take time.

But, in addition to those minor physical traits of hit points, they also cover luck, expertise, Fate and the whim of the gods, fatigue, endurance, catching your breath, and all sorts of intangible, uncountable hindrances that can come into play during a battle.

The game doesn't specifically model that you twisted your ankle yesterday and, everytime you step on it, it hurts, but something like that would make you less effective in combat (thus you would have lower hit points than max).

And, besides that, hit points take into account that moment, right in the middle of your swing, when sweat drops into your eye, stinging it so much it autmatically blinks at the wrong instant, distracting you by just a fraction of a second--which can be deadly in a face-to-face combat.

Hit points are all this, plus the effects of that cold you're fighting off or the headache you have from last night's romp, all rolled together with all of your minor aches and pains and other distractions that would make you less effective in combat.

At least, that's what I think they are.

Subdual Damage

And, then there's the second type of damage. Subdual damage. Bruise damage.





Severe Damage

What's missing from the game is severe damage. Critical damage. I'm talking about sword slashes, broken bones, internal bleeding...real damage.

Of course, this is a role playing game, and we don't want our heroes to suffer from too much reality.

But...how about throwing a little more of it in the game? It wouldn't happen too often. Just under certain circumstances. And, then there's Fate Points, too, to keep our heroes from becoming too mangled.

When would you use Severe Damage?

When a save vs. Massive Damage is bricked, the result could be Severe Damage instead of zero hit points and dying.

When a Critical Hit is scored.

When the game calls for a specific wound, as with the To The Hilt combat maneuver. Or when using the permanent damage rules in the Warrior's Companion.





So, how would you implement it?

Again, I'm just thinking out loud here. This needs some tweaking. But, what about, when Severe damage is called for, the character takes the damage points from his hit point total as usual, and then takes the SAME amount as attribute damage?

Maybe just the physical stats are affected STR, DEX, CON. I can see an argument for INT and WIS, too.

This attribute damage represents wound effects from the severe damage.

Thus, if a Critical Hit is scored on you, and you take 22 points of damage, you reduce your hit points accordingly, and then temporarily reduce your physical stats by 22 points (your choice how those points are spent).



Thoughts on this?