Using Consequences from FATE

[phantomdoodler]

This is another neat idea from FATE, which adds a little interest to wounds.

Every time a player takes ENDURANCE damage, they may choose to take a Consequence instead, ignoring a certain amount of damage from the attack. You may take no more than one of each category, or more than 3 in total

Minor Consequences (- 2 ENDURANCE):

Winded
Tripped up
Momentarily Dazed
Shaken Up
Disorientated
Bruised and Battered
Winged by a lucky shot

Major Consequences (-4 ENDURANCE)

Punched Drunk
Stunned
Bleeding
Cant See
Deafened
Concussed
Flesh Wound
Sprain
Painful Burns

Severe Consequences (-6 ENDURANCE)

Broken Leg
Broken Arm
Bleeding to Death
Collapsed Lung
Third-degree burns

Extreme Consequences (-8 ENDURANCE)

Guts hanging out
Nerve Damage
Leg Off
Throat Cut
Skull Caved in
Lung punctured
Cut in half

For example, Grey Bear the Kai lord has been set upon by Drakkarim captain, after a grueling adventurer, and is reduced to just 4 ENDURANCE. He takes another sword blow, for 5 ENDURANCE - enough to finish him off permanently. He is already suffering from a major consequence (a nasty flesh wound) so elects to take a Severe consequence, ignoring all of the damage. The sword hacks into his thigh (he takes the Severed Tendon consequence), but at least he can fight one more round- hopefully enough to kill his enemy.

Each consequence reduces your rolls by -2 when appropriate (or acts as a negative Aspect if you are using those (see my post below) which stays around, until you have had a chance to heal, the duration based on the severity:

Minor sequences are removed after the player has a few minutes to recover - they last until the end of the scene.

Major consequences require a few hours of "downtime". This may involve treating wounds, sleeping in a comfortable bed, whatever is appropriate to the consequence.

Severe consequences require a week or more of down time. They tend to linger for an entire session , or are reduced to a Major consequence, at the start of a new session.

Extreme consequences put the character at the brink of death, and will require powerful magic or healing techniques. Recovery will generally take a few months, or reduced by one level at the start of a new session

 

[Troll66]

agree should port over nicely enough I think. Bigs up the narrative potential of the gameplay with some mechanics that dont hinder the game which is what LWMP is all about - its not a system crunch game at all!

 

[Plageman]

Healing consequence is much different from healing Endurance loss from the core rules thus needing some adjustment. In between adventure you get your ENDURANCE back, but by introducing semi permanent wounds you create a situation in which characters have long lasting penalty. such decision should impact when building the following adventures...

Also keep in mind that the game should be about heroic characters. The description of Extreme Consequences make me wonder if the character has any chance of getting back in adventuring shape. Mind you having a throat slit or being cut in two looks more like a death wound than a something you can recover from. Even if nerve damage or losing a leg may let you alive, it looks more like this character will become a NPC.

Finally it depends on how you consider Endurance: is it truly life force or is it part stamina, moral and flesh wounds ? Consequences and the Stress track in FATE are much less harsh than the core LW health rules.

My preference would be treating ENDURANCE like HP in DD 4e and using half max ENDURANCE as a "bloodied" state and 0 ENDURANCE as "in danger" state.

 

[Random Code]

My personal preference would be not to adopt consequences at all. I love them in the right FATE game but I don't think they'd fit my style of play for a LW game. YMMV.

 

[Plageman]

If you want to ass semi permanent wounds, maybe the easiest way would be to use a massive damage rule, for example if the character take more than 1/4 of his max End in damage in an attack, then something extra is happening. The same may happen if the character is nearing 0 ENDURANCE.

BTW I would not kill character at 0 ENDURANCE but make them dying. While this (0 END = dead) might work in the context of a game book, in full fledged RPG it is too harsh. Out of action for the rest of the adventure may be a better option.

 

[Random Code]

Yeah, agreed. I have a houserule than 0 EP is dying, not dead. To die a PC has to be reduced to -5 EP.

I use a lot of the Pendragon rules for damage, mortal wounds, etc. One time I will collect my house rules up and post them here.

 

[phantomdoodler]

Nice ideas. I think its useful to have some form of injuries - Since the damage inflicted is heavily stacked against a creature (even with "equal" CS), and each player can only take up to 8 EP from a single attack (or a K result) you could use injuries as a consequence of a good or bad roll. 1 indicates the enemy has wounded you, causing an injury, while a 0 indicates you have inflicted an injury. Each injury you, or a target sustains subtracts -1 from all your rolls, up to a maximum of -5. Healing could be used to remove injuries, or maybe you could remove one each day of rest.

 

[Random Code]

Nice ideas. I think its useful to have some form of injuries - Since the damage inflicted is heavily stacked against a creature (even with "equal" CS), and each player can only take up to 8 EP from a single attack (or a K result) you could use injuries as a consequence of a good or bad roll. 1 indicates the enemy has wounded you, causing an injury, while a 0 indicates you have inflicted an injury. Each injury you, or a target sustains subtracts -1 from all your rolls, up to a maximum of -5. Healing could be used to remove injuries, or maybe you could remove one each day of rest.

Just remember that any change that makes combat more lethal inherently affect the PCs' ability to survive as they are involved in every combat that will be played within the game. If you want to go with a grittier and deadlier feel then that's great but if you don't then beware...