jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (12/16/85)
In article <131@water.UUCP> abgamble@water.UUCP (abgamble) writes: >I've often thought of devising a system for dealing >with broken bones. Many games (notably D&D) ignore the matter. What system >does this (or any other game) use? Justice Inc. (from Hero Games) has a system for dealing with serious wounds. If an attack does more than half of your BODY (somewhat analogous to D&D hit points), you roll for a hit location and that part of your body is impaired. The rules give descriptions of what impairing means: an impairing hit to the head means blurred vision (so reduced perception and combat values), an impairing hit to a hand or arm means you can't hold a weapon or shield, an impairing hit to the legs reduces running speed, and so on. If an attack does more than your full BODY value, you roll for a hit location at that part of your body is disabled. Again, the rules tell what kind of effects this might have (including broken bones). When you receive an impairing or disabling injury, you must make a CON roll. If you blow it, the damage is permanent (barring GM-produced miracles). I believe this system is also used in Fantasy Hero. Because Fantasy Hero has magic, there is a spell that can repair permanently disabled parts of your anatomy...but in most campaigns, it's unlikely that a PC would have this spell available, since it's fairly expensive. Odds are, you'd have to make a special pilgrimage to some appropriate place of healing. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo
mab@druak.UUCP (Alan Bland) (12/18/85)
Concerning injuries in Justice Inc., Jim Gardner writes: > When you receive an impairing or disabling injury, you must make a > CON roll. If you blow it, the damage is permanent (barring GM-produced > miracles). Are CON rolls easy to make in this situation, or do you end up with lots of permanent injuries? I've been toying with the idea of adding permanent damage effects to my RuneQuest game. When a character takes a critical or maiming blow, they would roll on the "Permanent Damage Effects" table (reproduced below) to see what the effect is. Most effects are scars, and none of them are too serious since the skill reductions can be restored after training and experience. This table reflects my belief that magic should not always be perfect and predictable, so a Healing spell won't always fix you up as good as new. Of course, a severed arm that goes unhealed is permanent (which makes for a reeeal ugly scar). Any comments on this table would be appreciated. The percentages are preliminary, and perhaps too lenient. PERMANENT DAMAGE EFFECTS (preliminary) LEG 01-75 Distinctive scar on leg 76-95 Walks with a limp 96-99 Severe limp, subtract 1 from Movement Rate 00 See note below* ABDOMEN 01-95 Distinctive scar on abdomen 96-99 Permanent sexual disfunction 00 See note below* CHEST 01-90 Distinctive scar on chest 91-99 Lung damaged, asphyxiation rolls start at CONx5 rather than CONx10 00 See note below* ARM 01-95 Distinctive scar on arm 96-99 Subtract 10% from all weapon skills that use this arm 00 See note below* HEAD 01-75 Distinctive scar on face 76-90 Ugly scar on face, lose 1 APP 91-95 Hearing impaired, subtract 10% from Listen 96-99 Vision impaired, subtract 10% from Scan and Search 00 See note below* * NOTE: If there is an enchantment rune tatooed on this hit location, then it has been broken. If more than one enchantment rune exists, choose one randomly. -- Alan Bland AT&T Information Systems, Denver CO {ihnp4|allegra}!druak!mab
jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (12/20/85)
In article <15@druak.UUCP> mab@druak.UUCP (Alan Bland) writes: >Concerning injuries in Justice Inc., Jim Gardner writes: >> When you receive an impairing or disabling injury, you must make a >> CON roll. If you blow it, the damage is permanent (barring GM-produced >> miracles). > >Are CON rolls easy to make in this situation, or do you end up with lots >of permanent injuries? The odds are about 60-40 that the average player character will succeed in a straight CON roll. For straight normals (who are less hardy than the average PC), the odds are 50-50. The reason that Justice Inc. characters don't retire in a pile of bandages after a session or two is that it is very difficult to do the amount of damage required to do an impairing or disabling injury to a player character, since players usually construct their characters with a high BODY stat (to avoid this very problem). The result is that PC's usually can take as much as a pistol shot to any part of their body other than head or vitals and not be impaired. You have to get up into the elephant gun category before you have a reasonable chance of doing enough damage to force someone into a CON roll. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo