From: hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall)
Subject: net.rpg - Damage System comments
Organization: Boeing
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:39:29 GMT


cffitzge@IASTATE.EDU (Charles F Fitzgerald) writes:
 > Robert Hall presented a very detailed damage system.  I feel,
 > though it is very realistic, that it would be cumbersome to
 > implement and tedious to play.  I like the idea of dividing the
 > hit locations into function rather than position, but I think
 > the combat system should be simpler or that a streamlined version
 > be available for those who do not want the added bother.

I'd like to respond to this, if I may. The most basic version of the
damage system is IMHO, fairly simple:

  1. Determine damage points
  2. Determine if the hit is External or Internal.
  3. If Internal, compute the External damage first.
  4. Determine the severity of the wound: Minor, Serious, or Critical.
  5. Modify player stats accordingly.

Now I agree this system is not as simple or wonderfully clean as, say,
a straight Hit Point count. On the other hand, I would present the following
sections of your own FAQ:

 > Q9.	Hit points or wounds?
 > 
 > A9.	Hit points distributed onto body parts, but also with a
 > 'central HP bank' that you draw from each time you draw from a body
 > part. When you get low, you are wounded and cannot perform some tasks.
 > 
 > The penetration system makes for something more like this;
 > 
 > Wound Record for Peter:
 > 
 > Old wound in left leg, below knee; +10 fatigue points for actions
 > involving that leg (walking, running, carrying..) A support bandage
 > will reduce this to +5.
 > 
 > Half of one finger missing on right hand (cut by sword), -5 on skills
 > involving dexterity and right hand.
 > 
 > Q10.	Hit locations?
 > 
 > A10.	When you roll a d100 to hit, you just switch the digit to find
 > the hit location. If you want to hit a spesific location, you can
 > subtract from your to hit roll (before making it), and add (or
 > subtract), to your hit location roll. 
 > 
 > This is maybe a bit too cinematic. Any other ideas for hit locations.
 > Maybe you could say what you tried to hit before you roll. If you hit
 > well, you hit what you tried to hit. If you hit, you hit close, if you
 > barely hit, you hit far away from the 'target location'.
 > 
 > If you hit someone wiht a special body structure, you just roll for
 > what part of him you damage, for example agility. A one hit point
 > damage to agaility would be a minor leg wound for a biped.
 > 
 > tdunn said this: If you have a higher skill, you get to roll more dice
 > at the hit-location table, and then you choose one of them. Not very
 > realistic? 
 > 
 > If we use the penetration system, it will tell us all about the hit
 > location. The general idea is that you should hit somewhere close to
 > what you aimed for if you hit at all. (ketil, post the formulas for
 > this, please.)

This is not cumbersome and tedious? I think you will need a manual just
to list all the possible wound locations and effects. I was trying to
simplify it to something that could appear on a single sheet of paper
(or less.)

Finally, as for bizarre results such as a spear hit on the tongue, this
is covered in the 'Critical' hit portion of the damage system. If the
hit is critical, here is an example of what happens:

  "Sense permanently damaged - roll on the table below to determine
   the sense damages.

     1d10  Sense  Critical Hit result
     ----  -----  -------------------------------------------------------
      1    Smell  Weapon penetrates into the head, spending the remaining
                  damage points against the Command system.

The sense will only require a few points of damage to be critical, so
more than likely the damage will be passed on to another system. (I just
didn't want to get to that level of detail yet. This is, after all,
only the outline stage.)

Finally, I suppose you could have an even simpler damage system just above
Level 1:

    Level 0 - General wound to the body. Determine wound severity and apply
              result to 'Hit Point' total. If HP is zero, character dies.

The actual level of wound detail SHOULD BE LEFT UP TO THE GM!!!! Whatever
happened to all the talk about scalability and modularity? This wound system
is both scalable and modular.
 
-- 
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