From: cffitzge@IASTATE.EDU (Charles F Fitzgerald)
Subject: net.rpg: wound.types
Reply-To: cffitzge@IASTATE.EDU (Charles F Fitzgerald)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 06:16:48 GMT

A further installment in the attempt to create discussions.

In a previous post, I outlined a couple methods I thought could be
used to describe the damage done by a successfull attack in net.rpg.
I did not go into how those damage types would be transferred onto the
character.  This article will attempt to outline my ideas on the
subject.

First, let me review some of what was covered in the previous post.
First, on a successful attack, the character receives a wound.  This
wound could be described by a wound type, which is determined by
considering the type of attack made, the type of weapon used, etc.
The previous article attempted to outline a couple of systems which
could be used to describe the wound type and some of the strengths and
problems associated with these systems.

The overriding reason for utilising such a system, in my opinion, is
to obtain a certain level of realism.  It seems to me that such a
system is much more realistic than a system which gives damage as a
simple numerical value.  I also believe that a system using wound
types can be made playable without excessive effort or trouble.

Once a system for damage determination is fixed, there is still the
question of how this damage is transferred to the character to be
dealt with.  There are two primary ways of dealing with damage on a
character in role playing games:  hit point systems, and wound state
systems.

I will discuss wound state systems first.  In these systems the
characters have a certain number of wound states.  These wound states
are reached after the character receives a certain number of wounds of
a given type--thus, if the character receives three Gashes, he might
be said to be seriously wounded.  The primary problem with wound state
systems seems to be the necessity to refer to a table to determine the
resulting wound state.  It is, however, quite realistic, in my
opinion.

I am fundamentally opposed to hit point systems.  I believe they are
highly over-simplified, and I do not think that their greater ease in
use justifies their consideration.  Never the less, I will consider
them in certain cases. 

One case, I created to use with the _Pendragon_ game system by
Chaosium.  In it, a character is given a total number of hit points
(for our purposes, suppose this to be a function of some of the
character's abilities).  Each wound inflicted on a character does a
given number of hit points of damage.  Most game systems simply
subtract the number from the total number of hit points.  What I
suggest, is that the wounds be recorded separately, with each wound
having its own hit point tally.  If the wound does more than, say,
half the character's total number of hit points, it is considered to
be a serious wound.  If the character receives too many serious
wounds, he dies.  More wound classifications are possible.

Note this system uses the wound state system along with the hit point
system.  I think that the resulting system is well balanced and could
be greatly superior to either a regular hit point system or a normal
wound state system.  As I have not tested the system yet, I do not
know how well it will work in actual game playing.

--
Charles F. Fitzgerald | '....Life's but a walking shadow,
Iowa State University | a poor player, that struts, and frets
cffitzge@iastate.edu  | his hour upon the stage,
                      | and then is heard from no more....'
                      | _MacBeth_, by W. Shakespeare.
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA