Zero BP, Bleeding, Casualties. Then the fun starts...

[Maurice76]

I do like torilen idea of not using D20 and instead using 3D6 or 4D6 etc which would make it more unique and different.

Do keep in mind, however, that the outcome of the dice roll is rather different between using 3D6 or 1D20. On a D20 roll, each outcome has 5% chance of occuring. On a 3D6 roll, the outcomes of 3 and 18 (the minimum and maximum possible, respectively) will only occur 0,46% of the times, whereas the average of 10 or 11 both occur in 12,50% of the time.

If you really want to substitute D20's for D6's, you really need to consider the effect this has on the chance distribution of the dice roll outcome.

[Stoner81]

I like the "only on a black shield" option. Although I would then do away with the 1 per quest rule. Luck is a harsh mistress.

Well a black shield is 1 in 6 chance of rolling since there is only per die? So that's not too terrible I guess. I think that there should be something in there that says the don't sustain an injury and recover to 1 Body Point so they can stand back up.

If you really want to substitute D20's for D6's, you really need to consider the effect this has on the chance distribution of the dice roll outcome.

You make a good point which I hadn't considered about the percentages of the options. Personally I don't mind using the table as it is with a D20 at all since my own rules use various dice anyway for all the tables though the actual game play is still with the original dice generally speaking. Using D6's instead would be more funky but for me it's not a deal breaker by any means.

Stoner81.

[Stig]

You could use the 1D6 + 1D6 method. Gives you 36 slots and is evenly distributed, and if you don't want to use all 36 slots, you can just double up the more common injuries.
Example:

First D6
- Second D6

1 Lower Body Injury
- 1 Severed Toe
- 2-3 Knee Cap displacement
- 4-5 Dislocated Hip
- 6 Broken Leg

2 - Upper Body Injury
- 1 Severed Tendon
- 2-4 Dislocated Shoulder
- 5-6 Broken Hand

3 - Internal Injury
- 1 Ruptured Spleen
- 2-5 Broken Rib
- 6 Chronic Shortness of Breath

4 - Head Injury
- 1-2 Lost an Eye
- 3-6 Concussion

5 - Psychological Trauma
- 1-3 Fear!
- 3-6 Rage!

6 - Veteran Experience!
- 1-4 Battle Scars
- 5-6 New Lease on Life!


With this method, you can customize how rare or how common each effect is, and it lets you group them into sub-groups, which I love!

Such a good idea, and uses only D6 as well

[Showdown35]

I really, REALLY love your casualty idea! Thinking about it more and more, I realized it was the perfect fit for my homebrew. I introduced an experience point based progression system where Heros upgrade themselves by gaining special traits, but it makes dying so much more of a pain (that sounds weird in real life terms). The casualty system you suggested in the OP is perfect for this.

Now my players won't have to be extra super careful and take zero risks, as even if they fall in battle, they won't lose all their hard earned experience, just might have to deal with a limp or a concussion.

I'm going with a D6 roll to determine the type of injury, and then a Combat Die for the specific injury, that way, each injury type has a common, uncommon, and rare effect.

Thank you for your post, it has greatly improved my house rules!!

[Count Mohawk]

I checked the thread and I didn't see any mention of the Elixir of Life.
Would it be correct to assume that use of the Elixir would eschew any use of the battle scar / casualty table?

[Stig]

Thats what i would do, the elixir wouldn't be much of an elixir if it didn't do otherwise

[Anderas]

The nice ideas here deserve some consideration.

I wouldn't use a d20 anymore as those things are skewed and full of failures, so I'd go with one or several d6, too. Or you make an injury card deck from which you have to draw randomly. That means several heroes can't have the same injury too often, but that's realism so who cares?

The Elixir of Life could heal any injury that's there, so that it might even get more important than today. I love anything that animates the heroes to fight amongst themselves.

The city could gain an expensive infirmary which robs charges lots of gold just for losing an injury card.

Wow my city visits gain details with every day I spend in the Inn. Or is it the brew?

[Stoner81]

The way I have decided to do this is that once a Hero is reduced to 0 Body Points and drinks a potion to come back to 1BP they then must roll 1 Combat Die and on a roll of a black shield they sustain an injury. I have decided to keep the D20 table since I can't be arsed trying to type it all out nice and neat in Word (a bog standard table is much easier). If a Hero has no potion to drink then they die plain and simple. Doing it like this means that the Elixir of Life issue doesn't become an issue since it is being bypassed all together anyway it also does not heal an injury. I will be adding that to the shop for between quests to force the Heroes to spend their money!

I have made a couple of changes though to it so once I have it all sorted I will post a screenshot of it in case anybody wants to use ideas etc from it.



Stoner81.

[Stoner81]

Here is my injuries table (again thanks Stig for your superb idea) so please feel free to use it or whatever don't worry about the funky marks that are all over the place, it's just formatting markers so I can see where stuff is properly when I edit. They have made life so much easier it's not even funny! Well actually it kind of is

As you can see I have tried to keep constant dice rolling out of the table for the most part. Generally speaking it's just once per quest with the exception of Fear (though I may have to re-word it slightly) but even so it's not too bad. My aim was to try and not bog the game down with constant checks etc so hopefully that has been achieved. As with pretty much everything else in my rule book it hasn't been play tested so it should be fun

I also should add in when and when not to use the rules. Using them on fresh Heroes is going to be nightmare due to the cost involved in fixing the injuries so I might set it so that it shouldn't be used until at least after the original quests, Kellar's Keep and the Return of the Witch Lord? Thoughts and ideas on this would be welcome and more beer for you!



Stoner81.

[torilen]

I understand the difference in rolling d20 vs 3d6. That would be easily fixed - there are
charts anywhere in the internet showing the probability of each roll for rolling 3d6 - simply
specify that a successful roll would be the numbers closest to 5% chance of rolling, perhaps.

OR - go closer to HQ game play - roll a certain number of d6's and you have to roll a 6 on each,
or a 5 or 6 on each...similar to rolling a skull, or white shield, or black shield. On a balanced die,
the probability of a single die by itself should be equal among all six sides.

(This is actually what I've done with my game system - I don't typically go with rolling dice and try
to get above a certain number - you roll the dice and try to get a certain number of each die
individually)