Troll Lord Games

Anyone use 'wounds' as described in the CKG p 314?

Divide total hit points by 4, for four wounds.

1 Wound = no effect
2 Wounds = -1 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll
3 Wounds = -2 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll, -1 Saves
4 Wounds = -3 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll, -2 Saves

Thought the idea was cool and gonna add them in.

nope. hard enough to keep other things straight each PC would have to subdivide their HP, know each category and do it themselves... if I had to do that for monsters... the book keeping...

soloplayer wrote:Anyone use 'wounds' as described in the CKG p 314?

Divide total hit points by 4, for four wounds.

1 Wound = no effect
2 Wounds = -1 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll
3 Wounds = -2 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll, -1 Saves
4 Wounds = -3 to Attribute Check/Attack Roll, -2 Saves

Thought the idea was cool and gonna add them in.

I've not used the 'wounds' mechanic but could see giving it a try on a one-off session some day. Now that I think about it, I might have to house rule that for low-level play... especially if the combat maneuvers are in use....

While I can certainly appreciate the thought and detail that goes into constructing this sort of thing, such an effect is, for me, overriding the decrees of the CK in such a situation. I think it'd be pretty much up to the CK's power of description to indicate such afflictions, and such could be instituted with the loss of a certain number of hit points: you lost about thirty-three percent of your hits in one shot; fine, I as CK am saying that one leg is severely hurt and you're really pushing yourself - sweating buckets and groaning out loud, bleeding over the floor - as you move along. In fact, if you don't take a turn to bandage up, I'm putting in a random monster encounter every three rounds to show how they're homing in on your condition, like sharks smelling blood. Reach into that backpack for those bandages...

Again, while I appreciate such a gaming device being invented, it really seems a bit superfluous to the damage tables already in place, and could be seen as slowing things down. Then again, newer game engines may include this as a matter of course. Going to have to vote for Old School on this one.

Yeah I describe wounds at those break points and I do not get into killing blows and big penalties until 0 or less. I let them go to - their CON and nothing at 0 can be done and to a few negative they can talk and crawl...half way they're going out.. 3/4 done... and starting at -1 you're "bleeding out" at one hp per round.

I thought about it a while back but talked myself out of it.

Especially considering that HP are not tangible physical damage, they are the intangible bits of luck stamina etc. So with that it didn't make since to me to say that some fighter that is max hp of say 100 is at -1 when they have lost 50 HP (but they still have 50 HP left) because they are wounded ...

Heck, I've even argued with myself on things like undead and level drain paralysis etc on touch attacks. If the HP is luck stamina and the like, does the weight's first 2, 3, 4, or 5 hits truly HIT the person and do the drain, or is it just a painfully close call ???

Then, as Cap K points out, the book work that would be WAY to much for me. In last Monday's fight, there was the main NPC that the group was trying to save, the Big bad guy trying to kill him, the bad guy's #2 guy, 4 thugs, 1 NPC coming to help the group, and something like 10 wolves (attacking in groups of 1 - 3 at a time). Had I had to try and keep track of wounds on top of that ... good lord ... as it was, by the end of the fight, I couldn't find my last page of notes that had the main NPC's dying words (that are critical to getting the group onto the next story).

Specifically, no.

When I consider the "wound" process, HP are not used -- wounds replaces it which makes clerical healing far more effective. It also makes damage more frightening as any single hit could result in death, regardless of level. This then has numerous alterations across the board to armor, making the fighter class survivable, etc, etc.

Of course a change like that is very significant to the feel of the game which takes it somewhere other than the original intent.

I gave this a shot and it was cool. Didnt seem to alter the game too much except for one instance when my bruiser of a Dwarf missed and took a bad hit from an Ettin...

serleran wrote:When I consider the "wound" process, HP are not used

I kept everything the same in regards to Hit Points, healing and damage. However, when the HP reaches the thresholds, I add the penalties. Perhaps doing it this way allowed me to avoid the extra book-keeping you guys mentioned, as I just tracked the usual HP.

And yeah, I forget sometimes, but I don't sweat it.

I have to throw HP out of the equation altogether as I do not like that someone with 4 HP (does not matter what class or level, but let's say magic-user or thief of 2nd level) maximum gets dealt damage that would kill them... but instead, unless the rules say something else (and it might have a caveat such as "unless otherwise killed by the damage, they are wounded,") they are merely wounded without any effect.

This may be a false concern as I do not use the proposed method having had my own alternative for a while.

I generally dislike any abacus system in my RPGs though exceptions occur. I'll have to read this one to see if it is something I might consider.