Somebody stop me

This system is basically an unholy hybrid of Into the Odd and a few of my previous experiments here and here.

Design goals:

• Remove hit points
• Tie combat effectiveness to statistics, which Into the Odd doesn't do
• Differentiate weapons without variable damage
• Provide interesting tactical decisions in an intuitive way

It's not quite as elegant as I would like (the way you use the injury chart for ranged weapons is particularly clumsy), but overall, how did I do? Any glaring oversights?

Character Creation

Roll 3d6 each for Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower. Saves and non-combat skill checks are roll under these stats. Each level, try to roll over each on 3d6 to increase them by one.


Consult this table for Weapon Skill:

		Dexterity Score
		3-8	9-12	13-15	16-17	18
Strength Score	3-8	1	2	3	4	5
	9-12	2	3	4	5	6
	13-15	3	4	5	6	7
	16-17	4	5	6	7	8
	18	5	6	7	8	9

(The charts kinda got fucked up, but hopefully they're readable.)

Choose equipment according to your preferred method or roll on an Into the Odd-style starting package chart.

Hand to Hand Combat

Combatants make opposing d10 rolls. If they have equal Weapon Skills, they each roll one die. If one combatant has a higher Weapon Skill, he or she rolls one more die. If one combatant has at least twice the Weapon Skill of the other, he or she rolls two more dice. During the first round of engagement, the combatant with the highest-reach weapon adds another die to his or her roll, but after that (until they disengage) the combatant with the highest-speed weapon adds another instead. Compare the two combatants’ highest rolls, and use the difference between them to consult the Injury Chart for the low roller.

Weapon	Reach	Speed
Minor (like daggers)	1	5
Small (like shortwords)	2	4
Medium (like longswords)	3	3
Great (like two-handed axes)	4	2
Pole (like spears)	5	1

Confined Quarters

In cases where the width of the fighting area is less than the length of a weapon extended from the body (use your best judgment), its reach bonus during the first round of engagement does not apply.

Fighting in Ranks

If combatants fight in a line, any reach bonus from their weapons continues to apply after the first round of engagement, except on either end of the line.

Ranged Combat

The shooter rolls a d10 and hits the target if he or she rolls equal to or under his or her Weapon Skill. If the intended target moved in the previous round, the shooter rolls two dice and uses the higher result. If the shooter spent at least one previous round doing nothing but aiming at a stationary target, he or she rolls two dice and chooses the lower result. If the shooter hits, subtract the lowest roll from 10 and consult the Injury Chart.

Armor

For both hand to hand and ranged combat, armor reduces the number used to consult the Injury Table by a certain amount. However, heavier armor reduces the speed of the weapon carried by the armor’s wearer.

Armor	Injury Reduction	Maximum Weapon Speed
Light (like leather)	1	5
Medium (like chain)	2	4
Heavy (like plate)	3	3

Armor Piercing

Longbows, crossbows, maces, and lances from horseback reduce the effectiveness of armor by one point.

Called Shots

Instead of consulting the injury chart as normal, combatants may aim for a specific injury. In that case, consult the Injury table’s “Called Shot Dice” column. In the case of hand to hand combat, the defender of the called shot rolls that many extra dice. In the case of ranged combat, the shooter rolls that many extra dice and chooses the highest roll. If the attacker still succeeds, the desired injury takes effect.

Injury Chart

	Injury to:	First Hit	Second Hit	Third Hit	Called Shot Dice
1-3	Legs	Temporary disadvantage on Dex-related rolls	Disadvantage on Dex-related rolls until healed	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	1
4-5	Arms	Temporary disadvantage on Str-related rolls	Disadvantage on Str-related rolls until healed	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	1
6-7	Torso	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	Dead	-	2
8-9	Head	Dead	-	-	3

Healing takes d4 weeks after a “Second Hit” and 2d4 weeks after a “Third Hit.”

Ok how about this one?

I cannot help daydreaming new combat systems. It's a character flaw.

Instead of attack bonus, characters have a Weapon Skill (thanks Warhammer) equal to Str + Dex modifiers (and Fighters add their level).

Weapons don't have damage ratings anymore, but instead have Reach and Speed:

• Daggers etc: Reach 1, Speed 5
• Shortswords etc: Reach 2, Speed 4
• Longswords etc: Reach 3, Speed 3
• Great weapons: Reach 4, Speed 2
• Pole weapons: Reach 5, Speed 1

Combatants make opposing rolls (d6 or d10 probably, depending on the game's HD regime). The combatant with the higher Weapon Skill rolls one more die. On the first round of combat, the combatant with the highest-reach weapon rolls one more die, but after that (until they disengage) the combatant with the highest-speed weapon rolls one more die. The winner in the roll-off deals damage equal to the difference between the two players' highest rolls.

D&D Without HP

Since September, I've been looking down the barrel of an hour-plus commute five days a week. It's a major bummer. The one silver lining is that it gives me plenty of time to daydream when I should be paying attention to the road.

On Friday, I was thinking about hit points and combat in D&D (LotFP is my flavor of choice). It exists in this nebulous space where one d20 roll is not necessarily one swing of the sword, but could be a series of successful moves that wears down the opponent's stamina (thinking of HP as stamina has actually really helped me to conceptualize it, I think). In practice, though, it's often more dramatic and just plain easier to narrate the combat as though it were blow-by-blow. Sometimes, that makes it feel like lumbering battleships trading salvoes and doing unspecified "damage" until one finally sinks.

This is the one major disadvantage of the HP system, at least at my table. It abstracts combat to the point where hits have no concrete effect until 0 HP, and I have to do a little bit of on-the-spot adjudication every time a player wants to do something more specific than just "I attack".

What could a slightly more granular, HP-less D&D combat system look like? I've always liked the optional rules for dueling in A Red & Pleasant Land (p. 143). They're designed to add depth to one-on-one fights. Essentially, a dueler rolls on a short d6 injury table for every hit taken after reaching 0 HP. Once they roll the same injury twice, the dueler is either dead or unconscious (that's why the table is short).

I've used injury tables like this before. But what if we took HP out entirely and skipped right to the table? It could go something like this:

d10	Injury	First hit	Second hit	Third hit +	Called shot AC bonus
1-2	left leg	always lose initiative	movement rate halved	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
3	right leg	always lose initiative	movement rate halved	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
4-5	off arm	-1 to most tasks	incapacitated until healed	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
6	favored arm	-2 to most tasks	incapacitated until healed	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	2
7-8	torso	-1 to most tasks	broken ribs, save to move until healed	dead	2
9	equipment	one item destroyed (attacker's choice)	weapon dropped	---	2
10	head	blood in eyes, -2 to anything involving sight	dead	---	3

So, you'd roll to hit vs. AC as normal, but instead of rolling damage, you'd roll d10 to determine where you hit. Defenders would keep track of how many times that body part has been hit and apply the mechanical effects as they come up. If the attacker wants to hit a specific body part, the defender gets to add the indicated called shot bonus to AC.

Weapon damage would be replaced by how many "hits" one attack is worth. d4 and d6 weapons (daggers, shortswords, etc) would do one hit, d8 weapons (standard swords, etc) would do two hits, and d10 weapons (greataxes, etc) would do three. Critical hits would increase the number by one. Since any successful hit by a large weapon is likely to be a one-hit kill, there's a tradeoff: you can't apply any bonuses to hit, just the straight d20 roll. I'd also consider a Strength requirement to even wield a large weapon - either 13 or 16.

Without HP increases to make higher-level characters more survivable in combat, you'd need to increase base AC instead. Fighters and dwarves would go up 1 AC every two levels; clerics, elves, and thieves would go up every three; and magic-users and halflings every four.

This system would make combat short and brutal, which would work for some games but not others. It would require a bit of a different mindset than D&D combat as usual - mindless hack-and-slash without a plan is going to result in a lot of dead PCs. Also, you'd have to modify the table for non-humanoid creatures. Bespoke tables for each creature would help make fighting them feel unique, but it's a lot more work than just rolling up HP.

SaveSave

Will the Chainmail be Unbroken

I couldn't sleep at all last night, but at least I have these kinda clunky rules for broken armor to show for it:

This works for any ascending AC system, but I'm sure someone who understands descending AC (i.e. not me) could adapt it.

First, you need to know the "armor range" of your AC. This is the part that's not covered by the base AC or Dex bonus. So in LotFP for a character wearing leather armor with a Dex bonus of +1, The full AC would be 15 (12+1+2), and the "armor range" would be 14 and 15.

When an opponent rolls an attack against this character, it misses if it rolls 13 or less, hits if it rolls 16 or more, but if it rolls a 14 or 15 it strikes the armor. When this happens, the player rolls a die (d20, say) and notes the number rolled next to the armor. Numbers accumulate over time, and when the player rolls the same number twice the armor is broken and useless until repaired.

It's a fair amount to keep track of, I know. It also means that heavier armor will get dinged more often, though I kind of like that since it would dull your reflexes anyway. Characters are relying more on the armor to absorb blows and less on their ability to dodge.

For even more to keep track of, you could introduce different armor qualities by rolling different dice to check for breakage, from piss poor (d4) to absolutely legendary (d100).

Now that I think about it, you could do the same thing for weapons by checking for breakage every time you roll a 1 to hit.

Death, Revised

I think I've made my death and injury procedure significantly more complex than the previous iteration without actually making it any more complicated for the players, and that makes me feel like a good boy.

INJURY AND DYING

At 0 HP, make a CON/Paralysis save to remain active and roll d100 on the following table. For further successful attacks against you, roll d100 + cumulative damage x 10 on this table. Italics indicate an infection, with an onset of 4d4 turns on a failed CON/Poison save. No infection has the same cure twice. The duration of non-permanent effects is 2d4 weeks or as described.

d100	Effect
1-4	Flesh wound. Looks worse than it is.
5-8	Hideous scar or burn.
9-16	Broken ribs. Disadvantage on all CON rolls.
17-25	Internal bleeding. Disadvantage on DEX rolls.
26-34	Broken arm. Temporary -2 CON and disadvantage on attack rolls.
35-43	Broken leg. Temporary -2 CON and move as if one encumbrance level higher.
44	1: Wound blisters and turns a sickening fuschia color, burning badly. Disadvantage on all rolls.
45	2: Lacrymal glands leak a black mucus that seals eyes shut. DEX halved, disadvantage on all rolls.
46	3: Agonizing convulsions and retching for d4 turns on a failed WIS/Paralysis save during any physical exertion.
47	4: Vomit acidic, boiling blood that corrodes worn equipment.
48	5: Fever, can’t keep down any food or drink. -1 to all abilities each day, death if any reach 0.
49	6: Fetid pus-filled boils cover the skin. Confusion and madness. Too weak to stand after 2d6 days. Death follows d6 days later.
50	7: Lockjaw after d4 days, no speaking. Rest of limbs follow 2d4 days later, and death d4 more.
51-52	Lose an eye. Permanent -4 DEX.
53-59	Lose an eye. Permanent -4 DEX + Infection 1 (53), 2 (54), 3 (55), 4 (56), 5 (57), 6 (58), 7 (59).
60-61	Lose d4 fingers. Permanent -1 CON and DEX.
62-68	Lose d4 fingers. Permanent -1 CON and DEX + Infection 1 (62), 2 (63), 3 (64), 4 (65), 5 (66), 6 (67), 7 (68).
69-70	Lose a hand. Permanent -2 CON and DEX.
71-77	Lose a hand. Permanent -2 CON and DEX + Infection 1 (71), 2 (72), 3 (73), 4 (74), 5 (75), 6 (76), 7 (77).
78-79	Lose an arm. Permanent -4 CON and DEX. Disadvantage on attack rolls.
80-86	Lose an arm. Permanent -4 CON and DEX. Disadvantage on attack rolls + Infection 1 (80), 2 (81), 3 (82), 4 (83), 5 (84), 6 (85), 7 (86).
87-88	Lose a leg. Permanent -4 CON and DEX, always move as if heavily burdened.
89-95	Lose a leg. Permanent -4 CON and DEX, always move as if heavily burdened + Infection 1 (89), 2 (90), 3 (91), 4 (92), 5 (93), 6 (94), 7 (95).
96	Decapitation.
97+	Septic shock and agonizing death.

Why I like this:

• Consequences kick in at 0 HP. No more negative numbers.
• Players can remain active, but put themselves at considerable and quickly increasing risk if they don't run. Inspired by Small but Vicious Dog. I love forcing hard choices!
• Standardized mechanical effects for injuries.
• Infections! This is a gamey, built-in way for players to get sick. Inspired by Last Gasp. Pull cures from that post if you want.
• Still only a single roll (per attack) on a single chart.

LotFP Variable Attack Weapons

I redid the LotFP weapons list with variable modifiers to ATTACK based on opponent armor for this new combat system. Seems fairly balanced - marginal bonuses for all weapons are 0 or +1. Median bonus for an unarmored opponent is +2, 0 for both leather and chain, and -1 for plate.

Weapon	Unarmored	Leather	Chain	Plate
Cestus	+2	+1	-1	-2
Garrote*	-	-	-	-
Lance	-3	-1	+1	+3
Mancatcher**	-	-	-	-
Polearm†	-3	0	+1	+2
Rapier	+2	+2	-1	-2
Spear†	-2	-1	+1	+2
Staff†	+1	+1	0	-1
Weapon, great†	-2	-1	+1	+3
Weapon, med	+2	+1	-1	-1
Weapon, min	+3	0	-1	-2
Weapon, small	+2	0	0	-2
Whip	+2	0	0	-2

*Requires a successful grapple to do damage.

**Hit opponent must succeed in a TRAPS save or be caught.

†Two-handed.