"Cover, hit rolls and damage " Topic
7 Posts
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Tango01 | 23 Apr 2014 9:42 p.m. PST |
"Firing a weapon from cover requires the exposure of some parts of the body. Generally the less critical hand and arm and the quite critical head. This increases the risk of mortal injury if hit. It also raises the question about damage capacity of an attack and the character profile to the enemy as the encounter progresses. How do attack and damage rules affect the way the character appears from the enemy's standpoint? We're used to attacks having a set amount of possible damage: 1d6, 2d8, etc. But what if the damage didn't only depend on the weapon, but on the target area? After all getting hit on the hand, as painful as it may be, will not be immediately life threatening. There should be a cap on the amount of damage that can be delivered to such body parts, right? Asking around I got feedback on this issue. The comments can be grouped into two camps: a) some games (Hero System for example) have such rules and b) that's already taken into consideration in the damage roll. The former puts me in a cold sweat, I certainly don't have any interest in creating something as complex as Hero System (all due respect to those who enjoy playing it). The later leads me to ask the question: are the odds of hitting a certain body part a property of the setting and current storyline or are they a property of the damage roll, the hit roll or the character's hit points? Does this lead to certain body parts being "more visible" and "less visible" as the character's hit points change or the enemy changes weapons? Are rules affecting (and limiting) the storyline instead of helping narrate it? Let me explain
" Full article here. link Amicalement Armand |
Andy ONeill | 24 Apr 2014 2:37 a.m. PST |
rpg is different from wargaming. In rpg the players rather expect their character to live on and get better. Having their thumb blown off is kind of a problem in that respect. In wargaming there is no investment in an individual figure. A figure is wounded, it's just effecting you that game as opposed to the next 10 years of play. As a result, most rpg rather gloss over the realities of modern combat. Even ones like GURPS where you have a shed load of rules in order to resolve hit location etc rather gloss over the end effect. Having played quite a number of rpg over the years my preference is towards story driven. I like the simplicity of Feng Shui ( but not the extreme effects of super abilities ). Essentially, if something fits in with the storyline and is cool then you get a plus attempting it. My suggestion would be to dump the complicated detail and switch to the Hollywood approach. As FS describes. If a month in hospital suits the story then yes the hero can take one in the chest. A series of cut scenes ensue with the other characters and NPC waiting round the hospital nervously for news. And of course eventually our hero is revealed, swathed in bandages but somehow looking well groomed and with no lasting damage. Real battles are full of people having bits blown off them that you definitely wouldn't want to lose. Not fun. |
EccentricTodd | 24 Apr 2014 4:52 a.m. PST |
I have been working on my own set of rules for a while. Dealing with cover is a fun problem to deal with. I think that if you want to implement something that has the spirit of your article. You make it harder to hit and easier to kill. In a system that uses d6's have the cover save use two values: One to say how many times you need to re-roll hits to count, and the other being how many times you need to re-roll a save to actually make the save. So maybe your bunker if 4H 2S
You have to re-roll 4 times to hit them (that's a little high), the defender has a rough time actually saving once hit. Not as hard as hitting, but all that depends on how easy it is to save. I think you would special case some weapons. Flamers never have to re-roll hits. If hit by flamers or blast weapons, you have to double the amount of saves to compensate for being in a small space which concentrates the blast. Other terrain thoughts: Rubble 3H 1S (you are harder to hit, but not usually in one easy to see/define area) Brush 1.5H (so it's a little hard to hit but not impossible, saves unaffected) You end up rolling a lot of dice, but it might do what you want it to do. I think you will have to do some math to make sure you are able to destroy something during the game. |
Extra Crispy | 24 Apr 2014 5:50 a.m. PST |
The other issue is that we play in "turns." That figure behind a rock may have just run across teh alley and gone prone behind it. Now he looks around, fires a shot or two, looks back to find sarge, waves to the next squad
.meanwhile the tin dude on the table hasn't moved. So given all that how do you really do hit location? If you are tracking damage at that level, I'd keep it simple. Arms and head are out of action if hit. Center mass takes hit points as do legs but other wise one and done. |
Striker | 24 Apr 2014 6:19 a.m. PST |
I thought Millenium's End handled this in a decent way for me. There was a clear cover sheet with a circle and numbers scattered around and you put it over the stance of the target (there was a kneeling, prone, running, turned l/r, etc). What you rolled is where it hit, the closer to the hit number the more likely you would be to hit your point of aim. I think it also handled blood loss and the amount of damage areas could take. It was pretty rule heavy but it had some interesting methods. |
TNE2300 | 24 Apr 2014 9:33 a.m. PST |
how about instead of target area determines damage damage determines target area max damage could be a hit to head or chest min damage could be blunt trauma for armor stopping a round only the general effect is important the specifics would only matter for med treatment later in Traveller's Striker/AHL system if under cover a unit was less likely to take damage but if they did the damage was more severe to reflect which body parts were likely under less cover also wound levels were only: No Effect / Light Wound / Heavy Wound / Dead
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Milites | 24 Apr 2014 1:12 p.m. PST |
Knew about somebody who was shot in the hand, bullet travelled up his forearm and blew off his elbow! So sometimes a hand injury puts you out of the fight asap! |
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