Wounds without crunch

Pseudo called shots via damage rolls.

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I love the idea of wounds and called-shots (picking body parts to target) in ttrpgs, because of how gritty it can make combat. But only that - the idea of them. They are often quite crunchy and make combat much more involved, which is not my cup of tea. So I’ve been cooking on something that (for me at least) allows me to have my cake and eat it.

I’ve made a wound plus sort-of-called-shot system intended for games where damage scales based on die size (e.g. Into the Odd, Mork Borg, Cairn), though it would work for other stuff with tinkering.

I’ve been using this for a few months now in my own hack and it’s working well. Combat gets more tactical (without using a grid), but also chaotic and brutal while remaining fast. Here’s how it works.

Disclaimer: This mechanic involves characters getting hurt in permenant ways.

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Damage dealt → wounds

Damage dealt maps to a table of wound effects.

An attacker can choose an effect equal to or below the damage inflicted, giving them a tactical choice. Example: If you deal 4 damage, you can choose from knocked prone, drop object, dazed, or glancing hit on the minor wounds table. The damage inflicted remains the same, e.g. you still inflict 4 damage no matter your choice.

There’s two grades of wound: minor and major. Minor is when you have HP left after damage. Major is when you don’t have HP after damage.

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Minor wounds

1: Glancing hit. A ‘non-maiming’ option.

2: Dazed. Disadvantage on mental checks for 1 round.

3: Drop an object.

4: Knocked prone. Takes movement to stand up.

5: Lost senses. Roll a d6. Lose sight (1-2), hearing (3-4), or speech (5-6) for 1 round.

6+: Bleeding. 1 auto damage per turn (stacks). Requires an action to stem bleeding from 1 wound.

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Major wounds

For when when HP is gone.

1: Glancing hit. A ‘non-maiming’ option.

2: Heavy concussion. Disadvantage on mental checks for 1 week.

3: Roll a d6. Immobilise, break or sever a finger (1-2), hand (3-4), lower arm (5) or upper arm (6). Severing beyond a finger presents blood loss that will kill unless addressed.

4: Roll a d6. Immobilise, break or sever a toe (1-2), foot (3-4), lower leg (5) or upper leg (6). Severing beyond a toe presents blood loss that will kill unless addressed.

5: Roll d6. Permenant damage to an eye (1-2, affects sight), ear (3-4, affects hearing), or the throat (5-6, affects speech).

6+: Critical internal blood loss. Certain demise without immediate action.

Limb damage is contextual. A mace breaks an arm, a sword might cut it off, an arrow cuts a tendon, either way you aren’t using your arm.

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In our last Premium issue, I talked about wanting to see more supplements for existing rpgs, wrote about cabins, and gave readers a d6 table of travel supplies.

Against monsters

Some entries in the table don’t apply to certain monsters. An ooze can’t lose a hand, but a character can cut off one of its pseudopods. It can’t be blinded, so a character instead chooses an effect that makes sense against the monster ~or maybe improvises an equivalent~

A dragon can’t be knocked prone (it’s too big), but eventually you might break one of its legs. Use common sense judgements.

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For monsters

We can use the above wound tables as a template for specific statblocks, like in Forbidden Lands or Dragonbane where there is a table of monster attacks you roll on.

Here’s one for a dragon that will put your player characters through a mincer.

Dragon (Minor Wounds):

1: Glancing hit.

2: Screech. All deafened for 1 round.

3: Tail swipe (3 targets). Knocked prone.

4: Claws (2 targets). Rends armour, reduce armour by 1.

5: Jaws. Causes bleeding, 1 damage per turn until bleeding is stemmed.

6+: Fire breath. All in area ignited, 1 fire damage per turn until extinguished.

Dragon (Major Wounds):

1: Glancing hit.

2: Screech. Eardrums burst. Permenant hearing loss.

3: Tail swipe (3 targets). Roll a d6. Both legs (1-3), rib cage (4-5), or spine (6) broken.

4: Claws (2 targets). Armour destroyed, limb severed.

5: Jaws. Critical blood loss. Death imminent without intervention.

6+: Fire breath. Turned to ash.

If you’re lacking dice to roll on these tables, I’ve used these for years with this dice tray. Oh, and I write all my nonsense down in Muji notebooks (absolutely, 100% THE BEST notebooks) with a Lamy pen.

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That’s it

Two wound tables triggered via damage rolls and an option to use custom tables for monsters. Go make combat a tactical carnage storm of chaos ~yes that is the official, objective, technical game design term~

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