Your favorite damage system

Claudius · October 23, 2012, 02:17:46 AM

Quote from: Elfdart;593855Rolemaster is for pussies.

If you want awesome, try Phoenix Command where you can get up to 5 MILLION points of damage to the heart when it only takes five points to kill a man!

If Phoenix Command is anything like Sword's Path: Glory, then I'm truly a pussy. I tremble at the thought of using those charts.

red lantern · October 23, 2012, 02:50:33 AM

Quote from: KenHR;594014You seem so sure of that. Why?

Uh, because a system that does not allow for things like "I blow his goddam head off!" or "I try to shoot his weapon arm since we need him alive." makes it hard for players to do a lot of things that may come up in a RPG session.

The Traveller · October 23, 2012, 08:08:18 AM

Quote from: red lantern;594145Uh, because a system that does not allow for things like "I blow his goddam head off!" or "I try to shoot his weapon arm since we need him alive." makes it hard for players to do a lot of things that may come up in a RPG session.

You can do that without tracking hit locations though. I don't usually use them because I don't like the accounting of having to deal with them for multiple enemies over multiple combats, but if a player wants to shoot a zombie in the head, that's a -5 to hit, but a +5 damage if they do hit.

KenHR · October 23, 2012, 09:48:14 AM

Quote from: red lantern;594145Uh, because a system that does not allow for things like "I blow his goddam head off!" or "I try to shoot his weapon arm since we need him alive." makes it hard for players to do a lot of things that may come up in a RPG session.

Some people understand that "shoot his weapon arm" is damn-near impossible to do IRL and would like their game to reflect that.

Some people understand that combat is very chaotic and, in the context of RM's 10 second rounds, called shots are kind of stupid.

And as many people have pointed out, even though RM doesn't have an explicit system for hit locations, the crit tables are supposed to be interpreted by the GM based on the situation at hand. The flavor text is just that, flavor text. So you can have your action movie moments if you want to, just use your brain and don't let a die matrix do that for you.

Kaizzum · October 23, 2012, 12:51:58 PM

It all depends on what you are looking for the game.

Anyway, I prefer systems with Life Points, and the damage of weapons with certain numbers that increase as well you've hit.

red lantern · October 23, 2012, 04:56:57 PM

Quote from: KenHR;594200Some people understand that "shoot his weapon arm" is damn-near impossible to do IRL and would like their game to reflect that.

Some people understand that combat is very chaotic and, in the context of RM's 10 second rounds, called shots are kind of stupid.

And as many people have pointed out, even though RM doesn't have an explicit system for hit locations, the crit tables are supposed to be interpreted by the GM based on the situation at hand. The flavor text is just that, flavor text. So you can have your action movie moments if you want to, just use your brain and don't let a die matrix do that for you.

And some people might understand that you can be playing a guy with a targeting helmet that aids his shooting, a neural interface to a HUD that links to his gun and makes him more accurate and is firing a laser with no recoil and goes at a velocity of c which all make an arm shot more likely than it would be today.

red lantern · October 23, 2012, 04:59:25 PM

I like the EABA damage system even though it relies purely on d6's. It has lethal and non lethal damage which is fine with me.

GURPS spent a few paragraphs denying that non lethal damage existed, then spent several pages on 'fatigue' rules and damage that amounted to exactly the same thing. EABA did it better by just having lethal and non lethal damage.

Also the blunt trauma and armor rules for EABA are some of the best I've seen.

KenHR · October 23, 2012, 05:40:51 PM

Quote from: red lantern;594317And some people might understand that you can be playing a guy with a targeting helmet that aids his shooting, a neural interface to a HUD that links to his gun and makes him more accurate and is firing a laser with no recoil and goes at a velocity of c which all make an arm shot more likely than it would be today.

But then...you wouldn't be playing RoleMaster for that, would you?

red lantern · October 23, 2012, 06:30:30 PM

Quote from: KenHR;594357But then...you wouldn't be playing RoleMaster for that, would you?

I could be playing spacemaster, which used the same system.

RPGPundit · October 24, 2012, 08:04:22 PM

Hit points, without a doubt. There are other damage systems that are good too, like WFRP's critical system (IF you use expanded tables, otherwise the whole thing starts seeming very repetitive very fast), but nothing beats the simplicity and ease of use/understanding of HP.

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