I like hit location systems. For the most part,IMO, it makes sense that you should know where a blow landed. If you got wacked in the left arm real bad, there should be a draw back when using that arm. Not to mention people don't aim in the defenders direction when attacking them.


Hinterwelts system seems to be a good split between hit location and non-hit location systems. I could play out a combat faster in the iridium system than d20.

Quote from: Yamo4. Most importantly, they're redundant. Roll a crit and do a shitload of damage, I'll call it a sweet head shot. Deal a single point? That's more of a shoulder knick. Damage and degree of attack roll success neatly encompass hit locations, expecially if the two are linked.

5.  Even mostest more importantly:  Me and my group think they're fun at least on occasion.  That's why I only use them one hit out of 400.

Hit locations work in systems that are more grim and gritty.  Generic hit systems work better in games that are more high fantasy based

WFRP vs D20.

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I like the idea of hit locations, but I'm less certain about random hit locations

With ranged weapons you typically aim for the centre of mass (or head if you're a sniper) - if you hit somewhere else then it's a near miss and that can be random

But with in melee, you're always aiming for a specific location - always - and if the attack isn't dodged or parried sufficiently well then you might hit an adjacent location but you'll never usually aim at someone's head and hit them in the foot

The Babylon 5 RPG had something like this, though it was a bit strangely implemented

I'm not an expert...

...but from what I've been reading about late-medieval combat, a lot of attacks were aimed at weak points in the armour -- under the arm, the neck, eyes, etc -- which would make realistic hit locations of injuries that "got past the armour" somewhat different than imagining a sword cleaving right through a breastplate.  So I guess if you were aiming for realism, hit locations would be dependent on types of armour and types of weapons (eg. thrusting vs bludgeoning).

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonI like the idea of hit locations, but I'm less certain about random hit locations

With ranged weapons you typically aim for the centre of mass (or head if you're a sniper) - if you hit somewhere else then it's a near miss and that can be random

But with in melee, you're always aiming for a specific location - always - and if the attack isn't dodged or parried sufficiently well then you might hit an adjacent location but you'll never usually aim at someone's head and hit them in the foot

True, but different systems handle it differently.  Some require you to declare the place you are trying to hit then work out the hit based on that.  Others assume you are going for the body and the hit location is worked out afterwards.  Most are geared that you are aiming for the body so random hits have the greatest chance of hitting there and then lower as you spread out.  Because even if you are aiming for the body the other guy could get an arm, leg, or head in there as the swing connects.

The Iridium System uses your targeting skill for the given weapon to determine wether or not you hit where you aimed. If you don't hit where you aim then it is random.

I seem to recall Top-Secret/SI had a system like that...

I love hit locations and detailed crits. Their lack (especially detailed crits) is one of few complaints about 3.x and my favorite part of Rolemaster.

As to melee, Deadlands Classic handled that differently from ranged as well.

In ranged, it was a random roll.  Center mass was the most likely hit, of course.  Every "raise" (basically, degree of success) on your to hit roll could be used to modify the location roll up or down one point, which may or may not have been enough to move it to a whole new location.  Or you could just make a called shot at a difficulty penalty.

Melee worked the same way, save that you automatically had a bonus to the hit location roll, as few people aim for the feet (the lowest number on the hit location roll).

Not perfect, but good enough to game with, I think.

Y'know...


I'm reminded of a GURPS game I played in many years ago. My weedy theif type guy, who perhaps arrogantly assumed he was a total badass with a knife, was walking the woodline parrallel to the party on the road when I stumbled across a heavily armed hobgoblin type in prepreation for an ambush. Luckily for the party, I might add, for the 'broken' ambush that resulted was still very rough for all of us.

meanwhile, weedy mcknifeboy had to go toe to toe with a six foot plus, chainmail wearing, axe weilding murder machine.  I was hit hard, and spent the rest of the fight stabbing him in the foot.  Totally random location rolls, left foot three times in a row.  Just as I passed out from blood loss, the Hobgoblin limped off, the single point of damage he'd suffered after the DR of his heavy boots was subtracted turned into FOUR points of impaling damage to that damn foot each time.

What the fuck that has to do with anything, I dunno...  but it was both incredibly cool (in that we were able to visualize my character groaning and crawling around stabbing what was in reach) and incredibly annoying (as my dagger would have been more effective against the chainmail (peircing as it was) or his unarmored arms or face... and I was faster...

So, there you have it, a case for and against hit locations.

I have done some pondering and played around with the idea of doing a system where damage WAS hit location.  Skipped abstract damage quantification like HP or wound tracks altogether.

Based on how well you rolled, you'd hit an increasingly more deadly part of the body, with a couple different grades of severity.  

For every margin of success you could step either up, or sideways on a chart, with up working towards the head, and sideways working through multiple grades of severity, from a graze, all the way to a destroyed appendage.

The result was a one roll hit, damage, and location roll, with much less abstract, and more detailed results.

The effect of wounds would largely be left up to the GM and players to deal with based on common sense.  A destroyed result to the arm might just mean not being able to use the arm, but one to the head is gonna pretty much end the guy's day.  

The trouble I had at the time I was pondering it was figuring out how to still keep weapon effects involved, and still keep the one roll aspect, though thinking about it now I can see ways to do it.  Maybe shotguns or burst fire weapons give a bump up the chart, while high powered rounds that do a lot of tissue damage might bump it sideways on the chart automatically.  

It would absolutely be a rather lethal and dangerous system.  You want to avoid getting hit at all, because getting hit is generally going to mean you get real fucked up real quick.