The D&D Next 'Surge' discussion got me thinking - what are people's tastes in systems for handling damage?

I think my favorite is WEG's D6 'Stunned/Wounded/Mortally Wounded' track.  It worked pretty well and had almost no book keeping.

I think I least liked OWoD, but that's at least partially because I never played it.  I only read the books.

For sheer awesome; Rolemaster

For low stress, dnd style HP are fine with me.


I find that many of the fancy ways to do dmage don't work for me.
Savage Worlds and Mutants and masterminds I am looking at you!

HP works fine for me.

I also like the HP/vitality split from star wars.

Damage tracks can be fun too. L5R managed to keep it simple but a lot of the time it becomes far too time consuming.

I like HERO with it's body/stun and normal/killing splits.

Basically I like a lot of different things but becoming too complicated/time-consuming or just being clever for clever's sake is a major turn-off.

I like HP for D&D and D20.

I like Mutant and Masterminds' Damage save.

I like condition tracks like Shadowrun.

And I like the HP/Condition track hybrid I came up with for a FUDGE build I made (It was based on preexisting systems, and a little like Shadowrun's). It worked like this:

You had 5 or 6 tracks, from Light wounds to Deadly. The number of boxes in a track was determined by your Body rating, converted to a number; so Terrible would be 1 box.

Any given hit could land on any given track, taking out a number of boxes; you could have a a Light wound for 10 points, and damage rolled over to the next track if you filled one up.

The neat thing was that even if you were almost full up on the deadly track, you could still fill the previous tracks before you were out of the fight (though Deadly damage bled over to dead). So you could still take a ton of light or moderate wounds that wouldn't automatically worsen your condition.

Harnmaster
You accumulate injury which reduces the chance of success for skill rolls and ability check.

Individual injuries generate various saving throws depending on much is inflicted in that blow. The least of which is that you fall unconscious. If you suffered a lot of injury your negative modifiers pile up until even a scratch will cause you to pass out. Other results include fumbling, falling down, amputation, and death.

It is simple and elegant.

GURPS
Your hit points is based on your Strength, and can be driven into the negatives.

When you get hit you need to make health rolls based on the severity of the damage. For example A hit over half your hit points is a major wound and you may wind up stunned or crippled depending on where the hit is.

Most of your rolls are made after the damage is subtracted and is based on the final total. For example every round your hit points is negative you need to make a health roll or pass out. If you go below negative your original hit points you start making death rolls vs your health.

The low number of hit points means even experienced characters have to take care in planning their tactics as they can be taken out by a lucky blow. The various saving throws means that a "tough" character can be made without having to represent them as having a lot of hit points. Finally the various saves means that going below zero hit points isn't automatically the end of the fight. Although you better hope this fight is the last one for a while.

I like Tenra Bansho Zero's system.

Damage is based on margin of success. You take Vitality damage and if you reach zero, you are defeated with no long term repercussion i.e. KO'd.

However, you also have a Wound Track much like White Wolf or Star Wars Saga and can elect to take Wounds instead of Vitality. This delays defeat and actually gives a bonus to your rolls, which gets higher the larger the Wound. However, Wounds take longer to heal and you start bleeding Vitality adding tension to the scene.

Finally, the player can tick the highest Wound called the Dead box, for a large bonus, representing the PC accepting thatbthey are willing to die to win the fight. However, having done so the PC will be killed if they are defeated.

I love its simplicity, the reverse death spiral and the way that the PC is able to indicate to a GM whether they accept the risk of their PC's death.

I'm fond of what I came up with for High Valor, damage is just another challenge the hero must overcome to succeed at tasks. Its tied to the power of the original blow/skill it was landed.

I'm fond of H&S as well, where you don't get hit until stress is cashed in, and then Fallout! Which is a wound/injury/mental impairment.


Of course the systems for D6, Shadowrun, and others are wonderful. I prefer interesting mechanics to straight Hit Points, in some ways, but Hit Points are very very easy to handle.

D&D Hit Points

RuneQuest Hit Points w/Hit Location

Classic Traveller's Ability Score damage

I like hit points, just like in D&D. Easy and effective.

My favorite D&D-like damage system is the Body Point/Hit Point system I use in Microlite74 Extended. Hit points are fatigue and recover with a full night's sleep provided you have no Body point Damage. Body Points represent actual wounds. You take BP damage when you run out of HP and when you take a critical hit (which does one point of BP damage per damage die of the weapon). Body Point damage heals slowly, reduces most D20 die rolls you make and reduces the amount of HP you recover from sleep. Being too active when you have BP damage can result in another point of BP damage. (HP also serve as spell points and the like in this system.)

Quote from: Skywalker;593071I like Tenra Bansho Zero's system.

Damage is based on margin of success. You take Vitality damage and if you reach zero, you are defeated with no long term repercussion i.e. KO'd.

However, you also have a Wound Track much like White Wolf or Star Wars Saga and can elect to take Wounds instead of Vitality. This delays defeat and actually gives a bonus to your rolls, which gets higher the larger the Wound. However, Wounds take longer to heal and you start bleeding Vitality adding tension to the scene.

Finally, the player can tick the highest Wound called the Dead box, for a large bonus, representing the PC accepting thatbthey are willing to die to win the fight. However, having done so the PC will be killed if they are defeated.

I love its simplicity, the reverse death spiral and the way that the PC is able to indicate to a GM whether they accept the risk of their PC's death.

Can you die if you don't tick the Dead box?

Quote from: CRKrueger;593103Can you die if you don't tick the Dead box?

No. It must be ticked.

Quote from: RandallS;593098My favorite D&D-like damage system is the Body Point/Hit Point system I use in Microlite74 Extended. Hit points are fatigue and recover with a full night's sleep provided you have no Body point Damage. Body Points represent actual wounds. You take BP damage when you run out of HP and when you take a critical hit (which does one point of BP damage per damage die of the weapon). Body Point damage heals slowly, reduces most D20 die rolls you make and reduces the amount of HP you recover from sleep. Being too active when you have BP damage can result in another point of BP damage. (HP also serve as spell points and the like in this system.)

I'm not a big fan of using the term elegant with regards to game mechanics, but this is damn good design.

Once I was a huge fan of the damage track in true20. now I prefer hitpoints with my own crit/recovery system.

Quote from: Skywalker;593104No. It must be ticked.

Christ in a sidecar.  Ok, thank you my brother, I can always count on you saving me money.

However, the guy's found a helluva way to cut short the whole fudging debate.  There's something to the whole "harmony" thing he's got going, have to give him that.