I've just had an idea and I wonder how viable or superficially popular it is.
Imagine a combat system where damage is measured through conditions (they could be aspects or any such system), as opposed to damage/hit points. IE, when a PC gets hit he gets a 'wound' or a 'broken leg' or a 'cursed by the spirits' (each would have their own rules, but that's not important).
Thus when the PC is hurt they incur those conditions in some fashion.
Now how about if, during character creation, the player chose, as Flaws, for that character the conditions which could be chosen any time a character was hurt (along with others made possible by GM fiat according to the nature of the opposition or the environment). For example, a character that's particularly frail could have 'Toxin' as a Flaw, meaning they are more susceptible to poisoning so if the enemy strikes them with their sword that attack could trigger a poisoning - say the blade was coated with spider venom or something. Or perhaps a character that's really unlucky gets hit by a magic attack and his inherent Flaw of 'Jinxed' kicks in with subsequent bad luck made manifest.
Obviously not all conditions apply in all circumstances - or maybe they do, if that can be argued.
If you wanted to be a little complicated, you could have multiple conditions for different body parts, and different feats or disadvantages for them as well.
For example, if your NPC is a Muay Thai kick boxer, you have to apply the bruised condition to his legs 4 times to get it to stick once, the injured condition twice to get it to stick, and the broken condition twice. The advantage for that could be, "Impact Conditioning."
So you could show the differences in martial arts by showing where their conditioning is. For example, most kung fu guys crumble when they are kicked in the legs, but they might have the "Iron Coat" and conditioned forearms.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;452065I've just had an idea and I wonder how viable or superficially popular it is.
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Have you read my game, High Valor, yet?
Just wondering. The damage system is specific events tied to setbacks from failed defense/actions. You fail to climb a high wall? Broken leg setback. You stab someone in the thigh? Thigh wound setback. Such conditions only matter as a penalty to rolls where those wounds would come into play. A broken wrist might not slow you down running away from a dragon--at least not much, but it does make fighting it with your sword and shield harder.
It allows the wounds to fit the combat, and how it plays out, as well as for the future.
One reviewer said it was just "hit points" but I don't think he gets that you might take broken wrists twice, and not die, you just don't defend yourself well, so it is easier to get hurt, again--in certain circumstances.
Quote from: Silverlion;452072Have you read my game, High Valor, yet?
Just wondering. The damage system is specific events tied to setbacks from failed defense/actions. You fail to climb a high wall? Broken leg setback. You stab someone in the thigh? Thigh wound setback. Such conditions only matter as a penalty to rolls where those wounds would come into play. A broken wrist might not slow you down running away from a dragon--at least not much, but it does make fighting it with your sword and shield harder.
It allows the wounds to fit the combat, and how it plays out, as well as for the future.
One reviewer said it was just "hit points" but I don't think he gets that you might take broken wrists twice, and not die, you just don't defend yourself well, so it is easier to get hurt, again--in certain circumstances.
I haven't read the game. It's a different idea, I think, really. Though you could gain new Flaws during play, they represent weaknesses that can be exploited by attacks and such. Though falling off a bridge, for instance, might not necessarily invoke Bad Luck.
I'm not sure I'd want to make it more complicated. Obviously there would ne situations where other conditions might be given, beyond those the character has already chosen as Flaws. But tracking conditions is probably difficult enough.
Not sure this topic shouldn't live in the Design forum (with the tumbleweeds...)
The Lady Blackbird mini-game usually gets pulled up as a example of a condition system-driven damage, though I forget the details. Have been playing a boardgame lately "Tales of the Arabian Nights" that has no damage but a largeish collection of status cards.
I tend to like systems which avoid status effects in favour of using damage, though I like systems which have multiple damage tracks; one of the nice features of Tunnels and Trolls for instance is that physical damage just comes off CON and its as workable to have damage come off STR (i.e. instead of having 'fatigued' or 'exhausted' as separate conditions) or off LUCK (for opening the cursed Book of Omens) or CHA (e.g. the soulsucker in Captif D'Yvoire) or Speed for being slowed.
A condition system is probably going to be more complex. There's also probably going to be some sort of 'death spiral' effect going on.
The flaw idea's interesting - if that's going on then each condition may need to be a value rather than just there/not there - so that the flaw can increase the effect of the condition, unless the flaw itself is a second separate condition.
Would being stabbed in the chest/torso area (or being backstabbed) cause automatic death?
Wandering off-topic a bit, you could also flip the idea and have Flaws/disadvantages be the conditions.
In a GURPs or HERO-ish system for example you can have attacks that inflict damage in 'points' that subtract from a defenders' points to give them disadvantages like One Eye or Missing Leg or what-have-you. Characters might have Advantages that resist some of the damage - the attacker might have to attack the points in the advantage and disable that before giving them a Flaw.
Quote from: ggroy;452147Would being stabbed in the chest/torso area (or being backstabbed) cause automatic death?
I would say not necessarily.