I'm watching Korgoth of Barbaria. It is crazy awesome metal fantasy nonsense, and ripe with extravagant gore.
This got me thinking of possible systems to run it in. Obviously they would need extravagantly violent and gory.
My first thought of course, is the awesome tables in Dark Heresy. WFRP2's tables felt oversimplified and lame by comparison.
How are WFRP1's? What are some other games with comparably graphic systemic violence?
Blood!
MERP/RoleMaster
Dog Town
Gotta be Rolemaster!
The problem with these sytems is that after 2 weeks of adventuring all the party have hooks , wooden legs and eye patches. It stops being fantasy adventuring and starts to look like the extras lot on Treasure Island
I read Warhammer Fantasy a long time ago, I don't remember if the tables were gorier than in 2nd edition, sorry.
When I think of games with horrible crit charts, I think of Rolemaster, The Riddle of Steel, and maybe Hârnmaster.
Arduin. Gratuitously violent and painfully simple.
Quote from: jibbajibba;342922The problem with these sytems is that after 2 weeks of adventuring all the party have hooks , wooden legs and eye patches. It stops being fantasy adventuring and starts to look like the extras lot on Treasure Island
Or else you merely have the healing systems account for a lot of this.
I prefer my violence to be graphic (see any of the Steel Isle Logs posted), as it fits my setting ideal (somewhat non-heroic), but it also means some consequences. Players and opponents don't just get 'knocked to zero HP'. Now, this is not to say that the epic/heroic mode is bad. But for what i do, reminding the PCs of the price of violence is critical.
But we have had to make the healing magics at some level account for this. Low power healing does little for scars and mutilations, but even low-moderate stuff has some ability to restructure damaged tissue and scarring.
As soon as I saw the subject of your post, I thought of WFRP 1st Edition.
If memory serves, it's pretty graphic. At least, I remember being in high school playing in a campaign and getting the giggle EVERY TIME someone was critted. Friend, foe, my PC...always funny.
Quote from: LordVreeg;342934Or else you merely have the healing systems account for a lot of this.
I prefer my violence to be graphic (see any of the Steel Isle Logs posted), as it fits my setting ideal (somewhat non-heroic), but it also means some consequences. Players and opponents don't just get 'knocked to zero HP'. Now, this is not to say that the epic/heroic mode is bad. But for what i do, reminding the PCs of the price of violence is critical.
But we have had to make the healing magics at some level account for this. Low power healing does little for scars and mutilations, but even low-moderate stuff has some ability to restructure damaged tissue and scarring.
Scaring is no problee. The gristled fight who's chest is a mismash of scars and signs of battle is great. But the fighter who looses his arm at the elbow, his left foot and one of his eyes is perhaps more problematic. I once ran a warrior in a gor Game of my own design which included a critical hit system which meant he lost and arm fairly early on to a lucky die roll. Medicine in the world meant he survived but from that point onwards he was somewhat 'armless
http://www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=19
The above has expanded crit tables of WFRP v2. We've been using them in my weekly game and they're violent and gory as anything else I've seen.
Quote from: jibbajibba;342922The problem with these sytems is that after 2 weeks of adventuring all the party have hooks , wooden legs and eye patches. It stops being fantasy adventuring and starts to look like the extras lot on Treasure Island
That's why you do it the way you do it in Dark Heresy, where you only roll for such things after a certain threshold of serious injury has been reached. Once you get to the point of critical injury you're pretty much fucked anyway, the crit roll is just a capper, a finishing result.
Stormbringers (1st ed) had some grisly major wounds : 01-50 Scar, 51+ fairly gory.
Rolemaster's crit tables are also fun. Just roll on the E column.
Quote from: MonkeyWrench;342961http://www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=19
The above has expanded crit tables of WFRP v2. We've been using them in my weekly game and they're violent and gory as anything else I've seen.
MADE BY PHYSICIANS, EH?
i like them.
Quote from: J Arcane;342903I'm watching Korgoth of Barbaria. It is crazy awesome metal fantasy nonsense, and ripe with extravagant gore.
This got me thinking of possible systems to run it in. Obviously they would need extravagantly violent and gory.
Arduin?
Quote from: Arduin Grimoire IBrain penetrated, immediate death.
Voicebox ruined, total voice loss.
Hand severed, die in 1-8 minutes.
Impalement, weapon is stuck there.
1-5 ribs borken [sic] (roll number and where).
These are the first five entries. More on Jeff's Gameblog (http://jrients.blogspot.com/2007/08/great-random-charts-from-rpg-history.html), including the ever popular "Genitals/breasts torn off, shock" and "Skull caved in" results.
The systems with loads of gory crit tables...
ICE's Rolemaster. (but you avoid the hook effect if you use full rolemaster, as there is regen magic available)
ICE's MERP. Rolemaster light. Fewer simpler tables, works just as well. Less "put you back together" magic, tho'.
ICE's HARP. Yet another version of Rolemaster Light.
WFRP 1E/2E. ALmost no "put you back together" magic.
Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader: crits are worse than WFRP, and characters take fewer but more profound ones. And cybertech can put you back together if you can afford it.
Hârnmaster. Again, not so much on the put you back together side.
Rhand: Morningstar Missions. Fantasy setting with SciFi elements. Same combat system as Aliens and Phoenix Command. BRUTAL. Not too slow, either.
Waste World had some cool charts, but nothing beyond what you had in Arduin and WFRP 1e.
If you survived a crit in WW, there was always bionics or bio-tech healing as possibilities. However, much on the crit chart was "boom goes your life" options...which meant your friends would have to like you enough to scrape your bits in a bag and bring you back for a full body cloning or cyborging.
We never had a problem in WFRP with crits. Few PCs ever survived a couple of rolls on the charts.
I think the main issue with these sort of crit charts isn't the question of just how violent they might be, but just how repetitive. If its TOO easy in a game for you to get the "your blow smashes open his skull like an over-ripe watermelon, brains splay out in a 90' arc for the next 2d20 feet" result, then you can end up repeating those words over and over again to the point that they don't even MEAN anything anymore!
If absolutely everyone dies a "totally awesome gruesome death" every time, you'd better be damn well sure that you've got at least a thousand different deaths for them, otherwise the impact of it will turn into tedium damn fucking quick.
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