HP-less health mechanic

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

After having witnessed some console games put this to use (Halo 2, Call of Duty 2, Gears of War), I decided it might work as a houserule variant for pen and paper RPGS, for those people who aren't exactly fond of hitpoints, or who want to depict damage in a purely story-relevant context (while maintaining an element of heroism and keeping action going).

Instead of losing hitpoints, damaged players instead incur damage as a positive factor. This is calculated secretly. Every time a player takes damage, they must make a Fortitude save (DC = total damage incurred). If they fail the save, they are "seriously hurt", and incur -2 to all attack rolls, skill and ability checks, and saving throws for a number of rounds equal to 4 minus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1). They also may incur another wound based on wound location tables, if any are being used.

If a seriously hurt character is damaged again, the save DC doubles from its previous value.

Failing a Fort save against damage while "seriously hurt" results in unconsciousness, or death on either a natural one, or a failure by 10 or more.

Unconscious, unstabilized creatures must make a fortitude save every (Constitution bonus + 1, minimum 1) hours, or die. The DC is fixed at 15 for this, +5 for each time it was forced during unconsciousness.

Cure spells work against positive damage as they would against hit points, and instantly clear away the "Seriously Hurt" status.

The Rules of One and Twenty do not apply except in the case of unconsciousness v. death.

At the end of (4 - Con modifier, minimum 1) rounds undamaged, all damage clears. If one is staying still, the process takes two less rounds of not being damaged.

The "seriously hurt" status length adds to the time required for recovery of damage.

Any suggestions, changes or further ideas?

 

[DogBackward]

Could be done a little more simply, I think. For one, Unearthed Arcana did it rather well, using Fort saves to resist death.

A system I've used that seemed to work was pretty simple, too. If you are hit by an attack, you make a Fort save, DC 10+Str+1/2 the max roll of your damage dice, +1/2 any other extra damage. If you succeed, you take a Wound, and your total number of Wounds applies as a penalty to Fort saves to resist damage. If you fail, you become fatigued. A second hit with a second failure makes you exhausted, then staggered*, then unconscious, then dead. For every 5 points by which you fail the save, you move an additional step down the death spiral. So, if the DC is 20 and you roll 14, you become exhausted. A cure spell removed 1d4 Wounds per level of the spell, and reduced your condition by one step.

* Staggered means you are limited to a single move or standard action per round, and cannot use any free, swift or immediate actions.

 

[Felnar]

doesnt Mutants and Masterminds do something like this?

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

Could be done a little more simply, I think. For one, Unearthed Arcana did it rather well, using Fort saves to resist death.

A system I've used that seemed to work was pretty simple, too. If you are hit by an attack, you make a Fort save, DC 10+Str+1/2 the max roll of your damage dice, +1/2 any other extra damage. If you succeed, you take a Wound, and your total number of Wounds applies as a penalty to Fort saves to resist damage. If you fail, you become fatigued. A second hit with a second failure makes you exhausted, then staggered*, then unconscious, then dead. For every 5 points by which you fail the save, you move an additional step down the death spiral. So, if the DC is 20 and you roll 14, you become exhausted. A cure spell removed 1d4 Wounds per level of the spell, and reduced your condition by one step.

* Staggered means you are limited to a single move or standard action per round, and cannot use any free, swift or immediate actions.

That's pretty awesome. I never knew Unearthed Arcana and M&M did that.

 

[Lobo Lurker]

Why not just combine the Mutants and Masterminds damage save with the Star Wars SAGA edition Condition Track. Seems very similar to what you're looking for.

 

[DogBackward]

No, that's my version, actually. I don't know about M&M (heh, M&M's...), but Unearthed Arcana was a little more bland, and didn't have the actual penalties, they just had Hits, which reduced your save vs the damage, and your result either left you fine, disabled, dying or dead. I wanted something a little more in-depth, that could result in being wounded actually hurting your combat ability, so I reworked it a bit.

The original UA version is here.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

True20 and Shadowrun did this too. The way 3E Shadowrun did it was a bit chunky though. I remember they fixed it somewhat in the 4th version of SR, but still not enough. 3 damage boxes worsened one's condition by 1, but they erred by making it so that someone with 18 boxes before unconsciousness can end up in worse shape at critical condition than someone with 8.