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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8615043" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I’ve been running a campaign of “Spire: The City Must Fall” for the past 7 months or so. And while it isn’t a game I’d describe in any way as simulationist, it has a damage system that does more than alive, nearly dead, and dead. It does this in two key ways.First, it has five different tracks for Stress, which is kind of like HP in that it is an abstract expression. So a PC can take abstract damage of five different kinds: Blood (physical damage), Mind (mental damage), Reputation (social damage), Shadow (damage to anonymity as the PCs are all members of a covert organization), and Silver (damage to wealth/gear). Whenever you take Stress of some kind, the GM can narrate it however it makes sense to do so based on what’s happening. But it’s all rather vague or loose. Until it becomes Fallout.That’s the second way the game accomplishes what you’ve described; Fallout. This is when the abstract Stress becomes a specific consequence. There are degrees, but all of them have penalties of one sort or another. When you take Fallout, a certain amount of abstract Stress converts into the specific Fallout. So if you’re in combat and have taken a good amount of Blood Stress, you’ll take a “Broken Arm” Fallout and clear some ofthe Stress. The Broken Arm will impact you going forward.Mind Stress can become things like Breakdown or Permanently Weird. Reputation Stress can become thinks like Shunned or Feared. Silver Stress can result in Broken Weapons or In Hock. And so on.There’s a bit more to it than described…tolls and such that determine when it happens…. but it’s really not that complex. It’s a very cool system and allows for a variety of consequences for the PCs to have to deal with, and as a result it feels “more real” than any HP system.And as I said, this is a game whose goal is not to simulate reality.</blockquote>

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