Decapitation and lethality in your game

[Morrus]

When a player kills a foe, I often ask “how do you kill it?” and let them describe the killing blow however they like.

Decapitation doesn’t come up as often as you’d think!

 

[Guest 85555]

I use maiming tables and include decapitation as a possibility

 

[Immortal Sun]

It's not important to me and it almost never comes up. And one of the characters at my table even has a vorpal sword.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same and same.

Unless decapitation and maiming is baked into the system, I don't feel a need to add it in. If it comes up in my D&D game, it's telegraphed in advance as a specific consequence. And generally, if someone loses a limb, that's a story opportunity to get a cool prosthetic of some sort, rather than a punishment.

When a player kills a foe, I often ask “how do you kill it?” and let them describe the killing blow however they like.

Decapitation doesn’t come up as often as you’d think!

 

[Tonguez]

PCs are heroes and heroes have an uncanny ability to avoid major injury, maiming and decapitation. Generally being knock out might mean bleeding but injuries heal and magic helps. If it is massive critical damage then let the player decide on any injuries their character might get as a result

 

[Ratskinner]

How important is it for you to have the possibility of decapitation for any character unlucky enough to receive damage? What should the chance of a character being maimed be? Does this add to the lethality of a game or is it a step too far? How severe should the effects be? Does it depend on the system or setting?

For me, most of my answers would really depend on genre. For example, if I were getting into a supers game, I would want to know what era and what the "comics code" for the game would be. Fantasy and Sci-Fi could go in any direction, but I would expect horror or military genres to have a good amount.

In games, setting is informed by system, and unfortunately that doesn't always work out for the best. This kind of question, to me, points out some of the limitations of a HP-based system. It just doesn't spit out meaningful results for the fiction. I first noticed this back when I had to use a Troll. (1e, IIRC. Possibly Red Box Basic) The description made clear that they could regrow or reattach limbs, etc. I was immediately struck by how this can't happen under the HP system (and never had in the several years of game narration I had experienced so far.) I mean, you can't very well Claw-Claw-Bite someone when one of your claws has been lopped off, and there is no guidance for how many HP your arm is worth, or description of when your attack routine is disrupted. (The occasional monster back then had special rules for it, but I digress...) So, choose your system (or system options) wisely, I guess.

As far as lethality goes...well, if I take off your arm, you've just lost either a shield, a weapon attack, or the ability to use two-handed weapons (or climb or clap ). So that would add a level of "death spiral" to the game, if it wasn't there before. Certainly a bunch of maimed characters popping up would bring a level of grimness to a setting.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Depends on the game. You better bet your last toenail that dismemberment and decapitation is on the table for HARP. Other games, it varies.

People's tastes change as they get older or simply experience other games. Some grow away from gritty, some grow toward it. I'm in column two: I want combat to matter (specifically called shots), so yes, I've come to prefer death spirals . . . in certain games to avoid the "you're fine until you're shot in the foot" problem.

The weird thing is, I've often had to remind players of their own resources for depowering negatives to their characters/improving their characters' odds.

 

[Umbran]

People's tastes change as they get older or simply experience other games. Some grow away from gritty, some grow toward it. I'm in column two: I want combat to matter (specifically called shots), so yes, I've come to prefer death spirals . . . in certain games to avoid the "you're fine until you're shot in the foot" problem.

The better implementations I have seen don't make it so much a death spiral, as a power up spiral. Yes, you are closer to death, but you are starting to pull out the stops, and capable of greater feats.

I find a good example in FATE based games, in which you can take Consequences instead of taking stress boxes. The stress boxes can take you out of the game, the consequences make doing things harder... but you get Fate points when you take them. So, yes, your ankle is broken, but you weren't planning to run anyway, and you can channel the pain into your magic, and throw a nastier lightning bolt....

 

[dco]

When a player kills a foe, I often ask “how do you kill it?” and let them describe the killing blow however they like.

I should try this, looks like really good advice.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

How important is it for you to have the possibility of decapitation for any character unlucky enough to receive damage? What should the chance of a character being maimed be? Does this add to the lethality of a game or is it a step too far? How severe should the effects be? Does it depend on the system or setting?

In real life, the possibility of decapitation is low enough that I can stay invested in actually doing anything. You can bet that, if there was a 5% chance of losing my head whenever I got into a car, then I would spend a lot of time hiding in my bed.

Decapitation in games is a little bit more acceptable, but not by much. If I feel like anything I do has a chance of invalidating all of my previous work, then I'm unlikely to want to do anything. If I'm swinging an axe around, the chance of me cutting my own head off is significantly less than one percent. Even if someone is swinging an axe at me, as long as I'm wearing armor, the chance of decapitation is not high. Decapitation in combat is one of those unrealistic things, that happens in movies for dramatic effect. Basically, if you have a game mechanic to address such a thing, then you've already vastly over-estimated how often it should occur.

From a game design standpoint, incidental mechanics which bypass core mechanics are a bad thing. Critical hits which bypass armor are a bad design. Random decapitation which bypasses HP are a bad design. If you want an axe to have the possibility of killing someone outright, then you should work with the existing core mechanics, and make sure that the high end of the damage roll is sufficient to kill anyone you think should be vulnerable to insta-death.