D&D General Gore in D&D

[Charlaquin]

It depends on the group and their tolerance for such things, but with my regulars I don’t shy away from gruesome details, but I do keep the tone on the lighter side. Blood and gore, yes, but comedic blood and gore rather than horrific. Less Hostel, more Nightmare on Elm Street.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Shiroiken]

I think it really depends on your style and the tone of the campaign. Everyone should understand that even a simple combat is going to be bloody and disgusting, but it's hard to bring that imagery to the game constantly. I think most of our games probably keep things in the PG 13-ish range, but IMO any campaign for horror or gritty realism SHOULD push for the R rating for gore to help bring the campaign to life (so to speak).

 

[Fenris-77]

I find excessive gore a little tiresome in D&D. There's a place for it, and every table has a different tolerance for it, but I find past a certain point it's not really adding much to the games I've run and played in. Part of it is the system, I run and play D&D for the heroic whatnot, and constantly reveling in gore doesn't quite fit the theme for me. It's just dandy in other games, whether for, lets call it alignment reasons, or genre reasons. Part of it also may be that I equate, mostly subconsciously, that kind of play with the sophomoric silliness that comes along with early teen players, of which I was one. That said, I hand't given this any specific conscious thought prior to just now, so I'm just rolling with my initial thoughts on the subject.

After considering the topic for a while before posting, I've realized that as the GM, I tend to be more descriptive of the violence when dealing with larger, non-human creatures. I find that interesting because it wasn't a conscious decision on my part. I have no issue with excessive violence generally, and no line in the sand about human/not human. It's possibly something I do to focus on the inhuman horror/strangeness factor, as I do tend toward more Cthulhu-esque cosmic horror for by big bads over hill giants over whatever. A complete aside, but I thought I'd share. Great topic btw, kudos to the OP.

 

[aco175]

I'm mostly mild gore. Sometimes on a crit one of the players may describe a bit but not really gory. Was it the Book of Vile Darkness that has the 3 pictures of gore. I think it was a dungeon entrance with the first all dripping with blood and pentagrams and the last with hearts and bunnies.

 

[Yaarel]

I find excessive gore a little tiresome in D&D. There's a place for it, and every table has a different tolerance for it, but I find past a certain point it's not really adding much to the games I've run and played in. Part of it is the system, I run and play D&D for the heroic whatnot, and constantly reveling in gore doesn't quite fit the theme for me. It's just dandy in other games, whether for, lets call it alignment reasons, or genre reasons. Part of it also may be that I equate, mostly subconsciously, that kind of play with the sophomoric silliness that comes along with early teen players, of which I was one. That said, I hand't given this any specific conscious thought prior to just now, so I'm just rolling with my initial thoughts on the subject.

After considering the topic for a while before posting, I've realized that as the GM, I tend to be more descriptive of the violence when dealing with larger, non-human creatures. I find that interesting because it wasn't a conscious decision on my part. I have no issue with excessive violence generally, and no line in the sand about human/not human. It's possibly something I do to focus on the inhuman horror/strangeness factor, as I do tend toward more Cthulhu-esque cosmic horror for by big bads over hill giants over whatever. A complete aside, but I thought I'd share. Great topic btw, kudos to the OP.

This is moreorless what Gygax recommended.

When describing hit point loss for large monstrous creatures, he emphasized gore:
hit points = meat

But when describing hit point loss for player characters, he emphasized superficial cuts and bruises:
hit points = stamina, skill, luck

So many conflicts have their origins in the inconsistent, conflictive, rules of D&D 1e.

 

[S'mon]

I do it as appropriate to genre.
Yesterday running Red Hand of Doom I said that Wyrmlord Saarvith exploded when killed by a massive thunder/sonic attack, but I didn't go into much detail other than that she splattered over the adjacent dwarf veteran NPC.

I guess I'm mostly at a PG-13 level. I was planning to go more Game of Thrones if the PCs had revisited Drellin's Ferry after it was conquered by the Red Hand while the PCs were with the Tiri Kitor, but they didn't go back there.

 

[Yaarel]

I like that 5e hit points are mainly vigor (stamina-skill-luck).

It allows the narrative to avoid gore.

Except at zero hit points, when a lethal attack pierced the defenses. Then gore is appropriate for those who want to indulge it.

In fact, I wish, 5e would make enduring injuries occur at zero hit points. That is when a ‘real’ hit happened. The sword thru the gut. Then, before the possibility of death, I would like the possibility of broken arms, lacerated thighs, and so on.

Life and limb. Limb.

So the character might get healed and leap back up from zero hit points, but their arm would still be broken.



I want something more like the Exhaustion mechanic, where each stage gives a mechanical consequence, that the DM can interpret more easily according to the narrative context of the injury. The problem with the Exhaustion table is, the mechanics dont always make sense, such as loss of speed if someone goes deaf. But something like the Exhaustion table that was more flexible would be great. Each time a character hits zero, they incur a level of Exhaustion/Injury. Higher levels of this table would go from one day to recover eventually to 18 months to recover, and after that a permanent loss, such as having a limb severed.

An injury system would be appropriate for gory descriptions. But because hit points themselves are abstract, the gore would only happen at the end in a Mortal Kombat ‘fatalilty’ scene. It both minimizes gore, and emphasizes its vividness when zero hit points does happen.

I dont want a table of random injuries, in the sense of a character hitting zero because of drowning, but the table suggests the right shoulder was dislocated. But mechanics that are suitable for variable kinds of injuries would be great.

 

[CleverNickName]

Eh, I don't like being terribly graphic. Maybe once per gaming session I'll give an over-the-top description of a villain's demise, after a long battle maybe. But most of the time I'll just say something like "...your sword strikes true, and the goblin is dispatched."

 

[Ravenbrook]

I've never encountered much gore in D&D or similar fantasy games. Call of Cthulhu, on the other hand, relies to a certain extent on precisely such horrific descriptions, although you can overdo it even there.