Gritty effects from damage

[Zaran]

One of the things that bothers me about 4e is the fact that the PCs can go from dying with their blood spilling all over the floor to "Wench bring me another beer!" six hours later.

I was thinking of putting some kind of lingering effect on being Bloodied and from Dying.

Has anyone done something like this?

One thought is to take the condition chart from Star Wars Saga. If you become Bloodied , you go down 1 step on the chart. You don't get these steps back unless you spend 3 minor actions to recover.

On dying, you can pull something from Dragonage and give a penalty to those who have been dropped to dying that can't be healed except by rituals or time. I was thinking a random roll can determine what kind of penalty and there might be permanent effects such as "You have lost an eye. Or "You have a nasty scar."

One of my friends brought up that any kind of penalty like that would just cause the party to take the extra time to get rid of it and wouldn't add much to the game. But there will be times when you can't take that extra time or don't have the gold for a quick fix ritual. I think it would make for a good story if someone has a broken leg and is permanently slowed until their buddies can get them back to town or camp.

What do you think?

 

[Chainsaw]

On dying, you can pull something from Dragonage and give a penalty to those who have been dropped to dying that can't be healed except by rituals or time. I was thinking a random roll can determine what kind of penalty and there might be permanent effects such as "You have lost an eye. Or "You have a nasty scar."

I like it. In fact, in our 4E campaign, I actually requested a bad scar (losing an ear) after going negative.. I wanted it to mean something, to have a permanent effect of some kind. Our DM, whom I like alot actually, went on a ten minute near-rant talking about how bad scars aren't consistent with the heroic theme of his campaign and that if I kept this up, my guy would be all crippled and banged up by the end of the campaign. I didn't have a problem with it, but he did apparently. Moral of the story: make sure everyone's on the same page before you implement this sort of system.

 

[Amaroq]

Bloodied, wow, my defender almost intentionally lets himself get bloodied every session; it makes best use of his Boundless Endurance power and his Cloak of the Walking Wounded. As the rest of the party is ranged/support, he's really doing his job by drawing enemy attention and soaking up damage - so he gets bloodied more often than the rest of the group combined.

On the other hand, he has few Minor powers, so maybe that would give him something to do with them.

...

Some other thoughts - you might be able to address Chainsaw's points and my concerns both with the following:

1. When you get Bloodied, you tell me what that the result looks like - and role-play it; but its up to you-the-player.

2. When you get dropped negative, you take a permanent Status (choose from: Weakened, Slowed, Blinded, Dazed, or Surprised); you can't get rid of this status without a ritual or expert health care.

Under special circumstances, the DM can offer Deafened, Stunned, and Unconscious as possible alternate effects.

...

If you have good role-players, you could let them choose .. if you have the kind of players that would always pick a single status, then the DM could assign it based on the circumstances of their drop.

 

[Starfox]

I think it would make for a good story if someone has a broken leg and is permanently slowed until their buddies can get them back to town or camp.

What do you think?

It really boils down to whether you want your players to take a time-out now and then. Expect quite a few adventures to be derailed this way.

What could work is to make this kind of injuries into subplots. As long as the injury is active, the player gets some kind of rewards, such as additional AP.

 

[Stalker0]

I think making lingering effects at bloodied is too much, players go down there a lot.

Past dying? Now we are talking

 

[Starfox]

Came back to the tread when I saw Stalker0's post and saw this was unclear.

What could work is to make this kind of injuries into subplots. As long as the injury is active, the player gets some kind of rewards, such as additional AP.

What I meant was to offer players that enjoy this kind of things APs to accept temporary inconveniences. Or, if you prefer, hand out these inconveniences, but allow players to bye them off with AP (this should not happen too often or it becomes an AP tax).

 

[Stalker0]

What I meant was to offer players that enjoy this kind of things APs to accept temporary inconveniences. Or, if you prefer, hand out these inconveniences, but allow players to bye them off with AP (this should not happen too often or it becomes an AP tax).

One thing you could do in this vein is allow a player to make a choice. When they are bloodied or dying...they can opt to take a lasting injury for a nice reward (more AP, bonuses to X, etc).

Players can then take the injury for the story or the mechanical benefits.

 

[Wik]

Yeah. I like Stalker's approach. Sort of a "negotiated injury" house rule. A PC hits zero, and gets the opportunity to take an injury for a benefit.

I like the idea of the player describing the injury, the mechanical penalty, and the benefit. And then the GM coming back with a counteroffer. And the player countering once more. Do this a few times, with a set time limit, and both sides allowing to stop the negotiations at any point with an agreement or a backing out (GM: "You know what? We're negotiating too much, and it's cutting into play time. Take it or leave it." Player: "Ummmm.... leave it. Guess I'm just at zero.")

Also, I've done the scar thing, and I love it. I do it even if there is no mechanical benefit - it's fun to accumulate a list of the character's scars, and how he got them. Though if you're not careful, it can lead to unfortunate extracurriculars ("It's a .38, Riggs").

 

[Chainsaw]

Also, I've done the scar thing, and I love it. I do it even if there is no mechanical benefit - it's fun to accumulate a list of the character's scars, and how he got them. Though if you're not careful, it can lead to unfortunate extracurriculars ("It's a .38, Riggs").

I totally agree. If you did want mechanical effects, though, I could see the scars giving you intimidation bonuses (looking extra scary) or diplomacy bonuses (grizzly bandit lord, blackmarket persons) or diplomacy penalties (with the wench at the tavern, with the snooty advisor to a ruler). That would be cool.

Incidentally, my guy carries Irontooth's severed hand tied to his belt, next to a bag of goblin ears. He's kinda weird like that.

 

[Zaran]

I think making lingering effects at bloodied is too much, players go down there a lot.

Past dying? Now we are talking

I'm starting to think you are right with this. I'm starting a new campaign this weekend and there probalby won't be a leader in the party. There will be 3 defenders and two strikers as everyone wants to play something different for a change. We'll see how it goes. I might have to give them a NPC that heals.

Although they will have a Paladin and a Warden who is multiclassing into Shaman so it might work out.