Maiming Your PCs

[Aries_Omega]

One time...

I guess my old Ref is evil then. One time we were playing Cyberpunk 2020 and a fellow PC was attacked by a crazed out borg named "Anubis". Other then the dog head, he also had a gatling gun for a left arm...that had mono-blade bayonets on the barrels. He ambushed one guy and shot him all up....he lost all four limbs! He was still alive too! Then insult to injury he fired up the gatling gun again...no bullets coming out and used it as a melee weapon to obtain a "core sample" with the whirling blades on the gatling gun. Amazingly...the player was still alive! The Med Tech got to him in time and stablized him. Later he was outfitted with 4 cyber limbs and had to have organs replaced...and enhanced. The new T-Maxx Cyberliver was a good thing...he was designated driver most of the time.

Inspired by that I did something similar to a player of mine in a 2E AD&D game. I think it was some kind of homebrew monster...I think a thing I called a Razor Beast. Anyhow they took him back...whats left of him to a cleric of a god of forging. A few days later the player left the forge/temple area with new limbs of adamantine. I think I gave him a better base armor class and gave him a higher base damage with his feet and fists. That and he had a few extra's like a spring out compartment for a dagger and stuff.

One time I had a player willingly lop off an arm to use an artifact...not not the hand of Vecna. To give you the cliff notes version...never use an item smarter then you. Now my players are very suspicous of ANY intelligent item...good or evil.

Aries

 

[Dancer]

How about using half of the Massive damage rule. 25 pts of damage in a single blow. Use the same fortitude save as the massive damage rule. For game balance you can rule that it takes 50pts for a decapitation. It's fairly simple and you don't have any new mechanics.

 

[Voadam]

Any good rules for chopping the pcs?plz..
Hell, i found a reason to DM once again after a long time


(damn,who needs rules about so simple things anyway )

____________
The Wizard

Torn Asunder from Bastion Press has alternate d20 critical rules that are easy to add on that can result in maimings and stuff.

Rolemaster has serious in-depth critical hit charts and effects that are pretty applicable to d20.

Arduin Grimoire and some old Dragons (Including Best of Dragon) had random ciritical hit charts.

 

[Voadam]

I used the rolemaster crit chart for a custom spell effect in a game once, it shattered one of the bones in a PC's leg, reducing him to crawling around during the fight and making archery very difficult.

I also had a character who went to -9 hp get his throat mangled a bit by the ghost dog that took him down. I required him to speak in a hoarse voice when speaking in character, but no mechanical penalty. This gave him an interesting character hook but was a bit cumbersome to do constantly.

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

Hey,thanx Voadam!
I have played once in a 2nd ed game and the dm was using some really cool rules about criticals (he also used criticals with spells).This resulted in a much more interesting and theatrical combat and was needless to say, a lot of fun.

________________
The Wizard

 

[Aaron2]

The adventure I ran yesterday, one of the PC's had his arm ripped off by an Umber Hulk.

That exact same thing happened to one of my players (maybe it was a leg). He overcame it by being polymorphed into an Umber Hulk for the rest of the adventure. He kept his severed leg in his backpack, casting Gentle Repose when needed, until he could get back to town to have it re-attached.

My maiming chart (which I am continuously pimping) is here:
http://www.freewebs.com/hedgehobbit/DeathChart.pdf

Aaron

 

[sakkara]

I've had characters over the years lose an arm, an eye, a shield arm, etc., but the best had to be my Aasimar Paladin a few campaigns back - she cut off her own arm!

Someone in the party used what she deemed as "evil magics" to regenerate an arm that was lost earlier in the session. She soon found out what magics had been used to regenerate the arm (she was unconcious at the time) and so she *cut it off* with her sword (having to make a Will save to call up the stomach to perform such an act) and then she proceeded to beat him with it!!

Many belly-laughs around the gaming table that night...

patman

 

[Hand of Evil]

If I use critcal charts that produce a maiming result my players know of it as any house rule. If I don't use them I find it becomes a plot element or a PC slap. By a plot element I mean there is a reason for it and I have pick someone out. By PC slap, well, some times the PC has to learn not to stick his hand into a trap.

 

[mac1504]

Thanks for the all replies so far, it's great to see different viewpoints and takes on limb loss and maiming of characters. I personally, as the DM, did not confront the player before hand about the loss of his limb. I did know in my head that the player would be the best one to handle the loss, and I had figured he would continue to play the character with his new handicap. He is actually quite excited about the prospects and is currently planning out a new career path as a Herbalist.

I'm developing a very simple set of maiming rules, and of course I'd run it by the players in advance. I like the sense of danger it adds to combat (though even under this sytem, it wouldn't happen often). Of course, if PCs are really bothered by the maiming, it's not too hard to find someone who can cast a regenerate spell.

Agreed, I wanted to run my Midnight campaign with a grim sense of danger in it, and I think I got that across quite pointedly with the one maiming incident. Of course, we are playing Midnight and regenerate spells are a bit harder to come by. Actually I am toying with the idea that the maimed PC's brother (who is a Legate) will offer to repair his arm if he and his associates perform a small mission for him...

 

[BastionPress_Creech]

Torn Asunder from Bastion Press has alternate d20 critical rules that are easy to add on that can result in maimings and stuff.

I should also point out that Torn Asunder has an extensive chapter on rules for healing to compensate for the expanded critical rules (which do include the possibility of losing a limb and incurring scarring).

There's a lot of good, usable stuff in that book.