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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eriktheguy" data-source="post: 4890867" data-attributes="member: 83662">First off, I think that going with a gritty setting could be very fun, and that you don't need to pay attention to criticism in this thread saying you shouldn't.1. A few of your rules might serve to stress your players more than to add flavor. For example, rule 1. By the time the players hit level 10, they will be taking CON damage from nearly every attack, and are going to be spending pretty much all of the time dazed. Moreover, players often have characters that are built to take damage (barbarians) rather than avoid it, so I think this punishes many builds. I would suggest letting combat run freely for the most part. Remember, HP does not have to be 'how many hits your character takes'. HP represents all your character's resources for avoiding damage: luck, morale, dodging, being really tough, arcane or divine magical protection. In my campaigns, I assume that players dodge most 'hits' and that they take, and that the first heavy blow is the one that bloodies them.2. I sorta like this one. In any session I've seen you only get about one player knockout per battle, so I don't see it being an issue, and it adds plenty of grit/challenge.3. I strongly suggest that you up the monster damage instead of taking away the players HPs, they don't like having stuff taken away, but the effect is almost the same <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.4. This would make crits weaker and less gritty, but since players score more crits than monsters, I can see how this would make the combats harder. The only problem I can see is that it would make things more grindy. I don't think it would ruin anything though. If you do this, and if you go with (some version of) number 3, then I highly recommend lowering the monsters' HPs as well. This makes things grittier for the monsters, and reduces some of the grind problems with the game at the same time.5. This one would work, and I don't think it would make the adventuring day too short. Go for it.Some people use a wound system to add grit to their games. If a character is bloodied in combat, they get some sort of wound. It doesn't affect them immediately, because of adrenaline, but after combat, they notice the effect (-1 speed from an injured leg, -1 hit from an injured arm, they got and infection and now have a disease...). I would suggest that you make them interesting, but not crippling, and let the players recover completely within a few extended rests. Remember, if you take a character's eye out forever, they will probably just want to make another character.Good luck implementing all of the above into your campaign.</blockquote>

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