Poll: Realism Modules in Your Game

[Jd Smith1]

It's really not all that realistic. Rifles? yeah, pretty hard to use. Swords? I can still saw you, club you with the hilt, beat you about the back and thighs, when in body-to-body range/grappled. It's no longer common in the SCA, but it's quite doable with 1h swords or 1h mass weapons to get good strong hits while in clutch or locked shields. (Especially since it's now disallowed in most SCA kingdoms to grapple, clutch, or shield-lock.)
The worst bruise I've gotten from melee combat with SCA heavy (Rattan weapon simulators) was a rush into a two-hander, who levered it around me and literally lifted me into him... then repeated the hit while we toppled to the ground.Ran from mid buttock to mid calf.
I'd suggest as well taking a look at the Talhoffer manuscript, Fechtbuch von 1467. It's gruesomely enlightening about how close combat works; reenactors working from it have shown the melee sections to be quite viable as depicted.

I have a copy; I train with medieval weapons in addition to collecting battle-ready copies.
But what I'm referring to in the rule is being attacked body-to-body by a non-Human creature, where you are getting savaged by a creature which is in its preferred engagement range. You're right, the pommel is still available (hence the name),

 

[Nakander]

What additional realism mods do you use? Which ones pushed the limits of cost/benefit?

I hate to plug my own material (that's a lie and I'm sorry), but since I was asked:

I've covered all of these in detail in my game ThreeD10 and tested them a fair bit (though more is needed), but I'll elaborate on details on each here and all the ThreeD10 itch page in the future.

To answer your question though, I've just posted details about the happiness system that I use to try and give meaning for your character to spend money and effort to acquire luxeries that really don't matter in most games.

And while I love great detail and care in my games, I also realize that it is a game and must be fun so it is that which I make my priority.

 

[GMMichael]

Carrying capacity, food rations, and ammunition supplies are not really modular aspects, but integral parts of a greater system that also includes wandering monsters.
. . . Once common consensus said that random encounters are stupid and GMs first decided to only have one encounter per journey (to get on with the prcious story), and eventually no travel encounters at all, the time pressure disappeared, making encumbrance, rations, and ammunition all irrelevant in the process.

If removing wandering encounters made those elements irrelevant, i.e. the game didn't crash after their removal, I'd consider them modules.

I can see food/hunger rules being wrapped up in another module that begins once the food runs out: survival mode.

I hate to plug my own material (that's a lie and I'm sorry), but since I was asked . . .

To answer your question though, I've just posted details about the happiness system that I use to try and give meaning for your character to spend money and effort to acquire luxeries that really don't matter in most games.

It's not a proper plug until you provide a hyperlink.

The happiness rules sound like a mental/stress rules variant. (Sorry, touchy word?) Are characters in ThreeD10 in a constant battle against sadness, like Cthulhu characters against insanity, and Ravenloft characters against, um, rules bloat?

 

[Li Shenron]

I run pretty much average D&D adventures nowadays, meaning that normally I don't add rules modules. Haven't done that since 3e.

Tracking ammunition (not technically a module but implied by the core rules) is something I do in a campaign but basically handwave in one-shot games where my focus is on wrapping up the adventure. However I think I should do it always because it can be a real mitigating factor for ranged combatants. (Note: to assume the PCs can refill their quiver every single day already IS a kind of handwaving, even if you still ask them to mark the used ones)

Encumbrance I always take into account, but only gauge, not calculate exactly.

Environmental effects are interesting big time, why wouldn't I use them? Just not too often or they lose their special feeling.

Fatal falls just because they make sense.

I didn't vote hunger/thirst because I don't think it ever come up, but if appropriate to the circumstances I would apply those as well.

 

[Argyle King]

I think I use most of the things on the list when I can.

In particular, I like active defenses.

 

[Lanefan]

I'd love to know how many people back in the "hardcore" days of OD&D/BECMI/1e were tracking this, or just wrote, "2 wks. iron rations, 20 arrows" and never changed that.

Even just writing 2 wks iron rations or 20 arrows puts one in the frame of mind of thinking / remembering these things are limited resources.

And yes, if the party's away from town for more than ten days or so or - more commonly - suddenly find themselves with an unexpected bunch of hungry mouths to feed for a while due to rescuing prisoners etc. then yes, knowing how much rations each PC started with becomes very important.

Ammo's another one. Note down what you started with (e.g. 20 arrows) and if it seems like you're blasting through them I'll ask how many you've got left or, in extreme cases, simply rule that you've run yourself out. One or two instances of this is all it takes to ensure these things get tracked.

 

[Lanefan]

Of the poll's listed options, I use most of them but some are in quite modified forms.

For example, "death spiral" kinda covers our (relatively more but still not very) realistic healing system, where if you get badly hurt (i.e. go below 0 h.p. but don't die) there's a certain amount of time required before you can be cured up past a very low number (usually between 2 and 6, depending on a locked-in die roll during char-gen) depending on how far down you went.

I don't use active defense rolls. Hunger/thirst and stamina/endurance limits only come into play when the situation warrants it (and hunger/thirst is just a variant on carry-cap and ammo, isn't it - they all fall under managing one's carried gear). I also don't use real-time combat as to do so would require rewriting the whole system, though there's instances e.g. ship-v-ship naval combat (slow) or psionic-v-psionic (very fast) where I'll greatly change the length of a "round" to reflect the speed at which things happen.

 

[uzirath]

I wasn't sure what "real-time combat" meant in this context. My first thought was SCA or something where you literally have the fight. Now I'm thinking it might mean second-by-second combat along the lines of the full tactical combat system in GURPS. If so, I should adjust my poll response.

 

[Nakander]

It's not a proper plug until you provide a hyperlink.

The happiness rules sound like a mental/stress rules variant. (Sorry, touchy word?) Are characters in ThreeD10 in a constant battle against sadness, like Cthulhu characters against insanity, and Ravenloft characters against, um, rules bloat?

Okay, let me see if I did this right. ThreeD10

Don't know how to link. Didn't even know how to quote until last night. I've been out of the loop for awhile.

To answer your questions, I'm not aware of anything quite like it in any other game. Not saying there isn't anything like it, just that I don't know of any, I'm not familiar with the ones you've named. Further details about the system are within another post I did on here called ThreeD10: The Happiness System. Beyond that, I haven't formally added it to the itch site yet. Still a work in progress.

 

[Azuresun]

I'd love to know how many people back in the "hardcore" days of OD&D/BECMI/1e were tracking this, or just wrote, "2 wks. iron rations, 20 arrows" and never changed that.

It's a proud tradition, when you're level 20 and you're saving kingdoms and arm-wrestling gods before breakfast, to be carrying round the same two weeks worth of rations that you started with.

Just in case.