The NOT QUITE DEAD YET House Rule

[Nebulous]

This is a tangent from another thread for general discussion...

I have yet to actually implement this in a game, but tell me what you think:

If a blow is going to kill a character, i mean, the dice are rolled, the damage is done, the axe is about to drop, there's no frickin' way out of it...the DM asks the player, "Do you want death, or irrevocable maiming and damage and the chance you'll die anyway?"

This is a good opportunity to house rule events like dismemberment, such as when Vader cut Luke's hand off. Or permanent drops of 4 points Cha and Con as the player is mutilated, and never quite the same again as they hang onto a few threads of life. If nothing else it would be an interesting roleplaying scenario, and something a gaming group would never forget.

"Remember when Huey was crushed under the wheels of the Juggernaut in the Tomb of Horrors? And his legless torso pulled himself away until we could stabilize him? Remember that Huey?"

"Yeah."

 

[ceratitis]

the only problem i see is that taking a hit like a permanent -4 to con is very painful and may create situations in which the player wouldnt want this char anymore. definatly not a rule for new players (or those with weak stomachs )

whats the mechanic behind "the chance you'll die anyway"?
Z

 

[RangerWickett]

I'd say, if I were going to use this rule, that you'd lose some body part or get a nasty scar, and that you'd be reduced to 0 hit points, but it wouldn't directly affect your ability scores. If you lost a hand you wouldn't be able to do as much, and if you got a nasty scar on the face you'd be ugly, but you wouldn't take Con or Charisma penalties.

 

[Rhun]

I've used a rule very similar to this in some of my games. A blow that would normally slay the character outright (reduce him to -10) would allow a Fort save, and if the character made it they would simply be horribly maimed. Loss of hand or something to that effect. No loss of CON or CHA or anything, but something that would require a regenerate or the like to fix.

 

[Space Coyote]

I can see this as being an alternative to dying in low magic campaigns. In my currently campaign, the characters are around level 15, and they just save treasure to buy the 25000gp components for True Res. They would rather die and get True ressed rather than permanently lose ability scores or body parts. :\

 

[Asmor]

You might check out Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying.

It's got something called Fate Points which are basically there because the game is horrendously lethal. Basically, if you're going to die, you can use a fate point and you're saved at the last minute. Maybe you trip and the axe only slices off an ear instead of beheading you.

 

[XCorvis]

I'd say, if I were going to use this rule, that you'd lose some body part or get a nasty scar, and that you'd be reduced to 0 hit points, but it wouldn't directly affect your ability scores. If you lost a hand you wouldn't be able to do as much, and if you got a nasty scar on the face you'd be ugly, but you wouldn't take Con or Charisma penalties.

I'd go the opposite way. If you're dropped by an orc with an axe, and your arm is severely wounded, I'd have you loose 2 pts of strength to model it in a mechanically easy way. There are no rules in D&D for only having one hand, so you'd be making up a lot of them as you go. I also wouldn't want to penalize the player too harshly. If you do that, they'll just choose death over trying to play a character that is signifigantly impaired. I'd say no more than 4 points of total loss, preferablly spread over 2 ability scores. That's enough to make it hurt but still leave the character playable.

You could give the player the option of choosing the nature of the penalty. Loose a limb, loose 4 points of X, loose 2 points from two randomly rolled abilities, etc...

Also, an injury could explain a loss to any abilty score. It wouldn't just have to be CHA and CON.
Muscle damage - strength
Scarring - dexterity
Sickly, loss of endurance - constitution
Mental deficiency (aka "one too many hits with the snake") - intelligence
Shell-shock, skittishness - wisdom
Damaged appearance, lack of confidence - charisma.

 

[Nifft]

IMC, a player can use a Fate Point* to avoid death. Any time a PC would be reduced to negative HP, the player can spend a Fate Point to immediately raise himself to 0 HP (staggered).

-- N

* Fate Points are more like Force Points than Action Points. You keep them as you level up. The players earn them for doing stuff out of game that advances or helps the game, such as writing up a journal entry or making a detailed map.

 

[Ravellion]

I like this rule. I'm probably going to use it in my grim tales game. Any charts on which you could roll to randomize the results somewhat?

 

[catsclaw227]

Someone else in the other thread mentioned the use of Bastion Press' Torn Asunder book here. I kinda like that idea, though I would need to take a look when I get home from work.