One roll: to hit + damage + death and dismemberment (Star's Prison)

For the Star's Prison, a megadungeon game I want to get going sometime soon.

Inspired by Electric Bastionland's scar table and the following design principle from the 2016 GLOG: 

"Consolidate ruthlessly. Turn two  rolls into one, turn one roll into none.  Turn tables into formulas, turn formulas into static numbers."

 

HP is your ability to not get hurt (as per GLOG).

Rolling damage is therefore the same as rolling to hit (as per Into the Odd).

When your HP dips below 0 into the negative, consult the following table:

-1 HP: Scuffed and bruised (if target was arm: drop what was in your off hand; if leg: drop to your left knee; if torso: stumble backwards; if head: spend the next round coming to your senses)

-2 HP: Scuffed and bruised (if target was arm: drop what was in your main hand; if leg: drop to your right knee; if torso: stumble backwards; if head: spend the next round coming to your senses)

-3 HP: Serious injury (fall to the ground; if target was arm: gain a debilitating injury on your off hand; if leg: the same for your left leg; if torso: same for chest; if head: same for head)

-4 HP: Serious injury (fall to the ground; if target was arm: gain a debilitating injury on your main hand; if leg: the same for your right leg; if torso: same for chest; if head: same for head)

-5 HP: Lethal wound (fall unconscious; if target was arm: gain a lethal injury on your off hand; if leg: the same for your left leg; if torso: same for chest; if head: same for head)

-6 HP: Lethal wound (fall unconscious; if target was arm: gain a lethal injury on your main hand; if leg: the same for your right leg; if torso: same for chest; if head: same for head)

-7 or less: Instant death

Overview of what wound intensities mechanically mean can be found here. TL;DR: All injuries affect encumbrance, serious injuries require special care or cause lasting damage (e.g. fracture healing incorrectly), lethal wounds require special care or they'll lead to death and they always do lasting damage (mangled limb will not heal to its pre-mangled state).

Assumptions:

Most characters will have d6 HP.

Attacks with basic weapons will do d6 damage.

This means only those who are really good at fighting (6hp) will be guaranteed to not get injured in the first exchange of damage (as nothing happens at 0 hp). 

It also means anything that can cause exceptional damage (dragon fire, magical weapons, gonnes, etc.) has a chance to kill any person without appropriate protection outright. 

Simultaneous initiative. Priority is given to things that make sense (e.g. charging an archer that is shooting at you will cause the arrow to loose before you can smack them).

Party uses a caller. So the party as a group decides what they want to do this round and only then does this designated player communicate this plan to the GM.

This means both parties can injure each other at the same time which I like. 

It also speeds up combat even more, because all actions are taken together (including the enemy but, importantly, also including hirelings/pets/familiars). I like combat being impactful, but I don't want it too eat up too much time at the table.

Then, there is fact that this frees up players ro play characters who don't fight. Currently, I often see every class/background get offensive combat options so they aren't left out. But if everyone makes the plan together, especially if they have their own henchmen, a completely non combative character isn't left out of a significant part of the game (which due to it being sped up isn't as big a percentage of table time anymore).

Finally, it also means that combat is in essence no different from the rest of the game. It isn't that I dislike minigames in my ttrpgs on principle, but by framing combat as this situation with different rules you inevitably get these abilities that function differently in combat than they do out of combat which feels messy.

Ideas for protection (e.g. armour)

Wearing armour on the targeted area (e.g. helmet on head) reduces wound intensity by 1 (so -6 HP becomes -4, -3 becomes -1, -1 and -2 are effectively 0).  

For special kinds of damage, special kinds of protection function the same way (e.g. dousing yourself in water to protect against fire).

This gives you effectively a damage threshold (an attack needs to exceed HP with at least 3 damage to hurt that body part) and saves you from instant death against most attacks, but it doesn't affect how quickly you lose HP.

I'm considering having certain kinds of armor impair certain kinds of attacks (gambison impairs piercing, mail impairs cutting, plate impairs both). Impaired attacks would function as they do in Into the Odd (d4 damage instead of d6). 

That way they still help you lose HP more slowly, and it makes it really hard to kill someone fighting in plate, which I think it should be. If you wanna kill someone in full armour, do something more smart than wail on them. 

Ideas for shields

A shield can take the role of protection for any body part, making it a very versatile tool. However, it takes up one hand which now can't be used for anything else, it doesn't stack (so shield + helmet doesn't mean two injury levels of head protection), and it can only cover one body part at a time. Due to simultaneous initiative attacks might strike different bodyparts at the same time, so at least some armour is still recommended. 

Shields are really good, but also less useful the more armour someone wears. This is meant to simulate that. 

If I do the impaired attacks thing, shields cause ranged attacks to be impaired. They are just really good at protecting against missles and shit.

Ideas for 'maneuvers'

Anything combat related intended to cause some effect like grappling, tripping, blinding with sand, etc. is treated like an attack, with damage passing 0 hp resulting in a success (if relevant impact of success can vary based on how much damage goes below 0, e.g. sand in eyes could be blinded for 2 turns if damage done this way gets you to -2 HP).

Hopefully this incentives people to fight dirty against opponents with lots of protection. (As HP still depleted as normal if I go with the armour ideas above. Grapple those armoured opponents or get them to trip and fall. Then you can always shiv them while their on the ground. 

Idea for consolidating even harder

Skorn style Hits and Damage instead of rolling damage would make this even simpler. Take all randomness out of the equation. It is tempting, but I think I like the excitement of the randomness in combat too much. A certain level of randomness is also closer to my real life experience with martial arts.