MGT Only: House rules: Damage complications.

[CosmicGamer]

Not saying I'd use such, but conversations in other threads got me thinking about possible rules for combat and damage and I came up with the following which I thought might be useful to some, even if it is just to spur your thinking of alternatives. I put this under Mongoose since it is the rules I'm most familiar with. I'm most interested in things that work as an addition to the rules without changing the RAW.

Bleeding out
Damage from edged weapons, projectiles, and other such weapons could cause additional blood loss and even lead to death if not tended to.

Bleeding
When one characteristics reaches 0 the victim has taken injuries that will cause 1 point of damage per minute unless they receive attention. First aid, if successfully applied, would be more than sufficient to stop the additional damage but skilled medical care and a task check is not necessary as the lay person could apply pressure, wrap a wound, or otherwise provide the necessary attention.

Serious Bleeding
When two characteristics reach 0, the victim has taken injuries that will cause 1 point of damage per round unless they receive attention. First aid, if successfully applied, would be sufficient to stop the additional damage. A lay person could apply pressure, wrap a wound, or otherwise provide attention with no skill check required, but this just slows the damage to 1 additional point of damage per minute. A GM could rule that a failed first aid task, other than an exceptional failure, slows but doesn’t stop the damage.

Internal Bleeding
Internal bleeding may be caused by a variety of weapons, a fall, or other possible sources. If damage from a single source is double a victims unmodified endurance, they may have internal bleeding which causes 1 point of damage per minute until appropriate medical care is received.

Note that complications may be cumulative such as bleeding and internal bleeding combining for 2 points of damage per minute.

 

[Timerover51]

Not saying I'd use such, but conversations in other threads got me thinking about possible rules for combat and damage and I came up with the following which I thought might be useful to some, even if it is just to spur your thinking of alternatives. I put this under Mongoose since it is the rules I'm most familiar with. I'm most interested in things that work as an addition to the rules without changing the RAW.

Bleeding out
Damage from edged weapons, projectiles, and other such weapons could cause additional blood loss and even lead to death if not tended to.

Bleeding
When one characteristics reaches 0 the victim has taken injuries that will cause 1 point of damage per minute unless they receive attention. First aid, if successfully applied, would be more than sufficient to stop the additional damage but skilled medical care and a task check is not necessary as the lay person could apply pressure, wrap a wound, or otherwise provide the necessary attention.

Serious Bleeding
When two characteristics reach 0, the victim has taken injuries that will cause 1 point of damage per round unless they receive attention. First aid, if successfully applied, would be sufficient to stop the additional damage. A lay person could apply pressure, wrap a wound, or otherwise provide attention with no skill check required, but this just slows the damage to 1 additional point of damage per minute. A GM could rule that a failed first aid task, other than an exceptional failure, slows but doesn’t stop the damage.

Internal Bleeding
Internal bleeding may be caused by a variety of weapons, a fall, or other possible sources. If damage from a single source is double a victims unmodified endurance, they may have internal bleeding which causes 1 point of damage per minute until appropriate medical care is received.

Note that complications may be cumulative such as bleeding and internal bleeding combining for 2 points of damage per minute.

Sounds a bit like Rolemaster combat damage, which is not that bad, just takes some die rolling. It works best on the individual level, with not a large number of persons involved.

 

[McPerth]

TIme ago, when Traveller was just Traveller (what now we call CT to discriminate from other versions, there inexistent), we used some rules appeared in a White Dwarf called On Target for hits. There, aside from damage having multipliers or divisrs acording the body aprt hit, there were some extra damage that could be from bleeding (as yo udescribe, though usually harder), broken bones, amputations, loss of some organs (as an eye), etc..

I liked it because not only combat was more dangerous, but you risked not the death of your carácter (and so, enduring CharGen again and keeping playing(, but having your carácter crippled for some time, something that can be really harder to endure for the player.

Off course, if your gamming style involves mostly combat, you could end up with the hospital full and the ship (or active characters list) empty, so I'm not sure it would be appropiate, but if your want to give your players the sense of combat being truly dangerous and only last ressort (the kind of game we used to play), it makes wonders to keep your players in this way...