Peeling off some rules - what breaks?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by JoelSammallahti

I'm thinking of cutting the rules down in places. I'd like some advice on what repercussions I might have missed. My planned changes:

1. Remove Hit Locations
-Armor only comes in full suits
-Gaps in armor can still be targeted
-Spells & abilities pertaining to crippling, Regrowth etc. must go

Hit locations are a soak for high skill: -2 for limbs, -3 for vitals, -7 to -9 for skull and eyes and such. A result of this is that most of the "surplus" skill levels will go into deceptive attack. That's not a BAD thing per se, but folks will be hit more frequently and so both good guys and bad guys will drop faster.

Armor only coming in full suits is very DnD, and I don't say that in a bad way. It simplifies things quite a bit.

Removing anything (or many things) other than "you do X hit points" might not be terribly flavorful, and may beg the question of why not just play DnD, since even DnD has many "Conditions" from Exhaustion to Grappled to Poisoned that aren't "you have lost HP."

I might be reducto ad absurdum there, taking a leap that isn't warranted, but the ability to target important bits is pretty key.

One interesting way to go would be to have a generic "hit something important" table. -8 or -10 to hit, roll on a table. Then put random special effects on it. Halve DR. Cant use arm to attack. Leg crippled, can't move. Extra damage. Max Damage. Blindness. That gets a lot of the fun of GURPS in there while avoiding analysis paralysis and just having everyone throw a -6 Deceptive Attack all the time (or whatever).

2. Remove Shock Penalties
-High Pain Threshold is now less valuable. Either a) cut its cost down to 5 pts, or b) upgrade it to an immunity to Knockdown rolls

The second one seems cool, but not having the monsters be able to react or be impaired at all by a blow to the [generic hit location] might be not as fun. I do get the desire to not have book-keeping,though.

3. Simplify darkness penalties
-Just a general -3 for poor lighting, and -6 for really dark
-Night Vision over 6 needs to be replaced with something
-Torches, lanterns etc. need to be reworked slightly

I used to be VERY MUCH a fan of graded penalties, bonuses, and effects - see Technical Grappling and the eternally sliding scale.

Now I'm more of a fan of penalty bands, like Action's firearms range bands or the simplified light/dim/dark/dear-God-my toes? stuff you allude to above. This is a very good idea for play speed.

4. Remove FP (this is a big one, but keeping track of FP is too much of a hassle for me)
-Spellcasters and chi-users get some level of Energy Reserve for free
-Recover Energy and other FP-related spells affect ER only
-Fatigue becomes an irritating condition comparable to Mild/Moderate/Severe Pain; maybe just like pain, but with a Move penalty instead of IQ?
-Severe exertion (as determined by the GM) requires a HT roll against becoming Fatigued
-Fatigue attacks become Afflictions that cause the Fatigued condition; need to work out a simple replacement scheme here
-Fit, Unfit, Very Fit, & Very Unfit give modifiers to HT rolls; these are doubled for rolls to resist the Fatigued condition, whether from exertion or Afflictions

What am I missing? What rule is going to bite me in the ass if I implement the house rules above? I'm an experienced GURPS GM, but the Dungeon Fantasy RPG is new to me.

I'm a big fan of Conditions these days, so other than the spell system simply shifting point counting from "general FP" to "Energy Reserve," the concepts you throw down here are valid.

[JoelSammallahti]

Thanks, Doug! I was sort of half-hoping someone would spot major problems. Absent that, I'll likely go ahead with these rules cuts. :)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Hit locations are a soak for high skill: -2 for limbs, -3 for vitals, -7 to -9 for skull and eyes and such. A result of this is that most of the "surplus" skill levels will go into deceptive attack. That's not a BAD thing per se, but folks will be hit more frequently and so both good guys and bad guys will drop faster.

Not really. Most of the time you attack a hit location with the intent of doing more injury, so you'll hit more often for less injury.