Making combat less lethal.

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

The simultaneity of death and unconsciousness, perhaps only separated by 1 more hit, is its own question, but one I think is worth working on.

I like playing with ideas.

Sounds like you are suggesting a wider margin. Unconscious at 0 is very narrow. I am fine with that since I like TFT for simplifying combat and allows fast tactical combat. But has some good complexities.

A wider range for unconsciousness without medical intervention does make for more roleplaying opportunities, if done right. This may be worth adding a bit more complexity.

As it is, for every point of fatigue past 0, I see someone recovering from at 1 ST per 15 minutes. That is not a bad model and some say you get an hour to recover from dead, so up to -4 ST from fatigue looks to be a natural line to copy.

So, let's say anything from ST 0 to ST -4 is the unconscious zone. At -5 you have an hour to restore them to the uncon zone. At -ST, there is no recovery.

The question then becomes with damage (not fatigue), what happens to the ST -4 hero without medical intervention? Healing by itself happens 1 ST per 2 days. Hero steps on a trap in a secluded area and goes to ST -4. Provided nothing else comes along to finish him off, we cannot be saying he will be healing without some for of care, food and water. At least not for 8 days.

May I suggest: if ST 0, then may heal on own in 2 days to ST 1. If ST -1 through -4, then will at least need some one to feed and give water, otherwise he/she will die in 2 days.

That gives the victim a 2 day margin with no friends, and upto an 8 day margin with unskilled friends. Of course a Master Physicker can bring a ST -7 back to ST -4 and leave them in the loving hands of their companions until he comes to in 8 days.

This should help with players losing a favorite character due to ST -1 and give them a role in returning the injured unconscious person to safety.