Variant Crippling Rules

[Varyon]

This is something I've long considered, but the recent thread, [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Rapid Healing, Recovery, Regeneration and Regrowth, made me think on it again, and I've decided to post it. Consider this a very rough draft. One thing I'm concerned with is that it may make high HT even better... but then again the current rules lend themselves to high HT characters basically being like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, still otherwise functioning with all four limbs crippled ("I'll bite your legs off!").

The basic idea here is to make crippling less of an automatic situation, working more like the Major Wounds, Unconsciousness, and Death rules. For this purpose, each body part (hereafter referred to as a limb for simplicity, but these also largely apply to extremities, eyes, and the spine) that can be crippled is treated as having its own HP, equal to its RAW Crippling Threshold. If otherwise sticking to the RAW, while each such limb's HP is tracked separately, any Injury done to a given limb is also taken by the character, up to a limit of the Crippling Threshold for each limb (once a limb is reduced to 0 HP, further damage doesn't harm the character, only the limb).

Disabling Wound: Any single wound in excess of half the limb's HP is potentially a Disabling Wound - akin to a Major Wound. The character rolls against HT; on a success, the character only suffers Shock, as normal. On a failure, that limb is momentarily Disabled, becoming unusable - this functions just like Crippling, but the character gets an HT roll each round to recover. If the character fails the roll by 5 or more, or on any Critical Failure, the limb instead suffers Temporary Crippling (see below).

Crippling: A limb that goes to 0 HP or lower is at risk of being Crippled. Immediately make an HT roll, and make it again any turn in which the limb is used. Success by 5+ or any Critical Success means you don't need to make further rolls until after that limb is wounded again. Failure means the limb suffers Temporary Crippling (see below); failure by 5+ or any Critical Failure means the body part instead suffers Lasting Crippling (see below). If the limb reaches -1xHP or lower, it suffers a penalty equal to the multiplier (so -1 at -1xHP, -2 at -2xHP, and so forth).

Destruction: A limb that goes to -1xHP or lower risks Permanent Crippling. This is a roll against HT, made at each multiple of -1xHP (-1xHP, -2xHP, etc), just like for death. Failure means Permanent Crippling (optionally, treat a failure by 1 or 2 as Lasting Crippling); failure by 5+ or any Critical Failure means the limb is Destroyed - mangled beyond recovery, severed, burnt to ash, etc, as appropriate for the attack that destroyed it. A limb that goes to -5xHP or lower is automatically Destroyed.


Temporary Crippling: This functions similarly to Unconsciousness. If the limb is above 0 HP (from being healed, having been crippled by failing a Disable roll by 5+, etc), it automatically returns to function after 15 minutes. Above -1xHP, it instead gets a roll against HT every hour, returning to function on a success. At -1xHP and below, it's in bad shape - it gets a single HT roll to recover after one hour, returning to function on a success. On any failure, it instead changes to Lasting Crippling, but medical intervention is easier (you can repair function - reducing recovery time to weeks instead of months - with unmodified First Aid or Surgery+5, rather than unmodified Surgery only).

Lasting Crippling: This functions as normal - the body part is crippled for 1d months. Surgery can shorten this to weeks, as per RAW.

Permanent Crippling: The body part is mostly intact, but is unusable, and won't regain use through natural recovery. It can potentially be repaired, as per RAW.

Destroyed: The body part has been severed, mangled, burnt to ash, or similar. The only way to regain functionality is to outright replace the limb (with a prosthetic, transplant, etc).


Recovering limb HP: The simplest option is that most effects that restore HP - natural recovery, Regeneration, healing spells, etc - work equally on the character and each injured limb. Bandaging should arguably need to be applied to each limb individually (only restoring 1 HP overall to the character, but also 1 HP to each limb), but for simplicity just letting the character receive one bandaging that applies to everything is probably fine.

A more complex option is that recovery is per limb. Natural healing, Regeneration, healing spells, and similar that affect the whole body would probably have a proportional effect - divide maximum limb HP by the character's maximum HP, and multiply any such general healing by this factor. Healing that focuses on a specific injured body part would restore HP to only that body part, but any HP above 0 would also heal the body equally (as any Injury the limb suffered down to 0 also applied to the body as a whole).


So... thoughts?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

T


Disabling Wound: Any single wound in excess of half the limb's HP is potentially a Disabling Wound -
So... thoughts?

The first is to add Face to your list of target areas.

You can already do a Major Wound to the face and it has special effects (-5 to Knockdown and Stunning). A Crippling Wound to the face would probably mean a broken jaw. This has no official effects but would prevent the wounded one from drinking potions and casting Spells with verbal components as well as obvious problems with using Social skills. If alone in the wilderness with no way to make soup it might result in Starvation.

Te second is to wonder if your Disabling Wound Threshold isn't too low. It's only 4HP for someone with 10 HP and has most of the combat effects of the RAW Temporary Crippling that they wouldn't face until 6 hP.

6HP is already pretty easy to inflict and limb crippling is a very strong strategy because of that.

I might move Disabling to full limb HP, Crippling to some higher number and Destroyed to a number beyond that.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The first is to add Face to your list of target areas.

You can already do a Major Wound to the face and it has special effects (-5 to Knockdown and Stunning). A Crippling Wound to the face would probably mean a broken jaw. This has no official effects but would prevent the wounded one from drinking potions and casting Spells with verbal components as well as obvious problems with using Social skills. If alone in the wilderness with no way to make soup it might result in Starvation.

There is the possibility of other hit locations having Crippled effects under this system, yeah. I think Martial Arts has some rules for targeting the Ears (Crippling would cause Hard of Hearing / Deafness, and possibly Klutz or similar), Jaw (Crippling would, as you note, interfere with speaking and eating), and Nose (Crippling would result in No Sense of Smell and interfere markedly with Taste). You could probably adapt the Lasting Wounds optional rules, also from Martial Arts, to make use of this system as well (those also use the Crippling rules). I need to reread the rules for attacking the throat/trachea in Bio Tech - I'm thinking under this system you'd have "crippling" be something more like "When in a situation that would call for heavy breathing - combat, exercise, etc - make an HT roll every second (or maybe every few seconds for less-intense exercise); on a failure you can't get enough air and suffer from Choking until you pass an HT roll to recover." I think the BT rules basically work out to "If you take damage to the trachea above the Crippling Threshold and someone isn't nearby with the gear and skills to quickly intubate, you die," but then a lot of the BT rules are really harsh (like the burn rules, which IIRC are basically "If you suffer a Major Wound from burning prior to TL 5, you die").

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Te second is to wonder if your Disabling Wound Threshold isn't too low. It's only 4HP for someone with 10 HP and has most of the combat effects of the RAW Temporary Crippling that they wouldn't face until 6 hP.

Temporary Crippling typically lasts until the character is more-or-less back up to full HP (it says once the limb is healed, but RAW doesn't really track per-limb damage), while this only lasts as long as Knockdown and Stunning would. Still, as you note, a lot of the combat effects - falling down from a crippled leg/foot, dropping your weapon from a crippled arm/hand, etc - would indeed still be in play. Something to consider, certainly.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I might move Disabling to full limb HP, Crippling to some higher number and Destroyed to a number beyond that.

Giving the limbs higher HP (which would largely have the same effect, although it would mean attacking the limb could cause more damage to the character than normal*) could be an option. Maybe something like being equal to the character's HP for the Leg, 0.7xHP for the Arm, 0.5xHP for the Extremities, and 0.2xHP for the Eye; round all fractions up. For an HP 10 character, this would mean:

Leg: 10 limb HP; 6 HP in one hit to Disable (matching the RAW Crippling Threshold), 10 HP to risk Crippling, 20 HP to risk Permanent Crippling (rather than 12 HP to automatically have Permanent Crippling), automatically Destroyed at 60 HP.

Arm (which I've always felt should be easier to cripple than the leg): 7 limb HP; 4 HP in one hit to Disable (a bit lower than the current Crippling Threshold of 6), 7 HP to risk Crippling, 14 HP to risk Permanent Crippling (rather than 12 HP to automatically have Permanent Crippling), automatically Destroyed at 42 HP.

Extremity (Hand/Foot): 5 limb HP; 3 HP in one hit to Disable (slightly lower than the RAW Crippling Threshold of 4; arguably a bit too close to the Arm for the Hand), 5 HP to risk Crippling, 10 HP to risk Permanent Crippling (rather than 8 HP to automatically have Permanent Crippling), automatically Destroyed at 30 HP.

Eye (don't apply Skull multiplier of x4 when determining Crippling): 2 limb HP; 2 HP in one hit to Disable (equal to the RAW Crippling Threshold), also 2 HP to risk Crippling, 4 HP to risk Permanent Crippling (rather than 4 HP to automatically have Permanent Crippling), automatically Destroyed at 12 HP.

Overall, the Disable threshold is at or slightly below the RAW Crippling Threshold, Crippling is risked at nearly twice the RAW Crippling Threshold, and Permanent Crippling isn't a risk until you go beyond the point where RAW would automatically permanently cripple the character; overall this would make crippling much less likely, making limb attacks into less "I win" buttons, particularly against foes with high effective HT.

*Having attacks to the limb cause only half as much wounding to the body (round up) would be an option to get things more in-line with RAW.

[Pursuivant]

I like the different injury levels, particularly the distinction between "Lasting Injury" and "Permanent Injury." (Since the RAW language for Permanent Crippling Injury is confusing.)

Disabling Wounds should also inflict Partial Injury (from GURPS Martial Arts) on the affected body part. Even if you can quickly regain use of the body part, it's NOT going to be 100%.

You also need to think about how disabling rolls to other hit locations work. In particular, consider how the Brain/Skull and Groin injury mechanics might work. As a guess:

Brain/Skull: A disabling wound where the victim manages to avoid Knockout results in Daze for (20-HT) sec., then roll vs. HT every minute to recover. This represents a "bell-ringing" minor concussion which leaves the victim conscious but mentally impaired.

Groin: A disabling wound to the Groin (or any similar location) should inflict lasting Moderate Pain for (20-(HT +/- High/Low Pain Threshold modifiers)) minutes.

Vitals: A disabling wound where the victim manages to avoid Knockout results in Physical Stun for (20-HT)/2 sec., then roll vs. HT every second to recover. This represents an injury which "knocks the wind out of your lungs" while still leaving your standing. Alternately, it can represent the beginning of a much more serious wound, which gives -1 to HT rolls to avoid death if you're reduced to -HP (e.g., tiny nick in an artery, broken rib which will eventually puncture a lung).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Disabling Wounds should also inflict Partial Injury (from GURPS Martial Arts) on the affected body part. Even if you can quickly regain use of the body part, it's NOT going to be 100%.

I'll need to reread those rules to see how they'd integrate into here, but I probably wouldn't make failing the roll against Disabling have any impact on if those rules come into play.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

You also need to think about how disabling rolls to other hit locations work. In particular, consider how the Brain/Skull and Groin injury mechanics might work.

Honestly, I think I'm largely fine with how Skull, Face, and Vitals hits function - sufficient wounding to cause Shock automatically calls for a roll against Knockdown/Stunning, Major Wound calls for said roll at a sizeable penalty. Groin should probably function like this as well. As for crippling wounds to these locations, I'll need to look back through the Lasting Injuries rules (I think that's the name - where hit locations that have suffered a Major Wound have a risk of resulting in further penalties for a time due to things like broken ribs, concussions, etc) to see how well some of those effects could be integrated into this. We don't want to go too crazy, where basically every hit calls for a table lookup and potentially more rolling to see the nitty-gritty of the physical effects of the hit, of course.


I've also been considering how joint hits should work in this system. Normally these just have a lower Crippling Threshold, but I think what might work better with this system is if we take a page from Face/Vitals hits. Any wound to a joint significant enough to cause a Shock penalty calls a roll against HT to avoid being temporarily Disabled, while one that caused enough Injury to have normally been a potentially Disabling Wound* calls for a roll against HT-5 instead. If the limb is at or below 0 HP after receiving a potentially Disabling Wound to a joint, this HT-5 roll is instead against Crippling.


*If anybody has better ideas for a name for this - that is, basically a "Limb Major Wound" - I'd be more than happy to change it.

[Curmudgeon]

Adding effects for joints seems a bit much to keep track of. Instead, perhaps the nature of a crippling injury could be redefined such that a crippling injury always represents damage that impedes the closest joint. Thus a crippling injury to the left hand is an injury to the left wrist, one to the right foot is to the right ankle, right elbow for right arm, left knee for left leg, to the groin is to the joint between leg and hip, torso primarily to a shoulder, head to the neck and skull to the jaw.

In addition to Shock and Pain, the primary effect of crippling would be to prevent the character being able to apply ST, Striking ST or Lifting ST to any point further away from the torso on that limb than the crippling injury. Thus someone with a crippled hand (wrist) couldn't drag a pen across paper to write with the crippled hand, until it healed.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Adding effects for joints seems a bit much to keep track of.

Targeting joints is already an option as of Martial Arts - it's something like "take an additional -3 to hit, and the target limb/extremity has a lower Crippling Threshold." This is a bit more complicated than that (but "lower Crippling Threshold" isn't really an option for this system, at least not without making things even more complex), but not really much more than are the rules for striking the Vitals with a Crushing Attack (which this functions very similarly to; the complicated bit is the Disabling roll instead being a Crippling roll when at a point where Crippling can come into play, but I don't think that's overly onerous).

Tracking exactly where on the limb the crippling occurred and limiting effects to that point and beyond would likely be more complicated than the above. And honestly, while not entirely realistic, I think the RAW effects of crippling (losing the ability to use that limb/extremity) generally work fine - my issue is more with their automatic nature.

[Pursuivant]

The simplest way to deal with potential complications for joint injuries, beyond lower HP threshold for crippling, is to assign a small penalty to HT rolls to avoid lasting or permanent crippling injury.

Effectively, joint hits are just like regular limb/extremity hits but there are more "moving parts" you can damage.

The same idea would apply to groin, neck, spine, etc. hits if you want to keep things simple. Maybe -1 to HT for any injury, and a further -1 per multiple of damage required to cripple the part.

[VIVIT]

Originally Posted by Varyon

For [purposes of crippling], each body part ... that can be crippled is treated as having its own HP, equal to its RAW Crippling Threshold. If otherwise sticking to the RAW, while each such limb's HP is tracked separately, any Injury done to a given limb is also taken by the character, up to a limit of the Crippling Threshold for each limb (once a limb is reduced to 0 HP, further damage doesn't harm the character, only the limb).

This part is already in RAW as an optional rule (p. B420, box "Optional Rules for Injury", section "Accumulated Wounds"). The only difference is that it conceives injury to a limb as a tally that builds up rather than HP as a resource that is lost. (I actually like to use this tally convention for all injury, but that's another thread.)