Inevitable Janky Random Hit Location Chart Post

The Bright Spans campaign is almost here! So I suppose I ought to get some of the house-rules down that I want to use. 

So, I went back and forth on whether or not I was going to add a critical hit chart, or a Death & Dismemberment chart, or some other random table in this vein that will probably mainly just slow down the game heh. I wasn't going to, but thought "What use are the players going to get out of a Ring of Regeneration if they have all of their bits intact?!" Also, that spell. (The spell even has a sweet picture showing the process in the rulebook.) 

But when to use it. I don't want to be having limbs heaved off at every little confrontation. That would make for a tonal shift to slapstick horror that I think I'll just avoid. For now. Anyhow, I also have been thinking about what to do when the PCs drop below zero, and have some ideas about that. But first:

 

 

1. ground stuff (d2 foot, ankle)  G   dex
   
2. knee                                    O   luck
   
3. thigh                                     B   hps
   
4. groin                                     B   con
   
5. jaw-face                               O   cha  
   

1. skull                                           int
   
2. forehead                                     spell
   
3. face brutality (d4 eyes, eye, nose, mouth) cha
   
4. side-face (d2 jaw, ear)               int
   
5. lower head-face (d2 upper neck, ear) cha
   
   
6. neck                                          death
   
7. neck                                          wis
   
8. shoulder rt                                 wand
   
9. shoulder left                              wand
   
10. hand lead                                   str
    
    
11. chest right                                 hps
    
12. chest left                                   wis
    
13. ribs/plexus                                cha
    
14. side/kidney shot                        stone
    
15. lower ribs                                  hps
    
    
16. guts right                                   stone
    
17. guts left                                     stone
    
18. groin                                          con
    
19. upper hip                                   str
    
20. hand defensive                          dex
    
    
21. bicep                                          str
    
22. elbow                                         wis
    
23. forearm rt                                   spell
    
24. forearm left                                breath
    
25. wrist/hand                                  int                                        
    
    
26. thigh right                                  con
    
27. thigh left                                    int
    
28. knee                                           dex
    
29. calf                                             wis
    
30. ground stuff (d2 foot, ankle)         breath
    

    26. crown of head   G                      death

    27. neck                 I                         luck

    28. shoulder          A                        str

    29. leg?!                N                        dex

    30. both legs?!      T                         con

 

Alright is this thing working now? Wow formatting weird numbering tables is special. Okay. Good first run. I think we can all figure out what the extra blocks are for. What I don't have on there yet is the Sweet Scars that go along with the hit locations. *Note to future self to get on that* 

And note the sweet d30-like table itself. Ahh the king of the dice that d30. Truly magnificent. My first real DM, a few years older than me, running a goofy-ass overpowered game of AD&D with me and another friend had one. It was green with white numbers, and the only thing I remember him using it with was his custom made d30 hit chart. Now, that's nothing ground breaking, but at the time (and obviously to this day) it made a definite impression on me, and so that chart always wants to creep into the games I run and the games I have made. 

 

Death Saves 

exactly 0 hps: gain a Sweet Scar. Save vs. Death or get staggered (probably just stumble about for 1d6 rounds -CON modifier, min 1. Jeez I want to make it "As Confusion spell," but I ain't sure yet.)

-1 to -3 hps: staggered. Save vs. Death or keel over in 1d6+CON rounds.

-4 to -9 hps: Save vs. Death or, well, dead. Otherwise, KO'd 1d6 rounds-CON modifier, min 1, then come-to with 1 hp. 

-10 hps: maybe one day we'll see you at the Plains of Fallen Petals.

🠆 HELMS! if it makes sense at all, take +1 to Saves, ±1 bonus to rounds in the Death Saves above (whichever is beneficial), but you are easier to be flanked; any two assailants from the side or back gain +2 to hit against you.

So that's exciting! Oh wait, it's weird if you know you can get to Felipe Fouchard the fighter and shove some booze or healing salve down his throat right in the nick of time. So, I am thinking, the player rolls and the dice go under the Witch's Cauldron (a rubber cauldron we usually keep spare dice sets piled in) and I look, then reveal! at the appropriate dramatic time! (Like when poor Felipe expires from his wounds since no one had the wherewithal to check on his crazy head-wound or whatnot.) 

 

[I went back and forth quite a bit on whether or not -4 to -9 should be "KO'd, bleeding 1 hp/round." So, obviously at -10 the character would expire. If...if...the rolls are not hidden, I will probably enact that, but for now....] 

And speaking of crazy head-wounds: we'll want to know where the owies are coming from, right? So, that's when the super-nifty hit-chart will be consulted. Then, Patty Piety the cleric will be able to see at a glance that the stuff coming from Felipe's head might just indicate a critical need of divine, or at least first-aidy, assistance. Maybe it will be a pain in my ass, but maybe it will be mildly interesting to find out where the character took their gruesome injury that nearly felled them. Either way, that'll give them something to think about when their characters get to negative hps, and can say "This scar is from that one time...."