Wandering Blades Dev Diary: Hit Points & Wounds (Patreon)

I've been thinking a lot about hit points in TTRPGs a lot. One of the things I've loved about the OSR design and play styles are the very different approaches to character "health". "Hit protection" is a term I've encountered a lot, and that's a concept I've taken into Wandering Blades. 

Hit Points

Hit Points (HP) represent a character’s health and vitality. They are a measure of a character or non-player character’s (NPC) ability to avoid or withstand serious injury. A character’s hit points are determined by rolling their class hit die (HD) during character creation. When creating a character, roll their class HD to determine their starting hit points. Each time a character gains a new level, they are able to roll their class HD to increase their hit point maximum.

When a character or NPC takes damage, their hit points are reduced by that amount. At 0 hit points, they are susceptible to wounds, which are serious injuries that can result in death.

Wounds 

If the hit points of a player character (PC) or non-player character (NPC) “Leader” are reduced to 0 (or beyond), they are compromised and will receive wounds. Any damage taken while at 0 hit points result in wounds. The severity of a wound is based on the amount of damage taken. If a character has more than 0 hit points, but they take damage from a single attack that would reduce their HP below 0, the excess damage is counted when determining what wound they receive.

If a combatant receives a wound that they already have or one that does not make narrative sense, they receive the next lowest wound.

Some wounds will also temporarily or permanently reduce a character’s carrying capacity, potentially causing a character to drop equipment. An NPC “follower” is instantly killed when they are reduced to 0 Hit Points and does not receive wounds.

If a character is on death’s door, they will die in a number of rounds equal to their Focus bonus unless they receive medical aid.

As an example, a character's HP is reduced to 0. Now that they are susceptible to taking serious injury, they receive another hit that deals 5 damage to them. On the table I'm designing, this results in a damaged leg or foot, a 1 point reduction in carrying capacity, and the inability to use Agility bonus for Checks or Saves. Speed reduced by half in combat. Unable to run outside of combat.

Now, I understand that this seems dangerous and deadly. That's the point. However, there is a "guard" system (think of parrying in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice) that allows characters to negate incoming attacks all together!

Next week, I'll break down combat in Wandering Blades v.1