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Made in us
Knight of the Inner Circle






I like RPGs that have hit locations; where players are able aim for a certain location but still haven’t found a system that I feel gives it the justice it should deserve. Millennium end and aces & eights use a target wheel for ranged attacks with some success but feel there could be something better.
Harn and wfrp are a games that also has a target location in combat; rather not aim for the guys neck and hit him in the foot because of the dice roll.

Anyone know of a good system that handles this with some type of realism??; where the dice rolls matter but don’t make the situation silly.

 
   
Made in us
Incorporating Wet-Blending





Houston, TX

Hit location tables generally don't work well because they are too static and don't take into account the huge amount of variable in a combat scene. Generally, this is something that is best handled by a game master ruling based on player input. Generally, a player will want to target a location for a specific reason. If the goal is just to injure /incapacitate as effectively as possible, that is generally handled by the system's combat rules with the GM describing the results. So if the player wants to hack the guy's arm (or whatever) and does well in combat, the GM can describe the injury/wounds/hp/whatever as due to the mangled arm. If the player does poorly, perhaps their overfocus lead to an ineffective attempt.

I strongly dislike most systems that use location charts as it generally just slows down combat and adds nothing useful. Generally, combat should either cause a psycological response (panic/flee/freez/etc.), minor injury, or major injury/death/incapacity.The whole question is whether the application of violence was effective. If the enemy didn't stop, run away, get hurt so as to be less or no threat, the rest is largely immaterial or only situationally important. Systems that tend to get too granular and specific generally become inflexible and ultimately far less believable by tring to be too "realistic" with systems that are inherently abstract. Likewise, those that use crippling hit locations tend to ultimately penalize players, especially when combined with long heal times, if combat is a regular occurrence.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/03/01 14:31:53


-James
 
   
Made in us
Winged Kroot Vulture






I call that a Called Shot. Much like the trope of the baseball player who points out where he will hit the ball to. This is not an easy trick and because of that I require the player to make the normal roll to attack but the chances to hit are smaller because the target is smaller. General attacks are not aiming for a particular place so they don't have the difficulty of a called shot.

I'm back! 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






New Orleans, LA

If you just want the flavor/fluff of the hit location, the Hackmaster 4th edition GMG has a d10,000 chart.

Same location also has to-hit penalties for called shots to each body part.

For actual rules like penalties resulting from a specific hit location.... ugh, pass. I hate that much book keeping.

DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
 
   
Made in us
Knight of the Inner Circle






I actually like the piece meal armor rules that harn uses and trying to figure out how to use it without bogging the game down to much

 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka






WFRP and Dark Heresy use(d) a D100 roll to hit. To determine the location, you reversed the digits of the hit roll (so a 53 to hit becomes 35 for location) and compared that to a chart (replicated on every character sheet). Armour could vary depending on location - a breastplate only armours the torso, a chain shirt armours the torso and arms, etc - and it also means you don't need explicit rules for to-hit penalties for cover - if you hit a location that's blocked by cover, then it either adds to the armour rating or simply blocks the shot entirely. You can do a called shot to a specific location (usually the head) at -20 to hit, and a miss misses the target entirely.

If your game uses different to-hit mechanics, you could just get one of those D12s with body parts instead of numbers and roll that alongside the attack roll.
   
 
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