Let’s talk types of harm in various hacks.

Let’s talk types of harm in various hacks.

Let’s talk types of harm in various hacks. What is out there? What do you like? Do different styles have different “feels”?

Standard AW (and Urban Shadows, MotW, etc) use basic “you have X harm, lose Y on a hit”. So does DW except that it grows a bit as you advance and varies by playbook.

Masks, Legacy, and Uncharted Worlds all use a list of named slots/conditions that are marked with each hit.

The ‘Hood uses something in between where an injury takes you Down and the next takes you Out.

Anything else unique out there? What are your favorites? What feels most heroic and what feels most gritty?

21 thoughts on “Let’s talk types of harm in various hacks.”

  2. Conditions are used in Worlds in Peril to great effect, though I think they over complicate it from what I want.

    The Watch uses 3 harm boxes and harm is only against PCs. That’s nice and simple.

  4. Conditions in Worlds in Peril are fun. They feel a little “aspect-y” like Fate, which is a nice little marriage in my opinion.

    I also dig Bootleggers. There’s no harm or HP or any of that; when you get hurt, you roll+Stamina to see if you are the least hurt you could be, the worst hurt you could be, or in between. No marking harm boxes or anything. Just: “Frankie unloads on you with his tommy gun” “Well I’m ducking behind the diner bar, yeah? I was back there when he walked in and when he starts plugging away, I’m ducking for cover.” “Cool, roll it. Least Harm is probably a-okay with a nice bullet-silhouette in the bar. Worst Harm is probably sucking up enough bullets that you’re breathing your own blood and getting dizzy, but not dead yet.” “Jeez, man.”

  5. Blades in the Dark (on the border of PbtA) counts stress, but also injuries in three levels (annoying, -1 die, and -1 effect). The feeling is like being beaten down; you’re not too heroic at the start of Blades.

  6. Aaron Griffin  I’m glad you asked!

    The Watch is in soft beta, written by Andrew Medeiros and Anna Kreider. I’d ping them, but they are busy enjoying gencon.

    It does something really clever! Missions are a different mode from talking and chatting, with special roles assigned. Each combat and the repercussions are decided by one die roll per character involved.

    Maybe you get the roll of Watch Their Backs. Great! Roll. Oh, you got a 10+? Great, you can give a +1 to someone else’s roll.

    You’re on Take Point? Fantastic, roll! Oh, a 6? Hey guess what, the roll from Watch Their Backs sure can help now!

    This results in complications that’re both narrative and system. Monsters and crap are narrative, rather than being statted.

    I like it so much I’m hacking it for my own game. 🙂

  9. Alfred Rudzki I like that. My current hack has a similar mechanic: you have 4 “wound” boxes. When you take a hit you roll minus harm suffered (after armor). 10+ you shrug it off BUT …, 7-9, you take a wound AND …, 6- probably two wounds or a wound and a Serious Injury (-1 ongoing). The Bootleggers harm (which I’m pretty sure I had, but can’t find the PDF) sounds close to The ‘Hood in terms of there being a 1-2-3 KO system

    William Nichols links anywhere to playtest materials?

  10. It hasn’t been published or even playtested, but I have been working on a game that uses ripping pages out of a book whenever a character get’s hurt (as well as other things that are bad for them). When they run out of pages they die. I think pbta or just learning from AW can allow for cool mechanics. I know for the last 200 word rpg challenge somebody (I know who, I’m just not tagging them) used a mechanic for using water as a health meter, drinking an amount whenever you do something dangerous.

  11. I can’t remember which game has it, but I really thought it was cool. When you are harmed you actually flip over the basic moves to a wounded version of it. Also a fan of The Warren where you lose a basic move when you’re injured (any move?) can’t remember exactly.

  12. Cowboy World:

    When you take non-lethal or lethal harm , roll + Body + Modifier.

    Modifiers

    –Explosion or shotgun: +0, lethal

    –Rifle or revolver: +1, lethal

    –Unarmed brawling, falling off a horse: +1, non-lethal.

    –Knife or arrow: +2 lethal.

    Etc

    On 10 +, It is just a scratch or a bruise. You cannot act for a moment.

    On 7-9, you are wounded. Take -1 ongoing to all body rolls untill healed.

    Non lethal harm heals in 30 mins to an hour.

    Lethal harm heals in days to a week.

    On 6-, you are disabled.

    Non lethal harm heals in hours to a day.

    Lethal harm: You are mortally wounded and will probably die.

  17. My character in Monsterhearts felt the most vulnerable – but there are two safety lines you can pull before you finally have to die in each session.

  18. My hack has no limit of hit points. Characters can take minor or severe damage. 1-severe damage can kill but not always depend on the fiction. Also the game is diceless

  19. I think MH is unique in that it’s so easy to get knocked down to zero, but once you’re at zero, you have a couple of very easy escape routes.

  21. I’m quite attached to one aspect of harm from the old abandoned Dead Weight (a John Harper thing I believe? I think I got the name right) hack I saw floating around the AW forums once. In particular, when wounds healed you crossed them out but left them on your character sheet as scars. I think there’s cool potential regarding the permanency of serious wounds there, even if just narratively. It’s an idea I’ll likely try to work into some hacks of my own in the future.

    Now that I think about it, one of the healing options from Legacy hits on a similar idea too.

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