Alternate Section 4.72, Objective Damage System ----------------------------------------------- Date: January 1994 By: Reimer Behrends, Unlike the original system, damage is determined by a damage roll. This adds complexity but results in a wider range of possibilities while still retaining realism. Damage is still based upon the deadliness of a weapon, the protection offered by armour and any difference in scale and skill. The deadliness of a weapon is rated on the usual scale of Terrible..Fair..Superb (or -3..+3 in numbers). A dagger might be of Fair deadliness, while a heavy crossbow would of Superb deadliness. More Examples: Terrible: Brawling skill at Poor or less. Poor: Brawling skill at Mediocre..Good, Martial Arts skill at Poor or less. Mediocre: Brawling skill at Great or better, Martial Arts skill at Mediocre..Good, improvised weapons like broken bottles, chair legs, etc. Fair: Daggers, Knifes, Martial Arts skill at Great or better. Good: Short swords, Clubs, Bows, Handguns. Great: Broadswords, Longbows, Light Crossbows, Light Rifles. Superb: Twohanders, Heavy Crossbows. Muscle-powered weapons get the wielder's strength added in the following way: Total deadliness = (2*weapon deadliness + strength)/3, rounded to the nearest integer. This number should be computed in advance to speed up combat. Ranged weapons of course are unaffected by any strength attribute (although a minimum strength might be necessary to use them effectively). Armour ranges from -1..-5, depending on how good it protects. Examples: 0: No armour except normal clothing. -1: Textile Armour. -2: Leather Armour. -3: Light Metal Armour (e.g. chainmail). -4: Medium Metal Armour (e.g. platemail). -5: Heavy Metal Armour (e.g. a knight's armour). 4.721 Determining Damage for Melee Combat ------------------------------------------ Compute the damage level as 5 + weapon deadliness + armour + scale difference. Roll as many twelve-sided dice as you won the opposed action by, up to a maximum of five. The damage now depends on how many dice showed a result equal to or less than the damage level: 0: Scratched. 1: Hurt. 2: Very Hurt. 3: Incapacitated. 4: Near Death. 5: Dead. Note that a 1 will always be counted as less than or equal and a 12 as higher than the damage level. This is only important if the damage level falls below 1 or is greater than 11. Example: Joe (Short sword, Great Strength) hits Ed (equipped with chainmail). He wins the opposed action by three points. Weapon deadliness is (2*1+2)/3 = +1. Chainmail protects at -2, thus the damage level is 5 + 1 - 2 = 4. Joe rolls 9, 2, 4 on his three dice, rendering Ed Very Hurt. 4.722 Determinining Damage for Ranged Combat --------------------------------------------- If there is no opposed action, determine damage as for melee combat, except that the number of dice you roll is 2 + amount you succeeded by (again up to a maximum of five). If the victim gets a defense roll, choose either the above number of dice or the amount you won the opposed action by, whichever is less. 4.723 Determining Damage Outside Combat ---------------------------------------- The GM determines how dangerous something is (number of 1..11) and rolls as many dice as she deems necessary. The result then is interpreted as for melee combat. 4.724 Accumulated Damage ------------------------- If a character has received multiple scratches (the exact number is up to the GM, a value of about three sounds reasonable), he will be Hurt. Again, if a character is Hurt more than once, this might render him Very Hurt. And a character that has been Very Hurt multiple times will become Incapacitated. It is possible to use the same interpretation of the Damage Capacity attribute as in the original system. However, simulation suggests that different levels of Damage Capacity are of far less importance than differences in skill.