FKR combat resolution

I've been dissatisfied with Hit Points for a while. They don't help with immersion, which is one of the priorities of my games. I want to experiment with "qualitative harm", wounds described in more detail and organized in broad categories, with different effects, like these ones from @PanicPillow 's uber-cool blog: https://tabletopcuriositycabinet.blogspot.com/2022/03/ordering-chaos-qualitative-harm-and.html Here's the outline of a FKR combat resolution system inspired by that post and Skerples' old post about medieval armor

When armor PROTECTS, weapon damage scales down one step. When armor is IMPERVIOUS, weapon damage scales down 2 steps. Incurable wounds > lethal wounds > serious wounds > light wounds/bruises > unharmed Leather PROTECTS against slashing weapons like swords or axes Chainmail is IMPERVIOUS to slashing weapons Plate is IMPERVIOUS to slashing and bludgeoning weapons, and PROTECTS against piercing weapons like sword thrusts, daggers and arrows Shields PROTECT against all 3 kinds of damage Improvised weapons cause light wounds Light weapons like arrows from bows and daggers cause serious wounds Medium weapons cause serious wounds if wielded in one hand, lethal wounds if wielded with two Heavy weapons, including crossbows, cause incurable wounds

As explained in Skerples' post, some monsters may have damage immunities so slashing isnt always the worst option. There's also elemental damage and magical damage involved, and magical healing may get rid of incurable wounds. I would suggest putting things in the world that get rid of the nastiest wounds, so that the PCs don't become useless after a while, but still change: for example, if someone loses an arm, they may visit a biomancer to graft a crocodile arm instead.

I suggest using an oracle like Ask the Stars to determine the specific damage, but here are some examples:

Slashing - Light cut on hand, finger, brow, neck, nose, cheeks, parts of ear severed - Serious: cut tendons, eye blinded, deep cut on shoulder, liver cut, deep cut on arm, - Lethal/incurable: jugular/carothid slahed apart, belly opened and spilled guts, arms or legs severed or partly severed

Piercing - Light: hits sternum, glances head, fall on your back - Serious: goes through arm or shoulder, leg, foot or an organ, gouges out an eye - Lethal/incurable: neck pierced through, genitalia pierced through, pierced lung, heart... Bludgeoning: - Light: almost dodged hit on head or liver, limb that parried goes numb for a moment, teeth flying out or bit tongue - Serious: busted foot or knee, shoulder dislocated, broken ribcage or other bone - Lethal/incurable: cracked skull, busted balls

Questioning Morale and Reaction Rolls

I'm writing a d20-or-so table of combat events to spice up old-school combat and it's turning into a table of enemy tactics, which I dig.

It's also making me think about Morale rolls, cause those completely disregard tactics: it's a roll to gauge the troop's emotion. Usually we make a monster flee or surrender when they fail a morale, but what about parlay? 

What about giving PCs gold to let the monsters go, or some other kind of exchange? What about tactical escapes, or fake escapes to lead PCs into traps? what about fake-surrendering to then stab PCs in the back? I think it's not a good thing to exclusively rely on Morale to decide if monsters keep fighting. Sometimes an intelligent monster-leader may choose escape as a tactic.

Morale is what it says on the tin: the troop's conviction that they can reach their objective if they keep fighting. And a Morale system works as long as there are concrete possibilities for the monsters to reach their objective, or if the monster is too dumb to realize that this is not the case.

Also, notice how I talked about "objectives". this is making me question Reaction rolls as well. It would be better to really think about what a negative or positive reaction roll means, or disregard them entirely. A monster wouldn't just attack PCs for no reason, and there are a thousand reasons that a monster would want to attack a PC

1. the power divide is so big PCs pose no risk, a squash-an-ant situation

2. Monster is scared that PCs will harm them, harm someone they care about, or rob them

3. PCs objective conflates with monster's objective

4. Monster wants to rob PCs (<---this is a different objective from just wanting to kill PCs)

5. Monster is in a foul mood

6. Monster is a sadist/masochist

7. Monster mistakes PCs for someone else, an enemy

etc.

See also this post about encounter stakes and this modified reaction table by Patrick Stuart

The Reaction Roll doesn't tell you these things, but they're quite important. As you can see, these motives and objectives may change the course of combat quite a bit. 

You could convincce the dumb ginat you are stronger than they are

You could convince the scared monster that you pose no threat.

You could enter an agreement with someone with an opposed objective than yours.

You could drop your gold and leave if someone wants to rob you.

You could try to pacify an angeredd monster and pffer to help.

etc.

So what I will try to do in the future is to not rely completely on Morale and Reaction rolls for monster tactics and reactions, but I would act as a real monster would act (or as a PC would act) and only use Morale rolls to see if the monster has it in them to keep fighting

and I will question the Reaction Roll: what makes the monster react this way?

Overland Travel for Knave

This post. specifically the part about movement costs, made me reflect on something.

In Knave, a PC can carry items equal to their Constitution Defense, minimum 11, maximum 20. These numbers look like the maximum Movement rate per travelling day (120') and the maximum if the PCs go for a forced march (180') in B/X.

These numbers are also close to B/X's maximum load of 1,600 coins, if we assume 100 coins/slot. 

If we combine these rules with the post on Movement Cost above, plus another common rule of Fatigue taking slot space, we can devise a system where each hex travelled weighs you down with Fatigue, that respects B/X movement rates, simplifying them.

How is this simpler? You won't have to ask who is the slowest in the party. PCs will simply fill their inventory slots each hex until someone claims they can't go on anymore. You won't have to write the movement rate on the character sheet, nor lose time tracking when it's raised or lowered. because all these information will be covered by the inventory.

Rules:

Fatigue cost:

[Terrain type, Example Terrain, Fatigue (per hex, per PC)]

Easy: Roads etc, 2 Fatigue
Average: Clear, Grasslands, Trail, etc., 3 Fatigue
Moderate: Forest, Hills, Desert, etc., 4 Fatigue
Difficult: Mountains, Jungle, Swamp, etc., 6 Fatigue  

Rest:

Every 2h of rest removes 3 Fatigue. All Fatigue is removed after a week spent at a safe haven.

Optional rules:

Mounts:

Mounts can carry a big load, but the Fatigue Cost is multiplied.

[Animal type, Slots, Fatigue modfier]

Camel, 60 slots, x3 Fatigue (x1 in deserts)
Riding horse, 60 slots, x2 Fatigue (Horses suffer 1d6 damage per Fatigue Point after 12)
Draft Horse, 90 slots, x6 Fatigue
War horse, 80 slots, x4 Fatigue
Mule, 40 slots, x2 Fatigue

A human being weighs as much as their Constitution Defense, or 10+HD if it's an NPC.

Vehicles can only travel on roads.

Cart (minimum 2 mules or 1 draft horse ), 90 slots, +20 Fatigue
Wagon (minimum 4 mules or 2 draft horses), 300 slots, +70 Fatigue

Dungeon exploration:

Instead of counting the squares, use an overloaded encounter die, rolled every time the PCs change location, spend time in a location or make noise.
You can increase the chances of an encounter if the PCs are wearing heavy armour or if they're transporting treasure.

Evasion and pursuit:

In chase situations, the PCs can reach or shake the enemy off by taking more Fatigue Points than the enemy's Movement Rate.

Example: An Ogre, with Movement 90', is chasing the party. If they want to shake it off, they'll have to take on 10 Fatigue each, or think of something else. If they take 9 they can lead the Ogre somewhere. If they don't take any, the Ogre will reach them.

A short Rest of 10 minutes has a 1in4 chance of removing 1 Fatigue.

I'm really ctious about your thoughts, please leave a comment.