So a few disclaimers. I've been GMing this system for a while now and have never been satisfied with the way the wound system functions. My group and I have felt that the system in place is lacking in two areas for us: it makes it feel rocket-taggy to have players simply go unconscious upon surpassing the wound threshold (WT) and it is too difficult to kill off players, taking the edge off of combat by removing the lethality. I came up with the following system to fix both of these areas.

Some notes first:

- Wounds and soak work in the same fashion but the revised house rules will make the system more lethal and perhaps make combat more dynamic. Crits received prior to the WT function as normal.

Core Ideas:

- The WT is now a measurement of the body's capability to withstand injury rather than to simply remain conscious. The mechanic functions around the idea of WT tiers and the new Rally mechanic (still working on a better name)

- WT tiers are the physical values of the character's WT at different multiples of x1, x2, x3, etc. This means that if a character, Bob, has a WT of 12, his WT tiers are 12, 24, 36, etc. Once a WT Tier 1 is passed (for Bob, once he hits 13 or greater wounds) the target receives a Critical Injury (Crit) any time he takes any physical damage including this round of damage. Based on the tier, the crit received gains bonuses. Crits received in tier I have no bonuses (other than bonuses from crits previously received[+10], weapons with the Vicious quality, and from the Lethal Blows talent or similar), Tier II crits have +30 to the roll, Tier III crits have +60 to the roll, etc. These bonuses due to the WT Tier are still being play-tested, but I like the values for now. Additionally, for the first time he passes a WT Tier in an encounter, he must make a Rally check after damage has been applied and the crit has been applied.

- The Rally check involves either a Discipline or Resilience check, representing either physical or mental fortitude. The difficulty of this roll is determined by 1) the difficulty of the most severe injury the target has received and 2) the current WT Tier the target is in. WT Tier 1 upgrades this check twice, WT Tier 2 upgrades this check three times, WT Tier 3 upgrades this check four times, etc. The results of this check determine several things. Success / Failure determines if the target remains conscious. Advantage / Threat can be spent to give the target temporary Boost die to their next action (representing a second wind) or to give the target Setback die that last for the encounter (representing a chronic injury). They additionally can be spent to regain or lose Strain depending on results. Triumph can be spent to ignore the effects of the next crit (it is still on the target, the target is simply not subject to its listed effect) while Despair is spent to put the Bleeding Out crit on the target. The Rally check helps to create more dynamic play centered around the WT Tiers.

Notes from Play-Testing:

- System leads to many more crits, making the system much more lethal.

- Weapons with the Vicious quality can only apply the bonus if the weapon is able to generate a crit by spending Advantage rather than through receiving a crit due to the WT Tier.

- Rally check only happens the first time you pass the WT Tier. After having stimpacs reduce the current wounds below the threshold, we decided to have Rally be of more impact by happening once rather than yo-yoing back and forth around the WT Tier value.

- Characters typically do not make it to WT Tier 4, going unconscious or dying in WT Tier 3 early or WT Tier 2 late, though the party tank did make it close to WT Tier 4 before perishing.

- Still trying to find a way to revamp Strain, but RAW seems to work for now.

Give me thoughts and suggestions!

Couldn't you simply just give your NPCs a healthy amount of Vicious/Lethal Blows/both, as well as a good skill/characteristic ratio to hit?

I feel like the system is pretty lethal as it is, especially when taking into consideration the Dev answers to questions, such as the fact that you are within your rights to say an incapacitated character takes automatic crits when hit, or skips crit injuries entirely and immediately dies upon taking further damage. For instance, if you manage to incapacitate the entire party, they are at the mercy of their captors, whether that means prison, torture or outright execution.

It doesn't take much to simply give your NPC's +30 or +40 to their crits and then just go to town. Protect them with a squad of minions and while their underlings are being slowly picked off, the big bad starts blasting off your party's limbs, etc...

This system you've devised adds so much more rules explanations than what you need, IMO. The situation you have can be handled by customizing your NPCs and throwing in some Lethal Blows/Vicious and some low crit rating weaponry.

I generally agree with GroggyGolem. I don't have a problem in the base rules keeping my players threatened with plenty of crits. The only change from the base rules that I use (regarding wounds anyway) is that death occurs at -WT (barring destiny with immediate medical attention).

How does this system work with Minions, Rivals, and Nemeses?

@GroggyGolem So mostly the system just works to make it less rocket-taggy in combination with the lethality thing. I personally prefer more dice rolls to less as I love the dynamic nature the dice produce and wanted this to translate into remaining conscious in a firefight rather than simply dropping.

@Edgookin I like the idea of using Destiny Points in conjunction with the system I made, but I'm not sure of a good way to do it.

@awayputurwpn So minions still work the same way as RAW. Rivals take crits in a manner similar to the system above but with a +30 to +50 to the roll depending on the toughness of the rival and how quick I think they should be going down. Nemeses work per this system as a PC would.

Hmm...at the outset, it seems like combat would take way too long. I've found that one of the reasons that combat can feel like "rocket tag" (be it space combat or personal-scale combat) is that people are either ignoring that a combat round can be around (or even over) a minute in length, or eschewing narrative in favor of describing things completely in the mechanical.

In your playtesting, how many rounds would you say that your combats last, on average, when using this homebrew system?

If you want your combats to last longer you may want to simply consider adjusting the way armor works.

Increase the soak from armor and reduce the soak from brawn to 1/2 (to prevent meatheads from being unstoppable) and you should be able to achieve the same effect.