Given FFG seem to be returning to the old Only War style wound system, and the currenty narrative wound system is iffy at best, I thought I'd take a stab at making my own narrative wound system. I figured I might as well post it here for feedback, and it might even be useful for someone else's houseruling.

It's worth noting this system is definitely intended to be fairly lethal. I want combat to be over fast, and I want armour to really count. The system takes some inspiration from Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun to some extent.

The actual effects of minor and major wounds are very much non-final, I just wanted to give an idea of the kind of things to be expected. I'll likely simplify Major Wounds a little, I want to minimize how much people need to flip through the rulebook, so memorable rules will help a lot. I intentionally avoided Characteristic Loss, because I'm not a fan of it at all, it just turns Characteristic Advances into a major XP sink.

Anyway, onto the rules. Critique welcomed, feel free to be nasty.

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Your ability to resist damage is measured by your Toughness Bonus (Tb). After reducing damage by your armour value, and applying any other damage modifiers, compare the resulting damage value to your Tb. Toughness Bonus does NOT reduce the amount of damage you take.

· No damage dealt: No effect.

· Equal to or beneath Tb: The attack shakes you, inflicting one point of fatigue.

· Above Tb: The attack deals a Minor Wound

· Above 2xTb: The attack deals a Major Wound

· Above 3xTb: The attack deals a Grievous Wound

· Above 4xTb: The character is killed outright

Example 1 Quentis has a Toughness of 48, meaning his Toughness Bonus (Tb) is 4, and an armour value of 3. He's hit with a lasgun, taking 14 damage. After reducing this damage by his armour, he's left with 11 damage, which exceeds his Tb multiplied by two (8), but is below his Tbx3 (12). This means Quentis suffers a major wound.

Example 2 Tanda has a Toughness of 35, meaning her Tb is 3, and she has an armour value of 4. She's hit by a particularly nasty sniper rifle shot, dealing 19 damage. After reducing this damage by her armour, the attack deals 15 damage. This attack well exceeds Tanda's Tbx4, meaning she's killed outright.

The Wound Track

Often it’s not one powerful, lethal hit that takes down a character, but a succession of lesser wounds that eventually lead to the body giving up. This is represented by the Wound Track. The Wound Track has six boxes. When a Minor Wound is received, fill in one box. When a Major Wound is received, fill in two boxes. When a Grievous Wound is received, fill in three boxes. As soon as every box is filled in, the character is rendered Unconscious. Any further wounding hits sustained while a character is Unconscious result in death.

Example Beckett has already sustained a Grievous Wound, worth three boxes on the Wound Track. In the next round, he suffers a Minor Wound, worth one box, and a Major Wound, worth two boxes. Because of this, he’s filled in all six boxes on the wound track, meaning he’s rendered Unconscious. Any further wounding hits will kill him instantly!

Righteous Fury

When rolling damage for a successful hit, if any die rolled results in a natural 10, the hit inflicts a particular brutal blow and triggers righteous fury. Righteous Fury upgrades the status of the wound inflicted by one step. Fatigue damage becomes a Minor Wound, a Minor Wound becomes a Major Wound, a Major Wound becomes a Grievous Wound, and a Grievous Wound becomes an instant death result. If the damage doesn’t manage to exceed the target’s armour value, a point of fatigue damage is still dealt.

Minor Wounds

While Minor Wounds may be called minor, they’re by no means negligible. Depending on the damage type, apply the following effects.

· Energy: Make an Agility test. If failed, gain Burning (DoF), to a maximum of five.

· Impact: Make a Strength test. If failed, the location hit gains the Crippled condition for 1d5 rounds.

· Rending: Make a Toughness test. If failed, gain Bleeding (DoF) to a maximum of five.

Major Wounds

Major Wounds are often debilitating, severely impacting a character’s ability to perform in combat. When dealt a major wound, the suffering character makes a Hard (-10) Characteristic Test, with the characteristic decided by the location hit.

· Head - Willpower

Success: Dazed for 5-TB rounds, to a minimum of 1 round. 1d5 Perception Decay.

Failure: Stunned for a number of rounds equal to the Degrees of Failure on the test, and dazed for one round after recovery. 1d10 Perception Decay.

· Leg - Agility

Success: Knocked Prone. 1d5 Agility Decay.

Failure: Knocked Prone and Slowed for a number of rounds equal to the Degrees of Failure on the test. 1d10 Agility Decay.

· Arm - Strength

Success: Drop anything held in the limb, scattering 1d5-1 metres. 1d5 WS+BS Decay.

Failure: Drop anything held in the limb, scattering 1d5-1 metres. Limb is Crippled for 1d5+2 rounds. 1d10 WS+BS Decay.

· Torso - Toughness

Success: 2 fatigue. 1d5 Toughness Decay.

Failure: Weakened (1) until end of encounter. 2 fatigue. 1d10 Toughness decay

Additionally, an extra effect is applied based on damage type. If the attack was an Energy attack, the character suffers from Burning (1d5). If the attack was a Rending attack, he suffers Bleeding (1d5). If the attack was an Impact attack, he suffers Weakened (1), lasting until the end of the encounter.

Grievous Wounds

Grievous Wounds are particularly vicious, often leading to death. A Grievous Wound always leads to the loss of a body part.

· Head - Lost Eye condition. Dazed for 1d5+2 rounds.

· Leg - Lost Foot or Leg condition. Instantly knocked prone.

· Arm - Lost Hand or Arm condition. Any items held in the limb lost are dropped to the floor, scattering 1d5-1 metres.

· Torso - Lost Internal Organ condition. Weakened (2), removed at the end of the encounter.

As well, Grievous Wounds can easily lead to shock. When suffering a Grievous Wound, the suffering character makes a Very Hard (-20) Toughness Test. If this is failed, the character is Stunned for a number of rounds equal to the Degrees of Failure on the test. If DoF exceed four, the character is knocked unconscious for the remainder of the encounter.

You've been reading my blog, haven't you?

I like where you've gone with this. It's very, very similar to the Inquisitor Injury mechanic.

I'll start at the top and work my way down...

The Wound Track

"Any further wounding hits sustained while a character is Unconscious results in death."

There is something about this that seems flat. You could end up with a dozen unconscious individuals lying about, and no one dead. Then, once the dust settles, you have people walking around one-pooping people in the forehead or slitting throats to make sure the job is done...seems comical. Gruesomely comical. And attacking an unconscious target is low priority compared to conscious and hostile. Did you intend this for subduing purposes? I think a talent or specialized attack action would be better for subduing than would the results of a combat intended to be lethal. 5 boxes allows for a very quick death, but seems too quick. Maybe go with 7, and do away with away with the Unconscious bit? I've essentially done the same thing with tracking boxes, but each Injury stacks- using your terminology: if I take a Minor Wound and then another Minor Wound, the second Minor Wound is a Major Wound, not Minor. If I then take a Grievous Wound (by your six box track) I'm dead. That is just a bit too fast and exactly why I recommend extra multipliers (see below)

Righteous Fury

I've recently sided with others on the forum who have suggested RF be tied with the attack roll. Rather than rolling a 10 on the Damage die, maybe you roll 01-09 on the to-hit die? Hm, no, because you have situations where modifiers reduce your chances to being RF results, and that seems wonky. Maybe doubles results on the to-hit die that are under the TN? Though that drastically reduces the chances of RF and will vary wildly depending on individual situations. My recommendation on handling the Damage of RF would be to let it do what it's always done, and that's add to the Damage total. This leads back to your Damage resistance modifiers- I recommend adding two more layers: 5xTB and 6xTB. The first thing this does is make room for gargantuan creatures and things like Space Marines and Mega-Nobs. Since TB no longer mitigates Damage (which I like) you may consider boosting Armour values by +2 or +3 (+2 seems better, and is what we've been doing in my games for long, long while now). The second thing that adding the extra multipliers will do is allow the wound progression to spread just a bit for varying effects- you'll have everyone walking around looking like wound twins before they drop.

Wounds and their Effects

I've tied Damage Type more to healing than wound effects, and actually expanded the Types which affects Tests made to treat Injuries, but that's not important here other than to say I feel Weapon Special Quality is more appropriate for the Damage effects than the Type. Your Damage effects are to the point, which I like, but too lethal for my personal tastes. I'm also thinking about my Players...do they really need to have a stable of two or three characters in their folder at any given time? Do I, as a GM, want to integrate new characters that often? Plus, again, everyone looks the same when wounded: "Missing a Leg and an eye are you, Oran? Me, too. Oh yes, yes. We can both play pirate."

I'm not knocking your proposal at all. Or making fun of it. Just pointing out some glaring (to me) constraints. Here's the blog page with my idea on this (first draft, about seven minutes thought and twenty minutes typing and needs an edit and balancing), but you'll see the similarities.

http://chroniclesofthe41stmillennium.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-lethal-proposal-for-injuries.html

It is impossible for a modifier to change the result of a native roll in this system.

It is impossible for a modifier to change the result of a native roll in this system.

Might you elaborate? I do not understand the context of your statement.

If you are rolling for damage, and you can only get RF on a native roll of 10 (native roll being the physical roll of the dice), then the chances that you will get RF on a damage roll is 10%. Always.

If you are instead rolling for RF on the attack roll with 1-10 as the goal, and not on the damage roll, then your chance to get RF is 10% (100/10=10). If your goal for hitting at all was 50 in a situation where your BS is 30, modified by a +20, then your chance to get RF doesn't change. It stays at 10% because the physical dice roll hasn't changed. This is always true whether you want to roll under 10 to hit or whether you want to roll under 250 to hit.

I think the important thing to consider with the whole unconsciousness thing is characters will very likely be bleeding or on fire by the point they hit six boxes, meaning death would soon be knocking at their door if they don't receive immediate attention. I considered adding Bleeding to the unconsciousness to emphasise this, but it might be worth just making death outright like you've suggested. I'll have to give it some thought.

As for boosting the number of injury types, I can definitely see the merit in it, especially when larger creatures come into play, but I'm wary of it. I'd like to have a system where page-flipping is minimal, and where the wound effects can easily be summarised in a page or two. That becomes a little tricky when the number of injuries that need to be accounted for increase. As it stands, I'm probably likely to keep the amount as is, but I might end up diversifying the individual effects a little via random rolls, e.g. headshots that randomly roll to determine which sense is damaged, etc.

In terms of wound effects being particularly deadly, it's very much an intentional thing. I like my games lethal, and I want going into combat without armour to be a fairly risky prospect, something which results in the conflict being over in a matter of seconds. Like I said, I do agree on the wound diversity front though, so I'm going to be looking into ways to fix that.

As for Righteous Fury, I don't see too much merit in changing which roll determines it, sticking with the d10 damage roll is fairly quick and easy, and works pretty well for my needs. Plus, relocating it to the To Hit roll doesn't seem to change much as far as I can tell. In terms of changing the effect, I kind of like it as is, it makes it very easy from a design standpoint to evaluate what weapons can and can't do in terms of wound effects and instant death.

I'll definitely give your rules a look, I'm sure there's something I can scavenge from them, the quick glance I took made them seem fairly solid.

Regarding larger monsters, I was thinking a way to handle scaling could be to simply give them a Trait which boosts their number of boxes on the Wound Track, but that seems a little lazy. I'll have to give it some thought.

Now this is actually a much better system than the one presented in the Beta. So you got likes from me Tom.

If you are rolling for damage, and you can only get RF on a native roll of 10 (native roll being the physical roll of the dice), then the chances that you will get RF on a damage roll is 10%. Always.

If you are instead rolling for RF on the attack roll with 1-10 as the goal, and not on the damage roll, then your chance to get RF is 10% (100/10=10). If your goal for hitting at all was 50 in a situation where your BS is 30, modified by a +20, then your chance to get RF doesn't change. It stays at 10% because the physical dice roll hasn't changed. This is always true whether you want to roll under 10 to hit or whether you want to roll under 250 to hit.

And if the penalties to hit reduced my percentage to 7% then I would have a poor chance of hitting (7%) and only 7% to cause RF, which doesn't really make logical sense, and it certainly does mean it is possible to change the chances...to a lesser % no less. My chances to hit at all drop significantly, but my chances to cause RF only drop marginally? And I suddenly go from a 40% spread of doing normal Damage to 0%? I don't like it. Tying RF to a to-hit roll of 1-10 is a bad idea. It will happen less often when your Test is heavily penalized.

I agree that it's a bad idea. RF on damage is good enough.

This is definitely interesting. I'm trying to do something similar as well, but keeping wounds. 40k doesn't feel like 40k if it doesn't have wounds.

Also, I figure it might be worth explaining the rationale behind some of this.

The main point of ditching tables and making everything a set result is that it means it's much easier to make tactical decisions when it comes to what weapon type to use, and where to target. Reduce an enemy's ability to actually hit you effectively? Go for their arms. Knock them down and remove their ability to get around properly? Legs it is. Knock out their senses and leave them totally disoriented? Headshots are the way to go. Torso shots are basically the go-to for taking out an enemy reliably and debilitating them overall, instead of in specific ways.

I want weapon type to encourage similar choices, I just need to change up individual wound effects a bit to better reflect what I'm trying to achieve. I like weapon type and location targeting being a very deliberate choice with significantly different outcomes depending on what you choose to use.

Alright, I revisited the actual wound results, and threw them into some tables for the sake of easy use. These easily fit onto one page, which is handy. Screenshotted because table formatting on these forums isn't a thing as far as I know.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FRmyjWmKWaNBkE9ohjIe_3bh_YPhlYKsBgJhT1k8U68/edit

Google Docs link for those who want to copypaste. Thoughts?

Grievous wounds should also have a burning, weakening and blood loss effect, similar to major wounds, but to a stronger degree.

I do miss the risk of permanent characteristic losses - could be intergated into grievous wounds somehow. I love the risk of such losses, as they actually really hurt players. That makes combat more exciting and players considering a tough fight much more.

Besides this - a quite good concept!

Nah, I've very intentionally avoided permanent characteristic loss, in my opinion it very much turns characteristic advances into an XP sink, and Dark Heresy has enough of those as is. But, if you like it, it'd be easy to add, and you're welcome to if you have any intention of using these rules.

As for greivous wounds dealing burning and bleeding, they probably should from a logical standpoint, yeah, I'll likely add it in.

It is not only an experience drain - it has the additional effect of lowering the achievable maximum.

Therefore, I see it as an important (and interesting) effect to outbalance the cheap and more numerous advances.

I'd rather just cut the amount of advances you can get than create an XP sink in the form of recouping characteristic losses. Just my opinion though, I can see the merit of the system as is.

I'd rather just cut the amount of advances you can get than create an XP sink in the form of recouping characteristic losses. Just my opinion though, I can see the merit of the system as is.

Getting advances is already an XP sink as your core 3 stats are something your going to improving forever regardless of whatever else you are doing. When you give out something that is literally 'you get better at everything', the player is going to buy it every rank, every time unless it is extremely expensive such that its better to justify buying lots of little things.

Your system sounds like it is just doing wounds all over again with status effects. I like wounds but you can just call them wounds.

TBX4 = wounds, Damage form guns is your pen value and the actual damage is damage after Pen / TB, get remainder. Guns will do mostly 1-2 damage outside of big hits. Thats messy for not a huge lot of gain.

Removing characteristic loss doesn't change the amount of xp you can spend on characteristic advances.

You can only ever get ten advances as it is anyway (one per rank). You could change this to be infinite advances up to a cap, but then you're no longer talking about just a wound system, you're talking about an extensive re-write of the rules (because changing the characteristic advance rules may have flow-on effects), which is, incidentally, what FFG is doing.