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Knaves Death & Dismemberment, Improved

In Knaves, fancypants, I included a Death & Dismemberment table. In play, however, I haven't much liked it. So, here's what I think might be a more fun version of same:

When a character reaches 0 hit points or fewer, roll 1d6 and 1d4.

  • The d6 determines which attribute is affected.
  • Subtract the 1d4 from the attribute affected. 
  • If this drops the affected attribute to 10/0, you are dead. Roll a new weirdo.
  • If not, you have an injury that takes up one Item Slot. 
  • The player, in consultation with the referee, gets to make up what the injury is. Could be you lost a leg, or developed a phobia, or picked up the clap.
  • Attribute points lost can be recuperated via advancement, or, if your ref is generous, through other means (you get a clever prosthetic, say, or the Ogre Pope blesses you), but you never get that Item Slot back. The old wound will weigh on you, always.
  • If you want higher lethality, increase the d4 to a d6. 
This is simpler and easily remembered. It's more fatal (the old table made it pretty hard to actually snuff it). But the effect I really hope this has is to make a player care more about the wounded character. The old table just made your character crappier, and I could see players lose interest in the characters after they had been injured. With this table, I hope, there is a feeling of elation in rolling low enough on the d4 that it didn't kill you outright. And I like giving the players a chance to decide how their characters are injured. Although we'll see if this results in a preponderance of dramatically sexy scars across one eye.

Damn these hideous, sexy scars.






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