Wednesday, July 28, 2010

An system for more realistic damage in Traveller

Well, I've just been reading this article on traumatic damage sort of, well, 'simplified', and the sadistic part of my mind had a cunning plan to utilise it and construct a damage system for Traveller.

While it will be quite bloody and gruesome, making combat even more violent, it may just lead to some amazing stories of heroism, with PCs with shattered bones and massive blood loss somehow clinging to life and pulling through, despite the odds.

It will also lead to a lot more characters being rolled up. :)

Whenever a character has been shot, roll 2d6 to determine where the shot hit (or, even better, get the players to state where they're aiming and adjust the difficulty).

2-4 head
5-6 chest
7-8 abdomen
9-10 limb (1-3 leg, 4-6 arm, 1-3 right, 4-6 left)
11 pelvis
12 neck

After that, just check the damage done and whether the character is wearing any form of armour in that location, then check up to see the what damage level dealt.

1-6 light -2
7-12 medium no modification
13-18 heavy +2
19+ very heavy +4

Now, roll 2d6 + the damage level modification on the following charts to determine the injury dealt to the character (yeah, this system is full of charts, get over it!).

Head
1 and less: Scalp wound. Heavy bleeding
2-5: Cracked jaw. 20% chance victim cannot breath. Light bleeding, unable to close mouth properly.
7-9: Face wound. Several bones damaged, 50% chance extreme haemorrhage, lots of shock, face paralysed.
10-12: Bad scalp wound. Extreme haemorrhage, heavy bleeding.
13+: Skull fracture. Blood leaking from ears/nose/throat, blood in white of eyes, loss of vision in one eye, loss of smell, lose consciousness in 2d6 rounds. 80% chance enter coma, if not almost instantaneous death.

Neck (all 50% chance damage to neck muscles, unable to hold head upright)
1 and less:Brachial Plexis damaged. Numbness and partial paralysis in either left or right arm.
2-3: Stellate Ganglion damaged. Pupils dilated, loss of long vision.
4-6: Jugular wounded. Heavy bleeding and hypolovemic shock.
7-8: Cranial nerves. Unable to shrug shoulders or rotate chin, tongue paralysed, hoarseness, difficulty in swallowing.
9-11: Spinal cord. Paralysis.
12+: Larynx and Trachea. Spitting blood, sucking neck wound, difficulty with breathing, high-pitched, noisy respiration.

Chest
2 and less: Ribs fractured. Difficulty in breathing, making it hard to do any exerting activity.
3-6: Collar bone/shoulder blade damaged. Unable to move arm unless splinted, and a lot of pain with any type of activity.
7-9: Sucking chest wound.
10-12: Tension Pneumothorax. Victim unable to breath, pass out in about fifteen minutes, and will suffocate if not treated.
13+: Heart. Massive blood loss, heart failure. Very quick death.

Abdomen (80% chance localised pain, nausea and reflex vomiting)
2 and less: Stomach muscles. Great pain, almost impossible to do most things without immense amounts of pain.
3-5: Blood vessels. Cuts off supply to leg, making it impossible to stand very soon, and may cause severe swelling in the leg.
6-7: Intestines. After a day or two after receiving the injury, severe pain, fever, vomiting and, if untreated, death in a week.
8-10: Bladder/kidney. 50% chance massive haemorrhage, otherwise long term renal failure, 50% chance fatal.
11+: Spleen/liver. Massive pain in upper abdomen, massive haemorrhage, shock and death very quickly if not treated.

Pelvic wounds
Unable to stand, 50% chance cuts off blood supply to leg, with heavy bleeding and haemorrhage.

Limb

3 and less: Extreme pain, hard to use limb.
4-7: Muscle damage. Very hard to use limb.
8-10: Bone cracked/shattered. Extreme pain, blood loss, Practically impossible to use limb.
11+: Massive haemorrhage.

Notes
Sucking Wounds: Victim will feel short of breath, air visibly sucked in through wound. Low oxygen will cause unconsciousness in ten minutes.

Bleeding and haemorrhage: Usually, if heavy, unconsciousness and death, very faint, suffering penalties to all activities.

















Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Just a note

Just a quick note to say that I revised the d100 background chart to get rid of #92 a slave, as there was already a slave, so I fixed it up to be a demonicist. If you want to know what that is, just have a quick look at the bottom of the post, where I put a footnote.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

A link to my old blog

Just a quick post for now.


Here's a link to my old blog, the database. Basically, it was where I just posted things I created for various rpgs so I wouldn't lose them. Take a look, there might be something good over there.

Well, I might just post something of greater interest at a later point. :)

A decision and other news


Well, because I always start millions of projects and then never follow up on them, I've decided to set myself a minimum of two posts a week on this blog, even if it is about something totally random.

And, on another note, I'm going to be going on holiday to Melbourne soon, just for a few days to catch up with some friends and one of my brothers, so I most probably will be posting even less for a short time.

Well, I'll just sign off with this awesome painting of the Battle of Austerlitz.

Hope you like the painting!!

d100 chart of character backgrounds

I created this table a while ago for a T&T game that I almost ran (i.e we never played it in the end). If you use it for D&D or something, it might require some modification. Hope you enjoy : )

1. A thief
2. A crusader only just returned
3. A member of the Royal Guard
4. A duelist
5. An errant knight
6. A young noble seeking fame, fortune and glory
7. A hardened mercenary
8. A common thug
9. A conman
10. A bounty hunter
11. A pirate
12. A privateer
13. A corsair from some distant land
14. A farmer
15. A merchant
16. A courtier in exile
17. A soldier
18. A sailor
19. A priest
20. A priest of an exotic religion
21. A murderer on the run
22. A spy
23. A healer
24. An veteran of a recent war
25. An assassin
26. A druidic priest
27. A heretic
28. A marine
29. An escaped slave
30. An officer
31. A cavalryman
32. A pick-pocket
33. A professional gambler
34. An executioner
35. A revolutionary
36. A common peasant
37. A miner
38. A poet
39. A musician
40. A fake priest
41. A wandering charlatan
42. A wandering 'law-giver'
43. a hunter
44. a disgraced condottiere
45. a knight
46. an elf-child*
47. a fake prophet
48. a priest of a dying out faith
49. a political exile
50. a psychologically disturbed war veteran
51. A sage
52. a man from the Moon
53. a man from the seas at the end of the world
54. a survivor of a totally destroyed city (like what the Romans did to Carthage)
55. a beggar
56. a tomb robber
57. a member of the Watch
58. a schizophrenic
59. a witch-hunter
60. a lover of an evil witch
61. a member of a cult
62. an escaped soul from the House of Darkness**
63. a barbarian savage
64. a bandit
65. an artist
66. a diplomat
67. a detective
68. a drug addict
69. a depressed alcoholic
70. an explorer
71. a herdsman
72. a fisherman
73. a decadent noble
74. a madman
75. a shaman
76. a scholar
77. a grave digger
78. someone stricken with wanderlust
79. a cartographer
80. a writer
81. a wandering trader
82. an alchemist
83. a juggler
84. a scientist
85. a taxidermist
86. a psychotic who believes is a deity
87. a disgraced or di
88. a wanted criminal
89. a cannibal
90. a nomad
91. a retired general
92. a demonicist***
93. an inn-keeper
94. a racketeer
95. a gatherer of intelligence
96. a viking
97. a messenger
98. an engineer
99. a prince from a conquered principality
00. a visitor from another world

*an elf-child is someone who was raised by elves
**sort of an underworld, the underworld of Akkaddian religion
***demonicist comes from the English verb (seriously, look it up in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, its under demo-) demonamachy, meaning 'to fight demons', so we get, demonicist, 'someone who fights demons'.

A bit on the Grand Universe

Well, I've started working out the details of the Grand Universe. For the main SF elements, I'm drawing inspiration from Shatterzone (a fairly awesome OOP rpg by WEG, the guys who did the Star Wars d6 rpg, which is also incredibly awesome), some elements from the computer games Quake 2, Metroid, and lastly, most of the stuff from Traveller's Third Imperium.

As for the rules, I've been working up on the new Mongoose Traveller.

Now, for the required SF division of the galaxy into several convenient sectors:

The Hub: The Hub is where the interstellar nations mainly rule, from the Consortium of Worlds, safe behind the Shatterzone, to the two greatest of all nations, the Third Imperium, and the Imperium of Man*. The space of the Hub is always filled with merchants and pirates, police ships and the mighty war fleets of the nations, battling in the cold ice of the void.

The Primitive, or 'Victorian', Zone: The Primitive Zone is dominated by the one planet, called Earth, with it's various nations having ventured into space in primitive starships powered by steam. Although the nations of the Zone are weak, the armies are some of the finest, and there is no sight more glorious to see then an army of red-clad soldiers lining up on some forsaken world, bravely facing the charge of a horde of barbarous aliens.

The Medieval Rim: The most primitive of all sectors in the galaxy, the people of the Medieval Rim are made up of a strange assortment of dozens upon dozens of strange creatures, from humanoids like elves to massive dragons. Although travel between the worlds is limited, there are a few exceptions, and occasionally some have traveled to the Hub, and every now and then a lone starship has come under assault from a huge dragon, dwarfing the scout ships of the Hub.

The Unknown: The Unknown is a vast region of unexplored space, filled with hostile aliens and the occasional savage human population. Although it is stated that none from the Hub have ever entered the Unknown, ancient records tell of a united humanity waging war in the unknown against a horrifying opponent, called the Strogg**.

Well, that pretty much wraps up the sectors of space within the Grand Universe!

*The Imperium of Man is from Warhammer 40,000. An incredibly awesome setting, if I do say so myself.

**The Strogg are from the computer game Quake 2 and 4. They are, of course, lurking in the Unknown, gathering their strength for a huge assault on the galaxy.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

And because I can....

A whole bunch of pictures of things that I like, and of other such stuff.









The Begining

Hey!!

Well, I'm Anthony and this is my blog for RPGs, whatever life things I find interesting enough to mention, and other random stuff that pops into my head about music, art, writing, miniatures, war games, etc.

As for the title of the blog, that comes from a setting that is sort of working itself out in my mind. Basically, it is every rpg and miniatures game's setting I want thrown into the one setting, with shatterzone characters leaving their home to go to Traveller's Third Imperium, and then go to the Fighting Fantasy world.

In other words, it is, to my mind at least, the definition of awesome.