Let's lose some body parts.
Once per level (e.g. once at level one, again at level two, and so on) a PC can avoid death by taking a serious wound. Should something reduce a character to a death state, typically 0 HP or lower, the player can elect for their PC to receive a wound instead (provided they haven’t already used this feature at their current level - if they have their character would be killed as normal). To determine the wound, the player will reflect on the damage they have/will receive and will present two different outcomes to the other players and the DM - the best and worst case scenarios of what could happen to the character. In other words, a wound and an even worse wound. For example; a lost finger vs a lost hand, a facial scar vs a lost eye, violent vomiting vs internal bleeding, a few lost teeth vs a broken jaw.
Then the player rolls a d20 under their character’s Wisdom score (or Luck, if you use it), and on success the character receives the lesser wound. On failure, they suffer the greater wound. The DM will adjudicate the specific mechanical effects of the wound from here. Then the PC gains 1d4-2 HP. If 0 or -1 HP is rolled the character is unconscious until aid is administered.
Other Advice:
It is the DM’s responsibility to ensure players do not understate the damage or severity of the wounds they may receive. If a suggested wound feels too minor the DM can elevate it. The DM can do this in a few different ways. For example, the DM can ask the wounded player (or even another player at the table) to make a suggested wound more severe or the DM provide two different elevated versions of a suggested wound that the player must pick between. The serious wound must be something that causes a permanent effect or loss - lost limbs, hands, blindness, loss of senses, scorched lungs, horrific scarring or things more esoteric in the case of magical damage. Have a look at different Death and Dismemberment systems for ideas for wounds and ways to rule them. Try Hackjack and So It Looks Like You're Gonna Die for some wound ideas that range in severity.
Characters don’t ‘bank’ wounds for unused levels. This ability is once per level, not one per level. If a character reaches level 5 without being wounded, they can still only avoid death once - until they reach level 6.
How to determine where the wound hits? The DM should always give some description to attacks and damage dealt during play so that a player has a springboard on which to suggest wounds when the need arises. However, if unsure, the player can use a wound location table, rolling 2d10 and choose between the two results before suggesting their best and worst case scenario wounds for that location.
1d10 Wound Locations
Head
Face or Throat
Arm/s
Hand/s
Upper torso (heart and lungs)
Lower torso (including groin, stomach and other organs)
Back/Spine
Leg/s
Foot/feet
Any skin, flesh, blood, muscle, organ or bone/s.
Some Examples:
For example, the 2nd level fighter, Grongo Beetleweather has been thrown from a cliff and reduced to -9 HP. At first level, he avoided death when bitten by a Lunging-Eel and was lucky to have only lost a toe rather than his whole foot and hasn’t used his 2nd level wound. Grongo’s player suggests that Grongo can either suffer a head-wound that makes him feel vertigo at height or break a leg. The DM asks the player to their right to make the worst case scenario wound worse to which that player says “Umm, two broken legs?”. Grongo’s player rolls a d20 vs their Wisdom and… succeeds! The DM narrates what happens to Grongo Beetleweather and the player rolls a d4-2 to determine their current HP… a 2, 2-2=0. Grongo is unconscious at the bottom of the cliff.
Mistwhistelian the Murmuring is a 3rd level Magic-User. They were injured last session, and now wear an eye-patch. This session, Mistwhistelian has fallen in a pit full of acid. Having already used their wound for this level, Mistwhistelian the Murmuring is melted. How unfortunate.
Glubgub the Toroid-Transporter has been stabbed by a Cloaked Invisi-Zombie and reduced to -1 HP! DEATH?! No, Glubgub is a level 1 Halfling and hasn’t been wounded yet, so wounded he shall be. Shall Glubgub suffer an arcane scar that stings in the presence of the undead or shall the tip of the Invisi-Zombie’s arcane-blade lodge itself in in Glubgub’s breast, never to heal, slowly poisoning him and causing his own slow transformation into an invisi-zombie? How would you adjudicate that?
Author’s thoughts:
Death and Dismemberment systems, grisly as they may be, are something I really want in games but am never satisfied with. I started the year with a Death and Dismemberment system (Hackjack, which was this unwieldy thing) and I’m ending the year with another Death and Dismemberment. Though I'm sure it's not my last, I’m more satisfied with this system few quite a few reasons - it gives the player a bit of control (but not too much), remains tense, it caters for any kind of damage received because it is powered by a player’s imagination rather than tables, it doesn't require a large subsystem to explain or that intrudes on other parts of the game, it doesn't make PCs too hardy (it actually gives an advantage to lower level characters) and only distributes dramatic, cool wounds. I'm sure this method can be expanded on, for example, you might be able to 'recharge' the ability to be wounded by carousing or Dwarves/Barbarians/Orcs might be able to receive two wounds per level rather than one.
Summary:
Once per level, a PC reduced to 0 HP can avoid death by taking a wound.
Propose Wounds: The Wounded character’s player suggests a lesser and a greater wound (e.g., lost finger vs lost hand).
DM’s Role: Escalate understated wound suggestions.
Roll d20: Under Wisdom (or Luck).
Success: Take the lesser wound.
Failure: Take the greater wound.
HP Recovery: Roll 1d4-2. If at 0 or -1 HP, the PC is unconscious until aided.
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