Wednesday, February 01, 2023

OSR Bleeding

It occurred to me the other day that bleeding could be a factor in OSR games, and that it could change the dynamic of combat in an interesting ways. My first thoughts were:

  • Blunt damage does normal damage.
  • Blade/puncture damage does normal damage + 1HP per combat round, until bandaged. Each would requires separate bandaging.
  • Bandaging takes 1-3 combat rounds

The idea behind this suggestion is not to slide the scale towards realism, but rather to create an ongoing problem that can probably be ignored for a round or two but becoming more important as each round goes by. This would change the thought processes of the player. 

Instead of limiting the mental calculation to "I can take one more hit" during combat, it adds the threat of accumulating damage that "could" outweigh the damage die of the monster.

There are plenty of variations that you might use instead or in addition, such as only bleeding on a crit', or different levels of bleeding.

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