The "Challenges 20" expanded combat table

I've come across mention of Tom Moldvay's Challenges Game System a couple of times lately. Essentially it was an ultra compact summary of the AD&D ruleset with a few unique tweaks. Of particular interest, whilst the combat system was more or less standard D&D roll against AC, it featured extra results based on the degree of success or failure. This can result in extra hit point damage inflicted, varying wound states which result in penalties until healed, partial damage for near misses, or even lost initiative or missed actions depending on how much the required to-hit total is made or missed by. My two favourite RPG's are B/X D&D and Rolemaster so yeah, colour me interested.

Last week there was a couple of entries about the Challenges combat system at Lost Pages, where Paolo put the results for degrees of success and failure into table form, and this weekend Jeff Rients also had a crack at it too.

One thing that immediately stood out to me on looking at Paolo's tables was that this system would work really well alongside Delta's Target 20 algorithm - because it uses a static target number (20!) to determine a successful hit, degrees of success and failure could also be mapped to specific attack totals. This would enable a single attack table with results for attack totals from 10 to 30. A single look at the table would tell everything you need to know and the number of results is small enough that most results would become familiar over time making the table just  back up. I only saw Jeff Rients' table just before posting this and it seems to work similarly only with the base to hit total on the table being 0. 

How it works:

The Attack total = d20 + Fighter level/Hit Dice + modifiers + Descending Armour Class. 
Look up your attack total on the table and this is your result. A result of 20 is your bog standard "hit", less is a near, complete, or terrible miss and greater than 20 represents increasingly good blows.

"Combat Tricks" mean an additional effect such as:  lose initiative next round, disarmed, tripped, pushed, bum rushed or similar trick as suitable to combat situation and agreed upon by player and DM. You could codify these using 3E’s combat manoeuvres  or play them fast & loose as is your preference.

Download as pdf

The following attacking options may be combined with the use of this table to generate interesting combat tactics:

Aggressive Stance: Roll 2d20 for your attacks for the round and take both results (extra damage stacks, results of 18 or 19 are in addition to other damage). Attackers roll 2d20 for attacks against you and take the higher result.

Defensive Stance: Roll 2d20 for your attacks for the round and take the lower result.  Attackers roll 2d20 for attacks against you and take the lower result. You do not use the expanded combat table for your own attacks but your opponents do for theirs

Combat Manoeuvre: Roll 2d20 for your attack and take the higher result, however you cannot inflict damage with your attack (useful if generating a combat trick is more important to you than doing damage)

I should clarify that I haven’t ever seen The Challenges System , and the results and margins of success/failure I’ve used are based on Paolo’s hack. Jeff Rients' version seems to be more true to the Challenges version using wounds rather than Combat Tricks to spice up the combat results as per Moldvay's rules.

The One Death & Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All

After spending many a scraped together spare minute over the last few months I've finally finished The One Death & Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All (TODADTTRTA).

Click here and behold the carnage (the image above is low-res and does not have the supporting notes and sub-tables)

Thanks go out to the authors of the many fine Death & Dismemberment tables abounding the interwebs, I have riffed and ripped off mightily from lots of you (consider the honour roll in previous posts as a pretty clear reference list. If any folks feel like I have overstepped the mark please let me know and I'm happy to give more overt credit or remove offending items). The version linked is a .pdf, however if you would like a word version to tinker with for yourself please drop me a line. 

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the Death and Dismemberment Table, I'll direct you to some recent posts detailing what they are and some good examples of tables available online, and a brief analysis of some design issues I considered in putting TODADTTRA together.  If that's too much work, the short story is: instead of the usual process for resolving what happens when PC's hit points are reduced to zero you roll on the table to decide your fate and may be spared for a while longer, accrue permanent injuries or be killed. 

Ok, so how did it turn out? 

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Specifically:

The good

• I like how repeated rolls on the table uses a Disadvantage like mechanic, increasing the risk of a bad result but not guaranteeing it.
• I'm really happy with how I was able to implement the Adrenaline Surge feature from Trollsmyth's (and many others) Death & Dismemberment table. Using 5E's Hit Dice as a hit point recovery mechanic worked really well here and I'm particularly pleased with how an Adrenaline Surge result always counts despite repeated rolls on the table, enabling the classic heroic last stand (in fact it actually becomes more likely). 
• I'm also quite pleased with how Shields shall be splintered and what I'm calling Helmets shall be rent integrated into the table.
• I'm pretty happy with the overall flavour of the table.
• It looks purdy, and I think I've captured the 5E style pretty well - I'm keen for feedback about whether this works for ease of readability, and just in general about how accessible and understandable the table is. 

The so-so

• I have lingering concerns that it may be too complex for folks wanting a simple table. That isn't necessarily a problem as there are so many good tables of varying complexity and deadliness out there that anyone wanting to use a Death & Dismemberment Table should be able to find one that's a good fit for their game. 

• The table is lacking in playtesting, so the numbers could be way off for the levels of permanent injury and deadliness I'm aiming for, again feedback is welcomed. 

• I personally find the shunting off of extra detail into sub tables highly useful, however this again may make things too unwieldy for some. 

• I like the Destroyed Item result, however I would've liked to have a non-locational equipment damage chance which included armour damage, but struggled to do so without adding too much complexity.

• I'm hoping the use of a number of 5E'isms in the table isn't a turn off for folks that just aren't that into it - I feel like I've used the best bits to add to the table rather than shoehorning it into 5E and losing the old school Death & Dismembery goodness. 

The bad

• I would've really loved to get the supporting notes down to a single page rather than two. 

• I'll need a new project to start working on now! If there is interest I would consider tweaking the table for other editions. I don't really think this is necessary but it could be fun to play around with the formatting style. I've been toying around with the idea of replicating the process of TODADTTRTA but for other game tables (or things that aren't usually tables but could be cool as tables)

I'd love to hear any comments on how TODADTTRTA has turned out, or feedback if anyone happens to use it in play.  

[D&D] Design diary: The One Death & Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All

In case it isn't obvious I'm a big fan of the Death & Dismemberment Table (if the name of this blog and the content of the first few posts weren't a giveaway). However I'd come across Death & Dismemberment tables (DADT) a number of times before realising just how cool they were. It was through reading some Actual Play reports of the impact of the Mortal Wounds table in Adventurer Conqueror King System that the idea the DADT finally grokked for me. There's a lot of things to like about the ACKS take on a DADT, it contains both a generic level of wound and then further randomizes with specific injury descriptions, and there's some great flavour text in it. However the table assumes a default result of unconsciousness upon dropping to zero hit points and leaves resolution of the actual wound until when medical attention is given. I really can't see why they went this way, frankly the only possible positives I can see is that it adds a certain level of dramatic tension and avoids slowing down the combat to address the fate of an out-of-action PC (but hell if it was my character's fate in the balance, I'd want to know now, drama and speed of gameplay be damned). 

Once my interest was piqued I started regularly noticing DADT's around the D&D blogosphere (see here, here and here for lotsa links). Whilst I love the concept of DADT's and there are plenty of well implemented tables around, I haven't found one yet that ticks all the boxes for me, so I set about creating The One Death & Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All (TODADTTRTA). Whilst it's likely this post is going to have a target audience of exactly one due to its specific nature,  I'm going to talk to myself out loud as it were about the design issues that I wrestled with (which may be of use for anyone looking to create or update their own DADT) and some of the decisions I've made in creating TODADTTRTA.

Probably the most fundamental assumption that any DADT is built on is it's understanding of what hit points represent.  Reader eyes glazing over in 3...2...1...  

Yes, that old chestnut. I'm not going to waste time defining terms, if you're reading a gaming blog I'm assuming what do hit points represent is well trod territory. DADT's tend to operate from the hit points as skill/endurance/luck/morale end of the hit point continuum rather than the meat end (i.e. hit points as not getting hit [badly] points). Although this isn't often spelled out it's inherently implied in the idea that any loss of hit points up until your last one in no way impairs your combat ability, however once hit points are reduced to zero you roll on the DADT and shit suddenly gets real (meaningful consequences in the form of wounds, dismemberment and death). If the wound results on the table have significant consequences and extended healing times, a DADT pairs really well with easily available (4E/5E level) hit point recovery, making a clear distinction between non-meat hit points and meat consequences on the DADT (this point often comes up in OSR bloggers' posts about DADT's, however any reference to 4E is usually avoided or is acknowledged almost shamefacedly as if the blogger risks losing their OSR cred!) Of course there's nothing that says hit points can't be interpreted as meat whilst using a DADT, however you need a logical explanation for why the meat damage suddenly has consequences once hit points drop to zero and not beforehand (two types of meat? Turducken hit points perhaps... no that's three!) I'd suggest that some sort of critical hit rules make a better fit if you want hit points as meat but with consequences and detail before they hit zero (or hell just go the whole hog and swap to Rolemaster - if you want an inherently risky combat system with the chance of debilitating wounds or death from any attack and are ok with death spirals Rolemaster does this much better than D&D). 

A related and more important consideration for DADT's (which I've not seen discussed anywhere suprisingly) is what do negative hit points represent? (if you are running Classic D&D with death at zero hit points feel free to ignore this section - hell, feel free to ignore any of my rambling in this post) 

Whilst folks are generally happy to embrace abstraction in how they view hit points, negative hit points are usually conceptualised as a much more concrete and meat-ish entity. This makes sense in a game that tracks negative hit points, as the combatant will usually be unconscious when at negative hit points, rendering combat skill or morale moot and I'd suggest that the Death's Door rule (combatant does not die at zero hit points but is instead unconscious and dying up until -X hit points at which point death occurs) heavily informs the common interpretation of what negative hit points represent. However when you look at how Death's Door is implemented across editions (not to mention in house rulings and retroclones) there are significant differences: the original AD&D version extends hit points to -10 before death occurs; 3rd edition kept a 10 hit point buffer but made exactly 0 hit points still conscious, but disabled; 4th edition expanded the death's door buffer to -[max hit points/2]; and 5E further still to -[max hit points]. Lots of old school house rules go the other way and limit Death's Door to the -2 to -5 hit point range. Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a good example of this with unconsciousness occurring at 0 HP, mortal wounding at -3, and death at -4. A quirk of AD&D's (through to 3E's) Death's Door rule is that higher level characters are more likely to die if dropped below zero hit points. The concurrent scaling of character hit points and damage inflicted by opponents, makes the static 10 hit point buffer between unconsciousness and death increasingly small in relative terms and more likely to be exceeded if hit points are reduced below zero. By linking the Death's Door buffer to the character's maximum hit points, 4E & 5E fairly successfully address this issue, however to retain a sense of risk they then added in Death Save mechanics as an additional source of death. 

This all points to the problem inherent in negative hit points - whilst they feel like they represent a concrete entity, in most regards they are as abstracted as normal hit points, they only differ in that they most definitely fall to the meat end of the hit point continuum. This brings up the question, if you are using a DADT to determine the meat consequences of being reduced to zero hit points should you also use the Death's Door rule? (or track negative hit points and apply them as a modifier to rolls on the DADT, which in effect is the same thing as using Death's Door e.g. a roll of 2d6 modified by 10 for being at -10 hit points will generate a minimum result of 12. If the only result possible for 12+ on the DADT is death you are effectively operating with an AD&D Death's Door rule). Whilst it makes intuitive sense to track negative hit points and have a cutoff where death occurs, doing so alongside a DADT intertwines two mainly independent systems, one abstracted, one much more concrete, to measure the same scenario - how much meat damage has the combatant taken and how close are they to death. Using both systems means extra book keeping, and unless you draw on a 4E/5E approach to Death's Door you will have the effect of making your game increasingly deadly as characters level up - both from the Death's Door cutoff as mentioned above, but also if you apply negative hit points as a modifier to the DADT it will have the same effect of making the table deadlier as the level of the PC's and opponents increase. Applying modifiers to a DADT based on negative hit points may also skew results on the table in unforeseen ways unless this has been well factored into the spread of results on the table (see Billy Goes to Mordor's brief analysis of his DADT for a good example of this).

Why have I bothered with this mini analysis of negative hit points? - because the majority of DADT's use Death's Door concurrently or track negative hit points and apply them to the DADT roll. I to'ed and fro'ed on tracking negative hit points in my draft of TODADTTRTA a number of times, simply due to the intuitive sense that going further into negative hit points should influence the result on the table. However I've decided to jettison negative hit points and their tracking, adopting the table as the sole mechanism for determining what happens once hit points drop to zero. Rather than relying on modifiers from negative hit points to amplify the risk of a nasty result on the table, I'm planning on simply making the table a bit more deadly. By forgoing modifiers and only using a single die for rolls on the table the probability spread will remain flat, allowing control over how the severity of results such as dismemberment or death are distributed. To increase the risk from repeated rolls on the DADT I will be using an add dice, take lowest approach (read Disadvantage but with more dice than two allowed). I'm contemplating adding dice for attacks from opponents of Large or greater size too, so that the potential for real wounding based on the physics of an attack (as opposed to abstracted hit point damage) increases risk on the DADT. I'm also wondering if the concept of Bloodied from 4E might be useful here, essentially it's just a tag for being at half maximum hit points or below, but might be useful as a further source of dice on the DADT roll. The current spread of consequences I'm looking at is split 25% each for minor wounds (no effect or stunned), serious wounds (debilitating but non lethal and unlikely to cause ongoing problems), critical wounds (potentially life threatening and likely to have significant ongoing consequences) and deadly wounds. 

My next consideration was what balance of abstraction and detail to have in the results on the table. I believe the key here is to create detail without adding too much complexity and to keep the table clean and simple by pushing detail onto a supporting handout through the use of subtables and conditions. Given that DADT's are something that may only see occasional use and that only the specific result rolled needs to be considered in any individual usage of the table, there's scope to have a fair bit of detail and variety in results without making it overly complex. One of my issues with the Fisher / Trollsmyth model of DADT (of which there are many direct hacks, and lots of other DADTs which have been inspired by these) is that the severity of wound automatically links to a certain hit location. For me thee are two problems with this: 

1) combined with the fact that most tables of this ilk use 2d6, there will be a high repetition of certain results. I think a DADT becomes much more exciting if you are really uncertain what the likely result will be, and I prefer there to be a wide possibility of injuries (picking on Trollsmyth's version - because I like it, not because it's bad! -  a roll of 5-6 is a broken bone and 7-8 is knocked out. There are a whole range of injuries of comparable severity that could be included for these levels of severity, alternatively a broken bone result should span varying levels of severity depending on the location).

2) in some situations the location of wound taken will be determined by the nature of the damage (e.g. falling, placing hand into acid) or the damage will be quite abstracted and not correspond well to a hit location (e.g. AoE spell, psychic damage). With limited results on the table this becomes harder to model or falls back to DM ruling (which is totally ok, but some players - and DM's - are going to feel more comfortable with a DADT if they are at the mercy of a standardised table rather than what the DM feels is a good call at the time). 

One of the most common workarounds for this in DADT's is to separate the wound severity from hit location. This is certainly my preference for TODADTTRTA, and my plan is to also include a generic wound result for each severity to model non-specific damage, where hit location may not be appropriate. When using hit locations the question then becomes what level of specificity to include for each severity of wound. For example a moderate wound to the torso might be broken ribs - should the result specify this or just include penalties concomitant with this but open to interpretation as some other similar wound such as a very shallow stab wound or a painful but superficial cut across the belly? I'm inclined to have each result focused on the in-game effects and leave description of the actual wound up to the DM. That said, half the fun in a DADT is having bloody and blackly humorous descriptions for wounds sustained (Lost Pages' Internal Organs are Supposed to be Internal table is a particular fave for just this reason). Certainly a flavour text generation table could work well alongside more generic results. A number of DADT's also have separate tables depending on the damage type (e.g. slashing / piercing / bludgeoning / magic / fire etc.). At this stage I'm not sure I want to go down that path, I think by keeping enough abstraction in the results and also having a generic damage result this level of detail becomes unnecessary - and I think having wound severity, hit location and damage type all as variables would make the table too big. And yet, the Rolemaster fan in me quietly urges, "a separate DADT for each weapon, do it, do it"...

There is various other cool shit I want to include in TODADTTRTA, robbing from the many excellent tables on the internets, making them mine, all mine, my precious... Ahem. Definitely up for inclusion is the Adrenaline Surge entry from Trollsmyth's DADT, and I'm looking for a way to make it a possible result alongside other (possibly mortal) wounds to allow for heroic last stand results. I also really like how important his table has made helmets and would like to find a way of rolling Shields shall be splintered into the table, cos' its way cool but I'm not sure I want it as a separate system for avoiding death at zero hit points.  I'd also like to include options for equipment damage and scarring which are not tied to specific wounds and have a probability of occurring at any time.

A sub-goal for TODADTTRTA was to try to match up the wound categories on the table with the various Cure Wounds spells. Firstly in name, just for forms sake, but given that I plan to pair the table with easy hit point recovery, I'd like to switch the role of healing magic into addressing the wound results from rolling on the table. Natural healing for wounds will be slow, or not possible for some results, making healing spells really important, just not as a routine stock up of all the cleric spell slots. A scroll with a single CCW or Cureall will now be really useful, not just something that saves an extra day or two of resting.

For me the final decision has been which particular iteration of D&D to optimize the table for. My favourite D&D is Basic/Expert (I don't really bother distinguishing between Moldvay/Cook and Mentzer, we houseruled the shit out of our game well beyond it mattering anymore) and I'm a fan of where ACKS goes with B/X. However there's a lot of things I like about 5E. The fifth edition rules fairly explicitly state that hit point loss only represents significant injury when they are reduced to zero or below, making them a good match for a DADT. 5E's Death Saving Throw mechanic, whilst elegant and great for creating tension, produces no lasting consequences even if the combatant goes within one negative hit point of the death's door cutoff and fails two death saves. The 5E DMG introduces Lingering Wounds as an option to address this, but runs them concurrently with death saves. I don't think this works effectively as the two systems are not integrated and a scenario can occur such as a Lingering Wound result of Scarring but the character then fails three death saves, or the character can lose a leg, roll a 20 on their death save and potentially be back up and fighting. In short 5E could really use a DADT to completely replace it's existing unconsciousness, dying and death rules. There's a couple of other good reasons to go with 5E at the moment: it's enjoying a fair degree of flavor of the month even amongst some OSR folks, and there's only one other 5E specific DADT at the moment (I'm not counting the DMG's Lingering Wounds as a DADT). Whilst I'm not sure I would run 5E as is, most likely I will add in some 5E components to a Basic D&D game. I'm creating TODADTTRTA primarily for myself but it's still a nice idea to make it useful for the most possible people, and I can stat up TODADTTRTA for 5E but make things loose enough that it can easily be used in any edition (hell, I don't think inter-edition translation is half the thing some people bemoan it to be anyway). I've got TODADTTRTA pretty close to how I want it to look so hopefully should be posting it (eventually) on the next week or two.



Ok, so there's been a whole lot of talk in this post and not much action, so I'll pay a Joesky tax 

Monster: The Turducken

My lame crack about Turducken hit points up-post got me thinking about a monstrous Turducken, created by a mad wizard long ago in a vain attempt to combine his three favorite meats (Turkey, Duck, Chicken) into the one creature. Unfortunately the experiment got out of hand, creating a giant three headed fowl which then turned on its creator (oh the fate of mad monster-mashing wizards, so predictable). 

Whist the real life Turducken combines three meats, the monstrous Turducken is thoroughly meta and has three types of hit points (meat, skill and morale) and can only be slain by reducing each total of hit points (each of 3HD) to zero. For any hit on the Turducken roll 1d3 to determine which of its hit point totals is damaged - 1: Meat, 2: Skill, 3: Morale (this will definitely work better if you ham up descriptions of what type of damage is being dealt). 

There is a 1 in 6 chance per round for each of the three heads that they will use their special attack instead of biting. When a Turducken head uses its SA it also regenerates all hit point damage to the corresponding hit point total. If none of the heads use their SA there is a 1 in 6 chance the Turducken will lay an Egg of Doom.  The SA effects are as follows: Quack of Cracking- as Horn of blasting, Gobbling Gobble - opponents hearing the gobble must save vs spells or be under the effect of a confusion spell, Crow of Victory - opponents hearing the crow must save vs spells or be under effect of a fear spell, Egg of Doom - upon hatching (time to hatching as the DM sees fit) it unleashes campaign ending or other seriously messed up mojo - go wild (Egg of DOOM people).

Monstrous Turducken (1)  AC 7 (12), HD 3*, #AT 4 (beak/beak/beak/claw rake) 1d6/1d6/1d6/2d6, SA Quack of Cracking (meat), Gobbling Gobble (Skill), Crow of Victory (Morale), Egg of Doom, MV 120’(40’)

To fully appreciate the mindset of the author whilst writing this blog post it is best read whilst listening to: Shellac- At Acton Park & 1000 Hurts

[D&D] Death & Dismemberment Tables III - Just when you thought it was safe to go to Death's Door...

Things have been busy of late, so in the interests of posting something I'm going to plonk down a few more links to Death and Disablement tables. Hopefully next post will have some new content.

Daily OSR fix - a super simple DADT with only 4 categories for its inaugural blog post (what a great way to start a blog!)

The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms' Death, Dismemberment and Criticals - roll damage on a dice map to select an attribute which the wound is then based off. Simple, abstract and adaptable.

Deep Delving's Death and Dismemberment rules - a table for when a character is felled and a sub table specifically for dismemberment results. 

Ironlands' Death and Dismemberment table - when hit points drop to zero a player can elect to try and remain conscious but must pay the penalty of a roll on the table. A pretty nasty table and also has armour damage built into the varying wound results. 

Rumor's of War's Death and Dismemberment - inspired by the Fisher/Trollsmyth/Troll and Flame DADT's but tweaked to be compatible with the author's 4E clone (and I'm imagining would be 4E compatible) 

Gelatinous Cubed's Death & Dismemberment table - yet another table in the Fisher/Trollsmyth/T&F mould, but with a separate sub table for dismemberment results. 

Hedgehobbit's Death Chart - Rolling on the chart provides a DC for a CON save to remain conscious (the chart is written for 3E) and an extra effect from what looks very much like a Rolemaster critical chart

System Sans Setting's D20: Yet Another Wound System - If you take enough damage to go to 0 hit points you take a wound (which may allow you to stay conscious if the total damage is not double that needed to reduce you to zero) and roll on the wound table corresponding to slashing, piercing or bludgeoning damage. Has effects for both untreated and unrecovered wounds which is a nice touch.

Metal Earth's 1d4 Wound and Critical Hit table - pretty much what its named, simple and abstract

and...

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide Lingering Injuries - 

The Lingering Injuries table in the new DMG is designed to be used for critical hits, failed Death Saves and when Hit Points are reduced to zero. Whilst this flexibility is great it ultimately means that its effectiveness as a DADT is diminished. Because the table is an add-on to the normal rules for going to zero hit points or below it is essentially a Dismemberment Table only, death can only occur through the usual means in 5E. The table itself is also fairly heavily weighted towards the minor entries such as scarring, there is only a 2 in 20 chance of dismemberment, a 1 in 20 of losing an eye and a 1 in 20 of accruing a permanent limp, but I do quite like the festering wound result. All these complaints aside its a nice thing to see included in the DMG and hopefully it will increase interest in going the whole hog and adopting a DADT in game.

That's another 10 DADT's making 42 (!) between this and the last two posts. Sound like a crazy-too-many amount of tables if you are in the market for one? Yeah it probably is, so in my next post I plan to discuss some of the common design choices in the various tables, and where I'm looking to go with The One Death and Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All when I eventually get the thing polished up to a state worth posting. 

[D&D] Death & Dismemberment Tables II - When too many tables are barely enough...

It seems I can't open a web browser at the moment without stumbling across more Death & Dismemberment Tables (DADT's). My last post contained 23 tables, count 'em (including Trollsmyth's second table in the comments). However the D&D blogosphere is swollen like a week old corpse with DADT's, so here's another 10 tables to further whet your appetite for blood, maiming, scarring, and grisly death.

Ten Foot Polemic's Another Death and Dismemberment variant - takes Hack & Slash's highly detailed DADT and simplifies things by using pools of different coloured dice.

Wheel of Samsara's Wound Table - roll 2 d6's, the first for general hit location and the second for the specific wound, then roll 2d6 again to determine if the wound is temporary or permanent.

First Level Mage's Death and Dismemberment - dice drop on the back cover of Vornheim for hit location, then use WHFRP's critical hit tables with the adjustments given here.

Quickly, Quietly, Carefully's Elective Dismemberment Table - when dropping below 0 HP a player can elect to roll on this pretty brutal table (every entry is a form of dismemberment) and stay on 1 HP. Now that's my flavor of narrative control.

Wonders and Witchcraft's Death and Dismemberment Table - looks to be based off the Fisher/Trollsmyth/Troll & Flame model but tweaked for Lamentations of the Flame Princess (a game which frankly I'm surprised has no native DADT). 

The XP Experience's Dismemberment, Dying and Death Table - inspired by the W&W table above only simplified.

Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque's Life's Thread Cut Short Table - a fairly dangerous table based off a flat d20 roll.

Billy Goes To Mordor's An Interesting Death  and Pirate  DADT's - inspired by TOTGAD's table above only deadlier and dismemberier respectively. 

Dispatches from Kickassistan's Death Dice! - a pool of dice accruing every time a PC drops which can result in attribute loss leading to permanent injuries and death.

If you've got a DADT of your own please feel free to link to it in the comments, or message me for posting in the inevitable DADT part III!

To fully appreciate the mindset of the author whilst writing this blog post it is best read whilst listening to:  Gerling - When Young Terrorists Chase the Sun

[D&D] On Death & Dismemberment Tables

I've decided what better way to kick off this blog than a series of posts about its namesake: 

The Death and Dismemberment Table. I plan to continue returning to the topic over the course of time, as I tinker away at The One Death & Dismemberment Table To Rule Them All  (TOD&DTTRTA or Todd as I like to call it in my best John Sheppard drawl). There are plenty of perfectly functional tables on the internets, but sometimes you just gotta tinker (chances are if you are reading a gaming blog you know just what I'm talking about. And besides, a blog's gotta have a theme dunnit? And Death & Dismemberment is a cool blog name to boot)

So, what exactly is a Death & Dismemberment Table?

Thanks for asking (apart from the Grognards chortling knowingly into their neckbeards). In Classic D&D (Original, Holmes & Basic) when your hit points are reduced to zero the result is immediate death. For many early (and OSR) D&D players this was too deadly, or the lack of results in between fully functioning combatant (>0 HP) and dead (0 HP) didn't mesh well with their image of the outcomes of an armed skirmish (whether real or fictional). As a result lots of house rules evolved to fill these gaps, the best known being Death's Door (combatant is unconscious and dying at 0 HP but death does not occur until -10 HP) which would become codified into the AD&D rules. Third edition made a minor tweak to this (disabled but conscious at 0 HP, unconscious and dying from -1 to -9 HP, dead at -10). Fourth and fifth editions expanded the hit point range of death's door (to negative bloodied and negative max HP respectively) and added a Death Save mechanic, but these are all essentially the same rule and serve the same function - to provide a buffer zone once hit points have been reduced to zero, for the purposes of increased PC survival and better simulation of combat outcomes. A Death and Dismemberment table (DADT) is simply an alternative (and I'm going to suggest better) way of resolving this situation. 

Whilst there are a variety of styles of DADT's, they all follow the same basic formula - when hit points are reduced to zero a roll is made on the table, giving a result ranging from essentially unharmed and still combat capable, to varying states of wounding, dismemberment or death, usually accompanied by a graphic and/or blackly humourous description.  In many ways a DADT looks like a critical hit table, generating temporary or permanent wounds with impacts beyond simple hit point loss. However the important distinction is that DADT's arose as a way to make the game less deadly - they are only rolled on when hit points hit zero, which in Classic D&D would normally result in death, and are not rolled when an natural 20 attack roll is made (although some folks do also use their DADT for this purpose to further confuse things).

So where did Death & Dismemberment tables come from?

As mentioned above they arose as house rules in individual D&D games, however it would seem that they have their roots in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game. In WHFRP characters have an analogue of hit points called wounds. Loss of wounds has a few minor effects but importantly when wounds are reduced to zero the character then rolls on one of the famously descriptive critical hit tables, which can result in permanent injury or death. Sound a lot like the idea of DADT's that I've described above? That's because it is. Whilst it's anyones guess as to exactly when and how the concept jumped from WHFRP to D&D, it appears that lots of folks have had the idea and lots of different gaming groups have used DADT's, with the table becoming popular in some local gaming scenes. The earliest version of a DADT posted on the net appears to be the one on Robert Fisher's site (which is also a great read on old school D&D to boot) and a lot of versions floating around the net are hacks, or hacks of hacks, of his particular version. Whilst there are a truckload of differing takes on the DADT online the only published D&D based game I'm aware of that has a DADT written into its rules is the B/X clone Adventurer Conqueror King System.


Why your game needs a Death & Dismemberment table

For some folks the cut and dry deadliness of death at zero hit points is a feature of old school play, and I'm not here to convince them otherwise. However for those finding this aspect of Classic D&D a little too too deadly or simplistic, a DADT is a wonderful way of providing a measure of grace for PC's and variety in results when hit points hit zero. There are lots of flavours of DADT's around and they are eminently tweakable, meaning you can set the exact level of survivability and consequence for hitting zero hit points. Importantly, as well as opening a space for possible PC survival when hit points hit zero, a DADT also enables the easy insertion of meaningful consequences for hitting zero hit points, something that death's door fails to do. Surviving being dropped to zero hit points and a roll on a DADT still leaves the prospect of some form of permanent injury, whereas under death's door if you go into negative hit points but less than the death cutoff point there are no lasting effects. Whilst adding a death save increases the drama of going below zero hit points, in 4E & 5E this is also paired with easily accessable healing, meaning that non lethal unconsciousness is little more than an inconvenience. Pre-release talk suggests the 5E DMG will have a lingering wounds table, which may well be a DADT, something I'm certainly viewing as a positive regardless of how well it gets implemented.
That doesn't mean the DADT only has a use for older editions of D&D. It's more flavoursome and exciting than death's door/death saves, it introduces consequences for hitting 0 hit points and surviving, and despite strong edition preferences which would suggest otherwise, the essential D&D combat experience of hit point ablation remains unchanged in all versions of the game, only changing in what happens once hit points drop to zero or below. That is to say, DADT's can work in any edition.  To that end I'm strongly considering using 5E terminology for Todd I when I post it.

TLDR: the combination of possible survival, possible maiming or possible death as results from rolling on a table provides a unique blend of excitement and anxiety that will enhance your game (fuck I'm starting to sound like some kind of salesman).
 

Honour roll of Death & Dismemberment tables

I've listed what I think are some of the most influential and interesting tables that are around. Have a look and hopefully you might find one that will fit (and improve) your game.

Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing (1st Edition) - obviously not directly compatible with D&D but worth checking out if you are looking to make your own DADT. I'm not sure which of the later editions have the critical hit charts. 

Small But Vicious Dog - a hack of WHFRP and B/X D&D, complete with warhammer style critical hits.

Dyson's Dodecahedron's Effects of Mighty Blows - Dyson Logos channelling WHFRP, what's not to like? 

Robert Fisher's Classic D&D Injury Table - the first DADTposted online, so gets big props for that. 

Trollsmyth's Death & Dismemberment Table - a hack of Robert Fisher's DADT. Probably the most well known and used table floating around the 'nets. 

Troll & Flame's Deadlier Death & Dismemberment Table - a hack of Trollsmyth's DADT only, um... deadlier. 

The Mule Abides' Red Box Death & Dismemberment Table - inspired by the three above tables only tweaked to be deadlier still. 

Carjacked Seraphim's Death, Dismemberment and Dangerous Damage Table - also inspired by Robert Fisher, Trollsmyth and Troll & Flame's tables. It has tables for Melee, Missile, Falling, Fire and Electricity.   

Tales of the Rambling Bumblers' revamp of Trollsmyth's DADT for 5E - to my knowledge the first and only current table adjusted to make use of 5E conditions. 

Adventurer Conqueror King System - a B/X retroclone with a DADT built into the rules (and also a similar table for raise dead attempts). Some of the writers of ACKS blog at The Mule Abides, which makes me wonder if the deadliness of the DADT there informed the one in ACKS, which is pretty brutal. The DADT features multiple results for each wound severity, but there are a fair bit of repeated results. Unfortunately it's also unnecessarily complex, determining results at the end of combat based on healing received and how long until received. That said I still like it, and ACKS is my favourite iteration of B/X. 

Bernie the Flumph's Death & Dismemberment table - also features variable wound possibilities within each severity. 

Roles, Rules and Rolls' Death & Dismemberment Table -has hit locations for each wound severity on a pretty one page table.  

Goblin Punch's Improved Death & Dismemberment Table - the latest version of a multiply updated table. Combines hit location with wound severity and the result are usefully generic. A goodie. 

Hack & Slash's Table for Avoiding Death - definitely the most detailed DADT, with multiple tables depending on the attack type, but has dials on the complexity if you wish to keep it simple. Well worth checking out. 

Hill Cantons' Death & Dismemberment Table - simple and brutal.  

Lost Pages' Internal Organs Are Supposed To Be Internal Table - A simple table with wonderfully black descriptive text.

Jeff Rient's Death's Door Table - a simple 1d6 DADT.   

The Alexandrian's At Death's Door Table - inspired by Jeff Rient's table but altogether crazier. Uses a d30 and has a whole bunch of bizarre near death experience entries. 

johnstone's Zero Hit Points Critical Wounds Table - simple and brutal, a uses different dice depending on the size of the attacker.  

Breeyark!'s Permanent Injuries - not really a DADT, rather the option to take permanent attribute penalties to recover damage in the aftermath of a fight. Could easily be tweaked to be a DADT with narrative control granted to the players. 

Rafu's Grievous Wounds - Like a DADT only it uses a deck of playing cards to determine results.

Librarian's and Leviathan's Pathfinder Serious Injuries Chart - a d100 DADT with 100 results!  

If you take out the two published games from the list there should be 20 DADT's remaining, so if the list is feeling too exhaustive just roll a d20 and give that one a try!

There are many more out there, if you are interested wield your google-fu with terms like "death and dismemberment" (screening the terms "accidental" and "insurance" lest you get spammed with life insurance policies), "deaths door", "lingering wounds", "permanent injuries" etc. If you've got a good one feel free to link to it in the comments.

To fully appreciate the mindset of the author whilst writing this blog post it is best read whilst listening to:   Arch Enemy - Anthems of Rebellion