Limb damage system?

[G.Cube]

Does a good limb damage/loss system exist? I think I have a good idea for one, but if there's one that already works well I don't want to put in the work.

[GybeMark]

I've tried several limb damage systems (unnamed ones, mostly folks coming up with "here's a homebrew system that will make the game more fun") with little success. The bottleneck seems to be "tracking". It's a lot of leg work (pun intended) to keep track of all the different bonuses, penalties, situational modifiers, etc and then adding tracking different things for different limbs at different times in different situations crosses the line from "more immersive gameplay" to "screw it".

It might work in something like Pathfinder, but not in 4th ed. where there's constantly more to track (in my experience anyway, but this is an opinion only).

If I were to come up with home rules for limb damage, I might say something like "if you're <25% HP then you're 'wounded' and can't do things as effectively -- movement is reduced by 1, -1 attack, -1 damage, -1 to saves, etc" That way it's easy to adjust for without a lot of "accounting".

My $0.02

Love the avatar, btw

[Ravens_cry]

Pathfinder's Ultimate Combat has a called shots system, though I can't say exactly how well it actually plays out.

[PraxisVetli]

There's a thirdparty book, "Torn Asunder," that has a critical hit system, could easily be modded into limb loss.
I actually love the system, its a little extra work, but adds a lot of realism and a button of grit.