Mutations and Mutilations

[urikson]

Tovarichi!

I am working on a new RPG about mutant rats taking over the world these days. We want to replace abstract hit points with an alternative damage and recovery system in this game.

Basically, every time you're hit, depending on the severity of the hit, some mutilation is applied to your character. Each mutilation is divided into a short term effect, which lasts throughout the encounter, a long term effect, which lasts until cured, and a complication which stems from crits or multiple hits on the same location. Complications fairly often lead to death.

For example, if you take a hit to the stomach, the short term effect would be nausea and a chance to lose each action and the long term effect would be ability loss.

Now to balance this, each time you roll a random mutation, its positive effect is significantly increased if you have the corresponding mutilation. For example, if you roll a mutation that allows you to grow a new hand while having the missing hand mutilation, the hand you grow is gonna be one hell of a hand!

I have posted a couple of abridged tables to my design blog to illustrate this mechanic.

The idea is to make the characters grow stranger and stranger as the game progresses, but not so much as to make it unplayable. What do you think of this mechanic? What pitfalls do you think it can run into?

[Anecronwashere]

Pitfalls: Having to look up the Mutilations table every single time you hit.
Location Damage is considered a Bad Thing because it is hard to do right. For instance, how does a Claw Attack Bruise someone? or a Fireball gut them?

Pros: If done right however that sounds like a very good idea, though you do force people to start at lvl1 each time because there is no way to accurately address how many Mutations one should have because it is entirely based on being hurt. You will end up with insanely mutated unlucky characters, and barely-mutated lucky ones

[Doorhandle]

Pitfalls: Having to look up the Mutilations table every single time you hit.
Location Damage is considered a Bad Thing because it is hard to do right. For instance, how does a Claw Attack Bruise someone? or a Fireball gut them?

Pros: If done right however that sounds like a very good idea, though you do force people to start at lvl1 each time because there is no way to accurately address how many Mutations one should have because it is entirely based on being hurt. You will end up with insanely mutated unlucky characters, and barely-mutated lucky ones

That is a problem: maybe you could have the short-term effects written on the character sheet?

Claw attack bruising someone? superficial cuts which never less could become infected, or otherwise you ended up backhanding your opponent.
Fireball gutting someone? It blew them out. Or burnt the skin covering them. or set them on fire, or whatever ultra violence appeases you.

also, you could avoid starting at level one each time by having a careers system in place, much like traveller, for characters above level one, and then they gain mutilations and mutations on the way.

Sounds like a very interesting system you have here... But what if a rat mutilates ITSELF in the hopes of gaining more power, like the norse god Odin? Food for thought.

[urikson]

what if a rat mutilates ITSELF in the hopes of gaining more power, like the norse god Odin? Food for thought.

That is a great point! A true munchkin was certainly do horrible things to his character if he felt it could give him an advantage... and why not? I should certainly start working on some rules addressing this issue. Thanks!

Also, the tables are specific for damage types, so you won't get bruised from fire or cut by water :)

[awa]

you can easily get cut by water if it's under enough pressure

[urikson]

you can easily get cut by water if it's under enough pressure

This is true and verisimilitude demands that I address this issue. When water is flowing under sufficient pressure to actually slice you, it will be deemed an edged weapon. Let the records so reflect.