Making wounds matter.

[Aliquid]

I’m used to playing in D&D settings where healing wounds is quick and easy.

I’m looking at running a campaign where there is no healing magic. Anyone have experience with this and have any tips on how to make it work? e.g. how to keep the game running when someone can barely walk.

I think about TV shows and movies where people get the snot beat out of them in some sort of conflict and then are back at it the next day... slightly unbelievable, but that could work. Time would have to flow differently, with people resting more often, and maybe even having to survive with an arm in a sling for a while etc.

This will NOT be D&D, so don’t worry about mechanics or “game balance”

[Koo Rehtorb]

It really depends on how often people are getting wounded, and the degree of verisimilitude you're comfortable with.

People getting shot and being fine the next day is perfectly fine with certain genres, if that's the way you want to go. If you want a grittier feeling then be prepared to either do large time skips, or have people have backup characters for when their other character is in the hospital for months.

There's nothing wrong with doing the occasional "months pass" montage with the other characters describing what they're doing during those months while their buddy is recovering from his gaping chest wound. There's also nothing wrong with the fallen character's player making a new guy to join in on the immediate trouble that really can't wait while the gaping chest wound guy is in a coma.

[Nifft]

Dresden Files RPG is a FATE variant which has a "Stress Track", and some of the Stress boxes take longer to recover than others.

You could do a thing where you have various HP tracks, and the 'deeper' levels impose something longer-duration on you -- and you can't spend that box again until you've recovered from the longer-duration effect.


The first set of 'damage' boxes last for one scene. So that might be "sand in your eyes" or "broken glasses" or whatever, something that you can easily fix once the vampires stop shooting at you and you can catch your breath.

The second set of 'damage' boxes last longer. That might be a bruise, or overall fatigue, or a strained muscle, or a magical over-use migraine headache.

Etc., right down to nigh-permanent injuries which will last for several campaign arcs.

[Anonymouswizard]

As a general time, the more significant and leading the average wound the rarer the fight.

Also, let me give a better explanation of how damage works in Fate.

Now to understand how Fate deals with wounds, you need to know about Aspects. Aspects are always true, allow you to do things they suggest you can, and stop you from doing things they suggest you can't. Also whenever an Aspect could benefit you you can Invoke it for a bonus, either by spending a Fate Point or with a free invocation generated by an earlier action. It doesn't have to be your Aspect, it just has to benefit you.

Got that? Alright, when an Attack hits you it generates damage (one point per point you beat the defence roll by, called shifts*). Take any shifts and you're out of the fight (or argument, or political campaign, or having attempt, or whatever your Conflict represents). You reduce the damage by taking consequences, which are additional Aspects generally chosen by the defender and always negative (not that they can't ever benefit you, bit they generally shouldn't). PCs can take a Mild consequence to reduce damage by two shifts, a Moderate one to reduce it by four shifts, and a Significant one to reduce damage by six shifts. You can also optionally overwrite one of your normal aspects as an Extreme consequence to reduce damage by eight shifts. There are ways to get additional Mild consequence slots, and you get a free invocation on all consequences you cause.

Bit not every wound on fiction causes the character problems. Therefore most versions of Fate use Stress Boxes. Stress is that mixture of luck and toughness that makes you take insignificant wounds. In the normal build everybody gets two Stress boxes, rated 1-shift and 2-shift, and can her more by raising their Physique skill (a 3-shift box of they're at least Average, a 4-shift box of they're at least Good). A shift box can be checked if it's free, and reduces damage by it's rating. You do not have to check boxes in order, and can check up to one Stress Box and take one Consequence per attack.

So of we take a character with a standard set of consequences, and a standard three box Stress track. At the start of a conflict we take an attack and roll badly on your defence roll, taking five shifts of Stress. Aiming we don't want to be Taken Out we have three options: we can take a Severe Consequence (no need for an Extreme) and check no Stress Boxes, a Moderate Consequence and check our 1-shift Stress Box, or a Mills Consequence and check our 3-shift Stress Box.

Stress clears after the scene, Consequences take until at least the end of the session (and can potentially be very sticky).

* In both cases.

[Aliquid]

Dresden Files RPG is a FATE variant which has a "Stress Track", and some of the Stress boxes take longer to recover than others.

You could do a thing where you have various HP tracks, and the 'deeper' levels impose something longer-duration on you -- and you can't spend that box again until you've recovered from the longer-duration effect.


The first set of 'damage' boxes last for one scene. So that might be "sand in your eyes" or "broken glasses" or whatever, something that you can easily fix once the vampires stop shooting at you and you can catch your breath.

The second set of 'damage' boxes last longer. That might be a bruise, or overall fatigue, or a strained muscle, or a magical over-use migraine headache.

Etc., right down to nigh-permanent injuries which will last for several campaign arcs.

FATE is one of the systems I’m considering. I’m just wrapping my head around how the story and gameplay would work.

Koo Rehtorb makes an interesting suggestion with “backup characters”.

I guess I would also have to make scenarios where limping from place to place is a viable option.

[Nifft]

FATE is one of the systems I’m considering. I’m just wrapping my head around how the story and gameplay would work.

Koo Rehtorb makes an interesting suggestion with “backup characters”.

I guess I would also have to make scenarios where limping from place to place is a viable option.

There are a lot of different FATE variants. The system in the Dresden Files RPG was (at one time) my favorite and recommended-as-best iteration -- but since that time, new stuff has come out, and I don't know if something better has been created.

(It's also a good game and a very well-written set of RPG books.)

[Anonymouswizard]

FATE is one of the systems I’m considering. I’m just wrapping my head around how the story and gameplay would work.

Koo Rehtorb makes an interesting suggestion with “backup characters”.

I guess I would also have to make scenarios where limping from place to place is a viable option.

I recommend that you use Fate Core and the Fate System Toolkit (get the PDF, it's PWYW), the latter gives a bit of discussion on how to adjust Stress and Consequences. It has a few changes from earlier editions, including less aspects/character.

[ImNotTrevor]

I'd actually recommend using FATE: accelerated.
It clears out a lot of the unneeded chaff that FATE brings along from FUDGE and puts the aspects (the part of FATE that is actually unique and worthwhile) in the forefront.

It's also easier to learn how to Aspect with since there's less in total going on. If you decide you need something crunchier, a wholesale conversion to FATE core is as easy as breathing.

[Aliquid]

I’m really not that concerned about the system or mechanics. I’m more concerned about the story aspect.

All typical games assume that the characters can heal up fast, and the story flows with that assumption.

Wounded characters wouldn’t be at 100% when it comes to their skills and abilities. A thief with a twisted ankle will find it hard to climb up the side of a building to get to that balcony.

That’s fine. I’m just trying to figure out how to adjust the challenge levels in the game to adapt to the condition of the characters

[Knaight]

I’m really not that concerned about the system or mechanics. I’m more concerned about the story aspect.

All typical games assume that the characters can heal up fast, and the story flows with that assumption.

Wounded characters wouldn’t be at 100% when it comes to their skills and abilities. A thief with a twisted ankle will find it hard to climb up the side of a building to get to that balcony.

That’s fine. I’m just trying to figure out how to adjust the challenge levels in the game to adapt to the condition of the characters

Generally you'd just tone down some of the more ridiculous parts of said challenge level (e.g. the combat frequency assumed in D&D games) and generally operate at a slower pace with more gaps in the action. It's actually pretty easy to get used to.

I'd actually recommend using FATE: accelerated.
It clears out a lot of the unneeded chaff that FATE brings along from FUDGE and puts the aspects (the part of FATE that is actually unique and worthwhile) in the forefront.

I'd go the other way - use Fudge instead of Fate, which puts back in several excellent mechanics that Fate removed. There's the simple workhorse mechanics of the more complex Fudge combat system (ODF, DDF, the wound track), more use of modifiers, and standout mechanics like Scale which let Fudge work across a wide range of scales better than almost any other game. It's also an easy transition from more conventional games, as Fudge is in many ways very conventional - just extremely well built.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'd actually recommend using FATE: accelerated.
It clears out a lot of the unneeded chaff that FATE brings along from FUDGE and puts the aspects (the part of FATE that is actually unique and worthwhile) in the forefront.

It's also easier to learn how to Aspect with since there's less in total going on. If you decide you need something crunchier, a wholesale conversion to FATE core is as easy as breathing.

The point was more Core+FST allows you to customise it to the seriousness you want. I like FAE (although the Moor complicated and intricate Core is my breast), but it's not as customisable with just the book (although if you can work around around the handful of Core only terms in out the FST works just as well). Was thinking more of the virilizing potential (which, as had been said, is even greater in Fudge).

EDIT: note that the Fate Adversary toolkit is a bit overpriced, but if you can grab it for maybe $5 in PDF at some point it's still good. It's just heavier on examples and lighter on rules than it should be.

[Slipperychicken]

e.g. how to keep the game running when someone can barely walk.

Unless this person is on some supremely important do-or-die mission, then he should limp away from the situation to recover. He can live to do stuff another day. I guess from a GMing perspective, you need to think about what happens when people retreat for recovery purposes. It'd likely be a timeskip, and filling in things like what the characters do and how the world keeps spinning while people lick their wounds.

Another possibility is to let players have a bench of characters to cycle in or out when the current one gets too damaged. It could even be an in-universe thing where the players have subordinates, squires, interns, relatives, or camp-followers who would be positively willing to walk in a PC's shoes for a time. That way, the player of the injured PC can just pick someone off the bench to keep playing.


Personally, I don't mind the way shadowrun handles wounds. They can be debilitating when characters are very hurt, but medical technology is advanced enough that people with medical assistance can recover from basically anything short of death within a week of total recovery. That said, the missions generally have a short shelf life for a variety of reasons, so pulling out early means losing the rewards (and losing reputation, which is everything in shadowrun). It means there are clear and immediate consequences to injury, but people also aren't forced to roleplay a cripple for the next five IRL months while they keep playing their injured characters.

[Mutazoia]

1) Open D6 handles this fairly well. Each wound level reduces the number of dice you get to roll for a skill or ability, so wounds definitely have an effect on the characters actions. Depending on the tech level of your game, this can be cured quickly after combat with a "medpak" (al Star Wars), with magic (for a fantasy setting), or just waiting it out (modern setting) and letting it heal naturally.

2) The old Top Secret: SI rules had an interesting approach. You had hit locations for your character. Depending on your Con (equivalent) you had so many "boxes" per location. You could do stun damage or lethal damage. If you took stun damage to a location, you put a / through the number of boxes equal to the amount of damage. If you took lethal damage to a location, you put an X through the box. If you filled up a location, say your arm, with stun damage, that limb was useless until you got medical treatment. If you continued to take stun damage to that location, it automatically turned in to lethal damage. When a location filled up with lethal damage, again say your arm, you lost that location (your arm) for good. (Naurally, filling up your head or torso with lethal damage mean your character went teats up.)

I know there were penalties involved with all this, but I haven't cracked the books on that system in decades, so I can't really speak to them at the moment.

[RazorChain]

I’m used to playing in D&D settings where healing wounds is quick and easy.

I’m looking at running a campaign where there is no healing magic. Anyone have experience with this and have any tips on how to make it work? e.g. how to keep the game running when someone can barely walk.

I think about TV shows and movies where people get the snot beat out of them in some sort of conflict and then are back at it the next day... slightly unbelievable, but that could work. Time would have to flow differently, with people resting more often, and maybe even having to survive with an arm in a sling for a while etc.

This will NOT be D&D, so don’t worry about mechanics or “game balance”

Run a game with less combat or less chance of getting injured. I run a game with limited healing and the PC's run a chance of getting crippling injuries. Most of them are temporary and they get better in days or weeks but they always run the chance of losing a limb.

This means that the PC's are less inclined to solve problems with violence and when they do they use excessive violence to end fights as quickly as possible preferably with their opponents naked and asleep.

The beautiful thing is that you don't have to worry about injuries, they have to and find creative workarounds

[Vogie]

You can also adjust how each session is in relation to the others using time. You can see this in television shows as well - 24's whole schtick was that a single season took over the course of a single day, while House actively acknowledge that it's episodes were a week apart ("It's Tuesday again..."), and other shows will play with time between it's episodes.

If each session is separated by a long period of rest (a couple of days to a week) or there are epic timelines involved (it takes you 3 encounterless months on a boat to get to the point B) then a wound here or there may not be that big of a deal.

If your session is a hammer of situations one right after another, then it'd certainly be worth exploring. I know you stated that you weren't using D&D, but Pathfinder also had a system for Called shots that had 3 levels of wounding for various body parts that could be gleaned for options.

[LibraryOgre]

Hackmaster (basic is free) has a couple ways wounds matter.

1) Each wound heals individually. Getting 10 one-point wounds will have you fine in a day or so... 1 ten-point wound takes a couple months to heal.
2) Bigger wounds have the potential to knock you out for a few seconds (it uses seconds, not rounds)... a wound that's about 40% of your HP in a single blow forces a Trauma Save, under half your Constitution on a d20. Roll too high, and you're down and defenseless for 5+ seconds. Roll a 20 and you're out for minutes.
3) A big hit (10pts if you're small, 15 points if you're medium, 20 points if you're large, for some reason), before DR, will knock you back 5 feet. Double that and you go back 10 feet and fall prone.

And that's in addition to the critical system.

So, someone with 45 HP who is hit for 20 points of damage might get knocked back 5-10 feet (10 feet if they're small), and have to make a save to see if they go unconscious, and will take a LONG time to heal, especially without magic or a medic. If they DON'T go unconscious, and only move back 5, they're still in fighting trim. But, that one hit has a couple ways to knock them out of the fight, at least for a moment, instantly, and will take time to recover from.

[Rhedyn]

So in Savage worlds, a wound gives you a minus 1 penalty to most rolls and the target number is normally 4.

You can get up to 3 wounds. If someone doesn't treat them in an hour, you have to heal them naturally, which can take a long time.

If you take a 4th wound, you roll a Vigor check to be incapacitated. This can lead to an injury or even death.

The wound system covers a lot of bases but it isn't comprehensive from a simulation-ist aspect.

[dps]

What type of setting do you have in mind?

[Aliquid]

What type of setting do you have in mind?

To be honest, I haven't really made up my mind. Might be sci-fi, might be low magic... might be modern.

I don't think it makes that much of a difference though. The trick I need to deal with is that a PC might be nursing a wound for a few sessions, and how do I as the DM make sure the story doesn't stall as a result. If there is no time pressure for something going on in game, I could just wave my hand and say "two weeks go by and your sprained ankle is now ok", but if they are in the middle of a mission... they might not have the luxury of time.

[Tipsy_Pooka]

I really like the Wound/Vitality system from 3.5's Unearthed Arcana... your "Constitution" equals how much physical punishment that your body can take. Meanwhile level-based hit point gains are used to offset taking wound points. Using this system for NPCs also allows me to offset the "Cat vs Commoner" problem in the same system.

The other problem with these types of systems is the "Death Spiral". Taking "Wounds" that impact your various abilities make you more susceptible to more serious wounds... until you're a bloody mess on the ground... while this plays true in real life... how much of this do you want in your games?

[Thrawn4]

The trick I need to deal with is that a PC might be nursing a wound for a few sessions, and how do I as the DM make sure the story doesn't stall as a result. If there is no time pressure for something going on in game, I could just wave my hand and say "two weeks go by and your sprained ankle is now ok", but if they are in the middle of a mission... they might not have the luxury of time.

I find it difficult to understand your problem. You ask for a system where wounds matter, but at the same time they should not inconvienience the PCs? IMHO the entire point of a more gritty system is that combat is actually dangerous and everyone has to decide whether they want to risk the possible consequences. So even if someone is injured for two sessions this is just par for the course. Depending on the system and setting, they might still be able to contribute.
And of course, there are other workarounds like drugs which may reduce the effects for a while.

[Aliquid]

I find it difficult to understand your problem. You ask for a system where wounds matter, but at the same time they should not inconvienience the PCs? IMHO the entire point of a more gritty system is that combat is actually dangerous and everyone has to decide whether they want to risk the possible consequences. So even if someone is injured for two sessions this is just par for the course. Depending on the system and setting, they might still be able to contribute.
And of course, there are other workarounds like drugs which may reduce the effects for a while.

I'm not asking for a system... I find it interesting how people on these boards go straight to the crunch and the mechanics when answering questions. I have a system, and I'm fine with it. I don't care about what the rules are or how to mechanically handle wounds.

I'm trying to figure out how to change how the game flows, since as a GM, I'm so used to "heal wounds" spells and potions. If I'm changing the game to be more gritty, I need to change the style of play and the way the stories progress. I'm looking for insight on how to do that.

I'm fine with a character being inconvenienced. I just don't want it to make the game completely stall. How do we keep the story moving forward when these challenges come up?

[Rhedyn]

I'm not asking for a system... I find it interesting how people on these boards go straight to the crunch and the mechanics when answering questions. I have a system, and I'm fine with it. I don't care about what the rules are or how to mechanically handle wounds.

I'm trying to figure out how to change how the game flows, since as a GM, I'm so used to "heal wounds" spells and potions. If I'm changing the game to be more gritty, I need to change the style of play and the way the stories progress. I'm looking for insight on how to do that.

I'm fine with a character being inconvenienced. I just don't want it to make the game completely stall. How do we keep the story moving forward when these challenges come up?

Man it's almost like game mechanics do those kind of things for you and the answer to all your problems is just a good rules set.

[dps]

To be honest, I haven't really made up my mind. Might be sci-fi, might be low magic... might be modern.

I don't think it makes that much of a difference though.

For the most part, it probably doesn't matter. It's just that to me, a modern or SF setting works better if you want a campaign will relatively little combat than the typical pseudo-medieval fantasy setting. And I think there is broad support in this thread for the idea that a campaign with relatively little combat is better if the impact of wounds is made more relevant.

[Aliquid]

Man it's almost like game mechanics do those kind of things for you and the answer to all your problems is just a good rules set.

No they don't. Game mechanics don't change the story or the pace. Saying "if you have x wound you get y penalty, roll this die" has nothing to do with how the game is run. I already have game mechanics that I am using, I'm not bothering talking about them because people have this obsessive need to nit-pick about the mechanics, and that would pull the conversation away from my actual question.

It's been a month since I posted the question, so I have had a chance to think about it already, and talk to other people. Things I have come up with so far:

• Allow more time for quests/missions. e.g. if there is a "fetch quest", don't have the NPC say "I need this item in 2 days", instead say "I need this item in 2 weeks." That way, the PCs have a chance to retreat, lick their wounds and try again if things go sideways.
• Design scenarios to ensure there is an option for a "plan B". So, if the PCs plan is to have the ninja scale the wall and go in through the window... but the ninja broke her leg, then there is another option for the party to get in (maybe a less desirable option, but an option none the less)
• Plan for failure - don't design the scenario so that players have to succeed for the story to move forward. They can and maybe often do fail, but it is more of a "you lost the battle, but not the war" sort of scenario. There are more complications now... but the overall adventure can still move forward.

Those aren't "game mechanics" changes, those are "adventure design" changes.

[Rhedyn]

Game mechanics don't change the story or the pace.

Really depends on the game and the amount the GM controls everything. If the mechanics couldn't change the story, it would bore me to run such a game. But I guess every GM is in it for different reasons.

[Mechalich]

Significant healing times are tricky to deal with, largely because they will vary across the individual members of the party.

For example, suppose only natural healing is available - like you're playing pure mortals in the WoD. Everyone is likely to get wounded in a fight, but different degrees of wounds will take longer to heal. This makes intuitive sense. Getting slashed across the arms is miserable, you'll need a lot of stiches and will probably feel weak for a few days/weeks, but otherwise you're mobile and can perform light tasks. Meanwhile a guy who fails to block the same attack and gets stabbed in the chest might have internal injuries, a collapsed lung, and need highly intrusive surgery with a recovery time measured in weeks of a hospital stay plus months of convalescence. So if you skip ahead to 'recovered from wounds' you're implying that Character A sat around for weeks doing nothing while Character B recovered, and this isn't very realistic and eliminates any idea of time pressure. A game that has actually implemented this is the recent XCOM iterations, in which more serious injuries result in larger recovery times - but that's a squad-based game not a character-based game.

This is why most games make it trivially easy to restore all characters to full health in between adventures in a relatively short time frame. Combat heavy games like D&D even make it possible to come back from death.

One possible solution is to effectively convert all physical damage into mental damage (or some other, more esoteric cost) in order to allow wounds to impact a character but still let them attend the adventure. Eclipse Phase embraces this rather fully, but even games like Vampire (most injuries could be healed by copious use of blood, which was a resource subject to alternative limitations) or Mage (you could magically heal most damage but this would incur Paradox) toyed with the idea.

You can of course go squad-based and allow each player to control multiple characters so they always have an upright body to work with, but this has other consequences and many players are hesitant to embrace the idea. It also works poorly with wilderness adventure or similar scenarios where you don't return to a home base after a mission.

[Aliquid]

Really depends on the game and the amount the GM controls everything. If the mechanics couldn't change the story, it would bore me to run such a game. But I guess every GM is in it for different reasons.

Clearly we are talking about two different things, because that doesn't even make sense.

[Thrudd]

No they don't. Game mechanics don't change the story or the pace. Saying "if you have x wound you get y penalty, roll this die" has nothing to do with how the game is run. I already have game mechanics that I am using, I'm not bothering talking about them because people have this obsessive need to nit-pick about the mechanics, and that would pull the conversation away from my actual question.

It's been a month since I posted the question, so I have had a chance to think about it already, and talk to other people. Things I have come up with so far:

• Allow more time for quests/missions. e.g. if there is a "fetch quest", don't have the NPC say "I need this item in 2 days", instead say "I need this item in 2 weeks." That way, the PCs have a chance to retreat, lick their wounds and try again if things go sideways.
• Design scenarios to ensure there is an option for a "plan B". So, if the PCs plan is to have the ninja scale the wall and go in through the window... but the ninja broke her leg, then there is another option for the party to get in (maybe a less desirable option, but an option none the less)
• Plan for failure - don't design the scenario so that players have to succeed for the story to move forward. They can and maybe often do fail, but it is more of a "you lost the battle, but not the war" sort of scenario. There are more complications now... but the overall adventure can still move forward.

Those aren't "game mechanics" changes, those are "adventure design" changes.

Adventure design depends greatly on game mechanics, if you want the adventure to work for the game. Adventure design should change according to your mechanics. If the game mechanics say that a character will be incapacitated for 3 weeks from a wound, you will need to allow for characters to retreat and rest, or else for replacement characters to be brought in easily. If you don't want your adventures to allow for retreating and weeks of down time, then don't use a system that requires that.

Do you want a cinematic action game? Then wounds should probably last a small number of scenes according to severity. The wound gives an immediate effect to the character in the scene, then goes away in the next scene, or the scene after that.

The same probably goes for a "heroic" game, where you want time pressure and very little down time- if the adventure must continue non-stop because of "plot" and you do not want characters dying or being unable to continue from injuries, then you should have wounds with mild effects or that last only a short time.

So what kind of game are you running, what's the overall tone? Action movie fun? Gritty realism? Tactical combat battles with narration in between? Loosely connected short episodic adventures?

How frequent and how serious do you expect the violence to be? A game that is basically a string of fights needs to treat wounds and adventure design differently than a game where you have a long build up of exploring and social interaction with just one or two climactic fights.

[Aliquid]

Adventure design depends greatly on game mechanics, if you want the adventure to work for the game. Adventure design should change according to your mechanics.

I would rather do it in the other order, and tweak the mechanics to accommodate the desired game design. The challenge I am having is how to design the game in a way that flows well and has wounds with consequences. The mechanics will be dealt with later.

That's why I don't want to discuss mechanics. It restricts the options for game design, it creates tunnel vision and stifles options and creativity.

Do you want a cinematic action game? Then wounds should probably last a small number of scenes according to severity. The wound gives an immediate effect to the character in the scene, then goes away in the next scene, or the scene after that.

The same probably goes for a "heroic" game, where you want time pressure and very little down time- if the adventure must continue non-stop because of "plot" and you do not want characters dying or being unable to continue from injuries, then you should have wounds with mild effects or that last only a short time.

So what kind of game are you running, what's the overall tone? Action movie fun? Gritty realism? Tactical combat battles with narration in between? Loosely connected short episodic adventures?

How frequent and how serious do you expect the violence to be? A game that is basically a string of fights needs to treat wounds and adventure design differently than a game where you have a long build up of exploring and social interaction with just one or two climactic fights.

These are the things I need to consider, and I am flexible for what the end result is... I just want it to work. I need to consider all of the combinations and issues that arrise when playing a game where you cant just drink a healing potion.

As per your comments. I can't have a game where adventure is non-stop, and wounds with serious effects/long recovery times. So I have to pick one.

I can't have a game where people can be incapacitated and the story grinds to a halt because the PCs can't do anything... so I need to design the scenarios with "plan B" options when "plan A" fails, OR I could make conflicts where failing doesn't really matter that much, but I prefer the "plan B" route.

I have to either somehow make it so the PCs never fail (even though they are incapacitated), or I need to design the scenarios where failure just leads them down a different (and less preferable) path and doesn't kill the momentum.

There are other questions like this I need to figure out now... rather than stumbling across them during the game. When I decide which direction I go for each of the questions, I can determine which mechanics most appropriately support that game play choice.