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Re: (TFT) A Point of Damage



I think this is the true flaw in trying to find a truly consistent method of converting damage into story telling terms.

Lets think about all the ways a sword can do damage in real life. It can stab, slash, cleave, etc, with the blade. It can also bash in a variety of ways. It can do these things at any location of the opponent's body, having different results. Deepness of wound isn't the only indicator of damage, either. A small jab into a major artery can kill a man, while a long slash won't even stop a trained fighter if nothing too important gets injured too badly.

So already you have too many ways of doing damage to have any consistent way of measuring it- like you said, a bash to the skull can kill a man, but so can a sword through the chest. But both of these don't necessarily kill someone, they just can-- and thats without taking the opponent's armor and toughness into account.

Add to this that a human can vary from 8 ST to (excluding ridiculous outliers) 18 ST, and you realize that there is no way of accomplishing this. They key is to interpret the data as a GM and then make a story out of it. 8 points of damage on a man with 8 ST is a chop through the man's body that nearly splits his chest in two. 8 damage on the 18 st man is a strong strike that knocks him over, but he is still well within the ability to fight back. In fact, even as a man gets injured, the way damage works could be said to change- if i start out at ST 12, 3 points of damage hurts but it's not going to stop me, probably a nice stab or cut but nothing too bad. HOWEVER, if i'm DOWN to 3 points, those same 3 points is a gaping slash through my throat.


On Mar 7, 2011, at 7:31 PM, Brad Long wrote:

I am new to this list and this is the first post I have read.

I am not sure I agree with the blood-loss thing. Someone getting their skull crushed may not lose a great deal of blood (not immediately anyway). However, I am not a physician, so just my guess.

Quoting Jay Carlisle <Jay_Carlisle@charter.net>:

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joey Beutel"
Subject: Re: (TFT) A Point of Damage


I disagree on the idea that it should take a stronger hit no matter
the adjST.
View it this way: Say i'm a fairly tough guy, but more or less close
to average= st 12.
If I get shot in the chest by an arrow, i'm going to be rather po'd.
It COULD kill me, but given that it didn't go too deep or into
anything too vital, i'll probably live (at least long enough to get
help/fight back).

I hear you.

Now, normally, I'd only die from a very deep stab from, say, a broad
sword- it would have to go straight into me, a very damaging shot (12
points of damage) and that would pretty much just kill me outright.
But, now that i'm losing blood, a bit dizzy, slower, and already have a bunch of pain from that arrow, its going to take much less to put me
over the edge. Two smaller cuts are similar to a larger cut in blood
loss, if you get my meaning.

I don't know...

Even from the bleeding thing, the bodys circulatory system is a lot like a
tree when talking about this stuff.
Shalower cuts tend to only get "twigs" (capilaries) rather than sticks
(veins) or branches (arteries).
On the other side of this, just because something gets internal doesn't mean
it does mortal damage... it's just a very good indicator.

Killing a players Figure fairly can be an excersize in the whole "grief
process" thing.

The Houdini example of the punch in the gut fits what your saying pretty well but there are other "toughening" exercises like the "Iron- (insert hit location here)" stuff that would still be in effect reguardless of the guys
condition.
Once you've micro-fractured your bones like that I'd think they could dig them up after your gone and they'd still pressure test well above average.
Is that the difference between Vet and Warrior?

In my own demented opinion I'm not concerned with the "rightness or
wrongness" of any of this.
I don't think that's what's important in this disscussion.
What I'm more concerned about is a somewhat more objective idea of what 1 point of damage roughly means from the point of view of the storytelling
aspects of this form of entertainment.
If I were a movie director I'd be asking the cinimatographor and tech guys for a lens that focuses a bit sharper at a depth thats currently pretty
fuzzy from a picture perspective.
Can we get a telephoto perspective on this?

Bleeding is directly related to 5 second Turns.
Because of an interest in cooking I'm down with the bloody english system in
volume measures as well and use pints of blood for units here.
This gives us an intresting syncronicity here because the average amount of
blood in a human body is about 6 quarts which makes 12 pints.
12 ST and 12 pints 'o blood.... for some reason I think of 'sea shanty'
lyrics...
Now knowing what I know about first aid I'd think that his implies that 1 pt
dam could roughly equal a cup of blood loss.
This would have the Figure at risk of death at an adj ST of 0 owing to 50%
blood loss.
Negative roll mods for 'shock' and etc. at levels of blood loss less than
50% indicate conditions like shock.
For our 12 pt ST Figure we could be talking 4 pts damage or 2 pints blood
risking shock.

Of course, we're also talking 5 second turns so if it's all happening
in a single turn that Figure would be bleeding at a rate of about a
pint a second, allowing time for the wound to be struck in the first
place, meaning that he'll be bleed dry in 2 more turns.
Probably best to save THAT kind of bleeding for more serious wounds and just call "basic" damage an involuntary loss of fST (i.e. hit points).
Stuff that'll leave a cut or bruise but not a scar.

Just some thoughts... =====
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