This is from the quickstart rules for Call of Cthulhu 7e. It's not in the main book, and that's a shame, because I think this might be the best table in RPGs.
With this table, we can toss out weapon-specific damage amounts and the mundane combat parts of bestiary entries entirely. All that boring stuff about firearm range and worrying about the damage difference between a machete and a crowbar, gone. Fumbling around shopping at WeaponMart, gone. All that chaff about precisely how much damage a betentacled horror can do, gone. Everything is boiled down into "what makes sense in this particular moment for this particular scenario". Any weapon could be anywhere on the list. All you have to do is look at the table.
I want more games to do this. I possibly want all games to do this.
I really don't have anything else to say on the matter. It's a good table.
"Ever made" meaning "on my mind at this particular point in time."
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty rad. The cool part is it still seems to work 100% even for systems with escalating, heroic HP. An axe to the head is the 1d10 deal (die in one, maximum two hits). My Conan ripoff can take a dozen of these before falling dramatically. Cool!
ReplyDeleteIt's on p124 in the Keeper's book.
ReplyDeleteShame on them for hiding it away like that.
DeleteWell, even if the end of the combat chapter is too obscure a place to have it at, it's also replicated in the Rules Summary appendix (p411) :P
DeleteThis is basically how I treat weapons already haha. Cypher System, while it only has three options, does a similar thing, which is where I learned to start doing it. My OSR weapon hack also is based on that principle!
ReplyDeleteBut I like shopping at weaponmart. I also don't mind rolling some dice and discovering what weaponry my character has that scenario either.
ReplyDeleteThat's where weapon tags come in.
DeleteIf you ask me if would prefer to fall 10 feet on to grass or getting shot by small calibur round or an arrow it's the fall every time. Club sounds good to me to, like you get clubbed in all kinds of places and not need medical attention while you really have to look for those places that you can get an arrow or bullet and not need to go to hospital
ReplyDeleteOlder post, but this is how Troika's damage tables work too. Fairly elegant, and lets you have all sorts of things (philosophy, for example) deal Stamina damage.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah troika's version is also great.
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