This May Kill You - Replacing Hit Points
AKA, Violence for use with HD.
I like to think of “Alternate Combat” as a full sentence. As it is, finding new ways to do fights or damage or the ways that the sharp end goes into the soft body is a new cause petit.
That shit is my jam. Really, it’s a problem, because I’m a complete speed freak where actual combat is involved. I think it’s because the way the generic hit dice-turn order-damage-gygax dungeon system works, there's an agonising latency between a player making a decision and that decision resulting in usable information for me, the person who isn’t rolling dice or giving myself busywork at that moment.
I've had similar outbursts before; the thing I’m excited about is that I might have finally fixed it in a way I like, thanks to Havoc and the one-roll rules for Boot Hill.
The idea is that, while armour and rolls to-hit work the same, HP is thrown out entirely. Instead, everyone just makes a save vs death when something hits them:
roll a d20+HD. 15+ is a success.
failure means taking on obvious injuries, and failures after being injured take more significant damage.
Light injuries are bruises, small stab wounds, getting something broken over your head
Heavy injuries are getting stabbed for real, blood loss, thrown from a horse
Grim injuries are immolation, organs mashed, limbs lost.
Injuries have 3 properties that matter: Light/Heavy/Grim injuries subtract -1/-2/-4 from saves vs death, 2 of any injury type merge into 1 greater injury when possible, and any creature with a grim injury that fails save vs death dies.
Feel free to change any of these if you want kobolds to die in 1 sword hit, or for a big mob to only take light injuries from ordinary weapons.
Supernatural Resistances confer immunity to all but grim injuries. Further resistances may extend to mundane weapons.
Healing Injuries
Light injuries take d6+1 days to recover from
Heavy injuries take 1d6 weeks to recover from, but without medical help merely become permanent Light injuries.
Grim injuries take 2d6 weeks to recover from, but without medical help merely become permanent Heavy injuries.
By default, keen medical attention cuts remaining healing time in half, rounded up. If you have Cure Wounds et al, assume that most things will heal light injuries, won't heal heavy injuries, and grim injuries need a miracle.
Pulling Punches, Or Not
It’s assumed that different types of weapons will deal discrete types of injuries - from light improvised shivs to heavy metal rods to big grim hammers.
You can choose to instead deal injuries one level higher at -3 to-hit, or one level lower at +3 to-hit. This is meant to replace the effects of rolling maximum damage in most cases, but I also think more systems need a mechanic for Just Hitting Things.
There is nothing worse than grim injuries.