Following on from the very rough combat playtest I did in April, I’ve been having a think about how to handle Wounds in Legends of Alba. Characters don't have HP in this game, but they can take Wounds! I’m trying to keep the game light (in terms of rules) but it feels just a bit too vague to say a Character has a Major Wound, or a Mortal Wound, and leave it at that. How has the Character been Wounded? Cracked skull? Stabbed in the guts? Lost a finger?
Thinking about how I’d run this, as a referee I think I’d have a hard time improvising something. I’d worry about it feeling vindictive if I interpreted a Mortal Wound at the table as “Your leg is broken, there’s bone sticking out - you need treatment soon and even then you might lose the leg.” I think dire consequences like that should be possible for Mortal Wounds, but personally I’d need a nudge from the game to follow through with it.
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| The Death of Olaf by Joseph Freely |
I thought about Wounds as temporary or permanent Truths e.g. “Your hands tremble” to reflect a traumatic Wound, or “You move slowly and carefully” for a fragile Wound that’s still healing. But these are so specific, I’d need a big table to give a good range of them, and I don’t want Wounds to take up a whole page on their own. I still quite like this idea of Truths applied like this though, I could see using this for unique magic weapons or items.
What I’ve settled on for now is this D12 spark table:
| D12 | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Torn | Skull |
| 2 | Ruptured | Eye |
| 3 | Fractured | Jaw or Nose |
| 4 | Crushed | Spine |
| 5 | Pierced | Ribs |
| 6 | Gouged | Gut |
| 7 | Cracked | Shoulder |
| 8 | Severed | Arm |
| 9 | Split | Hand or Finger |
| 10 | Maimed | Thigh |
| 11 | Bruised | Knee |
| 12 | Sliced | Foot or Toe |
Now here comes the pain!
Let’s roll up a Minor Wound, a 5 and a 6: Pierced Gut. A close call but the sharp pain quickly subsides, thankfully it’s not too deep and hasn’t punctured anything vital.
For a Major Wound it’s a 4 and a 12: Crushed Foot or Toe. Major Wounds are a bit more severe so let’s crush a foot rather than a toe. It’s not going to kill you but you’re going to have trouble putting any weight on it, and might end up with a permanent limp if you don’t get it seen to to get the bones set and rest up. This would definitely cause a Hindrance for Tests that involve moving quickly or nimbly on foot. There’s of course the opportunity for Characters to mitigate this if they have a mount or something they can use as a crutch.
Lastly a Mortal Wound, a 10 and a 6: Maimed Ribs. Oh dear. This sounds like it’d be an horrific mess. A crippling chest wound that steals away your breath. Probably a Hindrance to most things requiring any sustained physical effort. You might live if you get help but because this is a Mortal Wound we’re going to apply the most unforgiving definition of the maimed result, i.e. an injury so bad that the injured part no longer works properly. So best outcome for this Character might be that they gain a Truth “You struggle to lift heavy items” to represent this wound that never properly healed.
What a grisly affair. I’m happy enough with this for now though, and more than happy to move on from thinking about these horrible things happening to the heroes of Alba for a while!
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