goodmangames wrote:
* The "bleed out" rule: When reduced to 0 hp, you have [class level] rounds to "bleed out." If magically healed during that time, you can survive, but you permanently lose 1 hp of stamina. I've used this in play and I like the fact that it sets a "clock" for reaction time - the party suddenly gets VERY focused on the fact that they only have 1 round to save the level 1 character. But you absolutely need a cleric on hand. In the games where the cleric dies, it's useless.
I would so with this as long as you can have either a Cleric heal, someone roll to apply a bandage to the character (see explanation below), or pour a rare healing potion on the wounds, etc...
Bandage: (this idea works with negative HP). You roll a skill check of 10+number of negative HP. If you succeed on the check, you stop further bleeding. If you fail, you can try again next turn. If you roll a 1, you do d4 damage to the character. This promotes a situation where it is not likely that someone will succeed on the first roll, so they would be tied up for one or more 'combat' rounds to stop the bleeding. Magic is best, but you do what you have to do.
goodmangames wrote:
* The "Luck" rule: When reduced to 0 hp, any ally can make it to you and roll your body over to see if you're really dead. Once your body is rolled over - and not before! - you make a Luck check to determine if you're really dead or just knocked out or critically injured. This one is fun because it adds an air of mystery to the process. But the downside is the Luck check - it sucks to fail it.
This is a cool mechanic, but I would prefer this mechanic to be related to massive damage. If a character takes damage > half of their starting HP AND it drops them negative, then that would be a roll to see if they survived the massive damage. Not totally sold on this one, but it is possible.
goodmangames wrote:
* The "prophecy of Luck" rule: I've toyed with this one but not actually played it yet. Sounds cool but I'm not sure how it will work out in play. Every DCC RPG character has a Luck score. What if every PC also had a "Luck prophecy" (bad term but read on for the idea) that modified their mode of death? For example, "You will be killed by your father" or "You can only be slain by a witch" or "You will die at the hands of one you trust." Then, the PC can only truly die under those circumstances. And of course this becomes an awesome plot tool for the DM, when he introduces a father / witch / "one you trust" into the game! In all other circumstances, "death" means something very severe -- like a week of unconsciousness followed by permanent loss of Stamina and/or hp, and perhaps some critical injury (broken leg = 1/2 movement, etc.) -- but not a true permanent death. Provided the "Luck prophecies" were carefully chosen, I think this could be really cool, but it may be hard to actually put into a published work (this is the kind of rule that requires a good DM to use it right).
While that is a great plot tool, I do not think it really should be in the core rules. It should be something that the DM chooses to add to their campaign.
goodmangames wrote:I definitely don't want to do negative hit points...that unbalances low-level games (effectively gives the PCs an extra 10 hp).
See, I do not see that as big of an issue. I think negative HP's gives a solid chance for characters to survive accidents at first level. I know DCC is about a great deal of randomness, but in a long term campaign too much randomness may be too much for players to handle.
If DCC provides a mechanic where low level characters have a chance to survive a funky die roll, that would be fine with me. I would even be willing to go this distance.
Max Negative HP = 1/2 STA score + 1 per level. That means a first level character will have on average a maximum on -6 HP. It would scale up to an average of -15 by 10th level. That is not as big of a number as it looks, because attacks do more damage at that level. (note a 18 STA = -10 hp at level 1 and a max of -19 at level 10) - I will not even show what a really low STA score would be as their survivability rate is horribly low to begin with.
I also like the mechanic of variable bleed out. Where you lose d6-2 HP per turn. Note: Yes, you can gain a hp, keep the same, or lose 1-4 hp each round. The variable time keeps the party on their toes. A first level character could go from -2 to -6 (average max) in one roll. Or stick around for 5 rounds.