PAIN: The Invisible Wound System
The internet is full of think pieces on why inventory based wound systems are better than the abstract progress bar that is “Hit Points.” I’m not here to convince you of why that is true or not. I’m here to talk about JEALOUSY
Earlier this year I published my first game Hammer and Nail which was years in the making. I crammed so many ideas into this one page rpg, and I was very proud of my clever blocking system…
…then, I happened across the game Lucky Star which has one of the most elegant solutions for blocking that I’ve seen. To summarize, in Lucky Star, when you are injured past your EVS (Evasion), lethal damage reduces your STR, and non-lethal damage reduces your DEX. Blocking in Lucky Star is simply a narrative choice. To avoid a reduction in your stats, you can block with an item in your inventory or one of your body parts—doing so will cause that item or body part to gain the “broken” condition. No rolls, just a narrative choice. Having a broken arm doesn’t affect your stats in any way, but it does inform your role play.
I spoke with the designer Luke, and he credits the game grok?! for inspiring his blocking rules. And I cannot confirm, but I’m guessing the popular “shields shall be splintered” might have been an influence somewhere along the way.
Anywho, I almost immediately started working on Hammer and Nail v2.0 after reading Lucky Star, but I changed too much and ended up making a whole new game, Prop Master
With Prop Master, I doubled down on the cinema and theater metaphors often used in TTRPG advice. You play as LARPers who have access to all of the props and set pieces found in your favorite OSR adventure modules.
In a way, I chose to flip the script on Lucky Star. In Prop Master, each prop in your inventory has its own stat that is tied to its condition. Blocking with an item will damage it, making it more difficult to use. Not blocking will give you a “Pain Card”
Pain cards work very similarly to inventory based wound systems, but they are more immersive. Using a medkit to heal a broken arm may work for sci-fi, but what if I want to play Mausritter? It’s a lot more realistic to have some undefined pain in your arm that can go away after a short rest or linger for in-game weeks
Also, reskinning inventory based wounds as pain, means you have a built in pain scale to inform your role play!
In my game, I use 12 inventory slots: 1-3 pain is noticeable, 4-6 pain is distracting, 7-9 pain is interrupting, 10 pain is unbearable. Being unconscious is not fun, so 11 pain sends you into “shock” which I would interpret as being in so much pain that you can’t feel it anymore. Then of course, 12 pain kills you.
So long as Prop Master is in playtest, I’m going to offer free community copies! Claim them to keep up with any updates I make to the game