2011 Aug 20 10:03 AM

Death or dismemberment

This is a house rule I recently created to replace critical hits. If a character would be killed or rendered unconscious by an attack, the player can instead opt for the character to survive with one hit point and roll on the following table.

Elective Dismemberment (2d6)

1. Arm severed at shoulder
2. Arm severed at elbow
3. Hand severed
4. Eye plucked out
5. Ear lopped off
6. Lost a finger
7. Ear chopped off
8. Nose cut off
9. Foot severed
10. Leg severed at knee
11. Leg severed at hip

Re-roll if the character can not be further dismembered in the way described (e.g. — both legs already lost).

One of the characters in my game is already down a hand. The blacksmith made him a little something for his stump.

3 comments:

Simon Forster, August 20, 2011 at 10:10 AM

I like it. Nice and simple.

ze bulette, August 20, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Yeah, this is a fun idea. There’s just one more item I’d add to make it more frightening. :)

Lloyd Neill, December 1, 2014 at 5:20 AM

I’m writing a series of blog posts on Death & Dismemberment Tables and have linked to yours in my latest post here

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