Death has never been a big problem for us. Low level guy dies, roll a new one. Not much time had been invested in him anyway (we don't do elaborate backstories). We just handwave new guy into the group and get going again. High level guy dies, he typically gets resurrected (paying for which can create good adventure hooks).

But... if you wanted a game with less death, the scars are potentially fun, I suppose. I would throw together a table of spots where the scar happens, roll on it whenever you would normally hit death and then massage the effect. If the spot were "left ear," then maybe it gets cut off from sword damage, burned off from fire damage and scraped off from blunt damage. Maybe depending on the magnitude of the scar or at X number of scars, you lose a point of Charisma or something. Either way, I would definitely couple it with a meaningful "time out" in game time - a recovery period for the PC. During this time, monsters could rebuild their numbers and defenses and so on. PC progress would be undone. In my opinion, there ought to be some consequence for losing all of your hit points (and not just a cool scar with little mechanical effect) or else the wins all become pretty shallow. As usual, YMMV.

Yora wrote:

Death in RPGs is always a bit of a problem.

Not sure I agree 100 percent with your police work there, Lou. I consider it a feature, not a bug.

But I do find that AS&SH is a lot more forgiving of grievous wounds than, say, AD&D--so if it isn't poison or level draining that takes a PC down, there's a resonable chance of his/her getting back up. One character in our group has been down to -7 *four times*! That's going to leave a mark.

Like Ghul, I pretty much rule it on the fly. She was smashed but good by a hyaena-man chieftain's flail (down to -8), so I ruled she lost a point of DEX and had a limp. She was swallowed by and then cut out of a giant toad (down to -9!), so some definite facial scarring and loss of a point of CHA (no worries--Hyperborea has plenty of creepy bronze masks!). The other times, there were consequences that didn't really have game effect but led to some fun flavor.

Easy-peasy, George and Weezie.
 

There actually is a rule for this in the 1st edition DMG: if you fall below -6 hit points before being revived, you suffer a permanent scar or disability related to your injury.  I've used it many times when running AD&D.  Since AS&SH uses the same "death at -10 hit points" mechanic, this extra rule could just be ported over directly from one game to another.

Handy Haversack wrote:

Which is probably exactly what I've done--the DMG lives within us now.

Ha ha so true.

I remember once when a PC (whose Comeliness was around 4 in the first place) went down to -9 hit points from fire-related injuries before the other PCs were able to "bind his wounds".  I ruled that he had a "Freddy Krueger face" thereafter and had to wear a bag over his head to keep from scaring children, causing goodwives to faint, and attracting lynch mobs.  Much hilarity was had.
 

Last edited by Blackadder23 (7/25/2014 11:55 am)

Handy Haversack wrote:

Yora wrote:

Death in RPGs is always a bit of a problem.

Not sure I agree 100 percent with your police work there, Lou. I consider it a feature, not a bug.

 
I am in no way saying the existance of death is great. Having death in the game is awesome and important. But dealing with it in a way that it enhances the game is difficult.

If combat only has the two possible outcomes of "everything is fine" and the character ceasing to exist, it significantly affects the whole aspect of taking risks and suffering the consequences of your action. If the only consequence is to make a new character, I think something is lost in the life of a protagonist. It's too clean.
And that I do indeed consider a bug.

NAJones wrote:

I wish there was an "upvote" feature Handy, because you said just about everything I'd want to say on the subject.

I guess for me it just comes down to the people you're playing with; Some people I've played with would have no interest whatsoever in simulating all of the gory details, but there's others that probably would be able to find a way to turn disfigurement and disability into a good character development tool, but I don't need or want a hard and fast rule for it. YMMV

 
In the spirit of character development, and that's what this is all about for me, how about leaving it to the players to describe the scars and other marks of their severe injuries? My experience with players is that they love to shot themselves in the foot with great enthusiam if it's just cool enough.
Great thought there.

Last edited by Yora (7/25/2014 1:17 pm)

When the going gets too tough, the PCs can also run away and live to fight another day.